YouTube Creators API

Creators ranked from a keyword search. Put the niche and the place in one query. One page load, so it is fast — and because a results row carries no subscriber count, the ranking is engagement totalled across each channel's videos in the results rather than an engagement rate.

YouTube API pricing — $0.50 per 1,000 results

POST /api/public/v1/scrape/youtube/creators

Returns creator_feed

Parameters#

query string required

A topic, and a place if you want one.

Example: mars rover

limit integer optional

How many results you want. The run is sized from it, and you are billed for exactly that many.

Results#

GET /runs/:id/results answers with this once the run has finished — one creator per row.

Every row also carries raw_json — the platform's own object for that row, exactly as it arrived, with nothing removed. It is left out of the example for length.

This endpoint errs towards returning more rather than less, so expect a few extra rows alongside what you asked for. Everything still comes back typed and parsed the same way.

curl -X POST https://socialholmes.com/api/public/v1/scrape/youtube/creators \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SOCIALHOLMES_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"parameters": {"query": "mars rover"}, "limit": 25}'

import os
import requests

run = requests.post(
    "https://socialholmes.com/api/public/v1/scrape/youtube/creators",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['SOCIALHOLMES_KEY']}"},
    json={"parameters": {"query": "mars rover"}, "limit": 25},
).json()

print(run["id"], run["status"])

const response = await fetch("https://socialholmes.com/api/public/v1/scrape/youtube/creators", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.SOCIALHOLMES_KEY}`,
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({ parameters: { query: "mars rover" }, limit: 25 }),
})

const run = await response.json()
console.log(run.id, run.status)

require "net/http"
require "json"

response = Net::HTTP.post(
  URI("https://socialholmes.com/api/public/v1/scrape/youtube/creators"),
  { parameters: { query: "mars rover" }, limit: 25 }.to_json,
  "Authorization" => "Bearer #{ENV.fetch('SOCIALHOLMES_KEY')}",
  "Content-Type" => "application/json"
)

run = JSON.parse(response.body)
puts run["id"], run["status"]

<?php

$ch = curl_init("https://socialholmes.com/api/public/v1/scrape/youtube/creators");

curl_setopt_array($ch, [
    CURLOPT_POST => true,
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
        "Authorization: Bearer " . getenv("SOCIALHOLMES_KEY"),
        "Content-Type: application/json",
    ],
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => json_encode(["parameters" => ["query" => "mars rover"], "limit" => 25]),
]);

$run = json_decode(curl_exec($ch), true);

echo $run["id"], " ", $run["status"];

package main

import (
	"bytes"
	"encoding/json"
	"fmt"
	"net/http"
	"os"
)

func main() {
	body, _ := json.Marshal(map[string]any{
		"parameters": map[string]string{"query": "mars rover"},
		"limit":      25,
	})

	req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", "https://socialholmes.com/api/public/v1/scrape/youtube/creators", bytes.NewReader(body))
	req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+os.Getenv("SOCIALHOLMES_KEY"))
	req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")

	res, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
	defer res.Body.Close()

	var run map[string]any
	json.NewDecoder(res.Body).Decode(&run)

	fmt.Println(run["id"], run["status"])
}

202 Accepted

{
  "id": "8f14e45f-ceea-467a-9c2e-1b0f5a4c7d21",
  "status": "queued",
  "platform": "youtube",
  "endpoint": "creators",
  "target": "mars rover",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mars+rover",
  "result_count": 0,
  "created_at": "2026-10-16T17:05:42Z"
}

example

{
  "run": {
    "id": "8f14e45f-ceea-467a-9c2e-1b0f5a4c7d21",
    "status": "succeeded",
    "platform": "youtube",
    "endpoint": "creators",
    "target": "mars rover",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mars+rover",
    "result_count": 1,
    "requested": 25,
    "estimated_cost": 25,
    "captures": 1,
    "created_at": "2026-08-22T09:11:03Z",
    "started_at": "2026-08-22T09:12:03Z",
    "finished_at": "2026-08-22T09:14:03Z"
  },
  "unit": "creator",
  "results": [
    {
      "id": "UCLA_DiR1FfKNvjuUpBHmylQ",
      "name": "NASA",
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLA_DiR1FfKNvjuUpBHmylQ",
      "is_verified": true,
      "posts_in_sample": 2,
      "avg_views": 1008061.0,
      "avg_engagement": 0,
      "total_engagement": 0,
      "sample_posts": [
        {
          "shortcode": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
          "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
          "view_count": 1204118
        },
        {
          "shortcode": "C8xYabcDEF1",
          "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8xYabcDEF1",
          "view_count": 812004
        }
      ],
      "ranked_by": "total_engagement",
      "rank": 1
    }
  ],
  "page": {
    "limit": 2,
    "offset": 0,
    "returned": 1,
    "total": 1
  }
}

Try it