Getting a YouTube API Key
If you’re using the YouTube Data API to scrape public YouTube data (like comments, video statistics, search results, etc…), then you’ll need a YouTube API Key in order to make API requests and scrape the YouTube content you need.
We’ll walk you through how to create a new YouTube API Key (all you need is a Google Account), how to secure it, and how to access it in the future. Either read the steps below, or watch the above video to get started.
1. Head to the Google Cloud
First, head to the YouTube Data API Credentials Section within the Google developer’s console.
Simply log in with your Google account if prompted, as the YouTube API is part of the overall Google API. If you are brand new to Google Cloud, then don’t worry - you’ll be asked to accept their terms of service in the popup below and you can then get started:
2. Create a Project
The Google Cloud is organized around “projects,” so you’ll need to make a new one in order to get an API Key. Simply click the Create Project button below:
Now pick a name for your new project, here we chose YouTube Data API Scraper:
Once you’re done, you should see something like this with the name of your project in the top blue bar. Make sure the left side says “YouTube Data API” as in the screenshot below. If not, just navigate back to the YouTube Data API Credentials Section and you should see it:
3. Click Create Credentials
We’ll now create an API Key for our new project. Simply click “Create Credentials” and then select API key from the dropdown:
4. Copy Your Key
Now on the next screen, you’ll see your API Key in a popup that you can copy (store this in a safe place like a password manager that only you have access to):
You’ll also see your new API Key generated under the “API Keys” section of the page (if you need to access it later). Click the “copy” icon to the right of the “Key” and you’ll copy the key to your clipboard:
5. Enable the YouTube Data API
One more step before the API Key will actually work - we need to enable the project to use the YouTube Data API! Simply follow this link to Enable the YouTube Data API and you’ll see a screen to Enable to API (just verify the proper project is selected above on the blue bar):
6. Restrict API Key Usage (Optional)
You may have noticed a little warning triangle to the left of the API key name with the following warning:
This means that if anyone else were to obtain your API Key, they could use it to access any enabled service on your Google Cloud project (not just public YouTube data). To fix this, click Edit settings on the popup and we’ll set some “API restrictions” - scroll to that section and click Restrict key:
Now select the YouTube Data API v3 from the dropdown and click Save:
Hooray! The annoying warning triangle went away and we can sleep at night!
Obtain an Existing API Key
If you already created an API Key and need to obtain it, simply head to the YouTube Data API Credentials Section and you should see it under “API Keys” where you can simply copy the value:
If you don’t see the key there, you may need to switch projects to a project that does have an API key. Simply click the “down arrow” next to the current project to select a new project, or create a new project if needed:
Note, that if you don’t use your API key for a while (like 60 days), YouTube may revoke it and you won’t be able to use the API key in that project again - you’ll see a weird error about exceeding your quota. To get around this, simply create a new project and repeat the steps above in part I.
Using Your API Key
Congratulations! Now that you have an API Key, you can use it to scrape public data such as YouTube videos! If you’re accessing the YouTube Data API directly, just provide this value as the key GET parameter in your HTTP requests.
You can also use the Stevesie Data Platform to scrape YouTube data as CSV files. Simply head to the YouTube Search Integration (or any other endpoint) and paste in your API key:
Execute the endpoint and you’ll see up to 50 results that you can now download with your new API key!
You may see an error message that says “If you enabled this API recently, wait a few minutes for the action to propagate to our systems and retry.” - this is normal, simply wait a few more minutes and try again or review the error message for help from Google.