Most of Googles APIs are free to use, but you are given a small quota limit. You can then request additional quota at a later date if you need more. Depending upon how much you ask for you may be charged for the additional quota.

This is not something i have ever heard of with regard to the YouTube api. I suspect your confusion is related to the fact that the YouTube API is cost based. However the cost is not in money the cost is in points against your quota allotment. Say you have 10000 quota points to use for the api, and you make a request against videos.list the cost of this request is 1 quota points. that means you now have 9999 quota points remaining. While video.insert costs 1600.

Its not a cost in money its a cost in quota points. I have a video that may help you understand this a bit better. YouTube API and cost based quota demystified

You may also want to review the Quota cost calculator which will give you an idea of how many points each request costs.

Answer from Linda Lawton - DaImTo on Stack Overflow
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Google
developers.google.com โ€บ youtube โ€บ data api โ€บ quota calculator
Quota Calculator | YouTube Data API | Google for Developers
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-12-04 UTC."],[],["API requests have quota costs, with a minimum of one point per request, even if invalid. Retrieving multiple result pages from methods like `search.list` costs quota for each page. Live Streaming API methods, part of the YouTube Data API, also incur costs.
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Google Groups
groups.google.com โ€บ g โ€บ google-api-objectivec-client โ€บ c โ€บ -xhvHwtI25o
YouTube API v3 - API request quotas, costs, pricing, rates
The docs for the apis and/or the developer console for enabling apis would be where you are more likely to find information about quotas and costs. ... Either email addresses are anonymous for this group or you need the view member email addresses permission to view the original message ... Thanks for the response. Google provides an excellent Youtube quota calculator.
People also ask

What is the YouTube Data API pricing?
The YouTube Data API v3 is free but uses quotas. For example, a search request costs 100 units, while retrieving video details costs 1 unit.
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getphyllo.com
getphyllo.com โ€บ post โ€บ is-the-youtube-api-free-costs-limits-iv
Is the YouTube API Free? Costs, Limits, and What You Actually Get
What is the cost of using the YouTube API?
The YouTube API is free but operates on a quota system. Each request consumes units, with a daily limit of 10,000 units by default.
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getphyllo.com
getphyllo.com โ€บ post โ€บ is-the-youtube-api-free-costs-limits-iv
Is the YouTube API Free? Costs, Limits, and What You Actually Get
Is the YouTube API free for developers?
Yes, the YouTube API is free for all developers, provided they stay within the quota limits.
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getphyllo.com
getphyllo.com โ€บ post โ€บ is-the-youtube-api-free-costs-limits-iv
Is the YouTube API Free? Costs, Limits, and What You Actually Get
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RapidAPI
rapidapi.com โ€บ ytdlfree โ€บ api โ€บ youtube-v31 โ€บ pricing
Youtube v3
Without any api key use YT api v3 functionalities through our api. Just follow the YT api v3 docs and send same parameters to our service, get same response. For custom plan, please contact us. For quick chat: https://t.me/api_chat_support
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Phyllo
getphyllo.com โ€บ post โ€บ is-the-youtube-api-free-costs-limits-iv
Is the YouTube API Free? Costs, Limits, and What You Actually Get
September 7, 2025 - While the YouTube API itself does ... request, the higher the cost. Yes. If your project requires more than the default 10,000 units per day, you can apply ......
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Phyllo
getphyllo.com โ€บ post โ€บ youtube-api-limits-how-to-calculate-api-usage-cost-and-fix-exceeded-api-quota
Youtube API limits : How to calculate API usage cost and fix exceeded API quota | Phyllo
July 26, 2025 - Before delving into the calculation process, let's first understand the basic information about YouTube API quotas. Each Google Cloud project has a default limit of 10,000 "units" per day. It's important to note that the term "cost" refers to API usage limits rather than monetary charges.
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GitHub
github.com โ€บ ThioJoe โ€บ YT-Spammer-Purge โ€บ wiki โ€บ Understanding-YouTube-API-Quota-Limits
Understanding YouTube API Quota Limits
Actually on that form, it does say, "If you are looking for support or quota increments for Reporting and Content ID APIs, please contact your YouTube Partner Manager".
Author ย  ThioJoe
Find elsewhere
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Apidog
apidog.com โ€บ blog โ€บ youtube-api
YouTube Data API Overview | How to Implement it in Your Applications
July 26, 2025 - However, the usage of YouTube Data API is not free. For each Google Cloud project created, you are allocated 10,000 "units" of quota per day.
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ProxiesAPI
proxiesapi.com โ€บ articles โ€บ accessing-youtube-apis-pricing-quotas-and-keys
Accessing YouTube APIs: Pricing, Quotas and Keys | ProxiesAPI
The YouTube API allows free access for non-commercial use, but there are daily request quotas. To increase quotas, register and get an API key. Paid plans are available for larger user bases. Be aware of potential changes and restrictions.
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Reddit
reddit.com โ€บ r/googlecloud โ€บ has anyone increased their youtube data v3 api quota before? what's the highest quota you have been granted?
r/googlecloud on Reddit: Has anyone increased their YouTube Data V3 API quota before? What's the highest quota you have been granted?
March 26, 2024 -

