DataForSEO Brain

YouTube as a DataForSEO Surface

3 min read

YouTube as a DataForSEO Surface

YouTube search results, per-video metrics, comments, and transcripts exposed through the SERP API as a video search and discovery surface. Sits under DataForSEO Brain then Platforms.

Overview

YouTube is treated by DataForSEO as a search engine in its own right under serp/youtube. The module covers four endpoints: organic search results, single-video metadata and metrics, video comments, and video subtitles/transcripts. This makes YouTube a tractable surface for video rank tracking, competitor channel analysis, sentiment mining on comments, and transcript extraction for content repurposing. YouTube also matters for AI visibility: research shows it has become one of the most-cited domains inside Google AI Overviews, so YouTube presence feeds generative search exposure.

What it covers

  • serp/youtube/organic returns up to 20 result blocks (1-200 via block_depth): youtube_video, youtube_channel, and youtube_playlist items.
  • serp/youtube/video_info returns one video’s full metadata and metrics (views, likes, comments count, subscriber count, streaming quality variants, subtitles list).
  • serp/youtube/video_comments returns top comments (default 20, max 200) with author, text, likes, and reply counts.
  • serp/youtube/video_subtitles returns transcript segments with timing, optionally translated into 150+ languages.

Key parameters / inputs

  • Organic: keyword (up to 700 chars), one location field, one language field, block_depth (1-200, default 20), device.
  • Video Info / Comments / Subtitles: video_id (the YouTube identifier from a URL or organic result), one location field, one language field.
  • Comments: depth (default 20, max 200).
  • Subtitles: subtitles_language (original-text language) and subtitles_translate_language (target for translation, 150+ supported).

Response / what you get back

  • youtube_video: video_id, title, url, channel_name, views_count, duration_time_seconds, publication_date, is_live, is_shorts.
  • youtube_channel: channel_id, name, url, video_count, is_verified, description.
  • Video Info item: views_count, likes_count, comments_count, channel_subscribers_count (displayed_count and count), keywords, category, streaming_quality[] (label, width, height, bitrate, fps, mime_type), subtitles[]. Cost is about $0.006 per request.
  • youtube_comment: author_name, author_url, text, publication_date, likes_count, reply_count.
  • youtube_subtitles: text, start_time, end_time, duration_time.

Cost & method notes

  • All four endpoints offer Standard (POST then Task GET Advanced) and Live Advanced; Advanced is the only result format. See cap-task-vs-live-execution.
  • Charged per request; Video Info is roughly $0.006 per call. See cap-queue-priority-cost-model.
  • Video Info, Comments, and Subtitles run on desktop only and accept one task per call.

When to use / how it fits

Gotchas / limits

  • Organic results are counted in blocks, not flat results; block_depth controls volume.
  • video_id is mandatory for Info, Comments, and Subtitles, and those run desktop-only.
  • 2000 calls/min; one task per Info/Subtitles call. See cap-rate-limits-throughput.
  • Subtitle translation depends on the original transcript being available; auto-captions vary by video.
  • views_count, likes_count, and channel_subscribers_count are point-in-time captures at request time, not a time series, so trend tracking requires repeated calls and your own storage.
  • is_shorts on organic items distinguishes Shorts from standard videos, which matters when analyzing a channel’s format mix.

Sources

Graph View

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