Schedule and automate YouTube video uploads with Zernio API - Videos, Shorts, thumbnails, visibility, and COPPA settings

Quick Reference

Property	Value
Title limit	100 characters
Description limit	5,000 characters
Tags limit	500 characters total (all tags combined)
Videos per post	1
Video formats	MP4, MOV, AVI, WMV, FLV, 3GP, WebM
Video max size	256 GB
Video max duration	15 min (unverified), 12 hours (verified)
Thumbnail formats	JPEG, PNG, GIF
Thumbnail max size	2 MB
Post types	Video, Shorts
Scheduling	Yes (uploads as private, goes public at scheduled time)
Inbox (Comments)	Yes (add-on)
Inbox (DMs)	No (YouTube has no DM system)
Analytics	Yes

YouTube is video-only. Every post requires exactly one video file. Unverified channels are limited to 15-minute videos -- verify your channel via phone number to unlock longer uploads. If a YouTube channel is suspended, ALL uploads fail with a 403 error. Use the account health endpoint to check status before scheduling posts.

One video per post (no image-only or text-only posts)
Unverified channels have a 15-minute maximum video duration
YouTube has daily upload quotas that vary by channel
Shorts are auto-detected from duration and aspect ratio (not a separate post type)

Quick Start

Upload a video to YouTube:

const { post } = await zernio.posts.createPost({
  content: 'Video description here',
  mediaItems: [
    { type: 'video', url: 'https://example.com/video.mp4' }
  ],
  platforms: [{
    platform: 'youtube',
    accountId: 'YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID',
    platformSpecificData: {
      title: 'My Video Title',
      visibility: 'public'
    }
  }],
  publishNow: true
});

result = client.posts.create(
    content="Video description here",
    media_items=[
        {"type": "video", "url": "https://example.com/video.mp4"}
    ],
    platforms=[{
        "platform": "youtube",
        "accountId": "YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID",
        "platformSpecificData": {
            "title": "My Video Title",
            "visibility": "public"
        }
    }],
    publish_now=True
)

curl -X POST https://zernio.com/api/v1/posts \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "content": "Video description here",
    "mediaItems": [
      {"type": "video", "url": "https://example.com/video.mp4"}
    ],
    "platforms": [{
      "platform": "youtube",
      "accountId": "YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID",
      "platformSpecificData": {
        "title": "My Video Title",
        "visibility": "public"
      }
    }],
    "publishNow": true
  }'

Content Types

Regular Videos

Long-form content with a duration greater than 3 minutes or a horizontal aspect ratio. Regular videos support custom thumbnails and 16:9 is the recommended aspect ratio.

const { post } = await zernio.posts.createPost({
  content: 'In this tutorial, I walk through building a REST API from scratch.\n\n#programming #tutorial',
  mediaItems: [{
    type: 'video',
    url: 'https://example.com/long-form-video.mp4',
    thumbnail: 'https://example.com/thumbnail.jpg'
  }],
  platforms: [{
    platform: 'youtube',
    accountId: 'YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID',
    platformSpecificData: {
      title: 'Build a REST API from Scratch',
      visibility: 'public',
      categoryId: '27',
      madeForKids: false
    }
  }],
  publishNow: true
});

result = client.posts.create(
    content="In this tutorial, I walk through building a REST API from scratch.\n\n#programming #tutorial",
    media_items=[{
        "type": "video",
        "url": "https://example.com/long-form-video.mp4",
        "thumbnail": "https://example.com/thumbnail.jpg"
    }],
    platforms=[{
        "platform": "youtube",
        "accountId": "YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID",
        "platformSpecificData": {
            "title": "Build a REST API from Scratch",
            "visibility": "public",
            "categoryId": "27",
            "madeForKids": False
        }
    }],
    publish_now=True
)

curl -X POST https://zernio.com/api/v1/posts \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "content": "In this tutorial, I walk through building a REST API from scratch.\n\n#programming #tutorial",
    "mediaItems": [{
      "type": "video",
      "url": "https://example.com/long-form-video.mp4",
      "thumbnail": "https://example.com/thumbnail.jpg"
    }],
    "platforms": [{
      "platform": "youtube",
      "accountId": "YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID",
      "platformSpecificData": {
        "title": "Build a REST API from Scratch",
        "visibility": "public",
        "categoryId": "27",
        "madeForKids": false
      }
    }],
    "publishNow": true
  }'

