YouTube Channel Video Scraper

A powerful Apify Actor that scrapes video data from YouTube channels including titles, URLs, views, and duration information.

Features

• ✅ Scrapes video titles and URLs from YouTube channels
• ✅ Extracts metadata like views and duration (optional)
• ✅ Handles infinite scroll with configurable parameters
• ✅ Robust error handling and retry logic
• ✅ Works with modern YouTube DOM structure
• ✅ Configurable scraping limits and delays

Input Configuration

The actor accepts the following input parameters:

Field	Type	Required	Description	Default
channelUrl	String	✅	YouTube channel URL (must end with /videos)	-
maxVideos	Integer	❌	Number of videos to scrape (1-1000)	25
scrollDelay	Integer	❌	Delay between scroll actions in seconds (1-10)	2
maxScrolls	Integer	❌	Maximum number of scrolls to perform (1-50)	10
includeMetadata	Boolean	❌	Whether to scrape views and duration	true

Example Input

{
  "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@Apify/videos",
  "maxVideos": 25,
  "scrollDelay": 2,
  "maxScrolls": 10,
  "includeMetadata": true
}

Output

The actor outputs a dataset containing video information:

{
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@YourChannel/videos",
  "videos": [
    {
      "title": "Video Title",
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID",
      "views": "1.2M views",
      "duration": "12:34"
    }
  ],
  "totalVideos": 25,
  "scrapedAt": "2025-01-22T14:30:00.000Z"
}

Usage

Via Apify Console

1. Go to Apify Console
2. Create a new Actor or use this one
3. Configure the input parameters
4. Run the Actor

Via Apify API

import { ApifyApi } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyApi({
    token: 'YOUR_API_TOKEN',
});

const input = {
    channelUrl: 'https://www.youtube.com/@Apify/videos',
    maxVideos: 25
};

const run = await client.actor('your-actor-id').call(input);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();

Via Apify CLI

$apify call your-actor-id --input='{"channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@Apify/videos"}'

Technical Details

• Base Image: apify/actor-node-playwright-chrome:20
• Runtime: Node.js 20 with Playwright and Chrome
• Selectors: Multiple fallback selectors for YouTube's dynamic DOM
• Error Handling: Comprehensive try-catch blocks with retries
• Rate Limiting: Built-in delays and scroll limits to avoid blocking

Limitations

• YouTube may block requests if rate limits are exceeded
• Video counts depend on channel size and scroll settings
• Some private or restricted videos may not be accessible
• DOM selectors may need updates if YouTube changes their structure

Support

For issues, feature requests, or questions:

• Check the Actor's run logs for detailed error information
• Adjust scroll delays and limits if encountering rate limiting
• Ensure the channel URL format is correct (must end with /videos)

License

This actor is provided as-is for educational and research purposes.