Video upload not working, request status 400

[clienthold]

Steps to reproduce

My code:

import { readFileSync, writeFileSync, existsSync } from "fs";
import { Innertube, UniversalCache } from "youtubei.js";

const creds_path = "./my_yt_creds.json";
const creds = existsSync(creds_path) ? JSON.parse(readFileSync(creds_path).toString()) : undefined;

(async () => {
    const yt = await Innertube.create({ cache: new UniversalCache(false) });
    await yt.session.signIn(creds);
    
    const file = readFileSync("./test.mp4");
    
    const upload = await yt.studio.upload(file.buffer, {
        title: "Wow!",
        description: new Date().toString(),
        privacy: "UNLISTED"
    });

    console.info("Done!", upload);
})();

Failure Logs

InnertubeError: Request to https://www.youtube.com/youtubei/v1/upload/createvideo?prettyPrint=false&alt=json failed with status code 400
    at HTTPClient.fetch (file:///C:/Users/root/Downloads/uploader/node_modules/youtubei.js/dist/src/utils/HTTPClient.js:94:15)
    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:103:5)
    at async Actions.execute (file:///C:/Users/root/Downloads/uploader/node_modules/youtubei.js/dist/src/core/Actions.js:65:26)
    at async #setVideoMetadata (file:///C:/Users/root/Downloads/uploader/node_modules/youtubei.js/dist/src/core/clients/Studio.js:171:16)
    at async Studio.upload (file:///C:/Users/root/Downloads/uploader/node_modules/youtubei.js/dist/src/core/clients/Studio.js:123:16)
    at async file:///C:/Users/root/Downloads/uploader/yt_test.mjs:13:20 {
  date: 2026-01-14T04:03:52.559Z,
  version: '16.0.1',
  info: '{\n' +
    '  "error": {\n' +
    '    "code": 400,\n' +
    '    "message": "Request contains an invalid argument.",\n' +
    '    "errors": [\n' +
    '      {\n' +
    '        "message": "Request contains an invalid argument.",\n' +
    '        "domain": "global",\n' +
    '        "reason": "badRequest"\n' +
    '      }\n' +
    '    ],\n' +
    '    "status": "INVALID_ARGUMENT"\n' +
    '  }\n' +
    '}\n'
}

Expected behavior

The video should have been uploaded to YouTube

Current behavior

Error 400 in response to https://www.youtube.com/youtubei/v1/upload/createvideo?prettyPrint=false&alt=json

Version

Default

Anything else?

No response

Checklist

• I am running the latest version.
• I checked the documentation and found no answer.
• I have searched the existing issues and made sure this is not a duplicate.
• I have provided sufficient information.

[motazco]

This looks like a bad metadata payload. Try stripping all metadata and re-testing the upload.

[motazco]

You can ry this code:

import { readFileSync, writeFileSync, existsSync } from "fs";  
import { Innertube, UniversalCache } from "youtubei.js";  
  
const creds_path = "./my_yt_creds.json";  
const creds = existsSync(creds_path) ? JSON.parse(readFileSync(creds_path).toString()) : undefined;  
  
(async () => {  
    const yt = await Innertube.create({ cache: new UniversalCache(false) });  
    await yt.session.signIn(creds);  
      
    const file = readFileSync("./test.mp4");  
      
    const upload = await yt.studio.upload(file.buffer, {  
        title: "Wow!",  
        description: new Date().toString(),  
        privacy: 2  // Use numeric value: 1=PUBLIC, 2=UNLISTED, 3=PRIVATE  
    });  
  
    console.info("Done!", upload);  
})();

[clienthold]

Unfortunately, the problem remains the same. But I found that response 400 also occurs at other endpoints such as youtubei/v1/player, youtubei/v1/browse, and so on. The response from the server is always an invalid argument error.

[motazco]

So: Try logging in a different way.