Get search suggestions

Try in Playground

Return the live suggestions YouTube shows while typing a query: each suggestion's text and whether it is a plain query or a channel; channel suggestions carry the channel ID, handle, name and thumbnail.

GET/v1/youtube/search/typeaheadx-api-key

Headers

Get your API key

x-api-keystringrequiredheader

Your ScrapeAtlas customer key. Create one on /account/ and set SCRAPEATLAS_API_KEY.

Query parameters

querystringrequiredquery

Partial or complete search text (1–200 characters). Response: The query echoed back.

min 1 chars · max 200 chars

Exampleexample ch

Response fields

requestIdstring

Operation identifier for correlation.

Upstream HTTP attempts, decoded bytes and duration.

accounting.upstreamRequestsinteger

Always included.

≥ 0

accounting.responseBytesinteger

Always included.

≥ 0

accounting.durationMsnumber

Always included.

≥ 0

successboolean

True when usable data was returned; inspect status and coverage.

statusenum

success, partial (coverage.warnings names the omission), failed or challenged.

one of: success, partial

querystring

Partial or complete search text (1–200 characters). Response: The query echoed back.

Up to 20 suggestions in YouTube's order: text, type (query or channel) and, for channels, channel {id, handle (with @), name, thumbnailUrl}.

up to 20 items

suggestions.textstring

Always included.

suggestions.typeenum

Always included.

one of: query, channel

Optional.

suggestions.channel.idstringnullable

Always included.

suggestions.channel.handlestringnullable

Always included.

suggestions.channel.namestringnullable

Always included.

suggestions.channel.thumbnailUrlstringnullable

Always included.

sourceUrlstring

Public YouTube URL the operation represents (page or API route).

absolute HTTPS URL

fetchedAtstring

UTC retrieval timestamp.

source is public_api (the public suggest origin); no warnings are defined.

coverage.sourceenum

Always included.

one of: public_page, public_api

coverage.completeboolean

Always included.

coverage.warningsenum[]

Always included.

up to 8 items

HTTP 200 returns the success variant. Check status: partial means usable data with warnings, and failed or challenged requests carry a failure object described in Errors & responses.

Error codes

HTTP	failure.code	Meaning
400	`invalid_request`	Missing, malformed, duplicate or conflicting parameters, unsupported parameters or an unsafe URL.
400	`invalid_continuation`	YouTube rejected the supplied continuation token.
401	`unauthorized`	Missing or invalid worker API key.
403	`restricted_page`	The channel, video, playlist or post is terminated, private, members-only or otherwise unavailable.
403	`age_restricted`	The video is age restricted and cannot be read logged out.
404	`not_found`	YouTube reports no channel, video, playlist or post for the identifier.
429	`upstream_rate_limited`	YouTube rate limited the request; no automatic retry.
502	`upstream_challenged`	YouTube rejected or challenged the request.
502	`unsupported_page`	The response lacks the embedded data, the data is malformed, or the resolved identity does not match the request.
502	`response_too_large` `payload_too_complex`	The response exceeded byte, depth or node limits.
502	`unsafe_redirect` `request_limit` `upstream_error`	The bounded request could not complete.
503	`busy`	All worker slots are in use.
504	`timeout`	The total retrieval deadline expired.

Code example

curl "https://api.scrapeatlas.com/v1/youtube/search/typeahead?query=example+ch" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

const response = await fetch(
  "https://api.scrapeatlas.com/v1/youtube/search/typeahead?query=example+ch",
  {
    headers: {
      "x-api-key": "YOUR_API_KEY"
    }
  }
);

const data = await response.json();
console.log(data.status, data);

type Result = {
  status: "success" | "partial" | "failed" | "challenged";
  requestId: string;
  [field: string]: unknown;
};

const response = await fetch(
  "https://api.scrapeatlas.com/v1/youtube/search/typeahead?query=example+ch",
  {
    headers: {
      "x-api-key": process.env.SCRAPEATLAS_API_KEY!
    }
  }
);

const data = (await response.json()) as Result;
if (data.status === "failed" || data.status === "challenged") {
  throw new Error(`YouTube request failed: ${data.requestId}`);
}
console.log(data);

import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://api.scrapeatlas.com/v1/youtube/search/typeahead",
    headers={"x-api-key": "YOUR_API_KEY"},
    params={
        "query": "example ch"
    },
    timeout=60,
)
data = response.json()
print(data["status"], data)

package main

import (
	"encoding/json"
	"fmt"
	"net/http"
)

func main() {
	req, _ := http.NewRequest("GET", "https://api.scrapeatlas.com/v1/youtube/search/typeahead?query=example+ch", nil)
	req.Header.Set("x-api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY")
	resp, err := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer resp.Body.Close()

	var data map[string]interface{}
	json.NewDecoder(resp.Body).Decode(&data)
	fmt.Println(data["status"], data)
}

import java.net.URI;
import java.net.http.HttpClient;
import java.net.http.HttpRequest;
import java.net.http.HttpResponse;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        var client = HttpClient.newHttpClient();
        var request = HttpRequest.newBuilder()
            .uri(URI.create("https://api.scrapeatlas.com/v1/youtube/search/typeahead?query=example+ch"))
            .GET()
            .header("x-api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY")
            .build();
        var response = client.send(request, HttpResponse.BodyHandlers.ofString());
        System.out.println(response.body());
    }
}

Use your sa_live_… customer key at https://api.scrapeatlas.com.

Responses

Successful result. Synthetic example validated against the runtime contract.

{
  "success": true,
  "status": "success",
  "requestId": "00000000-0000-4000-8000-000000000020",
  "query": "example ch",
  "suggestions": [
    {
      "text": "example channel",
      "type": "channel",
      "channel": {
        "id": "UCsynthetic0000000000001",
        "handle": "@ExampleChannel",
        "name": "Example Channel",
        "thumbnailUrl": "https://yt3.example.test/avatar=s88-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj"
      }
    },
    {
      "text": "example channel intro",
      "type": "query"
    }
  ],
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=example+ch",
  "fetchedAt": "2026-09-12T12:00:00.000Z",
  "coverage": {
    "source": "public_api",
    "complete": true,
    "warnings": []
  },
  "accounting": {
    "upstreamRequests": 1,
    "responseBytes": 900,
    "durationMs": 300
  }
}

Missing, malformed, duplicate or conflicting parameters, unsupported parameters or an unsafe URL. YouTube rejected the supplied continuation token.

{
  "requestId": "9d2f1c0a-6b1e-4c7d-9a8e-2f3b4c5d6e7f",
  "accounting": {
    "upstreamRequests": 0,
    "responseBytes": 0,
    "durationMs": 0
  },
  "success": false,
  "status": "failed",
  "failure": {
    "code": "invalid_request",
    "message": "Invalid request: missing, duplicate, unsupported or malformed parameters."
  }
}