YouTube · Comment Beta

YouTube Comments API

Returns the public top-level comments of a YouTube video, short or live replay, a page at a time: text, author handle and channel, posting time, likes, reply count, and whether the comment is pinned, hearted, edited or written by the creator. Sort newest first (the default, which also supports since and until) or by YouTube's Top ranking, and follow page.next_cursor for more. Accepts every YouTube URL form or a bare 11-character video ID.

GET https://staging.socialtap.dev/v1/youtube/comments

Try it in the playground Quickstart

From 1 credit per page
Pages of up to 20 comments, newest first
Sources: Platform API

Use cases

Track audience sentiment on your videos and competitors'
Monitor new comments since a date
Find questions and feedback to answer
Build datasets of public comments for research

Example request

Send a GET request with your key in the x-api-key header.

cURL

curl -G 'https://staging.socialtap.dev/v1/youtube/comments' \
  --data-urlencode 'url=jNQXAC9IVRw' \
  -H "x-api-key: $SOCIALTAP_API_KEY"

TypeScript

const params = new URLSearchParams({
  url: "jNQXAC9IVRw",
});
const res = await fetch(`https://staging.socialtap.dev/v1/youtube/comments?${params}`, {
  headers: { "x-api-key": process.env.SOCIALTAP_API_KEY ?? "" },
});
const body = await res.json();
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`${body.error.code}: ${body.error.message}`);
const { data, page, meta } = body;
console.log(data, meta.credits_charged);

Python

import os

import requests

res = requests.get(
    "https://staging.socialtap.dev/v1/youtube/comments",
    params={"url": "jNQXAC9IVRw"},
    headers={"x-api-key": os.environ["SOCIALTAP_API_KEY"]},
)
body = res.json()
if not res.ok:
    raise RuntimeError(f"{body['error']['code']}: {body['error']['message']}")
data, page, meta = body["data"], body["page"], body["meta"]
print(data, meta["credits_charged"])

package main

import (
	"encoding/json"
	"fmt"
	"log"
	"net/http"
	"net/url"
	"os"
)

func main() {
	q := url.Values{}
	q.Set("url", "jNQXAC9IVRw")
	req, err := http.NewRequest("GET", "https://staging.socialtap.dev/v1/youtube/comments?"+q.Encode(), nil)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	req.Header.Set("x-api-key", os.Getenv("SOCIALTAP_API_KEY"))
	res, err := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	defer res.Body.Close()
	var body struct {
		Data  json.RawMessage `json:"data"`
		Page  json.RawMessage `json:"page"`
		Meta  map[string]any  `json:"meta"`
		Error *struct {
			Code    string `json:"code"`
			Message string `json:"message"`
		} `json:"error"`
	}
	if err := json.NewDecoder(res.Body).Decode(&body); err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	if body.Error != nil {
		log.Fatalf("%s: %s", body.Error.Code, body.Error.Message)
	}
	fmt.Println(string(body.Data), body.Meta["credits_charged"])
}

Parameters

Name	Type	Description	Example
`url` required	`string` max 2,048 chars	YouTube video URL (watch, youtu.be, shorts, live, embed, m./music. hosts) or an 11-character video ID.	`https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw`
`sort` optional	`string`	Order of the results. newest (default): newest first. popular: YouTube's Top comments ranking. Either way the video's pinned comment comes first. One of `newest`, `popular`	—
`since` optional	`string` date-time	Only items at or after this time: RFC 3339 (2026-10-01T12:00:00Z) or a date (2026-10-01, midnight UTC). On newest-first lists, paging stops when it is reached, so later pages are not fetched or charged. Compared with published_at, which YouTube only shows as a relative label ("2 days ago"): the walk stops at the first comment whose label is older, so comments up to one label unit older can be included.	`2026-10-01`
`until` optional	`string` date-time	Only items before this time (exclusive): RFC 3339 or a date (midnight UTC).	`2026-10-08`
`limit` optional	`integer` min 1 max 20	Items per page, 1 to the endpoint's page size (the default and maximum; larger values are reduced). Reduces payload, not price: each page costs the same.	`20`
`cursor` optional	`string`	page.next_cursor from the previous response. Send the same other parameters; omit to start from the first page.	—

url takes YouTube video links. A link of another kind or platform fails free with invalid_input, naming the endpoint that takes it. Parameters not listed here are rejected (with a suggestion for a likely typo), so a misspelled one never silently changes nothing: see Requests.

