# What is a Kuaishou video ID, and how do I use a v.kuaishou.com link?

> A Kuaishou video ID is the 3x… string in a kuaishou.com/short-video/ link; v.kuaishou.com share links hide it until they redirect. ID shapes, look-alikes and how the API resolves both.

Canonical page: https://okdata.online/answers/kuaishou-video-id-short-link/

**Short answer: **The video ID is the string starting with 3x in a www.kuaishou.com/short-video/<id> link, about 15 lowercase letters and digits. A v.kuaishou.com share link does not show it; send the link as url and okdata's Kuaishou video detail resolves it and returns the ID with caption, plays, likes and comments for $0.002. Search results carry the same ID.

Kuaishou shows the same video under several identifiers, and only one of them travels well. On the web a video lives at `www.kuaishou.com/short-video/3xq7mzk2vbd9w4e`, and that last segment, `3x` followed by lowercase letters and digits (15 characters in every video we have looked at), is the video ID okdata uses. In the app, the share button gives you `v.kuaishou.com/` plus a short code, such as `v.kuaishou.com/Kq7xTz`, which redirects to the video and shows no ID at all. Kuaishou's app data also has a numeric photo ID, a 64-bit number that most JSON parsers cannot hold exactly; in raw responses you often find it already rounded, ending in a row of zeros. That is why tools that key on the numeric ID end up with videos that do not exist.

## Which string is which

| String | Example | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Video ID | `3xq7mzk2vbd9w4e` | The video; after `/short-video/` in web links |
| Share link | `v.kuaishou.com/Kq7xTz` | A redirect to one video; no ID inside |
| Other web links | `kuaishou.com/photo/3xk2…/3xq7mzk2vbd9w4e`, `/fw/photo/3xq7mzk2vbd9w4e` | The video ID is the last segment |
| User ID | `2187465530` | The account, as digits; `author.id` |
| Kuaishou handle (快手号) | `outdoor_lin` | The account's public handle; `author.username` |
| User web ID | `3xk2…`, same shape as a video ID | The account in profile links; `ext.author_eid` with `view=full` |

The user web ID is the trap: it also starts with `3x`, so a profile link pasted into a "video ID" column looks valid and returns `not_found`.

## How the API takes it

- [Kuaishou video detail](/apis/kuaishou/videos/get/) takes `id=3xq7mzk2vbd9w4e` or `url=` with any of the links above, v.kuaishou.com included. One call either way.
- [Video comments](/apis/kuaishou/videos/comments/list/) also takes `id` or `url`.
- [Kuaishou video search](/apis/kuaishou/videos/search/) returns `id` in the same form for every result.
- The account endpoints take the numeric user ID, not the handle and not the `3x` web ID.

Unlike Douyin, Kuaishou shows play counts: `metrics.views` is filled in when Kuaishou provides it, along with likes, comments, shares, saves and reposts. Photo-set posts (图集) come back with `type: image`.

| Task | Calls | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| One share link to video data | 1 | $0.002 |
| 500 share links from a creator sheet | 500 | $1.00 |
| One search page of video IDs | 1 | $0.02 |

## Example

```bash
curl -G "https://api.okdata.online/v1/kuaishou/videos/get" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $OKDATA_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode 'url=https://v.kuaishou.com/Kq7xTz' \
  --data-urlencode 'fields=id,url,text,published_at,metrics.views,metrics.likes,author.id'
```

The answer's `url` is the canonical `kuaishou.com/short-video/<id>` link. Store `id`; it is shorter than the link and does not change.

## Limits

- People paste share text, not just links. Pull the `https://v.kuaishou.com/...` part out with a regular expression before sending it.
- Deleted or private videos return `not_found`, which is not charged.
- Open-source parsers often break on share links when Kuaishou answers with a captcha check. The API call needs no cookie or captcha from you.

## Endpoints used

- [Kuaishou video detail](https://okdata.online/apis/kuaishou/videos/get/) `kuaishou.videos.get`: $0.002 per call
- [Kuaishou video search](https://okdata.online/apis/kuaishou/videos/search/) `kuaishou.videos.search`: $0.02 per call · about 10 videos per page
- [Kuaishou video comments](https://okdata.online/apis/kuaishou/videos/comments/list/) `kuaishou.videos.comments.list`: $0.002 per call · about 10 comments per page

## More about Kuaishou

- [Kuaishou API](https://okdata.online/apis/kuaishou/)
- [Kuaishou API in Python: videos, accounts and comments (2026)](https://okdata.online/guides/kuaishou-api-python/)
- [Comments API](https://okdata.online/roles/posts-comments-list/)
- [Post detail API](https://okdata.online/roles/posts-get/)
- [Post search API](https://okdata.online/roles/posts-search/)
- [Kuaishou hot list: today’s list](https://okdata.online/tools/hot-search/kuaishou/)

## Sources

- [KS-Downloader README: supported links (v.kuaishou.com/分享码, kuaishou.com/short-video/作品ID)](https://github.com/JoeanAmier/KS-Downloader) (read 2026-11-12)
- [Kuaishou share link fails to parse (video_spider issue #92)](https://github.com/5ime/video_spider/issues/92) (read 2026-11-12)
- [Kuaishou share URL answered with 'antispam need captcha' (stealer issue #96)](https://github.com/moyada/stealer/issues/96) (read 2026-11-12)

Where people asked this (read 2026-11-12): 

- https://github.com/5ime/video_spider/issues/92
- https://github.com/ShilongLee/Crawler/issues/60
- https://github.com/moyada/stealer/issues/96

Updated 2026-11-12