# YouTube Comments Scraper (with Replies) (`ahmad_mahameed/youtube-comments-scraper`) Actor

Scrape YouTube comments and replies from videos, Shorts, channels or playlists: text, author, likes, reply count, date and video title. Top or newest first. $1 per 1,000 comments.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/ahmad_mahameed/youtube-comments-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Ahmad Mahameed](https://apify.com/ahmad_mahameed) (community)
- **Categories:** Videos, Social media, AI
- **Features:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.00 / 1,000 comments

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

### What does YouTube Comments Scraper do?

It extracts **comments and replies** from YouTube videos and Shorts, with the comment text, author, likes, reply count, date and the video title.

- 💬 Comments from **videos, Shorts, whole channels or playlists**
- ↩️ **Replies** too, placed right after their parent comment
- 🔝 **Top comments** (YouTube's default order) or **newest first**
- 👤 Author name, channel ID, verified badge, and whether the author is the video's creator
- 💲 **$1 per 1,000 comments**. Videos with comments turned off are free.
- ⚡ No login, no API key, no quota limits

### Use cases

- **Sentiment and feedback analysis**: what viewers think about a product, brand or creator
- **Market research**: questions and pain points people write under competitor videos
- **AI and NLP datasets**: real comments for training, classification or summarization
- **Community management**: export and review comments on your own channel
- **Lead research**: find engaged commenters in a niche

### Input

```json
{
  "urls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aircAruvnKk", "https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd"],
  "maxComments": 100,
  "sortBy": "top",
  "includeReplies": true,
  "maxRepliesPerComment": 10,
  "maxVideosPerSource": 10
}
```

### Output

```json
{
  "videoId": "aircAruvnKk",
  "videoTitle": "But what is a neural network? | Deep learning chapter 1",
  "channelName": "3Blue1Brown",
  "commentId": "UgwTjSjSb3QH_WW4EiB4AaABAg",
  "text": "Wait... it's all math?",
  "author": "@Alzter0",
  "authorChannelId": "UCbN4A0324-iEVZrpKHHJMaA",
  "authorIsVerified": false,
  "authorIsChannelOwner": false,
  "likeCount": 1600,
  "replyCount": 61,
  "publishedTimeText": "2 years ago",
  "isReply": false,
  "commentUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aircAruvnKk&lc=UgwTjSjSb3QH_WW4EiB4AaABAg"
}
```

Replies have `"isReply": true` and a `parentCommentId`. Like counts are rounded the way YouTube shows them (for example 1.6K).

### Pricing

**$0.001 per comment or reply** ($1 per 1,000). Platform and proxy costs are included. Set **Max comments per video** to control the cost.

### More tools from this developer

- [YouTube Scraper](https://apify.com/ahmad_mahameed/youtube-scraper): videos, Shorts, channels and search with views, likes and dates
- [YouTube Transcript Scraper](https://apify.com/ahmad_mahameed/youtube-transcript-scraper): transcripts and subtitles in bulk
- [Google Trends Scraper](https://apify.com/ahmad_mahameed/google-trends-scraper): interest over time, regions, rising queries
- [Website Contact Finder](https://apify.com/ahmad_mahameed/website-contact-finder): emails, phones and socials from websites

### Feedback

Need another field? Open an issue on the Issues tab and it will be added quickly.

# Actor input Schema

## `urls` (type: `array`):

Video or Shorts URLs. Channel and playlist URLs work too: their newest videos are used.

## `maxComments` (type: `integer`):

How many top-level comments to get from each video.

## `sortBy` (type: `string`):

Top comments (most liked first, like YouTube's default) or newest first.

## `includeReplies` (type: `boolean`):

Also get replies to each comment. Replies are charged like comments.

## `maxRepliesPerComment` (type: `integer`):

Used when replies are on.

## `maxVideosPerSource` (type: `integer`):

For channel and playlist URLs: how many of their videos to read.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aircAruvnKk"
  ],
  "maxComments": 100,
  "sortBy": "top",
  "includeReplies": false,
  "maxRepliesPerComment": 10,
  "maxVideosPerSource": 10
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "urls": [
        "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aircAruvnKk"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("ahmad_mahameed/youtube-comments-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "urls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aircAruvnKk"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("ahmad_mahameed/youtube-comments-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aircAruvnKk"
  ]
}' |
apify call ahmad_mahameed/youtube-comments-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,ahmad_mahameed/youtube-comments-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/4M0lhk3M1f3MdTKx4/builds/GfEOUliPVNojSS5pW/openapi.json