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YouTube is a beast. It handles both traditional long-form videos and Shorts (vertical video). The API is powerful but comes with legal requirements you can’t ignore.

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Supported Content Types

  • Videos: Long-form content. 1 video, up to 4 hours. Max 256 GB (not a typo).
  • Shorts: Vertical/square video, max 3 minutes. YouTube auto-detects based on duration and aspect ratio.

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Quirks & Gotchas

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”Made for Kids” (COPPA)

This is not just a quirk, it’s a legal requirement.
  • You must flag content as madeForKids: true if it targets children.
  • Failure to do so can result in penalties - real ones, from the FTC.
  • We expose this field in the data.YOUTUBE object. Use it. Don’t skip it. Don’t “figure it out later”.

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Shorts Detection

There is no special “upload as Short” button. YouTube decides for you based on the file:
  • Duration: Under 3 minutes (180 seconds).
  • Aspect Ratio: Vertical (9:16) or Square (1:1). Technically 1:3 to 1:1.
If your video meets these criteria, it becomes a Short. If it doesn’t, it’s a regular video.

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YouTube Title is Required

Unlike most platforms where you just need text, YouTube requires a title (data.YOUTUBE.title). If you forget it, the post will fail.

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Media Limits

See Platform Limits for the full breakdown.

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Analytics

For general analytics concepts (refresh rates, data retention, what “Returns 0” means), see the Analytics Overview. YouTube analytics are all Lifetime values. There is no rolling window - everything is cumulative from day one.

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Profile (Channel) Analytics

Period: Lifetime.
MetricDescriptionNote
impressionsTotal channel views
impressionsUnique-Same as impressions (YouTube doesn’t distinguish)
viewsTotal channel viewsSame as impressions
viewsUnique-Same as views
likes-Returns 0 (not available at channel level)
commentsTotal commentsAcross all videos
postCountTotal videos
followersSubscribers
following-Returns 0 (not applicable to channels)

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Post (Video) Analytics

Period: Lifetime.
MetricDescriptionNote
impressionsVideo views
impressionsUnique-Same as impressions (YouTube doesn’t distinguish)
viewsVideo viewsSame as impressions
viewsUnique-Same as views
likesLikes
dislikesDislikesAvailable via API even though YouTube hides them on the UI
commentsComments
shares-Returns 0 (not provided by YouTube API)
savesFavorites

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Quirks

  • YouTube doesn’t distinguish between impressions and unique impressions at any level.
  • Dislikes are available through the API (though YouTube no longer shows dislike counts publicly). Handy if you want to know the truth.
  • Channel-level likes are not available. Post shares are not available. YouTube gives us a lot, but not everything.

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Raw Analytics - Demographics & Audience Data

YouTube raw analytics include demographics data when enabled for your organization. We query the YouTube Analytics API for each video and return age/gender breakdowns and country-level view counts.

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Video-Level Raw Data

{
  "video": {
    "id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "snippet": {
      "title": "My Video",
      "publishedAt": "2026-01-15T10:00:00Z"
    },
    "statistics": {
      "viewCount": "125000",
      "likeCount": "8900",
      "commentCount": "342"
    }
  },
  "demographics": {
    "ageGender": {
      "columnHeaders": [
        { "name": "ageGroup", "columnType": "DIMENSION" },
        { "name": "gender", "columnType": "DIMENSION" },
        { "name": "viewerPercentage", "columnType": "METRIC" }
      ],
      "rows": [
        ["age18-24", "female", 12.3],
        ["age18-24", "male", 18.7],
        ["age25-34", "female", 14.1],
        ["age25-34", "male", 22.4],
        ["age35-44", "female", 8.2],
        ["age35-44", "male", 11.5]
      ]
    },
    "country": {
      "columnHeaders": [
        { "name": "country", "columnType": "DIMENSION" },
        { "name": "views", "columnType": "METRIC" }
      ],
      "rows": [
        ["US", 45200],
        ["GB", 12800],
        ["DE", 8900],
        ["BR", 7200]
      ]
    }
  }
}
Empty demographics data is normal. YouTube has undocumented thresholds for when demographics become available. Unlike Instagram (~1,000 followers), nobody knows YouTube’s minimum. If demographics comes back empty or null for your videos, it likely means the account or video hasn’t hit the threshold yet. If you do see data, let us know your account stats - we’re trying to figure out the threshold too.
Raw YouTube data includes viewer percentage by age group and gender and views by country (sorted by view count, descending). This is useful for audience analysis and content strategy - especially if you’re targeting specific demographics or regions.