ScrapeUnblocker Documentation

The YouTube plugin turns YouTube into structured JSON through three endpoints:

Channel videos - a channel’s latest videos (title, views, likes, comments, publish date, duration, thumbnail) plus the channel’s name, handle and subscriber, video and view counts.
Search - results for a query with the video id, title, channel, view count, duration, publish age, thumbnails, a description snippet and badges, filtered by type and sorted.
Transcript - a video’s captions as timestamped segments and as one joined text, in the language you pick.

Pass channels as a handle (@mkbhd), a channel id (UC...) or a URL, and videos as an id (dQw4w9WgXcQ) or any video URL. No YouTube API key or login is involved.

Try it in the dashboard first: app.scrapeunblocker.com/dashboard/plugins. You get a live results view plus a copy-paste snippet.

Channel videos

POST /content/youtube-channel

Field	Required	Notes
`channel`	yes	Channel handle (`@mkbhd`), channel id (`UC...`) or a channel URL.
`tab`	no	Which tab: `videos` (default), `shorts` or `streams`.
`limit`	no	Max videos to return, `1`-`200`. Default `30`. Honoured on the `videos` tab; other tabs return a single page.
`proxy_country`	no	Proxy country the request is sent from (ISO-2, e.g. `US`).

curl -X POST "https://api.scrapeunblocker.com/content/youtube-channel?channel=%40mkbhd&limit=5" \
  -H "x-scrapeunblocker-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

from scrapeunblocker import Client

su = Client()  # reads SCRAPEUNBLOCKER_KEY

result = su.youtube_channel("@mkbhd", limit=5)

import { ScrapeUnblockerClient } from "scrapeunblocker";

const su = new ScrapeUnblockerClient(); // reads SCRAPEUNBLOCKER_KEY

const result = await su.youtubeChannel("@mkbhd", { limit: 5 });

use ScrapeUnblocker\Client;

$su = new Client(); // reads SCRAPEUNBLOCKER_KEY

$result = $su->youtubeChannel('@mkbhd', ['limit' => 5]);

require "scrapeunblocker"

su = ScrapeUnblocker::Client.new # reads SCRAPEUNBLOCKER_KEY

result = su.youtube_channel("@mkbhd", limit: 5)

Response

{
  "channel": {
    "name": "Marques Brownlee",
    "channelId": "UCBJycsmduvYEL83R_U4JriQ",
    "handle": "@mkbhd",
    "description": "MKBHD: Quality Tech Videos | YouTuber | Geek | Consumer Electronics |...",
    "subscriberCount": 21400000,
    "videoCount": 1857,
    "viewCount": 5764931922,
    "thumbnail": "https://yt3.ggpht.com/qu4TmIaYUlS41-dJ9gZ7DUR3nilvmB5_11i6OK..."
  },
  "videos": [
    {
      "videoId": "_0G4OG39XjI",
      "title": "WTF is a Googlebook?",
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0G4OG39XjI",
      "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_0G4OG39XjI/hqdefault.jpg",
      "views": "7.1M views",
      "published": "4 days ago",
      "viewCount": 7130486,
      "likeCount": 90875,
      "commentCount": 7557,
      "publishedAt": "2026-10-08T21:00:40Z",
      "duration": "PT14M13S",
      "durationSeconds": 853,
      "description": "New laptops are dropping left and right! Let's talk about Go..."
    },
    {
      "videoId": "3iRUwVzRDZQ",
      "title": "Xiaomi 18 Fold: How Does This Happen?",
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iRUwVzRDZQ",
      "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/3iRUwVzRDZQ/hqdefault.jpg",
      "views": "11M views",
      "published": "1 week ago",
      "viewCount": 11035386,
      "likeCount": 97000,
      "commentCount": 6320,
      "publishedAt": "2026-10-02T20:50:25Z",
      "duration": "PT10M47S",
      "durationSeconds": 647,
      "description": "This is not an iPhone Duo. Xiaomi is at it again.\n\nThe desk..."
    }
  ],
  "resultsCollected": 5
}

Field	Notes
`videoId` / `url`	Video id and its watch URL.
`title` / `description`	Video title and description.
`views` / `viewCount`	View count as YouTube prints it and as a number.
`likeCount` / `commentCount`	Likes and comments on the video.
`published` / `publishedAt`	Relative publish time (`4 days ago`) and the exact ISO-8601 timestamp.
`duration` / `durationSeconds`	Length as an ISO-8601 duration (`PT14M13S`) and in seconds.
`thumbnail`	Thumbnail image URL.

