I’ve been working with the YouTube API lately and I’m having trouble understanding what some of the metrics in the Subscriptions endpoint actually mean. Specifically, I’m confused about:
totalItemCount
newItemCount
I need clarification on a few things:
When I use the Subscriptions endpoint, does it only show me data about channels that MY channel subscribes to? Or can I also see information about what channels my subscribers are following?
For the totalItemCount field - does this count just the content from channels my channel follows, or does it include content from channels that my followers subscribe to as well? Also, when it says “item” does that mean only videos or does it cover all types of content uploads?
I’ve been looking through the documentation but it’s not clear to me exactly what scope of data these metrics cover. Any help would be appreciated!
I ran into similar confusion when I first started using the YouTube API. The Subscriptions endpoint specifically shows only the channels that your authenticated channel subscribes to - you cannot access what your subscribers follow due to privacy restrictions. However, I think you might be mixing up endpoints here. The fields totalItemCount and newItemCount are not standard fields in the Subscriptions endpoint response. These metrics typically appear in the YouTube Analytics API when you’re pulling subscriber statistics or content performance data. The regular Subscriptions endpoint returns basic subscription information like channel details and subscription dates. If you’re seeing those count fields, you’re probably working with the Analytics API or perhaps using a third-party library that combines multiple API calls. I’d suggest checking your API request URL and response structure carefully to confirm which endpoint you’re actually hitting, as this will determine exactly what data scope you’re working with.
The YouTube API Subscriptions endpoint can be tricky at first. From my experience working with it, you can only access subscription data for the authenticated user - meaning your own channel’s subscriptions, not your subscribers’ data. Google restricts access to other users’ subscription lists for privacy reasons. Regarding the metrics you mentioned, I believe there might be some confusion here. The standard Subscriptions endpoint typically returns subscription resources with fields like channelId, title, and publishedAt, but I haven’t encountered totalItemCount or newItemCount in the basic subscriptions list response. These sound more like they might be from the Analytics API or Activities endpoint. If you’re seeing these fields, you might be looking at a different endpoint or using a wrapper library that aggregates data. Could you double-check which specific API method you’re calling? The exact endpoint would help clarify what data you’re actually retrieving and what those counts represent.