limit and cursor page through the list: see Pagination.

Every endpoint also accepts max_age, fields.

Example response

A 200 response is {data, page, meta}: data is an array of up to 20 comment objects, page says whether there are more (pagination), meta describes the request (meta fields).

200 OK

{
  "data": [
    {
      "approximate_fields": [
        "published_at",
        "metrics.like_count",
        "metrics.reply_count"
      ],
      "author": {
        "avatar_url": "https://yt3.ggpht.com/i8RqA9tYqbbnOi4mlnYEY7IR3kXAoDqQbM_5Sfzw7OjTubiGsOaTdlrIZmj-I0q0Vup68eqs=s88-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj",
        "display_name": null,
        "id": "UCC5NfQ6Mf0dq_eEwv4P_hWA",
        "is_verified": true,
        "url": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC5NfQ6Mf0dq_eEwv4P_hWA",
        "username": "SanDiegoZoo"
      },
      "edited_at": null,
      "id": "UgzuC3zzpRZkjc5Qzsd4AaABAg",
      "is_by_post_author": false,
      "is_edited": false,
      "is_liked_by_author": true,
      "is_pinned": true,
      "metrics": {
        "like_count": 4800000,
        "reply_count": 1000
      },
      "parent_id": null,
      "platform": "youtube",
      "post_id": "jNQXAC9IVRw",
      "published_at": "2020-10-26T18:59:19Z",
      "text": "We're so honored that the first ever YouTube video was filmed here!",
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw&lc=UgzuC3zzpRZkjc5Qzsd4AaABAg"
    },
    {
      "approximate_fields": [
        "published_at"
      ],
      "author": {
        "avatar_url": "https://yt3.ggpht.com/U9zdJRwdpo6WwsenxMf6AyMyRMBTWoKsyAWCnJXdbPbNKh-YNEWP3AQRgFto91lckyGCBYENnaw=s88-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj",
        "display_name": null,
        "id": "UCjoZE_5A9tO470CK3G6U7dg",
        "is_verified": false,
        "url": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjoZE_5A9tO470CK3G6U7dg",
        "username": "CTwGary"
      },
      "edited_at": null,
      "id": "UgxHbErLhWMUy5GlFnp4AaABAg",
      "is_by_post_author": false,
      "is_edited": false,
      "is_liked_by_author": false,
      "is_pinned": false,
      "metrics": {
        "like_count": 0,
        "reply_count": 0
      },
      "parent_id": null,
      "platform": "youtube",
      "post_id": "jNQXAC9IVRw",
      "published_at": "2026-10-26T18:58:19Z",
      "text": "I can’t believe it, but it’s 21 years old now",
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw&lc=UgxHbErLhWMUy5GlFnp4AaABAg"
    },
    {
      "approximate_fields": [
        "published_at"
      ],
      "author": {
        "avatar_url": "https://yt3.ggpht.com/Ar50xvd1O4GCXVttK6DgX0Y0cuhBl2b_HUFQjh-gajKbmS-qjuNAHOT5fw_RX_DS5gzfphkcKAI=s88-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj",
        "display_name": null,
        "id": "UCFgjcRO4y8XFQL7E8_TcLlg",
        "is_verified": false,
        "url": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFgjcRO4y8XFQL7E8_TcLlg",
        "username": "Nihal-poke"
      },
      "edited_at": null,
      "id": "UgzLOxwwIAUe0jUI4RR4AaABAg",
      "is_by_post_author": false,
      "is_edited": false,
      "is_liked_by_author": false,
      "is_pinned": false,
      "metrics": {
        "like_count": 0,
        "reply_count": 0
      },
      "parent_id": null,
      "platform": "youtube",
      "post_id": "jNQXAC9IVRw",
      "published_at": "2026-10-26T18:58:19Z",
      "text": "I watch this video many times 😭",
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw&lc=UgzLOxwwIAUe0jUI4RR4AaABAg"
    }
  ],
  "page": {
    "has_more": true,
    "next_cursor": "c1.EXAMPLE_CURSOR",
    "next_cursor_expires_at": "2026-10-26T12:00:00Z",
    "end_reason": null
  },
  "meta": {
    "request_id": "req_3f9c2a7d1e8b4c6a9f0e2d4b6a8c0e1f",
    "platform": "youtube",
    "source": "api",
    "is_cached": false,
    "credits_charged": 1,
    "latency_ms": 0,
    "fetched_at": "2026-10-25T12:00:00Z",
    "input": {
      "kind": "video",
      "id": "jNQXAC9IVRw",
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw"
    },
    "credits_remaining": 9999,
    "client_request_id": null,
    "warnings": [],
    "mode": "live"
  }
}

