# ScrapingBee YouTube Metadata API

> Retrieve metadata for one YouTube video.

## Endpoint and authentication

- Endpoint: `https://app.scrapingbee.com/api/v1/youtube/metadata`
- Required input: `video_id`.
- Authentication: `Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY`.
- The `api_key` query parameter remains supported for backward compatibility but is deprecated for new integrations.
- Cost: 5 credits per request.

## Response

- `video_id` is the YouTube identifier in a watch URL, for example `https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfscVS0vtbw`.
- `tag` is optional, is returned in response headers, and does not change scraping behavior.
- The response includes title, description, view, like, and comment counts, duration, upload date, channel and uploader data, tags, thumbnails, formats, categories, age limit, and live state.
- Each format can include codecs, extension, format ID/note, FPS, resolution, and a media URL. Do not assume a format has a usable URL: the documented response includes a format with `url: null`.
- The source does not document per-request retry behavior for this endpoint. Use client retries only with an idempotent retry policy.