Using the YouTube Data API to Get Playlist Duration (Developer Guide)

Prerequisites

Google Cloud account

YouTube Data API v3 enabled

API key or OAuth 2.0 credentials

Step 1: Get the Playlist Items

Use the `playlistItems.list` endpoint to fetch all video IDs in a playlist.

```

GET https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/playlistItems

?part=contentDetails

&playlistId=YOUR_PLAYLIST_ID

&maxResults=50

&key=YOUR_API_KEY

```

Step 2: Batch Fetch Video Durations

Pass up to 50 video IDs at a time to the `videos.list` endpoint:

```

GET https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/videos

?part=contentDetails

&id=VIDEO_ID_1,VIDEO_ID_2,...

&key=YOUR_API_KEY

```

Step 3: Parse ISO 8601 Duration

YouTube returns durations in ISO 8601 format (e.g., `PT1H23M45S`). Parse this with a regex:

PT1H23M45S = 1 hour, 23 minutes, 45 seconds = 5025 seconds

Step 4: Handle Pagination

Playlists with more than 50 videos require multiple API calls using the `nextPageToken` field.

Step 5: Sum and Format

Sum all durations in seconds, then format as HH:MM:SS.

API Quota

Each playlist item fetch costs 1 unit. Each video detail fetch costs 1 unit. Free tier gives 10,000 units/day — enough for ~100 large playlists.