---
title: "YouTube Trending Shorts API"
method: GET
path: "/v1/youtube/trending-shorts"
tags: ["YouTube"]
---

# YouTube Trending Shorts API

`GET /v1/youtube/trending-shorts`

## Request

- Base URL: `https://api.captapi.com`
- URL: `https://api.captapi.com/v1/youtube/trending-shorts`
- Auth: one of:
  - HTTP bearer
  - API key in header `X-API-Key`

YouTube Shorts recommendation sequence — fixed window per call (no cursor), not a global chart.

Served from YouTube's reel_watch_sequence (Shorts recommendation feed). This is not a global trending ranking: results are session-dependent, may include older or re-uploaded Shorts, and can vary between calls. Trending returns a fixed window up to limit — there is no hasMore/nextCursor (unlike channel-videos / channel-shorts / search). Response source is always reel_watch_sequence on the native path. Each row is player-enriched with nested channel{id,url,title,handle} (https + percent-decoded @handle), exact viewCount + viewCountText + viewCountIsApproximate, durationSeconds + durationFormatted, publishedAt/genre when microformat exposes them, and commentCount with commentCountIsApproximate. Flat aliases (channelId/channelUrl/viewCountInt/…) and empty badges/channel.thumbnail are omitted. Optional q seeds the sequence from a topic Short only — values like trending/shorts are ignored (not echoed as query). Flat 2 credits.

Docs: https://captapi.com/apis/youtube-trending-shorts

## Query parameters

- `q` string
- `limit` integer
- `cache` boolean

## Response `200`

Success. The data object for this endpoint.

- object
  - `success` unknown, required
  - `data` object, required
    - `platform` string: Platform identifier for this response (matches the endpoint's platform).
    - `query` string: The search query you sent.
    - `totalReturned` integer: Number of items returned in this response.
    - `shorts` object[]
      - `url` string: Canonical URL of the item.
      - `title` string: Title of this shorts item.
      - `viewCount` integer: View count.

## Other responses

- `400`: Bad request: wrong platform URL, unknown endpoint, or an invalid parameter value. Not billed.
- `401`: Missing, invalid or revoked API key. Not billed.
- `402`: Not enough credits for this request. Not billed.
- `404`: The resource does not exist or is not public. Not billed.
- `422`: A required parameter is missing or has the wrong type. Not billed.
- `429`: Rate limit reached. Wait for Retry-After seconds. Not billed.
- `502`: The platform could not be reached or returned nothing usable. Retryable, not billed. 503 and 504 use the same envelope.

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/captapi/apis/captapi-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/captapi/apis/captapi-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc.dev/captapi/apis/captapi-api/revisions/c9b9ac5ff1bd?raw)