YouTube Shorts

YouTube automatically detects Shorts based on duration and aspect ratio. A video that is 3 minutes or shorter AND has a vertical (9:16) aspect ratio is classified as a Short. There is no separate post type or flag to set -- just upload a short vertical video and YouTube handles the rest.

Videos under 15 seconds loop automatically
Custom thumbnails are not supported for Shorts via the API
No code changes are needed compared to regular videos; the detection is entirely automatic

Media Requirements

Video Requirements

Property	Shorts	Regular Video
Max Duration	3 minutes	12 hours (verified), 15 min (unverified)
Min Duration	1 second	1 second
Max File Size	256 GB	256 GB
Formats	MP4, MOV, AVI, WMV, FLV, 3GP, WebM	MP4, MOV, AVI, WMV, FLV, 3GP, WebM
Aspect Ratio	9:16 (vertical)	16:9 (horizontal)
Resolution	1080 x 1920 px	1920 x 1080 px (1080p)

Recommended Specs

Property	Shorts	Regular Video
Resolution	1080 x 1920 px	3840 x 2160 px (4K)
Frame Rate	30 fps	24-60 fps
Codec	H.264	H.264 or H.265
Audio	AAC, 128 kbps	AAC, 384 kbps
Bitrate	10 Mbps	35-68 Mbps (4K)

Custom Thumbnails

Custom thumbnails are supported for regular videos only (not Shorts).

Property	Requirement
Format	JPEG, PNG, GIF
Max Size	2 MB
Recommended Resolution	1280 x 720 px (16:9)
Min Width	640 px

const { post } = await zernio.posts.createPost({
  content: 'My Video Description',
  mediaItems: [{
    type: 'video',
    url: 'https://example.com/video.mp4',
    thumbnail: 'https://example.com/thumbnail.jpg'
  }],
  platforms: [{
    platform: 'youtube',
    accountId: 'YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID',
    platformSpecificData: {
      title: 'My Video Title',
      visibility: 'public'
    }
  }],
  publishNow: true
});

result = client.posts.create(
    content="My Video Description",
    media_items=[{
        "type": "video",
        "url": "https://example.com/video.mp4",
        "thumbnail": "https://example.com/thumbnail.jpg"
    }],
    platforms=[{
        "platform": "youtube",
        "accountId": "YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID",
        "platformSpecificData": {
            "title": "My Video Title",
            "visibility": "public"
        }
    }],
    publish_now=True
)

curl -X POST https://zernio.com/api/v1/posts \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "content": "My Video Description",
    "mediaItems": [{
      "type": "video",
      "url": "https://example.com/video.mp4",
      "thumbnail": "https://example.com/thumbnail.jpg"
    }],
    "platforms": [{
      "platform": "youtube",
      "accountId": "YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID",
      "platformSpecificData": {
        "title": "My Video Title",
        "visibility": "public"
      }
    }],
    "publishNow": true
  }'

Platform-Specific Fields

Field	Type	Default	Description
`title`	string	First line of `content`, or `"Untitled Video"`	Video title. Maximum 100 characters.
`visibility`	`"public"` \| `"private"` \| `"unlisted"`	`"public"`	Controls who can see the video.
`madeForKids`	boolean	`false`	COPPA compliance flag. Setting to `true` permanently disables comments, notification bell, personalized ads, end screens, and cards on the video. COPPA violations carry fines of $42,000 or more.
`containsSyntheticMedia`	boolean	`false`	AI-generated content disclosure. YouTube is increasingly enforcing this requirement.
`categoryId`	string	`"22"` (People & Blogs)	Video category. Common values: `"1"` Film, `"10"` Music, `"20"` Gaming, `"22"` People & Blogs, `"27"` Education, `"28"` Science & Technology.
`firstComment`	string	--	Auto-posted and pinned comment. Maximum 10,000 characters. For `publishNow`: posted immediately. For scheduled posts: posted when the video goes live.