Long arrays and strings are shortened for display; real responses are complete.

Response fields

Each item of data follows the shared Comment schema, identical on every platform.

Field	Type	Description
`data[].platform`	`string`	Platform ID (tiktok, youtube, …).
`data[].id`	`string`	Platform-native comment ID (string; Reddit without t1_).
`data[].post_id`	`string`	ID of the post commented on (equals post.id).
`data[].parent_id`	`string` or `null`	ID of the comment this replies to; null for top-level comments.
`data[].url`	`string` (uri) or `null`	Permalink, when the platform has one.
`data[].text`	`string`	Comment body as plain text.
`data[].author`	`object`	The commenting account.
`data[].author.id`	`string` or `null`	Platform-native account ID; null when only the handle is known.
`data[].author.username`	`string` or `null`	Handle without the @; null when the account has none.
`data[].author.display_name`	`string` or `null`	Display name shown on the profile.
`data[].author.url`	`string` (uri) or `null`	Canonical profile URL.
`data[].author.avatar_url`	`string` (uri) or `null`	Profile picture URL. Platform CDN URLs can expire within hours.
`data[].author.is_verified`	`boolean` or `null`	Platform verification badge; null where the platform has no badge.
`data[].published_at`	`string` (date-time) or `null`	When the comment was posted, RFC 3339 UTC. Where the platform shows only a relative time ("3 weeks ago"), the latest time that label allows (the fetch time minus the stated amount), listed in approximate_fields.
`data[].edited_at`	`string` (date-time) or `null`	When the comment was last edited, RFC 3339 UTC; null when never edited or when the platform marks edits without a time (see is_edited).
`data[].is_edited`	`boolean` or `null`	The comment was edited after posting (the platform's edited mark); null when the platform does not say.
`data[].is_pinned`	`boolean` or `null`	Pinned by the post's author.
`data[].is_liked_by_author`	`boolean` or `null`	Liked or hearted by the post's author.
`data[].is_by_post_author`	`boolean` or `null`	Written by the post's author (the creator's own comment, marked as such by the platform).
`data[].metrics`	`object`	Counts at fetch time; null = hidden or not exposed, 0 = zero.
`data[].metrics.like_count`	`integer` or `null`	Likes or upvotes; never negative.
`data[].metrics.reply_count`	`integer` or `null`	Direct replies.
`data[].approximate_fields`	`string[]`	JSON paths of values rounded by the platform or parsed from display text; [] when all exact.

