In this example we will show how to retrieve videos from a specific category using the YouTube Data API. We will use the GET /search endpoint to search for videos by category. Our example will search for videos in the “Gaming” category. You can find the full list of categories in the Categories page.

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Request examples

In this request we are searching for videos in the Gaming 20 category. We are also setting the maxResults parameter to 1 to get only one video. You can change the videoCategoryId parameter to search for videos in a different category. Setting the type parameter to video required for the request when using videoCategoryId parameter.

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Response example

{
  "regionCode": "US",
  "totalResults": 1000000,
  "resultsPerPage": 1,
  "nextPageToken": "CAEQAA",
  "data": [
    {
      "kind": "youtube#video",
      "videoId": "FHDYk9HqomU",
      "publishedAt": "2014-05-23T13:44:06Z",
      "channelId": "UCKk076mm-7JjLxJcFSXIPJA",
      "title": "Show of the Week: Watch Dogs and the 5 Least Secure Security Systems in Games",
      "description": "Watch Dogs leads Show of the Week, with its smartphone hacking and omnipresent rising bollards, followed by the least secure ...",
      "thumbnails": {
        "default": {
          "url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/FHDYk9HqomU/default.jpg",
          "width": 120,
          "height": 90
        },
        "medium": {
          "url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/FHDYk9HqomU/mqdefault.jpg",
          "width": 320,
          "height": 180
        },
        "high": {
          "url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/FHDYk9HqomU/hqdefault.jpg",
          "width": 480,
          "height": 360
        }
      },
      "channelTitle": "outsidexbox",
      "liveBroadcastContent": "none",
      "publishTime": "2014-05-23T13:44:06Z"
    }
  ]
}

The result is similar to what you would see on the YouTube website when searching for videos. Get more details about this API endpoint in the API Search documentation.

Retrieving popular videosFetching up to 1k videos details per request