How to get views and watch time from the YouTube Analytics API

Two APIs, and you need the right one

YouTube has a Data API and an Analytics API, and they answer different questions.

For "how many views last week", it is Analytics.

curl -s -G 'https://youtubeanalytics.googleapis.com/v2/reports' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  --data-urlencode 'ids=channel==MINE' \
  --data-urlencode 'startDate=2026-10-01' \
  --data-urlencode 'endDate=2026-10-07' \
  --data-urlencode 'metrics=views,estimatedMinutesWatched' \
  --data-urlencode 'dimensions=day'

The ids parameter

ids=channel==MINE. Two equals signs, and that is not a typo.

It is the API's own filter syntax, and channel==UC... works for a specific channel you have access to. ids=channel=MINE with one equals returns a 400 that does not explain which parameter is wrong.

For a content owner you use contentOwner==OWNER_ID instead, which is a different grant entirely.

The response is rows and column headers

{
  "columnHeaders": [
    { "name": "day", "columnType": "DIMENSION", "dataType": "STRING" },
    { "name": "views", "columnType": "METRIC", "dataType": "INTEGER" },
    { "name": "estimatedMinutesWatched", "columnType": "METRIC", "dataType": "INTEGER" }
  ],
  "rows": [["2026-10-01", 4210, 18340]]
}

Rows are arrays, positional, matching columnHeaders. Build an index from the headers rather than from your request:

const index = Object.fromEntries(body.columnHeaders.map((h, i) => [h.name, i]));
const views = row[index.views];

Using the headers rather than your own metrics string is the safer of the two, because the API can reorder and because a metric it silently dropped shows up as a missing key rather than as a shifted column.

Everything is Pacific Time

day buckets are America/Los_Angeles. Not UTC, not yours, and not configurable.

A view at 21:00 in London is 13:00 Pacific the same day. A view at 02:00 in London is 18:00 Pacific the previous day. So a daily series compared against a UTC analytics tool disagrees at every boundary, and the disagreement is largest for channels whose audience is furthest from the Pacific coast.

Watch time is minutes

estimatedMinutesWatched is exactly what it says. Divide by 60 for hours, which is the unit any channel of size needs, because a minute figure is too long to read at a glance.

Watch time is the metric YouTube's recommendation systems weight most, which makes it the more useful of the two. Views count arrivals; watch time counts attention.

Views settle downwards

YouTube discards automated and repeated playback before publishing, and that validation lags. The newest day or two can fall after the fact.

Unlike Search Console, the drop here is a correction rather than an arrival, so the newest figures read high and settle down. Worth knowing which direction before you read a change.

Scopes

https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube.readonly for views and watch time. Revenue needs https://www.googleapis.com/auth/yt-analytics-monetary.readonly as well, and asking for it when you do not need it makes the consent screen more alarming than it has to be.

In the notch

Notch Metrics calls reports.query and shows YouTube views, watch time in hours, and average view duration in the MacBook notch, daily, weekly or monthly, bucketed in Pacific Time as YouTube reports them.

Everything YouTube reports, or download Notch Metrics.