Scheduling Behavior

When you schedule a YouTube video for a future time, the following sequence occurs:

The video uploads immediately as "private" regardless of your target visibility
A video URL exists right away, but the video is not publicly accessible
At the scheduled time, visibility changes to your target setting (usually "public")
The firstComment is posted at the scheduled time, not at upload time

Media URL Requirements

The URL must return actual video bytes (not an HTML page)
No authentication or expired links -- the URL must be publicly accessible
Large videos (1 GB or more) can take 30-60+ minutes to process on YouTube's side
During processing, the video shows a "processing" state -- do not retry the upload

Analytics

Requires Analytics add-on

Available metrics via the Analytics API:

Metric	Available
Likes	✅
Comments	✅
Shares	✅ (via Daily Views only)
Views	✅

YouTube also provides a dedicated Daily Views API with detailed daily breakdowns including watch time, subscriber changes, and per-day likes/comments/shares. Data has a 2-3 day delay.

const analytics = await zernio.analytics.getAnalytics({
  platform: 'youtube',
  fromDate: '2024-01-01',
  toDate: '2024-01-31'
});
console.log(analytics.posts);

analytics = client.analytics.get(
    platform="youtube",
    from_date="2024-01-01",
    to_date="2024-01-31"
)
print(analytics["posts"])

curl "https://zernio.com/api/v1/analytics?platform=youtube&fromDate=2024-01-01&toDate=2024-01-31" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

What You Can't Do

Create Community posts
Go Live or schedule Premieres
Add end screens, cards, or chapters (timestamps in the description do work)
Manage monetization settings
Create or manage playlists via Zernio
Like or dislike videos
Upload captions or subtitles

Common Errors

Error	Meaning	Fix
`"The YouTube account of the authenticated user is suspended."` (403)	YouTube channel is suspended by YouTube	Check channel status on YouTube. Use the account health endpoint.
`"Social account not found"`	Connected account was disconnected or deleted from Zernio	Reconnect the YouTube account. Subscribe to the `account.disconnected` webhook.
`"Account was deleted"`	User deleted the social account	Reconnect the account.
`"Failed to fetch video from URL: 404"`	Video URL returned a 404	Verify the URL is still valid and publicly accessible. Links expire on some hosting services.
`"YouTube permission error: Ensure the channel has required scopes and features enabled."`	Missing OAuth scopes	Reconnect the YouTube account with all required permissions.
`"YouTube upload initialization failed: 403"`	Upload rejected before file transfer began	Check whether the channel is suspended, the upload quota has been hit, or permissions are missing.

Inbox

Requires Inbox add-on — Build: +$10/mo · Accelerate: +$50/unit · Unlimited: +$1,000/mo

YouTube supports comments only (no DMs available on the platform).

Comments

Feature	Supported
List comments on videos	✅
Reply to comments	✅
Delete comments	✅
Like comments	❌ (no API available)

Limitations

No DMs - YouTube does not have a direct messaging system
No comment likes - No public API endpoint available for liking comments

See Comments API Reference for endpoint details.

Connect YouTube Account - OAuth flow
Create Post - Post creation and scheduling
Upload Media - Video uploads
Analytics - Performance metrics
YouTube Daily Views - Daily view statistics
YouTube Video Download - Download YouTube videos
YouTube Transcripts - Get video transcripts
Comments - Read and reply to comments