Pagination

Items come in pages, newest first. To get the next page, send the same request plus cursor set to page.next_cursor from the previous response. Keep every other parameter the same (limit, max_age and fields may change); anything else that differs is rejected. When page.has_more is false you have every item.

Order: Newest first
Page size: Up to 20 comments (the default; limit lowers it)
Cursor lifetime: 1 hour; don't store cursors
Price: Per page, 1 credit

The `page` object

Field	Type	Description
`page.has_more`	`boolean`	True when another page exists; then next_cursor is set. An empty page with has_more true is not the end.
`page.next_cursor`	`string` or `null`	Pass as cursor, with the same other parameters, to get the next page; null at the end.
`page.next_cursor_expires_at`	`string` (date-time) or `null`	When next_cursor stops working, RFC 3339 UTC; null at the end. Don't store cursors.
`page.end_reason`	`string` or `null`	Why there are no more pages; null while has_more is true. end: the list ended, or reached since/until. platform_limit: the platform stops serving further pages although the list goes on. max_pages: SocialTap's cap on pages in one walk. New values may be added. A short or empty page is not the end: only has_more false is. One of `end`, `platform_limit`, `max_pages`

cURL: next page

curl -G 'https://staging.socialtap.dev/v1/youtube/comments' \
  --data-urlencode 'url=jNQXAC9IVRw' \
  --data-urlencode 'cursor=c1.EXAMPLE_CURSOR' \
  -H "x-api-key: $SOCIALTAP_API_KEY"

The price is per page: each successful page costs the same, whatever limit is and however many items it has. Empty pages are charged too (an empty page with has_more: true is not the end).
A limit below 20 doesn't save credits: the next request serves the rest of the same platform page, which is fetched again and charged as a page each time, and items can shift between those requests if the platform changes the list. Omitting limit is the cheapest way to walk the list.
Errors are free, including a rejected cursor.
Pages served from the cache are free.
An expired or altered cursor, or one sent with different parameters, fails with invalid_cursor (HTTP 400): Repeat the original request without cursor to start the list again.

Pagination guide

Pricing

You pay per successful page: every page costs the same whatever its number of items, empty pages included. Errors are free. The price depends on which source produced the result, reported as meta.source.

Source	Price per successful page	Per 1,000 pages
Platform API `api`	1 credit	$0.50–$0.80

meta.source	Source	What it means
`api`	Platform API	The platform's public, logged-out API.

Your balance must be at least 1 credit to start a request; with less, it is refused with insufficient_credits (HTTP 402) and costs nothing. Only that minimum is set aside when the request starts.

meta.credits_charged and the x-credits-charged header show what you paid. How credits work · Packs

Errors

Errors cost nothing. Codes marked “Yes, later” under Retry can succeed on a later attempt; the others return the same answer every time.