The channel object holds the channel’s name, channelId, handle, description, subscriberCount, videoCount, viewCount and thumbnail. The exact counts (viewCount, likeCount, commentCount), publishedAt, duration and description come with the videos tab. The shorts and streams tabs, and the rare call where those details are not available, return the core fields: videoId, title, url, views, published and thumbnail, with the channel’s name and id.

Search

POST /content/youtube-search

Field	Required	Notes
`query`	yes	Search terms.
`max_results`	no	How many results to collect across pages (about 20 per page), `1`-`500`. Default `20`.
`type`	no	Result type: `video` (default), `channel`, `playlist`, `movie` or `all`.
`sort`	no	Ordering: `relevance` (default), `rating`, `date` or `views`.
`proxy_country`	no	Proxy country the request is sent from (ISO-2, e.g. `US`). Defaults to `US`.

curl -X POST "https://api.scrapeunblocker.com/content/youtube-search?query=python%20tutorial&sort=views&max_results=5" \
  -H "x-scrapeunblocker-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

from scrapeunblocker import Client

su = Client()  # reads SCRAPEUNBLOCKER_KEY

result = su.youtube_search("python tutorial", sort="views", max_results=5)

import { ScrapeUnblockerClient } from "scrapeunblocker";

const su = new ScrapeUnblockerClient(); // reads SCRAPEUNBLOCKER_KEY

const result = await su.youtubeSearch("python tutorial", { sort: "views", maxResults: 5 });

use ScrapeUnblocker\Client;

$su = new Client(); // reads SCRAPEUNBLOCKER_KEY

$result = $su->youtubeSearch('python tutorial', ['sort' => 'views', 'max_results' => 5]);

require "scrapeunblocker"

su = ScrapeUnblocker::Client.new # reads SCRAPEUNBLOCKER_KEY

result = su.youtube_search("python tutorial", sort: "views", max_results: 5)

Response

{
  "query": "python tutorial",
  "type": "video",
  "sort": "views",
  "results": [
    {
      "type": "video",
      "videoId": "rfscVS0vtbw",
      "title": "Learn Python - Full Course for Beginners [Tutorial]",
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfscVS0vtbw",
      "channel": {
        "name": "freeCodeCamp.org",
        "id": "UC8butISFwT-Wl7EV0hUK0BQ",
        "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@freecodecamp"
      },
      "publishedText": "8y ago",
      "viewCountText": "49,439,991 views",
      "viewCount": 49439991,
      "shortViewCountText": "49M",
      "lengthText": "4:26:52",
      "lengthSeconds": 16012,
      "thumbnails": [
        {
          "url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/rfscVS0vtbw/hq720.jpg?sqp=-...",
          "width": 360,
          "height": 202
        }
      ],
      "descriptionSnippet": "This course will give you a full introduction into all of the core concepts in p...",
      "badges": [
        "CC"
      ],
      "verified": true,
      "isLive": false
    }
  ],
  "resultsCollected": 5,
  "estimatedResults": 7907376,
  "hasMore": true
}

Field	Notes
`type`	Result type, e.g. `video`.
`videoId` / `title` / `url`	Video id, title and watch URL.
`channel`	Channel `name`, `id` and `url`.
`publishedText`	Publish age as YouTube prints it, e.g. `8y ago`.
`viewCount` / `viewCountText` / `shortViewCountText`	Views as a number, in full and in short form.
`lengthSeconds` / `lengthText`	Duration in seconds and as YouTube prints it.
`thumbnails`	Thumbnail `url`, `width` and `height`.
`descriptionSnippet`	The description snippet shown in the results.
`badges` / `verified` / `isLive`	Badges such as `CC`, the channel’s verified mark and whether the video is live.

estimatedResults is YouTube’s estimate of all matches; hasMore says whether more pages exist.

