YouTube Trending Shorts API

What is the YouTube Trending Shorts API?

Served from YouTube's reel_watch_sequence (Shorts recommendation feed — same surface ScrapeCreators uses for /v1/youtube/shorts/trending). This is not a global trending ranking: results are session-dependent, may include older or re-uploaded Shorts, and can vary between calls. Trending returns a fixed window up to limit — there is no hasMore/nextCursor (unlike channel-videos / channel-shorts / search). Response source is always reel_watch_sequence on the native path. Each row is player-enriched with nested channel{id,url,title,handle} (https + percent-decoded @handle), exact viewCount + viewCountText + viewCountIsApproximate, durationSeconds + durationFormatted, publishedAt/genre when microformat exposes them, and commentCount with commentCountIsApproximate. Flat aliases (channelId/channelUrl/viewCountInt/…) and empty badges/channel.thumbnail are omitted. Optional q seeds the sequence from a topic Short only — values like trending/shorts are ignored (not echoed as query). Flat 2 credits.

What you get

• reel_watch_sequence feed — not a keyword search for "trending"
• Fixed window per call — no cursor / hasMore
• Nested channel{} with https + decoded @handle
• Exact views + commentCountIsApproximate; no dead empty fields
• Flat 2 credits

Platform limits

Honest ceilings from the upstream platform surface — not Captapi bugs. Unexpected truncation here is usually the platform, not us.

• Returns a single window; use limit to size it. No cursor.
• Not a global trending chart — recommendation sequence varies between calls.
• Older Shorts and re-uploads can appear; filter by publishedAt client-side if you need freshness.

Fill in the parameters below and copy a ready-to-run request, or open the live Playground to run it against your account (no API key paste).

curl "https://api.captapi.com/v1/youtube/trending-shorts?q=trending" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer capt_live_..."
# or: -H "x-api-key: capt_live_..."

Example response

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "platform": "youtube",
    "query": "trending",
    "totalReturned": 5,
    "shorts": [
      {
        "url": "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ggMTGsuaooU",
        "title": "GO CRAZY! 👀 2026 Group Dance Trend #Shorts #Dance #Squad #Trending #fypシ Kaido Gia Chowbaby & more",
        "viewCount": 121000
      },
      {
        "url": "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/O07T9_5VIRI",
        "title": "who remembers this trend?😳 #trending #viral #tiktok #funny",
        "viewCount": 23000000
      }
    ]
  }
}

Billing metadata is returned in response headers: X-Captapi-Credits (credits charged), X-Captapi-Cache (hit or miss), and X-Captapi-Source. Failed requests (4xx/5xx) are never charged. See the full list of error codes in the error reference.

Response structure

A successful call returns success, cached, creditsUsed, and a data object with the following fields:

Parameters

Authentication: send your key as Authorization: Bearer capt_live_.... A typical call costs 2 credits. Pass cache=true for a free 24h cache hit; default is always fresh.

How it works

1. 1. Sign up — get 100 free credits, no card required.
2. 2. Create a key from your dashboard.
3. 3. Send one request to /v1/youtube/trending-shorts and parse the JSON response.

Use cases

Frequently asked questions

More YouTube APIs