Search: list

Returns a collection of search results that match the query parameters specified in the API request. By default, a search result set identifies matching video, channel, and playlist resources, but you can also configure queries to only retrieve a specific type of resource.

Quota impact: 100 calls per day. A call to this method has a quota cost of 1 unit in the Search Queries quota bucket.

Common use cases

Request

HTTP request

GET https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/search

Parameters

The following table lists the parameters that this query supports. All of the parameters listed are query parameters.

Parameters
Required parameters
part string
The part parameter specifies a comma-separated list of one or more search resource properties that the API response will include. Set the parameter value to snippet.
Filters (specify 0 or 1 of the following parameters)
forContentOwner boolean
This parameter can only be used in a properly authorized request, and it is intended exclusively for YouTube content partners.

The forContentOwner parameter restricts the search to only retrieve videos owned by the content owner identified by the onBehalfOfContentOwner parameter. If forContentOwner is set to true, the request must also meet these requirements:
  • The onBehalfOfContentOwner parameter is required.
  • The user authorizing the request must be using an account linked to the specified content owner.
  • The type parameter value must be set to video.
  • None of the following other parameters can be set: videoDefinition, videoDimension, videoDuration, videoEmbeddable, videoLicense, videoPaidProductPlacement, videoSyndicated, videoType.
forDeveloper boolean
This parameter can only be used in a properly authorized request. The forDeveloper parameter restricts the search to only retrieve videos uploaded via the developer's application or website. The API server uses the request's authorization credentials to identify the developer. The forDeveloper parameter can be used in conjunction with optional search parameters like the q parameter.

For this feature, each uploaded video is automatically tagged with the project number that is associated with the developer's application in the Google Developers Console.

When a search request subsequently sets the forDeveloper parameter to true, the API server uses the request's authorization credentials to identify the developer. Therefore, a developer can restrict results to videos uploaded through the developer's own app or website but not to videos uploaded through other apps or sites.
forMine boolean
This parameter can only be used in a properly authorized request. The forMine parameter restricts the search to only retrieve videos owned by the authenticated user. If you set this parameter to true, then the type parameter's value must also be set to video. In addition, none of the following other parameters can be set in the same request: videoDefinition, videoDimension, videoDuration, videoEmbeddable, videoLicense, videoPaidProductPlacement, videoSyndicated, videoType.
Optional parameters
channelId string
The channelId parameter indicates that the API response should only contain resources created by the channel.

Note: Search results are constrained to a maximum of 500 videos if your request specifies a value for the channelId parameter and sets the type parameter value to video, but it does not also set one of the forContentOwner, forDeveloper, or forMine filters.
channelType string
The channelType parameter lets you restrict a search to a particular type of channel.

Acceptable values are:
  • any – Return all channels.
  • show – Only retrieve shows.
eventType string
The eventType parameter restricts a search to broadcast events. If you specify a value for this parameter, you must also set the type parameter's value to video.

Acceptable values are:
  • completed – Only include completed broadcasts.
  • live – Only include active broadcasts.
  • upcoming – Only include upcoming broadcasts.
location string
The location parameter, in conjunction with the locationRadius parameter, defines a circular geographic area and also restricts a search to videos that specify, in their metadata, a geographic location that falls within that area. The parameter value is a string that specifies latitude/longitude coordinates e.g. (37.42307,-122.08427).

  • The location parameter value identifies the point at the center of the area.
  • The locationRadius parameter specifies the maximum distance that the location associated with a video can be from that point for the video to still be included in the search results.
The API returns an error if your request specifies a value for the location parameter but does not also specify a value for the locationRadius parameter.

Note: If you specify a value for this parameter, you must also set the type parameter's value to video.
locationRadius string
The locationRadius parameter, in conjunction with the location parameter, defines a circular geographic area.

The parameter value must be a floating point number followed by a measurement unit. Valid measurement units are m, km, ft, and mi. For example, valid parameter values include 1500m, 5km, 10000ft, and 0.75mi. The API does not support locationRadius parameter values larger than 1000 kilometers.

