Channels: list
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Returns a collection of zero or more channel resources that match the request criteria.
Quota impact: A call to this method has a quota cost of 1 unit.
Common use cases
Request
HTTP request
GET https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/channels
Authorization
A request that retrieves the auditDetails part for a channel resource must provide an authorization token that contains the https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtubepartner-channel-audit scope. In addition, any token that uses that scope must be revoked when the MCN decides to accept or reject the channel or within two weeks of the date that the token was issued.
Parameters
The following table lists the parameters that this query supports. All of the parameters listed are query parameters.
| Parameters |
| Required parameters |
part |
string
The part parameter specifies a comma-separated list of one or more channel resource properties that the API response will include.
If the parameter identifies a property that contains child properties, the child properties will be included in the response. For example, in a channel resource, the contentDetails property contains other properties, such as the uploads properties. As such, if you set part=contentDetails, the API response will also contain all of those nested properties.
The following list contains the part names that you can include in the parameter value:
auditDetailsbrandingSettingscontentDetailscontentOwnerDetailsidlocalizationssnippetstatisticsstatustopicDetails
|
| Filters (specify exactly one of the following parameters) |
categoryId |
string
This parameter has been deprecated.
The categoryId parameter specified a
YouTube guide category and could be used to
request YouTube channels associated with that category. |
forHandle |
string
The forHandle parameter specifies a YouTube handle, thereby requesting
the channel associated with that handle. The parameter value can be prepended with an @
symbol. For example, to retrieve the resource for the "Google for Developers" channel, set the forHandle
parameter value to either GoogleDevelopers or @GoogleDevelopers. |
forUsername |
string
The forUsername parameter specifies a YouTube username, thereby requesting the channel associated with that username. |
id |
string
The id parameter specifies a comma-separated list of the YouTube channel ID(s) for the resource(s) that are being retrieved. In a channel resource, the id property specifies the channel's YouTube channel ID. |
managedByMe |
boolean
This parameter can only be used in a properly authorized request.
Note: This parameter is intended exclusively for YouTube content partners.
Set this parameter's value to true to instruct the API to only return channels managed by the content owner that the onBehalfOfContentOwner parameter specifies. The user must be authenticated as a CMS account linked to the specified content owner and onBehalfOfContentOwner must be provided. |
mine |
boolean
This parameter can only be used in a properly authorized request. Set this parameter's value to true to instruct the API to only return channels owned by the authenticated user. |
| Optional parameters |
hl |
string
The hl parameter instructs the API to retrieve localized resource metadata for a specific application language that the YouTube website supports. The parameter value must be a language code included in the list returned by the i18nLanguages.list method.
If localized resource details are available in that language, the resource's snippet.localized object will contain the localized values. However, if localized details are not available, the snippet.localized object will contain resource details in the resource's default language. |
maxResults |
unsigned integer
The maxResults parameter specifies the maximum number of items that should be returned in the result set. Acceptable values are 0 to 50, inclusive. The default value is 5. |
onBehalfOfContentOwner |
string
This parameter can only be used in a properly authorized request.
Note: This parameter is intended exclusively for YouTube content partners.
The onBehalfOfContentOwner parameter indicates that the request's authorization credentials identify a YouTube CMS user who is acting on behalf of the content owner specified in the parameter value. This parameter is intended for YouTube content partners that own and manage many different YouTube channels. It allows content owners to authenticate once and get access to all their video and channel data, without having to provide authentication credentials for each individual channel. The CMS account that the user authenticates with must be linked to the specified YouTube content owner. |
pageToken |
string
The pageToken parameter identifies a specific page in the result set that should be returned. In an API response, the nextPageToken and prevPageToken properties identify other pages that could be retrieved. |
Request body
Do not provide a request body when calling this method.
Response
If successful, this method returns a response body with the following structure:
{
"kind": "youtube#channelListResponse",
"etag": etag,
"nextPageToken": string,
"prevPageToken": string,
"pageInfo": {
"totalResults": integer,
"resultsPerPage": integer
},
"items": [
channel Resource
]
}
Properties
The following table defines the properties that appear in this resource:
| Properties |
kind |
string
Identifies the API resource's type. The value will be youtube#channelListResponse. |
etag |
etag
The Etag of this resource. |
nextPageToken |
string
The token that can be used as the value of the pageToken parameter to retrieve the next page in the result set. |
prevPageToken |
string
The token that can be used as the value of the pageToken parameter to retrieve
the previous page in the result set. Note that this property is not included in the API
response if the corresponding API request set the
managedByMe parameter to true. |
pageInfo |
object
The pageInfo object encapsulates paging information for the result set. |
pageInfo.totalResults |
integer
The total number of results in the result set. |
pageInfo.resultsPerPage |
integer
The number of results included in the API response. |
items[] |
list
A list of channels that match the request criteria. |
Errors
The following table identifies error messages that the API could return in response to a call to this method. For more details, see YouTube Data API - Errors.
| Error type |
Error detail |
Description |
badRequest (400) |
invalidCriteria |
A maximum of one of the following filters may be specified:id, categoryId, mine, managedByMe, forHandle, forUsername. In case of content owner authentication via the onBehalfOfContentOwner parameter, only the id or managedByMe may be specified. |
forbidden (403) |
channelForbidden |
The channel specified by the id parameter does not support the request or the request is not properly authorized. |
notFound (404) |
categoryNotFound |
The category identified by the categoryId parameter cannot be found. Use the guideCategories.list method to retrieve a list of valid values. |
notFound (404) |
channelNotFound |
The channel specified in the id parameter cannot be found. |
Try it!
Use the APIs Explorer to call this API and see the API request and response.
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Last updated 2026-10-15 UTC.
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