LurkAPI
Docs · Channel videos

Channel videos

A channel's videos, newest or most popular first, with views, length and upload time.

1 credit per callFresh within 1 hourMCP tool: youtube_channel_videos
GEThttps://api.lurkapi.com/v1/youtube/channel-videos

Example response

When to use this

Use it to see what a creator publishes and what performs: about 30 videos per page from the channel's Videos tab, newest first, or most viewed first with sort=popular. Shorts are on their own tab (channel Shorts).

Views are rounded as the channel page shows them (82M views). For exact views, likes, comments and the full description, pass a video's url to the video endpoint.

Pagination. Pass the response's continuationToken back as continuationToken for the next page; it's null on the last page.

Unknown channels return 404 not_found; a channel without a Videos tab returns an empty list.

Example request

Copy one and replace YOUR_API_KEY with your API key (get one free). The code versions read the key from the LURKAPI_API_KEY environment variable instead.

Language

Parameters

Add them to the URL after a ?, as in ?handle=MrBeast. Join several with &.

ParameterDescription
channelId
stringoptional
Channel id, e.g. UCX6OQ3DkcsbYNE6H8uQQuVA. Pass this or handle.
handle
stringoptional
Channel handle, with or without the @, e.g. MrBeast. Pass this or channelId.
Example
MrBeast
sort
stringoptional
Order: latest (newest first), popular (most viewed) or oldest.
One of
latestpopularoldest
Default
latest
continuationToken
stringoptional
The continuationToken from the previous response, for the next page. The channel can be left out then.

Example response

A real response, captured from the live API. Lists are trimmed to a couple of items, and long text such as media links is cut short with ….

Show the example response (2 KB)
{
  "success": true,
  "credits_remaining": 999994,
  "credits_charged": 1,
  "videos": [
    {
      "type": "video",
      "id": "v9QtM6qnG50",
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9QtM6qnG50",
      "title": "I Built A City To Save Kids From Illegal Labor",
      "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/v9QtM6qnG50/hq720_custom_2.jpg?sqp=COi59NUG-oaymw…",
      "viewCountText": "82M views",
      "viewCountInt": 82000000,
      "publishedTimeText": "10 days ago",
      "publishedTime": "2026-09-20T14:32:03.216Z",
      "lengthText": "19:03",
      "lengthSeconds": 1143,
      "badges": []
    },
    {
      "type": "video",
      "id": "gTKS8SAwUzE",
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTKS8SAwUzE",
      "title": "I Survived The Most Extreme Places On Earth",
      "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/gTKS8SAwUzE/hq720.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEcCNAFEJQDSFXyq4q…",
      "viewCountText": "117M views",
      "viewCountInt": 117000000,
      "publishedTimeText": "3 weeks ago",
      "publishedTime": "2026-09-09T14:32:03.216Z",
      "lengthText": "23:28",
      "lengthSeconds": 1408,
      "badges": []
    }
  ],
  "continuationToken": "4qmFsgLdCBIYVUNYNk9RM0RrY3NiWU5FNkg4dVFRdVZBGsAIOGdhbkJocWtCbnFoQmpxZUJn…"
}

Response fields

Every field in a successful response, and what it means. A name with [] belongs to each item of a list: videos[].type is the type of every item in videos. null means there's no value.

Show all 17 fields
FieldTypeDescription
successtrueAlways true here; errors have success: false.
credits_remainingnumberYour balance after this call. On anonymous playground calls: free tries left today.
credits_chargednumberCredits this call cost; 0 on free endpoints. On anonymous playground calls: tries used (1).
videosobject[]One page of videos, in sort order.
videos[].type"video"Always video.
videos[].idstringVideo id, e.g. v9QtM6qnG50.
videos[].urlstringWatch link. Pass it to the video endpoint for likes, comments, the full description and exact views.
videos[].titlestringVideo title. YouTube may translate non-English titles into English; video details has the original.
videos[].thumbnailstringcan be nullLargest thumbnail URL.
videos[].viewCountTextstringcan be nullViews as YouTube shows them, e.g. "82M views", or "1,204 watching" while live.
videos[].viewCountIntnumbercan be nullviewCountText as a number, rounded whenever YouTube abbreviates it (82M views → 82000000). Use video details for exact views.
videos[].publishedTimeTextstringcan be nullWhen it went up, as YouTube shows it, e.g. "10 days ago". null for live and upcoming videos.
videos[].publishedTimestringcan be nullpublishedTimeText as an estimated ISO 8601 time, counted back from when we fetched the page. Only as precise as the text: "1 year ago" means sometime that year.
videos[].lengthTextstringcan be nullLength as shown, e.g. "19:03". null for live and upcoming videos.
videos[].lengthSecondsnumbercan be nullLength in seconds.
videos[].badgesstring[]Labels YouTube shows on the result, e.g. "4K", "CC", "New" or "LIVE". Often empty.
continuationTokenstringcan be nullPass as continuationToken for the next page. null on the last page.

Cost and freshness

Each call costs 1 credit. Calls turned away before they reach the platform (invalid parameters, a key or balance problem, a rate limit) are free, and so are 5xx errors. A not_found is charged, since the platform was checked. How charging works.

Answers are cached for up to 1 hour. A repeat call within that time can return the same data, and costs the same.

Errors

A failed call returns success: false, an error message, a code your program can check, and a docs link. These are the errors this endpoint can return. All error codes.

StatusCodeMeaning
401missing_api_keyNo API key was sent. Put it in the x-api-key header.
401invalid_api_keyThis key doesn't exist or was revoked.
402insufficient_creditsNot enough credits for this call. Buy a pack, or wait for tomorrow's free top-up.
402over_max_creditsThis call would cost more than the max_credits you set. The error says what it needs; raise max_credits to allow it. Not charged.
403account_suspendedThis account is suspended. Email support@lurkapi.com. Not charged.
404not_foundWhat you asked for (a post, an ad, a subreddit) doesn't exist, or there's no endpoint at that path. Charged if the platform was checked.
405method_not_allowedEndpoints only take GET, with parameters in the URL.
429rate_limitedToo many calls in a short time. Wait as many seconds as the retry-after header says, then retry.
500internal_errorSomething broke on our side. Retry. Not charged.
502upstream_errorThe platform didn't send a usable answer. Retry. Not charged.
503upstream_busyAll our connections to the platform are busy. Retry in a few seconds. Not charged.
504upstream_timeoutThe platform took over 30 seconds to answer (90 for web pages). Retry. Not charged.

Use it in Claude

Connect LurkAPI to Claude and ask in plain English. This endpoint is the youtube_channel_videos tool. For example:

Ask Claude
Use LurkAPI's youtube_channel_videos tool with handle "MrBeast", then summarize what you find.

Claude calls youtube_channel_videos with arguments like these, and each call costs 1 credit:

Tool arguments
{"handle": "MrBeast"}

To save tokens, tool results leave out empty fields, keep one URL per image or video, and give transcripts as plain text unless you pass timestamps=true. A result over 45,000 characters comes in parts. Its _note gives the offset for the next part, and later parts are free for 15 minutes. Pass trim=false for the full response.

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