How to Bulk Upload YouTube Shorts via API

Step-by-step

1. 1

   Path A — Standard OAuth (free, shared quota)

   If you upload fewer than six Shorts per day across your entire workspace, the standard OAuth flow is sufficient. In Dashboard → Profiles → Connect → YouTube, approve the OAuth flow. CodivUpload uses its production OAuth client ID under the shared 10,000 unit/day pool. No setup beyond the connect button. After connecting, you can upload immediately — the call shape is identical to the BYOP path; only the underlying quota differs.

2. 2

   Path B — Set up BYOP for dedicated quota

   For agency or production use, follow the full BYOP setup guide. The high-level steps: create a new Google Cloud project, enable YouTube Data API v3 in APIs & Services → Library, configure the OAuth consent screen (set External user type, add your email as test user), create OAuth 2.0 credentials (Web application type, add CodivUpload's redirect URI), and submit for verification if you'll exceed the 100-user testing-mode allowance. Once your GCP credentials are live, paste the Client ID and Secret into Dashboard → Profiles → Connect → YouTube (BYOP). Re-authorize the channel against your own credentials. From this point CodivUpload routes all upload calls through your project, drawing from your private 10,000 unit quota.

3. 3

   Format your video as a Short

   YouTube auto-classifies a video as a Short if it meets three criteria: vertical aspect ratio (9:16), under 60 seconds duration, and the title or description contains #Shorts. CodivUpload appends #Shorts to the title automatically when you set youtube_type=shorts, but you should still ensure the source video is vertical and trimmed under 60 seconds. Horizontal videos with #Shorts in the title are still treated as regular videos by the algorithm.

4. 4

   Upload via POST /v1/posts (works for both OAuth and BYOP)

   The API call is identical regardless of whether the channel is connected via standard OAuth or BYOP. Set post_type=video, profile_name to your profile, platforms=["youtube"], and youtube_type=shorts. Pass the video URL in media_urls. CodivUpload handles the resumable upload protocol behind the scenes — you don't need to chunk the file or handle retries.

   curl -X POST https://api.codivupload.com/v1/posts \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{
       "post_type": "video",
       "profile_name": "my_brand",
       "platforms": ["youtube"],
       "media_urls": ["https://your-cdn.example.com/short.mp4"],
       "title": "Quick tip for creators",
       "description": "How to save 4 hours/week on social — full guide in the comments.",
       "youtube_type": "shorts",
       "youtube_privacy_status": "public",
       "youtube_tags": ["productivity", "creators", "shorts", "automation"],
       "youtube_category_id": "27"
     }'

5. 5

   Add to a playlist programmatically

   If you have an existing Shorts playlist, set youtube_playlist_id to add the upload to it automatically. Each playlistItems.insert call costs 50 quota units — included in BYOP's 10,000-unit budget. For longer-form videos use the same field; YouTube doesn't distinguish between Shorts playlists and regular playlists at the API level.

6. 6

   Loop through a video list (Python example)

   Wrap the upload in a Python or Node script. Pause 30 seconds between uploads to stay under YouTube's per-minute rate limits — even with BYOP, you can trigger temporary throttling if you fire too fast. The script below reads a list of {url, title} dicts and posts each one through CodivUpload.

   import os, time, requests
   
   API = "https://api.codivupload.com/v1/posts"
   KEY = os.environ["CODIVUPLOAD_API_KEY"]
   PROFILE = "my_brand"
   
   videos = [
       {"url": "https://cdn.example.com/v1.mp4", "title": "Tip 1: batch your content"},
       {"url": "https://cdn.example.com/v2.mp4", "title": "Tip 2: use a content bank"},
       # ... up to 60 per day with BYOP
   ]
   
   for v in videos:
       r = requests.post(API, headers={
           "Authorization": f"Bearer {KEY}",
           "Content-Type": "application/json",
       }, json={
           "post_type": "video",
           "profile_name": PROFILE,
           "platforms": ["youtube"],
           "media_urls": [v["url"]],
           "title": v["title"],
           "description": v["title"] + " — full breakdown in our newsletter.",
           "youtube_type": "shorts",
           "youtube_privacy_status": "public",
           "youtube_tags": ["productivity", "creator-tips"],
       })
       r.raise_for_status()
       print(v["title"], "→", r.json()["post_id"])
       time.sleep(30)

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