Code	HTTP	Retry	Meaning	What to do
`invalid_input`	400	No	The request parameters are missing or malformed, or the URL is not a supported link for this endpoint.	Fix the parameter named in param (the message says how); for a link of the wrong kind, call the endpoint the message names.
`invalid_cursor`	400	No	The cursor is malformed, expired, belongs to another endpoint, or the other parameters differ from the request that issued it.	Repeat the original request without cursor to start the list again.
`unauthorized`	401	No	The x-api-key header is missing, unknown or revoked (or, on the dashboard's routes, the session cookie is missing or expired).	Send a valid API key in the x-api-key header; without one, get a key at details.signup_url (AI agents: POST details.agent_signup_url).
`forbidden`	403	No	The API key is valid but may not make this request: its account is suspended, its scopes do not include the route, it is waiting for its owner's email confirmation, it is past its expiry, or the request came from an IP its allowlist does not include.	Do what details.reason says: if suspended, contact support; otherwise use a key whose scopes cover the route (details.required_scope), have the owner confirm the emailed link, create a new key, or call from an allowed IP.
`insufficient_credits`	402	No	The account does not have enough credits for this request.	Buy a credit pack, then repeat the request; do not retry automatically.
`spend_limit_reached`	402	No	The API key reached its spend limit for the current period; the account may still have credits.	Wait until details.resets_at or raise the key's spend limit (PATCH /v1/api_keys/{id}); do not retry automatically.
`rate_limited`	429	Yes, later	The account exceeded its runaway-protection ceiling: plans do not limit request rate, but a high per-account safety ceiling stops broken client loops. Support raises it on request.	Wait for the number of seconds in the retry-after header, then retry; ask support to raise the ceiling if your sustained traffic needs more.
`not_found`	404	No	The item does not exist or was deleted.	Check the URL or ID; do not retry.
`private_or_unavailable`	403	No	The item exists but is private, age- or region-gated, or requires a login to view.	Only public items can be fetched; do not retry.
`upstream_blocked`	503	Yes, later	The platform refused every attempt.	Retry later with backoff; failed requests are free.
`upstream_error`	502	Yes, later	The platform failed or returned something unexpected.	Retry with backoff; failed requests are free.
`overloaded`	503	Yes, later	SocialTap was momentarily at capacity and did not start the request: nothing was fetched or charged.	Retry after the number of seconds in the retry-after header; failed requests are free.
`internal`	500	Yes, later	Unexpected SocialTap error.	Retry with backoff; contact support with the request_id if it persists.

not_found and private_or_unavailable are item-level: the request was fine, the item can't be returned.

Test mode

A key starting with st_test_ gets recorded responses, free and the same every time (test mode). These inputs return their recording; any other input returns the example above.

Input	Answer
`HtVdAasjOgU` with sort=popular	200 OK
`XqZsoesa55w`	403 `private_or_unavailable`
`qUTSzYEtUG0`	200 OK
`jNQXAC9IVRw` Default	200 OK
`dQw4w9WgXcQ` with since=2026-10-01T00:00:00Z	200 OK
`kJQP7kiw5Fk` with sort=popular	200 OK
`Q39EVAstoRM`	404 `not_found`
`yZIXLfi8CZQ`	403 `private_or_unavailable`
`3cWm9B_0_kI`	200 OK
`jNQXAC9IVRw` with sort=popular	200 OK
`dQw4w9WgXcQ` with sort=popular	200 OK
`E_HgDSKu_50`	200 OK

Magic inputs: send one of these as url to get that error.

Error	Value
`invalid_input`	`https://socialtap.dev/test/invalid_input`
`invalid_cursor`	`https://socialtap.dev/test/invalid_cursor`
`insufficient_credits`	`https://socialtap.dev/test/insufficient_credits`
`spend_limit_reached`	`https://socialtap.dev/test/spend_limit_reached`
`rate_limited`	`https://socialtap.dev/test/rate_limited`
`not_found`	`https://socialtap.dev/test/not_found`
`private_or_unavailable`	`https://socialtap.dev/test/private_or_unavailable`
`upstream_blocked`	`https://socialtap.dev/test/upstream_blocked`
`upstream_error`	`https://socialtap.dev/test/upstream_error`
`overloaded`	`https://socialtap.dev/test/overloaded`
`internal`	`https://socialtap.dev/test/internal`

FAQ

How much does the YouTube Comments API cost?

1 credit for platform api results (meta.source = api) per page of up to 20 items, charged for every successful page, empty pages included. SocialTap credits cost $0.50–$0.80 per 1,000 depending on the pack.

How do I get the next page?

Repeat the same request with cursor set to page.next_cursor from the previous response, keeping the other parameters. When page.has_more is false there are no more items. Cursors expire after 1 hour.

Am I charged for failed requests?

No. Requests that return an error cost 0 credits. Responses served from the cache are free too.

Use cases

Example request

Parameters

Example response

Response fields

Pagination

The page object

Next page

Pricing

Errors

Test mode

FAQ

Related

More YouTube endpoints

The `page` object