If you use YouTube's API services, you must adhere to our:
As a developer, you must familiarize yourself with these policies. This article
provides examples that provide additional clarifications about specific
policies, and answers some frequently asked questions.
If, after reviewing this article and the policies linked to above, you’re unsure
whether your service is allowed, please apply for an
API Compliance Audit
,
and include a clear summary that mentions any end users in the audit form.
Respect user privacy.
What this means:
Don’t violate user privacy, harvest user data, or use the
API to surveil users. Your app must have a privacy policy that protects users
and complies with Google’s
privacy policies
. Once you have a user’s
permission to access or store their data, that user must continue to have
control over what happens to that data. You need to make it easy for users to
request deletion of their personal data. More information can be found
here
.
Examples
Don’t use YouTube’s API to:
- Harvest, track, infer, derive or store information that can be used to
identify a user without their consent. Examples include (this is not a
complete list):
- Full names or usernames
- Passwords
- Facial recognition data
- Contact information including email or phone number
- Online activity such as browsing history
- Example: Using YouTube’s API to create an app that tracks a user’s
viewing history, location or browsing habits without their knowledge
or consent.
- Harvest, track, infer, derive or store the following about a user
without their consent. Examples include (this is not a complete list):
- Health information
- Gender identity
- Sexual orientation
- Political affiliation
- Religious affiliation or belief
- Race or ethnicity
- Immigration status
- Financial status
- Criminal history
- Trade union membership or organization
- Facilitate surveillance -- for example, tracking their location,
browsing history or other online activity without their consent.
- Restrict, filter, or prohibit a user’s access to content on YouTube
without their knowledge or consent.
- Allow any unauthorized third parties to access, use, or download any
data noted here.
- Store a user’s information indefinitely. If a user requests that you
delete their data or if you’re unable to verify their authorization, you
must do so within 30 days.
- Use, request, or store a user’s login credentials (username and
password)
Only offer metrics that are available via YouTube’s API services.
What this means:
Don’t use YouTube’s API to offer independently calculated
or derived metrics or data that replace or provide new data that isn’t available
via YouTube’s API services. More information can be found
here
.
Examples
Don’t use YouTube’s API to:
- Display metrics that replace those offered by YouTube’s API services.
- Display metrics that inaccurately reflect those offered by YouTube’s API
services.
- Combine data from YouTube’s API with data from other sources. If you provide
data that is derived from sources other than YouTube’s API alongside data
that you get from YouTube’s API, you must make the difference clear to the
user.
- Example:
Providing a "user engagement" metric that includes
engagement from YouTube in combination with other platforms.
- Display data from YouTube next to data from other platforms without
clarifying the difference between the types and sources of data.
- Compile or aggregate authorized API data unless you are making the compiled
API data viewable ONLY to the content or channel owner or one of their
authorized representatives.
- Gain insights into the number of users, number of videos uploaded, watch
time, financial performance, or any other aspect of YouTube’s business.
- Make any claims on whether a video or channel is safe or suitable to watch
or advertise against.
- Estimate the watch time or unique reach of a channel or video.
- Estimate the number of paid views, sponsored views, or average advertising
CPM of a video.
- Estimate audience affinities, demographics, or audience composition of a
channel or video.
- Infer or estimate the content category/type of a video or channel; you may
only use the content type returned by the YouTube API.
- Estimate the monetization status of a video or channel, or make claims on
whether a video or channel should be monetized.
- Merge or combine YouTube API data with any other data.
- Return information like the total number of video views and offer a number
different from the number provided by YouTube’s API.
- Infer or project financial performance of a YouTube channel.
- Gamify channel performance by ranking or tracking views between different
channels, or generally stoking creator rivalries.
- Estimate viewer satisfaction or dissatisfaction with a particular YouTube
channel.
- Calculate and assign custom "scores" to channels based on independently
calculated averages or ratios -- for example, average view count, comment
count, or overall brand suitability.
Acceptable metrics
Acceptable metrics are those that use only YouTube API data and combine them via
simple mathematical calculations (combine them via addition, subtraction,
averages, multiplication, division). These metrics must not incorporate any
other external data sources. This allows us to ensure that the represented data
is accurate.
Examples
- Average daily views in a month
- Average video duration
- Number of subscribers gained or lost
- Average number of new subscribers in a month
- Total views in a group of videos/channels
- Top viewed videos/channels sorted by views, likes/dislikes, subscribers
- Graphs visualizing raw metrics, e.g: increase in views, subscribers,
likes/dislikes
Your API service must reflect a user’s standard experience on YouTube.
What this means:
Any service using the YouTube API can’t diminish or remove
features that are part of a user’s standard experience on YouTube, such as
captions, volume controls, etc. More information can be found
here
.
Examples
Don’t use YouTube’s API to:
- Modify, add to or block the standard playback function of the YouTube video
player. Some examples include:
- Blocking a link that would normally appear in the YouTube player from
appearing in your application.
- Disabling or blocking Related Video links from appearing after the video
completes.
- Removing or altering the video metadata. In general, video metadata such
as thumbnail and title must be visible to the viewer and unmodified. The
video thumbnail must not be altered.
