Do I need a YouTube developer account?

No. There is no YouTube app, OAuth flow or app review. One InsightSocial API key works for this endpoint and every other platform, and your first 10 calls priced at 100 credits or less are free.

What does one call return?

One call returns the profile in the data object of the standard response envelope. Fields the platform did not provide are listed in unavailable, so a null there means unknown, not zero.

What happens if the account is private or nothing is found?

You get an error or an empty result, and it costs 0 credits. The API reads public YouTube data only, so private accounts and deleted content come back as not found rather than as partial data.

Can I call the YouTube Channel About API from Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor?

Yes. Add the hosted MCP server at https://api.insightsocial.app/mcp to your AI app and sign in. The assistant finds this endpoint by name, shows its price and calls it with your credits.

GET /v1/youtube/channel/about

YouTube Channel About API

Q: How much does the YouTube Channel About API cost?

250 credits per successful call. A call that errors or finds nothing costs 0 credits, and an answer from the shared cache costs 2. Pro's 10,000 monthly credits cover about 40 calls at 250 credits each. Add dry_run=1 to see the price of a call without making it.

Returns the address behind a channel's View email address control on author.ext.public_email, its listed country, and the profile: id, handle, name, avatar, bio, URL, subscribers, join date, views.

Get a free API key Full API reference

250 credits a call · single call · failed calls free · 10 free calls to start

curl "https://api.insightsocial.app/v1/youtube/channel/about?handle=mkbhd" \
-H "x-api-key: $INSIGHTSOCIAL_API_KEY"

200 OKJSON

{
"success": true,
"platform": "youtube",
"endpoint": "/v1/youtube/channel/about",
"schema_version": "2",
"data": {
"author": {
"id": "<string>",
"username": "<string | null>",
"display_name": "<string | null>",
"avatar_url": "<string | null>",
"bio": "<string | null>",
"verified": "<boolean | null>",
"followers": "<integer | null>",
"followers_approximate": "<boolean | null>",
"following": "<integer | null>",
"posts_count": "<integer | null>",
"likes_count": "<integer | null>",
"url": "<string | null>",
"location": "<string | null>",
"external_url": "<string | null>",
"private": "<boolean | null>",
"joined_at": "<string | null>",
"last_post_at": "<string | null>",
"ext": "<object | null>"
}
},
"unavailable": [],
"credits_used": "<integer>"
}

When to use it

Use it for outreach when GET /v1/youtube/channel returned no email: that lane reads only the public description, this one reads the About tab control. Premium priced, so shortlist first.

Parameters

Query parameters for GET /v1/youtube/channel/about. Send your key in the x-api-key header.

Name	Required	Description
channelId	One of channelId, handle, url	YouTube channel ID. Can pass a channelId, handle or url.
handle	One of handle, channelId, url	YouTube channel handle without the @ symbol.
url	One of url, channelId, handle	YouTube channel URL. Can pass a channelId, handle or url.
contact_email	No	Optional. When 1, also returns author.ext.contact_email: when the bio lists two or more email addresses, the one the creator gives for contacting them personally, copied verbatim from the bio. Null when there is one address or none, when every address belongs to a manager, agency or brand, or when the choice was not confident. author.ext.public_email is unchanged. No extra credits.

Response fields

The same unified schema every platform returns, so code written for YouTube works on the other eight. A field the platform did not provide is null and listed in unavailable.

Field	Type	Notes
id	string	An identifier, always a string. Never parse it as a number: several platforms use ids above 2^53.
username	string \| null
display_name	string \| null
avatar_url	string \| null
bio	string \| null
verified	boolean \| null
followers	integer \| null	A count. null when the platform does not expose it; 0 only when it is really zero.
followers_approximate	boolean \| null
following	integer \| null	A count. null when the platform does not expose it; 0 only when it is really zero.
posts_count	integer \| null	A count. null when the platform does not expose it; 0 only when it is really zero.
likes_count	integer \| null	A count. null when the platform does not expose it; 0 only when it is really zero.
url	string \| null
location	string \| null
external_url	string \| null
private	boolean \| null
joined_at	string \| null	ISO-8601 timestamp in UTC, ending in Z.
last_post_at	string \| null	ISO-8601 timestamp in UTC, ending in Z.
ext	object \| null	Platform-specific fields, snake_case.

Every field, error and example is in the YouTube Channel About API reference.

How much does the YouTube Channel About API cost?

250 credits per successful call.

Failed calls are free
A call that errors or finds nothing costs 0 credits.
Know the price first
Add dry_run=1 and the response quotes the call without making it. Nothing is charged.
One balance
API calls and Chrome extension exports share the same credits, on the free plan too.

See plans and credit packs How credits work