Note: See the definition of the location parameter for more information.
maxResults unsigned integer
The maxResults parameter specifies the maximum number of items that should be returned in the result set. Acceptable values are 0 to 50, inclusive. The default value is 5.
onBehalfOfContentOwner string
This parameter can only be used in a properly authorized request. Note: This parameter is intended exclusively for YouTube content partners.

The onBehalfOfContentOwner parameter indicates that the request's authorization credentials identify a YouTube CMS user who is acting on behalf of the content owner specified in the parameter value. This parameter is intended for YouTube content partners that own and manage many different YouTube channels. It allows content owners to authenticate once and get access to all their video and channel data, without having to provide authentication credentials for each individual channel. The CMS account that the user authenticates with must be linked to the specified YouTube content owner.
order string
The order parameter specifies the method that will be used to order resources in the API response. The default value is relevance.

Acceptable values are:
  • date – Resources are sorted in reverse chronological order based on the date they were created. Note: Because this relies on the search index, you may experience indexing delays for new content or receive incomplete result sets. To reliably retrieve a channel's most recently uploaded videos, do not use search.list. Instead, use the playlistItems.list method to fetch the channel's uploads playlist.
  • rating – Resources are sorted from highest to lowest rating. Note: This rating is calculated using an internal algorithmic score and is not strictly equivalent to a descending like count.
  • relevance – Resources are sorted based on their relevance to the search query. This is the default value for this parameter.
  • title – Resources are sorted alphabetically by title.
  • videoCount – Channels are sorted in descending order of their number of uploaded videos.
  • viewCount – Resources are sorted from highest to lowest number of views. For live broadcasts, videos are sorted by number of concurrent viewers while the broadcasts are ongoing.
pageToken string
The pageToken parameter identifies a specific page in the result set that should be returned. In an API response, the nextPageToken and prevPageToken properties identify other pages that could be retrieved.
publishedAfter datetime
The publishedAfter parameter indicates that the API response should only contain resources created at or after the specified time. The value is an RFC 3339 formatted date-time value (1970-01-01T00:00:00Z).
publishedBefore datetime
The publishedBefore parameter indicates that the API response should only contain resources created before or at the specified time. The value is an RFC 3339 formatted date-time value (1970-01-01T00:00:00Z).
q string
The q parameter specifies the query term to search for.

Your request can also use the Boolean NOT (-) and OR (|) operators to exclude videos or to find videos that are associated with one of several search terms. For example, to search for videos matching either "boating" or "sailing", set the q parameter value to boating|sailing. Similarly, to search for videos matching either "boating" or "sailing" but not "fishing", set the q parameter value to boating|sailing -fishing. Note that the pipe character must be URL-escaped when it is sent in your API request. The URL-escaped value for the pipe character is %7C.
regionCode string
The regionCode parameter instructs the API to return search results for videos that can be viewed in the specified country. The parameter value is an ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code.
relevanceLanguage string
The relevanceLanguage parameter instructs the API to return search results that are most relevant to the specified language. The parameter value is typically an ISO 639-1 two-letter language code. However, you should use the values zh-Hans for simplified Chinese and zh-Hant for traditional Chinese. Please note that results in other languages will still be returned if they are highly relevant to the search query term.
safeSearch string
The safeSearch parameter indicates whether the search results should include restricted content as well as standard content.

Acceptable values are:
  • moderate – YouTube will filter some content from search results and, at the least, will filter content that is restricted in your locale. Based on their content, search results could be removed from search results or demoted in search results. This is the default parameter value.
  • none – YouTube will not filter the search result set.
  • strict – YouTube will try to exclude all restricted content from the search result set. Based on their content, search results could be removed from search results or demoted in search results.
topicId string
The topicId parameter indicates that the API response should only contain resources associated with the specified topic. The value identifies a Freebase topic ID.

Important: Due to the deprecation of Freebase and the Freebase API, the topicId parameter started working differently as of February 27, 2017. At that time, YouTube started supporting a small set of curated topic IDs, and you can only use that smaller set of IDs as values for this parameter.