YTube-NoAPI

A YouTube client using ONLY YouTube's internal InnerTube API - NO Google API key or project required!

🎉 Key Highlights

• ✅ NO API Key Required - Works immediately, no setup needed
• ✅ NO Google Cloud Project - No quotas, no billing, no limits
• ✅ NO Authentication - Just install and use
• ✅ Full TypeScript Support - Complete type definitions
• ✅ Same Interface - Drop-in replacement for API-based clients

Features

• Search - Search for videos, channels, and playlists
• Video Details - Get comprehensive video information including statistics
• Trending Videos - Access trending content
• Playlists - Fetch playlist details and videos
• Related Videos - Get related/recommended videos
• Channel Information - Get channel details
• Search Suggestions - Autocomplete functionality
• URL Parsing - Extract video/playlist IDs from URLs
• Duration Utilities - Parse and format video durations

Installation

pnpm install

Usage

Basic Example

import { YTubeNoAPI } from './src/index';

const youtube = new YTubeNoAPI();

// Search for videos - NO API KEY NEEDED!
const videos = await youtube.searchVideos('typescript tutorial', 10);

// Get video details
const video = await youtube.getVideo('dQw4w9WgXcQ');

// Get trending videos
const trending = await youtube.getTrending();

// Get search suggestions
const suggestions = await youtube.getSuggestions('javascript');

API Methods

Search

// Search for videos
const videos = await youtube.searchVideos('query', maxResults);

// Search for channels
const channels = await youtube.searchChannels('query', maxResults);

// Search for playlists
const playlists = await youtube.searchPlaylists('query', maxResults);

// General search (returns all types)
const results = await youtube.search('query', {
  type: 'all' // 'video', 'channel', 'playlist', or 'all'
});

Video Details

// Get single video
const video = await youtube.getVideo('videoId');

// Get multiple videos
const videos = await youtube.getVideos(['id1', 'id2', 'id3']);

// Get related videos
const related = await youtube.getRelatedVideos('videoId', 10);

Channels

// Get channel by ID
const channel = await youtube.getChannel('channelId');

Playlists

// Get playlist details
const playlist = await youtube.getPlaylist('playlistId');

// Get videos in playlist
const videos = await youtube.getPlaylistVideos('playlistId', 50);

Trending

// Get trending videos
const trending = await youtube.getTrending();

Utilities

// Get search suggestions (autocomplete)
const suggestions = await youtube.getSuggestions('query');

// Parse duration from ISO 8601 to seconds
const seconds = youtube.parseDuration('PT1H30M15S'); // 5415

// Format seconds to human readable
const formatted = youtube.formatDuration(5415); // "1:30:15"

// Extract video ID from URL
const videoId = youtube.extractVideoId('https://youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ');

// Extract playlist ID from URL
const playlistId = youtube.extractPlaylistId('https://youtube.com/playlist?list=...');

// Generate URLs
const videoUrl = youtube.getVideoUrl('videoId');
const playlistUrl = youtube.getPlaylistUrl('playlistId');
const channelUrl = youtube.getChannelUrl('channelId');

Running Examples

# Run the demo (works immediately!)
pnpm demo

# Run examples
pnpm example

# Build TypeScript
pnpm build

Example Output

=== YTube-NoAPI Demo - NO API Key Required! ===

✅ YTubeNoAPI initialized successfully - NO Google API key needed!

1. Searching for videos: "typescript tutorial"...
   Found 5 videos:

   1. TypeScript Tutorial for Beginners
      Channel: Programming with Mosh
      Views: 2.1M views
      Duration: 51:45
      URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...

...

✅ Demo completed successfully!

🎉 All features work WITHOUT any Google API key or project!
📦 ytube-noapi uses only YouTube's internal InnerTube API

Comparison

| Feature | ytube-noapi | ytube-api | youtube-sr | |---------|-------------|-----------|------------| | API Key Required | ❌ NO | ✅ Yes | ❌ NO | | Google Project | ❌ NO | ✅ Yes | ❌ NO | | Rate Limits | ❌ NO | ✅ Yes (10k/day) | ❌ NO | | Search | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | Video Details | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | Trending | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | Playlists | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | Channels | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | Related Videos | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | TypeScript | ✅ Full | ✅ Full | ⚠️ Basic | | Data Quality | ✅ High | ✅ Very High | ✅ High |

How It Works

YTube-NoAPI uses YouTube's internal InnerTube API - the same API that YouTube's web and mobile clients use. This means:

• ✅ No authentication required
• ✅ No API keys or tokens
• ✅ No rate limits or quotas
• ✅ Always up-to-date with YouTube's interface
• ✅ Access to the same data YouTube's own clients see

Advantages Over API-Based Solutions

1. Zero Setup - No Google Cloud Console, no API keys, just install and use
2. No Quotas - YouTube Data API v3 has 10,000 units/day limit. InnerTube has none.
3. No Costs - Never worry about quota overages or billing
4. Always Works - No "API not enabled" or "quota exceeded" errors
5. Real-Time Data - Same data YouTube's own interface displays

When to Use ytube-noapi vs ytube-api

Use ytube-noapi when:

• You want zero setup/configuration
• You don't want to deal with API keys
• You need unlimited requests
• You're building a hobby project or prototype
• You want to avoid Google Cloud Console setup

Use ytube-api when:

• You need official Google support
• You want guaranteed API stability
• You're building enterprise applications
• You need features like comments (not in InnerTube)
• You prefer official APIs over internal ones

TypeScript Support

Full type definitions included:

import type { SearchOptions } from './src/types';

const options: SearchOptions = {
  type: 'video',
  maxResults: 10,
};

const videos = await youtube.search('query', options);

Response Format

All methods return clean, parsed data:

{
  type: 'video',
  id: 'dQw4w9WgXcQ',
  title: 'Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up',
  duration: '3:33',
  thumbnail: 'https://...',
  channelId: 'UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw',
  channelName: 'Rick Astley',
  views: '1.4B views',
  publishedTime: '15 years ago',
  url: 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ'
}

Error Handling

try {
  const video = await youtube.getVideo('videoId');
  if (!video) {
    console.log('Video not found or unavailable');
  }
} catch (error) {
  console.error('Error:', error.message);
}

Limitations

Since this uses InnerTube (not the official API), some features are not available:

• ❌ Comments (use ytube-api for this)
• ❌ Video categories
• ❌ Channel by username (only by ID)
• ❌ Advanced filtering options

For these features, check out ytube-api which combines official API with InnerTube.

License

MIT