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

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 takes id=3xq7mzk2vbd9w4e or url= with any of the links above, v.kuaishou.com included. One call either way.
• Video comments also takes id or url.
• Kuaishou video 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

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.