Video transcript

POST /content/youtube-transcript

Field	Required	Notes
`video`	yes	Video id (`dQw4w9WgXcQ`) or any YouTube video URL.
`lang`	no	Preferred caption language, e.g. `en`. A prefix like `en` matches `en-US`. Omit for the default track.
`format`	no	`segments` (default) returns timestamped segments plus the joined text; `text` returns only the joined text.
`proxy_country`	no	Proxy country the request is sent from (ISO-2, e.g. `US`). Defaults to `US`.

curl -X POST "https://api.scrapeunblocker.com/content/youtube-transcript?video=dQw4w9WgXcQ&lang=en" \
  -H "x-scrapeunblocker-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

from scrapeunblocker import Client

su = Client()  # reads SCRAPEUNBLOCKER_KEY

result = su.youtube_transcript("dQw4w9WgXcQ", lang="en")

import { ScrapeUnblockerClient } from "scrapeunblocker";

const su = new ScrapeUnblockerClient(); // reads SCRAPEUNBLOCKER_KEY

const result = await su.youtubeTranscript("dQw4w9WgXcQ", { lang: "en" });

use ScrapeUnblocker\Client;

$su = new Client(); // reads SCRAPEUNBLOCKER_KEY

$result = $su->youtubeTranscript('dQw4w9WgXcQ', ['lang' => 'en']);

require "scrapeunblocker"

su = ScrapeUnblocker::Client.new # reads SCRAPEUNBLOCKER_KEY

result = su.youtube_transcript("dQw4w9WgXcQ", lang: "en")

Response

{
  "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Video) (4K Remaster)",
  "author": "Rick Astley",
  "channelId": "UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw",
  "lengthSeconds": 213,
  "viewCount": 1826087816,
  "language": "en",
  "languageName": "English",
  "isAutoGenerated": false,
  "isTranslatable": true,
  "availableLanguages": [
    {
      "languageCode": "en",
      "name": "English",
      "isAutoGenerated": false
    },
    {
      "languageCode": "en",
      "name": "English (auto-generated)",
      "isAutoGenerated": true
    }
  ],
  "segmentCount": 61,
  "text": "[♪♪♪] ♪ We're no strangers to love ♪ ...",
  "segments": [
    {
      "start": 1.36,
      "dur": 1.68,
      "text": "[♪♪♪]"
    },
    {
      "start": 18.64,
      "dur": 3.24,
      "text": "♪ We're no strangers to love ♪"
    }
  ]
}

Field	Notes
`segments`	Caption lines with `start` and `dur` in seconds and the `text`.
`text`	All segments joined into one plain text, ready for an LLM or a search index.
`language` / `languageName`	The caption track that was picked.
`isAutoGenerated`	`true` when the track is YouTube’s automatic captions.
`availableLanguages`	Every caption track on the video: `languageCode`, `name` and `isAutoGenerated`.
`title` / `author` / `channelId` / `lengthSeconds` / `viewCount`	Video metadata. Can be `null` when YouTube does not return it with the captions.

A video without captions returns 404.

What you can build

Channel monitoring - track new uploads and their views, likes and comments for the channels you follow.
Rank tracking - record where videos place for your keywords with sort and type.
LLM and RAG pipelines - turn videos into searchable, timestamped text with the transcript endpoint.

Get Started

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Guides

Code Examples

YouTube plugin

Channel videos

Response

Search

Response

Video transcript

Response

What you can build

Next steps

Open the plugins

Get an API key

​Channel videos

​Response

​Search

​Response

​Video transcript

​Response

​What you can build

​Next steps

Open the plugins

Get an API key

Channel videos

Response

Search

Response

Video transcript

Response

What you can build

Next steps