Docs · Video comments

Video comments

A video's comments, top or newest first, with likes, reply counts and who wrote them.

1 credit per callFresh within 10 minutesMCP tool: youtube_comments

GEThttps://api.lurkapi.com/v1/youtube/video/comments

When to use this

Use it for audience research and sentiment: what viewers say, which comments get the most likes, and what the creator pinned or hearted. About 20 comments per page; the first page also has the exact commentCount.

Pagination. Pass the response's continuationToken back as continuationToken (with the same url) for the next page; it's null at the end. YouTube stops at about 1,000 top comments, or a few thousand newest ones.

Replies. Comments with replies have a repliesContinuationToken; pass it to comment replies.

Videos with comments turned off, and unknown videos, return an empty comments list.

Parameters

All parameters go in the query string.

Parameter	Description
`url` stringrequired	The video's URL (watch, youtu.be, /shorts/, /live/ or /embed/ links all work) or its 11-character id, e.g. `https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ`. Example `https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ`
`order` stringoptional	`top` (YouTube's ranking) or `newest` first. One of `topnewest` Default `top`
`continuationToken` stringoptional	The `continuationToken` from the previous response, to get the next page.

Example request

Replace YOUR_API_KEY with your key, or set LURKAPI_KEY for the code. Get a free key.

curlJavaScriptPython

JavaScript · reads your key from LURKAPI_KEY

const params = new URLSearchParams({
  url: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
});
const res = await fetch(`https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/youtube/video/comments?${params}`, {
  headers: { "x-api-key": process.env.LURKAPI_KEY },
});
const data = await res.json();
if (!data.success) throw new Error(`${data.code}: ${data.error}`);
console.log(data.comments);

Python · reads your key from LURKAPI_KEY

import os
import requests

res = requests.get(
    "https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/youtube/video/comments",
    params={
        "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    },
    headers={"x-api-key": os.environ["LURKAPI_KEY"]},
    timeout=60,
)
data = res.json()
if not data["success"]:
    raise RuntimeError(f"{data['code']}: {data['error']}")
print(data["comments"])

Example response

A real response from this endpoint, captured from the live API and trimmed to a couple of items. Strings over 96 characters (mostly signed media URLs) are cut short and end in ….

Show the example response (2 KB)

{
  "success": true,
  "credits_remaining": 999985,
  "credits_charged": 1,
  "comments": [
    {
      "id": "Ugzge340dBgB75hWBm54AaABAg",
      "content": "can confirm: he never gave us up",
      "publishedTimeText": "1 year ago",
      "publishedTime": "2025-09-30T14:33:52.979Z",
      "replyLevel": 0,
      "author": {
        "name": "@YouTube",
        "channelId": "UCBR8-60-B28hp2BmDPdntcQ",
        "isVerified": true,
        "isCreator": false,
        "avatarUrl": "https://yt3.ggpht.com/3s6evpqAiDU9tQR4sC2siJippbH2RWVPnwHgyl4V0th2iuQz0V…",
        "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@YouTube"
      },
      "engagement": {
        "likes": 321000,
        "replies": 963
      },
      "repliesContinuationToken": "Eg0SC2RRdzR3OVdnWGNRGAYygwEaUBIaVWd6Z2UzNDBkQmdCNzVoV0JtNTRBYUFCQWciAggA…",
      "isPinned": true,
      "isHearted": true
    },
    {
      "id": "UgyEnXfdC-umwvTt8JF4AaABAg",
      "content": "Gonna flag this for nudity so I can rick roll the YouTube staff",
      "publishedTimeText": "6 years ago",
      "publishedTime": "2020-10-01T14:33:52.979Z",
      "replyLevel": 0,
      "author": {
        "name": "@Oatman69",
        "channelId": "UCWf34D_s8K_m2vwBISIDWtg",
        "isVerified": false,
        "isCreator": false,
        "avatarUrl": "https://yt3.ggpht.com/ghenbV7T5VMOA3iqp3PThC82exqcu7iVng_iWNx1Ujak72Ti4o…",
        "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@Oatman69"
      },
      "engagement": {
        "likes": 567000,
        "replies": 707
      },
      "repliesContinuationToken": "Eg0SC2RRdzR3OVdnWGNRGAYygwEaUBIaVWd5RW5YZmRDLXVtd3ZUdDhKRjRBYUFCQWciAggA…",
      "isPinned": false,
      "isHearted": false
    }
  ],
  "continuationToken": "Eg0SC2RRdzR3OVdnWGNRGAYyggMK2AJnZXRfcmFua2VkX3N0cmVhbXMtLUNxY0JDSUFFRlJl…",
  "commentCount": 2457944
}

