YouTube Shorts API - What Google's Documentation Won't Tell You

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TL;DR

• Shorts Aren’t Special (To the API): There’s no dedicated “Shorts” endpoint. You use the standard video upload API, and YouTube decides if your video qualifies as a Short.
• Processing Delays Are Real: Your upload succeeds, but the video isn’t watchable for minutes. Plan for this in your UX.
• Quota Will Hurt You: The default 10,000 daily quota sounds generous until you realize one upload costs 1,600 units. That’s 6 uploads per day.

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The Shorts That Isn’t

• Vertical or square aspect ratio (9:16 is ideal)
• Duration under 3 minutes (180 seconds)
• That’s essentially it

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The Processing Purgatory

• Transcoding to multiple resolutions
• Generating thumbnails (unless you provided a custom one)
• Running content analysis
• Various other backend operations

const checkProcessingStatus = async (videoId, accessToken) => {
  const response = await fetch(
    `https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/videos?id=${videoId}&part=processingDetails,status`,
    {
      headers: { 'Authorization': `Bearer ${accessToken}` }
    }
  );
  
  const data = await response.json();
  const video = data.items[0];
  
  // processingDetails might not exist yet
  if (!video.processingDetails) {
    return { status: 'processing', progress: 'unknown' };
  }
  
  return {
    status: video.processingDetails.processingStatus,
    progress: video.processingDetails.processingProgress
  };
};

• Show a “processing” state in your UI and poll until the video is ready
• Use push notifications (YouTube does have them, though they’re not well-documented for processing completion)
• Simply inform users that videos take a few minutes to become watchable

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The Quota Nightmare

const QUOTA_COSTS = {
  'videos.insert': 1600,
  'videos.list': 1,
  'channels.list': 1,
  'thumbnails.set': 50
};

class QuotaTracker {
  constructor(dailyLimit = 10000) {
    this.dailyLimit = dailyLimit;
    this.used = 0;
    this.resetTime = this.getNextReset();
  }
  
  getNextReset() {
    // Quota resets at midnight Pacific
    const now = new Date();
    const pacific = new Date(
      now.toLocaleString('en-US', { timeZone: 'America/Los_Angeles' })
    );
    pacific.setHours(24, 0, 0, 0);
    return pacific;
  }
  
  canAfford(operation) {
    if (Date.now() > this.resetTime) {
      this.used = 0;
      this.resetTime = this.getNextReset();
    }
    return (this.used + QUOTA_COSTS[operation]) <= this.dailyLimit;
  }
  
  record(operation) {
    this.used += QUOTA_COSTS[operation];
  }
}

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The Thumbnail Trap

• Thumbnail processing happens separately from video processing. Your video might be ready while the thumbnail is still “pending.” Or the thumbnail upload might fail silently while the video succeeds.
• Your channel needs to be verified (via phone) to upload custom thumbnails at all. If you’re building an application where users connect their own channels, you’ll encounter cases where thumbnail uploads fail because the user’s channel isn’t verified. The error message doesn’t always make this clear.

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The Category Confusion

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The “Is It Actually a Short?” Mystery

1. Do everything right (correct aspect ratio, under 3 minutes)
2. Include #Shorts in the description as insurance
3. Accept that some percentage of uploads might not get Shorts treatment
4. If consistent classification is critical, implement verification checks and retry logic

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The Analytics Mismatch

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The Survival Guide

1. Use the standard video upload flow. Don’t look for Shorts-specific endpoints that don’t exist. Make your video vertical and short, and YouTube will figure it out.
2. Build quota awareness into your architecture from day one. Track usage, implement limits, and apply for quota increases before you need them.
3. Handle processing delays in your UX. Don’t promise instant playback. Show processing states. Poll for completion if you need to display the video immediately.
4. Test with multiple regions and channel configurations. Edge cases involving categories, verification status, and regional restrictions will bite you if you only test with your own developer account.
5. Add #Shorts to descriptions as insurance. It shouldn’t be necessary, but it seems to help with classification reliability.
6. Expect things to change without notice. Google updates the API, changes quota costs, adjusts processing behavior, and modifies Shorts classification logic. Build with resilience in mind.