In this article, we’ll go through the complete upload workflow via the API, with detailed steps and code samples to help you getting started.

Overview

Uploading content on Dailymotion via the API v2 follows these steps:

1. Authenticate: Get an access token with the right scope to upload on the profile.
2. Get an upload URL: Obtain an upload URL to upload your content on.
3. Upload the video file: Send your file to your upload URL.
4. Create and publish the video: Create the video object in your channel and set up mandatory fields to publish it.

1. Authenticate

You need an access token with the video.manage scope to upload content. Refer to the Authentication guide for the full OAuth 2.0 flow. Keep your access token accessible throughout all steps below.

2. Get an upload URL

Perform a POST request to /v2/files/upload_sessions. No request body is needed.

curl -X POST https://api.dailymotion.com/v2/files/upload_sessions \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer ${ACCESS_TOKEN}"

Response

The server returns 2 fields:

• upload_url: The URL you will use in the next step to send your file on our servers.
• progress_url: The URL you can use to track the upload progress.

{
  "upload_url": "https://upload-XXX.dailymotion.com/upload?uuid=UUID&seal=SEAL&extra=PROFILE_ID",
  "progress_url": "https://upload-XXX.dailymotion.com/progress?uuid=UUID"
}

3. Upload video file

Send your video file to the upload_url received in the previous step, using a POST request with multipart/form-data content type and the file field filled with the content path to your file.

curl -X POST \
  -F 'file=@/path/to/your/video.mp4' \
  '<UPLOAD_URL>'

Response

Once complete, the upload server returns metadata about the uploaded file, including the url field which you'll use in the next step.

{
    "acodec": "AAC",
    "bitrate": "1281806",
    "dimension": "400x848",
    "duration": "20852",
    "format": "MPEG-4",
    "hash": "XXX",
    "name": "My new upload",
    "seal": "XXX",
    "size": "3341029",
    "streamable": "Yes",
    "url": "https://upload-XXX.dailymotion.com/files/FILE_ID",
    "vcodec": "AVC"
}

4. Create and publish the video

Once your video file is hosted on our servers, use the file_url field to create the Dailymotion video object and publish it in the same request.

To do this, perform the following POST request and include mandatory fields:

• title: Video title shown in the player and catalog (1-255 characters).
• category: Content category for discovery (eg. news sport etc - see available video categories).
• visibility: Who can watch the video (public private or password).
• is_for_kids: Whether the content targets children. Required for compliance with COPPA and GDPR.
• file_url: URL of the video file to be ingested. This can be either the url returned by the upload server in step 3, or an accessible external URL.

// Replace <PROFILE_ID> and <VIDEO_URL> with your own

curl --request POST \
     --url https://api.dailymotion.com/v2/profiles/<PROFILE_ID>/videos \
     --header 'accept: application/json' \
     --header 'content-type: application/json' \
     --data '
{
  "title": "My new video",
  "category": "news",
  "visibility": "public",
  "is_for_kids": false,
  "source": {
    "file_url": "<VIDEO_URL>"
  }
}
'

Response example

This API call will create the video on your channel. The ID of the newly created video will be returned in the id field of the response.

HTTP/1.1 201 Created
Location: https://api.dailymotion.com/v2/profiles/{profile_id}/videos/x9xyz456
{
  "video_id": "x9xyz456",
  "title": "My new video",
  "created_at": "2026-05-03T12:00:00Z"
}

Note: Detailed events at different stages can be received by the client through webhooks.

Upload from an external URL

If your video is already hosted on an external URL, you can skip step 2 and 3 and provide the URL directly when creating the video object.

POST /v2/profiles/{profile_id}/videos
Content-Type: application/json
{
  "title": "string",
  "description": "string",
  "tags": ["string"],
  "category": "string",
  "visibility": "string",
  "is_for_kids": "boolean"
  "source": {
    "file_url": <EXTERNAL_VIDEO_URL>
  }
}

Replace source flow

If you need to replace the source file of a video that already exists on your channel (for example, to upload a corrected version) while keeping all its metadata (title, description, tags, etc.) intact, follow this flow.

1. Get an upload URL:

POST /v2/files/upload_sessions

2. Upload the new source file, same as in step 3.
3. Patch the existing video with the new source URL:

PATCH /v2/videos/{video_id}
Content-Type: application/json
{
  "source": {
    "file_url": <VIDEO_URL>
  }
}

Best practices

• Upload URL expiration: Upload URLs are time-limited. Implement retry logic using the retry upload flow if uploads take longer than expected.
• Progress tracking: Use the progress_url to provide upload feedback to users.