YouTube Live Streaming API lets tools set a live broadcast's category with snippet.categoryId

Announced17 Aug 2026

Effective17 Aug 2026

StatusIn effect

What changed

YouTube's August 17, 2026 Live Streaming API revision adds the liveBroadcast resource's snippet.categoryId property, which lets you set, update and retrieve the video category associated with a live broadcast. Valid category IDs come from the Data API's videoCategories.list method.

What it means

Tools that schedule YouTube live streams can set, update and read the video category of a broadcast through the API, instead of fixing it later in YouTube Studio.

Who is affected

Live streaming and scheduling tools that create YouTube live broadcasts, and the creators who use them.

What to do by 17 Aug 2026

Optional. Send snippet.categoryId (an ID from videoCategories.list) on liveBroadcasts.insert or update.

What this means for you

Every YouTube video sits in a category, such as Gaming, Music or Education. Until now, apps that set up live streams could not choose that category for you. Now they can, at the same time as they pick the title and start time.

The details

Property: snippet.categoryId (string) on liveBroadcast, settable on liveBroadcasts.insert and liveBroadcasts.update, returned by liveBroadcasts.list.
Values: a category ID from videoCategories.list.
Quota: liveBroadcasts.insert and liveBroadcasts.list cost 1 unit each; the revision does not mention a change.
Not stated: the default category when the property is omitted.

What to do next

Business owners: Nothing.
Marketers and agencies: Ask your streaming tool to let you pick the category when you schedule a YouTube live stream.
Developers: Load videoCategories.list for the channel's region and send the chosen ID as snippet.categoryId.

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