- Note:
Custom play buttons over the YouTube thumbnail are
acceptable, but tapping must initiate playback.
- Links must open in the YouTube application whenever the application is
available on a user’s device, or if not installed, via the system web
browser.
- Blocking the standard features of a YouTube player (like the settings
wheel) from appearing in your API service.
- Overriding the platform-specific rendering of the YouTube video player.
- Example:
Mobile optimized UI must appear on mobile apps and
devices.
- Restricting ads from playing in your API service when they would
otherwise play on YouTube or in an embedded video.
- Note:
Overlays for the purposes of obtaining user consent or
playback controls (e.g. mute, full screen, play, pause, etc.) are
acceptable so long as they do not conflict with the YouTube player UI
elements.
- Restrict YouTube’s ability to verify from where the playback occurs.
- Example:
In the case of mobile applications using a WebView to host
the YouTube IFrame SDK web player, failing to accurately represent the
name of your application (e.g. com.company.appname) accurately as HTTP
Referer header.
- Example:
Interfering with other playback context information
necessary for view verification (including cookies) being sent to
YouTube.
- For privacy sensitive developers who deem it necessary, a user
consent flow with link to Google’s Privacy Policy is acceptable.
- Apply any restrictions or block access to a user watching a video. If a user
has to do anything besides clicking the play button, there’s a good chance
that you’re violating this policy. An example includes:
- Example:
Restricting access to a video by requiring a user to
complete a survey, download an app, subscribe to a channel, share a
video on a social media platform, leave comments, or do anything other
than click the "Play" button in order to watch a video they chose to
watch.
- Incentivize, reward, coerce, or provide compensation to users for watching a
video. A user’s decision to watch a video needs to be their own choice.
- Example:
Offering the chance to win a prize or offering financial
compensation in exchange for a user watching a video through your API
service.
- Block, modify or replace advertisements that play through the YouTube API
service.
- Allow users to download videos for offline play outside of the YT Premium
experience.
- Offer users the ability to download or separate audio tracks or allow users
to modify the audio or video portions of a video.
- Example:
Using YouTube’s API to separate or isolate video or audio
components from a video. This might include an API service that offers
mp3 files of audio that appeared in a video and promotes themselves in
this context.
- Allow for background play of the YouTube video player.
- Example:
Using YouTube’s API to allow videos to play even when your
API service window is closed or minimized.
Your API service must add sufficient independent value.
What this means:
Don’t use our API to re-create YouTube (e.g. don’t clone,
mimic, modify, or reduce standard YouTube features). If your API service mimics
any of YouTube’s user experiences, it must add sufficient independent value.
Independent value means providing users with added functionality that is not
available via the YouTube API today or was not available at the time of API
access request, and is otherwise compliant with YouTube’s TOS. More information
can be found
here
.
Examples
If your API service mimics any of YouTube’s user experiences, users need to have
a reason to continue to engage with or utilize your API service when you take
away what you are getting by accessing YouTube’s API services. You also cannot
charge people a fee for services that are offered free of charge on YouTube.
- Example of what’s allowed:
A Search engine that lists YouTube videos
alongside videos available on other platforms while clearly distinguishing
them from what’s on YouTube is a good example of an API service that
provides independent value.
- Example of what’s allowed:
An API service that provides YouTube video
captioning services for the hearing impaired is a good example of providing
independent value.
- Don’t use YouTube’s API to create websites or apps or display video search
results that make it difficult to distinguish between your website or app
and websites or apps created by YouTube.
- Example:
Using YouTube’s API to mass aggregate embedded videos,
creating an identical copy of YouTube. If a user is likely to mistake
your site for YouTube’s, there’s a good chance it violates our TOS.
What this means:
Your service can’t be specifically designed to allow you or
your users to get around restrictions YouTube places on their channel. Your API
service also can’t let users do activities that violate our
community guidelines
,
Terms of Service
, or YouTube
Partner Program. If you use YouTube’s API to allow users to upload videos, you
must have them certify that their content complies with the community
guidelines. Videos are subject to removal if found to be violative. Your service
can also be subject to penalties if it encourages or incites violative behavior.
More information can be found
here
.
Don’t spread API access across multiple or unknown projects.
What this means:
You can’t create multiple apps/sites or create multiple
Google Cloud projects for use across multiple apps/sites to artificially acquire
more API quota (aka "sharding") for a single API service or use case. "Use case"
is defined as a consistent set of analyses, features, or actions performed via a
service. Requests for API quota increase must follow our standard
process
. An
application’s developer team is allowed to have separate API keys for test, dev,
and prod environments. More information can be found
here
.
Examples
- Don’t create multiple Google Cloud projects for the same API service or use
case in an attempt to deceptively acquire an API quota that is higher than
the one your project was assigned.
- It is acceptable to have a separate API Project for each different use case
of your API service. Examples include:
- One API project for your iOS app, a separate API Project for your
Android app.
- One API project for a production server, one for a development server.
- One API project for your user-facing API service, one API project for
internal system analytics.