YouTube Channel Scraper

Extract video data from YouTube channels including titles, URLs, thumbnails, view counts, and publish dates.

Features

• Data Extraction: Collect video metadata from YouTube channels
• Sorting Options: Sort by latest, popular, or oldest uploads
• Custom Limits: Control the number of videos to extract
• Browser Automation: Uses Playwright for reliable data extraction

Use Cases

• YouTube channel analysis and research
• Video metadata collection
• Content planning and trend analysis
• Market research and competitive analysis
• Building video databases or archives

Related Actors

• YouTube Transcript Extractor by akash9078 - Extract video transcripts using timestamps
• YouTube Video Scraper by akash9078 - Scrape individual YouTube videos with full metadata

Input

Provide input in JSON format:

{
  "channel_url": "https://www.youtube.com/@apify",
  "max_videos": 50,
  "sort_by": "popular",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false,
    "apifyProxyGroups": []
  }
}

Input Parameters

• channel_url (required): YouTube channel URL

  • Format: https://www.youtube.com/@channelname
  • Example: https://www.youtube.com/@apify
  • Default: The channel URL provided in the input

• max_videos (optional): Maximum number of videos to scrape

  • Type: Integer
  • Range: 1-1000
  • Default: 10

• sort_by (optional): Sort order for videos

  • Options: latest, popular, oldest
  • Default: latest

• proxyConfiguration (optional): Proxy settings

  • useApifyProxy: Enable/disable Apify Proxy (default: false)
  • apifyProxyGroups: Proxy groups to use (when proxy is enabled)
    • [] or "auto": Datacenter proxies (SHADER group) - fastest and cheapest
    • "RESIDENTIAL": Residential proxies - least likely to be blocked but more expensive

Output

Each scraped video includes:

• title: Video title
• url: Direct YouTube video link
• thumbnail_url: HD thumbnail image URL (maxresdefault quality)
• views: View count
• published_date: Publish date

Example output:

[
  {
    "title": "Sample Video Title",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=example",
    "thumbnail_url": "https://img.youtube.com/vi/example/hqdefault.jpg",
    "views": "100K views",
    "published_date": "2 days ago"
  }
]

How It Works

1. Accepts YouTube channel URL and configuration parameters
2. Launches headless browser using Playwright
3. Navigates to the channel's videos page
4. Applies the selected sorting filter
5. Scrolls to load videos until reaching the specified limit
6. Extracts video metadata using DOM selectors
7. Returns structured data in JSON format

Pricing

Pay-Per-Event (PPE) pricing model:

• Charged per video scraped

Notes

• Works with public YouTube channels only
• Requires stable internet connection
• Large channel pages may require more scraping time
• YouTube updates may occasionally affect selectors