I've currently got 100k quota (received an increase). But I can't really scale it at the moment because costs are high for quota (e.g posting a comment is 50 unitsx20 comments day = 100 users). I'd like to know if anyone has received any quota beyond this, thanks!

https://developers.google.com/youtube/v3/determine_quota_cost

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Getlate
getlate.dev โ€บ blog โ€บ youtube-api-limits-how-to-calculate-api-usage-cost-and-fix-exceeded-api-quota
YouTube API Quota Exceeded? Here's How to Fix It [2025]
September 27, 2025 - This guide compares pricing, features, and performance to help you migrate from the expensive official X API. ... Post everywhere. One API.Try Free ยท If you want to get a handle on the YouTube API, the first thing you need to wrap your head around is its quota system.
Top answer
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23

In addition to the answer by DaImTo I can add that if you don't need all of the YouTube API functionality (e.g. you only need to get video titles and thumbnails or something like that) then you don't need to be worried about the API restrictions at all, and you don't even need to use an API key.

I add this because a lot of people only need to get some basic data and get confused by all of the crazy API limits restrictions that keep changing all the time to make things worse, when you can get the same data without using the YouTube API directly.

You can get oEmbed data from YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/oembed?url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

Or you can access it via Noembed:

https://noembed.com/embed?url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

which (unlike YouTube) also supports JSONP:

https://noembed.com/embed?callback=example&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

so that you can use it on the client-side with no need for server-side proxies.

See also those answers for more info:

  • Youtube Video title with API v3 without API key?
  • Get Youtube information via JSON for single video (not feed) in Javascript
  • Response for JSONp request to youtube oembed call giving "invalid label" error
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The YouTube Data API uses a quota to ensure that developers use the service as intended and do not create applications that unfairly reduce service quality or limit access for others. All API requests, including invalid requests, incur at least a one-point quota cost.

The cost they are referring to is the cost against your quota.

  • 1,000,000 read operations that each retrieve two resource parts.
  • 50,000 write operations and 450,000 additional read operations that each retrieve two resource parts.
  • 2000 video uploads, 7000 write operations, and 200,000 read operations that each retrieve three resource parts.

There are a limited number of requests you are allowed to make against the API each day. This is free for you to use it does not cost you any money to use this. Some of the Google APIs may allow you to extend this quota but will charge you for the extension but this depends upon the API.

Info from the Youtube API Quota documentation

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Elfsight
elfsight.com โ€บ blog โ€บ youtube-data-api-v3-limits-operations-resources-methods-etc
Your Complete Guide to YouTube Data API v3 โ€“ Quotas, Methods, and More
1 month ago - Learn YouTube Data API v3 quota limits, cost structure, HTTP methods, authentication, and optimization techniques. Includes real scenarios and quota increase strategies.
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Reddit
reddit.com โ€บ r/webdev โ€บ i just started playing with youtube api and i"ve already exceeded my limits?!
r/webdev on Reddit: I just started playing with YOUTUBE API and i"ve already exceeded my limits?!
August 4, 2023 -

I've been playing with YT API for a few hours, and mainly practicing searching for videos..

and for each video I'm checking the snippet data (status and stuff)

I left the search params mostly default so I'm getting around 10 results per page only therefore I assume for every time I run my code I hit the API with 11 requests

Again, 1 for listing of videos (search)

$apiUrl = "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/search?part=snippet&maxResults={$maxResults}&q=" . urlencode($searchTerm) . "&key={$apiKey}&isVideoEmbeddable=true";

and 10 for checking each video's status

$apiUrl = "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/videos?part=status&id={$videoId}&key={$apiKey}";

Now I estimate I've run my code definitely less than 100x so I'm baffled why I hit the 10K requests per day limit!

confused

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Google
developers.google.com โ€บ youtube โ€บ data api โ€บ youtube data api overview
YouTube Data API Overview | Google for Developers
The Quota costs for API requests table shows the quota cost of each API method. With these rules in mind, you can estimate the number of requests that your application could send per day without exceeding your quota.
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Practiceprobs
practiceprobs.com โ€บ problemsets โ€บ youtube-data-api
YouTube Data API - Practice Probs
Each call to the YouTube data API incurs a "quota cost" (even if your API call is invalid!). How much quota do I get? 10,000 per day.