Response fields

Every field of a successful response. [] marks a list: a[].b is the b of each item in a. nullable fields can be null; optional fields can be missing.

Show all 24 fields

Field	Type	Description
success	true	Always true here; errors have `success: false`.
credits_remaining	number	Your balance after this call. On anonymous playground calls: free tries left today.
credits_charged	number	Credits this call cost; 0 on free endpoints. On anonymous playground calls: tries used (1).
comments	object[]	One page of comments, in the requested order.
comments[].id	string	Comment id. Replies are `<parent id>.<reply id>`.
comments[].content	string	Comment text.
comments[].publishedTimeText	string	When it was posted, as YouTube shows it, e.g. "3 days ago" or "6 years ago (edited)".
comments[].publishedTime	stringnullable	Approximate post time, ISO 8601, worked out from publishedTimeText: only as precise as that text ("6 years ago" is ±6 months).
comments[].replyLevel	number	0 for a comment, 1 for a reply.
comments[].author	object	Who wrote it.
comments[].author.name	string	Author's handle, e.g. `@YouTube`.
comments[].author.channelId	stringnullable	Author's channel id, `UC…`.
comments[].author.isVerified	boolean	The author has a verified badge.
comments[].author.isCreator	boolean	The author is the video's creator.
comments[].author.avatarUrl	stringnullable	Author's avatar URL.
comments[].author.channelUrl	stringnullable	Author's channel page.
comments[].engagement	object	Likes and replies.
comments[].engagement.likes	number	Likes; YouTube rounds above 1,000 (321K → 321000).
comments[].engagement.replies	number	Number of replies.
comments[].repliesContinuationToken	stringnullable	Pass as `continuationToken` to comment replies to read the replies. null when there are none (and always on replies).
comments[].isPinned	boolean	Pinned by the creator.
comments[].isHearted	boolean	Hearted by the creator.
continuationToken	stringnullable	Pass as `continuationToken` for the next page. null on the last page.
commentCount	numbernullable	Exact number of comments on the video (replies included). First page only; null on later pages.

Caching and freshness

Responses are cached for up to 10 minutes, so a repeat call within that window can return the same data. It still costs 1 credit.

Errors

Errors return { success: false, error, code, docs } with the HTTP status below. Validation errors, 401/402/429 rejections and 5xx failures are free; not_found is charged (how charging works). All error codes.

Status	Code	Meaning
401	`missing_api_key`	No API key. Send it in the `x-api-key` header.
401	`invalid_api_key`	The key is unknown or was revoked.
402	`insufficient_credits`	Not enough credits for this call. Buy a pack or wait for tomorrow's top-up.
405	`method_not_allowed`	Endpoints take GET with query params.
429	`rate_limited`	Too many calls at once. Wait for the `retry-after` seconds, then retry.
500	`internal_error`	Something broke on our side. Retry; 5xx errors are free.
502	`upstream_error`	The platform didn't give a usable answer. Retry; 5xx errors are free.
503	`upstream_busy`	All our connections to the platform are busy. Retry in a few seconds; 5xx errors are free.
504	`upstream_timeout`	The platform took over 30 seconds to answer. Retry; timeouts are free.

Use it in Claude

Once LurkAPI is connected to Claude, this endpoint is the youtube_comments tool. Ask in plain English, for example:

Ask Claude

Use LurkAPI's youtube_comments with url "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" and summarize what you find.

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

Tool arguments

{
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
}

Tool results skip nulls and empty lists to save tokens.