Live
Videos & Shorts
Full engagement metrics for standard videos and Shorts. Returns view count, like count, comment count, title, description, publication date and optional recent top-level comments.
Refetcher returns real-time public YouTube data — video views, likes, comments, and channel subscriber counts — as clean JSON from one endpoint. No Google Developer credentials or complicated API client setups required.
Send any public YouTube URL — the API detects whether it's a video, Short or channel and returns the matching normalized JSON.
Full engagement metrics for standard videos and Shorts. Returns view count, like count, comment count, title, description, publication date and optional recent top-level comments.
Public channel metadata and metrics — track subscribers, video count, total channel views, and discover links and metadata for recent public uploads.
Authenticate with one header, POST a public YouTube video URL, and get the same predictable response shape every time — the identical pattern used for every platform we support.
# Scrape a public YouTube video
curl -s https://api.refetcher.com/ \
-H "X-API-Key: pc_live_••••" \
-d '{ "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jPQjjsBbIc" }'
// → 200 OK
{
"platform": "youtube",
"success": true,
"metrics": {
"views": 1650000,
"likes": 42000,
"comments": 1800,
"shares": null,
"saves": null
},
"post": {
"id": "8jPQjjsBbIc",
"normalizedUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jPQjjsBbIc",
"publishedAt": "2026-06-01T08:30:00.000Z",
"caption": "Example video title",
"description": "Example video description"
},
"author": {
"handle": "UCAuUUnT6oDeKwE6v1NGQxug",
"name": "TED",
"followers": null
}
}Batch up to 50 URLs in one request · Video endpoint docs · Channel endpoint docs
The normalized response shape for YouTube video scrapes. Fields that YouTube doesn't expose publicly for a given post are returned as null rather than omitted.
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Metrics | ||
metrics.views | number | Play/view count at scrape time. |
metrics.likes | number | Public like count at scrape time. |
metrics.comments | number | Total comment count. |
metrics.shares | number · null | Share count (always returned as null on YouTube). |
metrics.saves | number · null | Save count (always returned as null on YouTube). |
| Post | ||
post.id | string | YouTube video ID from the URL. |
post.type | string | Always returns video. |
post.caption | string | The video title. |
post.description | string | The full video description. |
post.publishedAt | ISO 8601 | Original publish timestamp. |
| Author | ||
author.handle | string | YouTube channel ID of the creator. |
author.name | string | Public channel display name. |
author.followers | number · null | Channel subscriber count (when available in channel scrapes). |
Power dashboards, bots and creator tools with live YouTube video, Shorts and channel metrics — without maintaining proxies or handling quota errors yourself.
Verify influencer video performance with real numbers instead of screenshots. Track campaign video performance across every creator from one endpoint.
Batch up to 50 URLs per request and ingest normalized engagement data into warehouses, models and trend analysis pipelines.
For public videos and Shorts: views, likes, comments, title, description, publish date, author channel details, and optional newest top-level comments. For channels: subscriber count, total views, video count, thumbnails and recent video uploads.
No. You authenticate with a Refetcher API key only. The API handles the YouTube Data API key and proxy infrastructure automatically.
Yes. Send any public YouTube Shorts URL and the API returns its view, like, and comment count in the same normalized response shape used for standard videos.
Yes. Send a channel URL or handle (e.g. @TED) and the API returns subscribers, total views, and options for recent uploads metadata.
Pricing is pay as you go at $0.90 per 1,000 successful scrapes with no subscription or monthly minimum. Failed scrapes are free, credits never expire, and new accounts get $10 of free credit without a card. Full details on the pricing page.
The scrape fails and you are not charged for it. Refetcher only deducts balance for successful scrape results.
Data is retrieved at request time, so the metrics reflect what is publicly visible on YouTube when you make the call. Current latency and success rates are published on the public status page.
$10 of free YouTube scraping, no card required. See real numbers before you commit to anything.
Get your API key →