YouTube

Overview

Upload videos and Shorts to YouTube with full metadata control — titles, descriptions, tags, privacy settings, and categories. PostPeer handles YouTube's chunked upload process and OAuth.

Quick Start

1. Connect a YouTube Account

curl https://api.postpeer.dev/v1/connect/youtube \
  -H "x-access-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

Returns a Google OAuth URL. The user authorizes video upload permissions. See Connect Accounts for the full OAuth flow.

2. Get the Account ID

curl https://api.postpeer.dev/v1/connect/integrations \
  -H "x-access-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

Find the integration with "platform": "youtube" and note the id.

3. Upload a Video

curl -X POST "https://api.postpeer.dev/v1/posts" \
  -H "x-access-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "content": "How to build a social media scheduler",
    "platforms": [
      {
        "platform": "youtube",
        "accountId": "yt_789",
        "platformSpecificData": {
          "title": "How to Build a Social Media Scheduler",
          "visibility": "public",
          "tags": ["tutorial", "api", "social media"]
        }
      }
    ],
    "mediaItems": [
      { "type": "video", "url": "https://cdn.example.com/video.mp4" }
    ],
    "publishNow": true
  }'

import PostPeer from '@postpeer/node';

const client = new PostPeer();
const { data } = await client.posts.create({
	body: {
		content: 'How to build a social media scheduler',
		platforms: [
			{
				platform: 'youtube',
				accountId: 'yt_789',
				platformSpecificData: {
					title: 'How to Build a Social Media Scheduler',
					visibility: 'public',
					tags: ['tutorial', 'api', 'social media'],
				},
			},
		],
		mediaItems: [{ type: 'video', url: 'https://cdn.example.com/video.mp4' }],
		publishNow: true,
	},
});

from postpeer import PostPeer

with PostPeer() as client:
    post = client.posts.create(
        content="How to build a social media scheduler",
        platforms=[
            {
                "platform": "youtube",
                "accountId": "yt_789",
                "platformSpecificData": {
                    "title": "How to Build a Social Media Scheduler",
                    "visibility": "public",
                    "tags": ["tutorial", "api", "social media"],
                },
            },
        ],
        media_items=[
            {"type": "video", "url": "https://cdn.example.com/video.mp4"},
        ],
        publish_now=True,
    )

Response:

{
	"success": true,
	"status": "published",
	"postId": "post_ghi789",
	"platforms": [
		{
			"platform": "youtube",
			"success": true,
			"platformPostUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
		}
	]
}

Platform-Specific Data

Pass this object in platformSpecificData when posting to YouTube.

Field	Type	Required	Values and constraints	Description
`title`	string	No	Length: 0–100	Video title (max 100 chars, no < or >). Defaults to first 100 chars of content, or "Untitled Video".
`tags`	string[]	No	—	Video tags. Total characters across all tags must be ≤500.
`visibility`	string	No	`public`, `private`, `unlisted`	Who can see the video. Defaults to "public". Scheduled posts upload as private and flip to this value at publish time.
`madeForKids`	boolean	No	—	COPPA compliance flag. Setting to true permanently disables comments, notification bell, personalized ads, end screens, and cards on the video. Defaults to false.
`containsSyntheticMedia`	boolean	No	—	AI-generated content disclosure. YouTube is increasingly enforcing this requirement. Defaults to false.
`categoryId`	string	No	—	YouTube category ID. Defaults to "22" (People & Blogs). Common values: "1" Film & Animation, "10" Music, "20" Gaming, "22" People & Blogs, "27" Education, "28" Science & Technology.
`firstComment`	string	No	Length: 0–10000	Auto-posted comment after the video goes live. Max 10,000 characters. For publishNow posts: posted immediately after upload. For scheduled posts: posted when the video becomes public.

Shorts

Upload square or vertical videos up to 3 minutes long, and YouTube will categorize them as Shorts:

curl -X POST "https://api.postpeer.dev/v1/posts" \
  -H "x-access-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "content": "Quick API tip! #shorts",
    "platforms": [
      {
        "platform": "youtube",
        "accountId": "yt_789",
        "platformSpecificData": {
          "title": "Quick API Tip",
          "visibility": "public"
        }
      }
    ],
    "mediaItems": [
      { "type": "video", "url": "https://cdn.example.com/short.mp4" }
    ],
    "publishNow": true
  }'

Supported Formats

Type	Formats	Maximum size	Maximum duration
Video	MP4 recommended; MOV, MPEG, AVI, WMV, FLV, WebM, 3GPP, ProRes, and HEVC supported	256 GB	15 minutes by default; 12 hours for verified accounts
Shorts	Same formats as standard video	256 GB	3 minutes
Thumbnail	JPG or PNG	2 MB	—

Pass a thumbnail URL in mediaItems with "thumbnail" field to set a custom thumbnail.

Recommended encoding

Specification	YouTube recommendation
Container	MP4 with no edit lists and the `moov` atom at the front
Video	H.264 High Profile, progressive scan, 4:2:0 chroma subsampling
Audio	AAC-LC, 48 kHz
Frame rate	Keep the source frame rate; 24, 25, 30, 48, 50, and 60 FPS are common
Aspect ratio	16:9 for standard video; square or vertical for Shorts

See YouTube's official supported formats, recommended encoding settings, upload limits, and Shorts requirements.

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