# /youku/videos

`POST /api/youku/videos`

Price: 10 credits

Get one Youku video — an episode, a trailer, a clip or a standalone film — by its id or play URL. Returns the title, runtime in seconds, publication timestamp, content type, artwork, the show it belongs to, its comment and like counts, the VIP flag and whether commenting, sharing and downloading are allowed.

## How to use it

This is the single-video record; the title it belongs to is /youku/shows, reachable through `show_id`. The `X…==` id, the numeric video id and a full v.youku.com play URL are all accepted. A 20-character show id passed here is rejected with 422 rather than resolving to the show's first episode, so the two endpoints do not stand in for each other. `video_type` is the Chinese content label — 正片 for a full episode, 预告片 for a trailer — and is the way to tell a real episode from promotional material. Fields describing the parent show are limited to `show_id`, `show_name` and `show_url`; cast, synopsis and episode counts come from /youku/shows.

## Parameters

- `access-token` (string, required)

## Request body

- `timeout` (integer) — Max scrapping execution timeout (in seconds) (default: 300; min: 20; max: 1500)
- `video` (string, required) — Video id, numeric video id, or a v.youku.com play URL (examples: "XNjUzMjcwODE4OA==", "1633177047", "https://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjUzMjcwODE4OA==.html"; minLength: 1)

## Response

### 200 — Successful Response

- `@type` (string) (default: "YoukuVideo")
- `id` (string, required)
- `numeric_id` (string, nullable)
- `name` (string, nullable)
- `url` (string, nullable)
- `show_id` (string, nullable)
- `show_name` (string, nullable)
- `show_url` (string, nullable)
- `creator_id` (string, nullable)
- `creator_name` (string, nullable)
- `creator_url` (string, nullable)
- `category` (string, nullable)
- `video_type` (string, nullable)
- `episode_order` (integer, nullable)
- `stage` (string, nullable)
- `stage_label` (string, nullable)
- `duration` (integer, nullable)
- `image` (string, nullable)
- `publish_date` (string, nullable)
- `comment_count` (integer, nullable)
- `like_count` (integer, nullable)
- `is_vip` (boolean) (default: false)
- `is_pinned` (boolean) (default: false)
- `allow_comment` (boolean) (default: false)
- `allow_download` (boolean) (default: false)
- `allow_share` (boolean) (default: false)
- `allow_like` (boolean) (default: false)
- `audio_languages` (array) (default: [])

## Errors

### 422 — Validation Error

The request body did not validate

What to do: Check the fields against this schema. A URN with the wrong prefix is the most common cause.

- `detail` (array)
  - `loc` (array, required)
  - `msg` (string, required)
  - `type` (string, required)
  - `input` (any)
  - `ctx` (object)

### 408

The request ran past its time limit

What to do: Raise `timeout` in the request body, up to the maximum this endpoint documents. Lowering `count` or turning off the `with_*` flags also helps, because less work finishes sooner.

### 412

No video with this id

What to do: Retrying will not help: either the entity does not exist, or the input points at a different one.

### 429

Too many requests: a rate limit or a usage window is exhausted

What to do: When the response carries an X-Retry-After header, wait that many seconds and retry: the same number is in the body as `detail.retry_after`, and the limit clears once that window passes. The message in the body names the limit that was hit.

### 500

Something broke on our side

What to do: Retrying will not help. If it keeps happening, send us the X-Request-ID from the response headers.

### 529

Rate limit reached, or the endpoint is overloaded

What to do: Wait at least 30 seconds, then retry.

## Response envelope

Success: Array of objects (may be empty if no results)

Error: Error may coexist with partial results if it occurs mid-execution. Check X-Error header and status code.

Every response carries these headers:

- `X-Error` — Error message text (present only on error)
- `X-Request-ID` — Unique request identifier
- `X-Execution-Time` — Execution time in seconds
- `X-Result-Count` — How many records the body carries. 0 means an empty result, which is a normal answer and not by itself an error. A non-zero count can come back together with X-Error when the failure happened partway through — read this header and X-Error independently.
- `X-Total-Available-Results` — How many records exist for this query, when the endpoint can say. On a `dry_run` request this is the answer and the body is empty. It saturates: the endpoint's documented maximum means 'at least that many', any smaller number is exact.
- `X-Warning` — Present when the request body carried keys this endpoint does not document. They were ignored, so any filter you meant to apply through them did not apply. Check the spelling against this schema and retry.
- `X-Retry-After` — Seconds to wait before retrying. Present only on 429.