YouTube Shorts contains valuable data -- short video results, video ids, view counts, published time, and more. Scraping this data directly means dealing with anti-bot detection, CAPTCHAs, IP rotation, and constantly breaking selectors. The Scavio API handles all of that and returns clean, structured JSON from a single POST request.
This tutorial shows you how to scrape YouTube Shorts using Go and the Scavio API. By the end, you will have a working Go script that fetches real-time YouTube Shorts data and parses the results.
Prerequisites
- Go installed on your machine
- A Scavio API key (free tier includes 50 credits on signup -- no credit card required)
Step 1: Install Dependencies
net/http is built into Go, so there is nothing to install.
# net/http is in Go's standard library - no installation neededStep 2: Make Your First YouTube Shorts Search
Send a POST request to the Scavio YouTube Shorts API endpoint with your query. The API returns structured JSON with short video results, video ids, view counts, and more.
// Shorts search takes search (not query). channel.name is often empty on Shorts rows -
// resolve it with POST /api/v1/youtube/video when you need it.
package main
import (
"bytes"
"encoding/json"
"fmt"
"io"
"net/http"
)
func main() {
apiKey := "sk_live_your_key"
search := "ai coding agent shorts"
body, _ := json.Marshal(map[string]interface{}{
"search": search,
})
req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", "https://api.scavio.dev/api/v1/youtube/shorts", bytes.NewBuffer(body))
req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+apiKey)
req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
resp, err := (&http.Client{}).Do(req)
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
defer resp.Body.Close()
raw, _ := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
var data map[string]interface{}
json.Unmarshal(raw, &data)
formatted, _ := json.MarshalIndent(data, "", " ")
fmt.Println(string(formatted))
}Step 3: Example Response
The API returns structured JSON. Here is an example response for a YouTube Shorts search:
{
"data": {
"results": [
{
"video_id": "_P63NrBN49U",
"title": "My go to Full Body Workout. No equipment. Anywhere",
"url": "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_P63NrBN49U",
"duration_text": null,
"view_count": 64000000,
"published_time": "1 year ago",
"channel": { "id": null, "name": "", "url": null }
}
],
"next_cursor": "GhkKF...",
"has_more": true
},
"response_time": 2290,
"credits_used": 2,
"credits_remaining": 4809
}Every field is structured and typed -- no HTML parsing, no CSS selectors, no regex extraction. Your Go code can access any field directly.
Step 4: Full Working Example
Here is a complete, runnable Go script that searches YouTube Shorts and prints the results:
// Shorts search takes search (not query). channel.name is often empty on Shorts rows -
// resolve it with POST /api/v1/youtube/video when you need it.
package main
import (
"bytes"
"encoding/json"
"fmt"
"io"
"net/http"
"os"
)
const apiURL = "https://api.scavio.dev/api/v1/youtube/shorts"
// SearchYouTubeShorts calls POST /api/v1/youtube/shorts and returns the decoded response.
// Rows come back under data.results.
func SearchYouTubeShorts(search string) (map[string]interface{}, error) {
apiKey := os.Getenv("SCAVIO_API_KEY")
body, err := json.Marshal(map[string]interface{}{
"search": search,
})
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
req, err := http.NewRequest("POST", apiURL, bytes.NewBuffer(body))
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+apiKey)
req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
resp, err := (&http.Client{}).Do(req)
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
defer resp.Body.Close()
raw, err := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
if resp.StatusCode != http.StatusOK {
return nil, fmt.Errorf("scavio api error %d: %s", resp.StatusCode, string(raw))
}
var data map[string]interface{}
if err := json.Unmarshal(raw, &data); err != nil {
return nil, err
}
return data, nil
}
func main() {
data, err := SearchYouTubeShorts("ai coding agent shorts")
if err != nil {
fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "Error: %v\n", err)
os.Exit(1)
}
formatted, _ := json.MarshalIndent(data, "", " ")
fmt.Println(string(formatted))
}Why Use Scavio Instead of Scraping YouTube Shorts Directly?
- No proxy management. Direct scraping requires rotating proxies to avoid IP bans. Scavio handles all of this server-side.
- No CAPTCHA solving. YouTube Shorts aggressively blocks automated requests. Scavio returns clean data every time.
- Structured JSON output. No HTML parsing or CSS selector maintenance. Get typed, consistent data from every request.
- Multi-platform in one API. Search Google, Amazon, YouTube, and Walmart from the same API key with the same authentication pattern.
- Free tier included. 50 credits on signup with no credit card required. Each search costs 1 credit.