YouTube Playlist Scraper with transcript

Extract comprehensive data from YouTube playlists including video URLs, titles, thumbnails, view counts, like/dislike ratios, upload dates, duration, and transcript text for every video. The actor uses transcript extraction automatically and runs through Apify residential proxy by default.

Key Features

• Extracts complete metadata for all videos in YouTube playlists
• Supports transcript extraction for each video
• Handles rate limiting and pagination automatically
• Implements proxy support and user-agent rotation to minimize blocking risks
• Robust error handling and progress tracking
• Export functionality to JSON/CSV formats
• Pay-per-event monetization model for Actor owners
• Compliant with YouTube's terms of service

How to Use

1. Create a new task in Apify Console
2. Add one or more YouTube playlist URLs to scrape (must contain youtube.com/playlist)
3. Set maximum number of videos to extract (optional)
4. Run the Actor
5. Download results in JSON or CSV format

Input Configuration

• Playlist URLs: Enter the URLs of YouTube playlists you want to scrape (must contain youtube.com/playlist)
• Maximum Videos: Limit the number of videos to extract (0 for unlimited)

Transcripts are fetched automatically in English by default. Residential Apify proxy is also used by default in the runtime, so there is no proxy field in the public input form.

Pricing Model

The actor uses pay-per-event billing with separate events for the main cost drivers:

• video-extracted: Charged once for each video whose metadata is successfully extracted.
• transcript-extracted: Charged once for each video whose transcript is successfully retrieved.
• proxy-used: Charged once for each processed video because the actor uses residential proxy by default.
• apify-actor-start: The synthetic Apify start event used for startup cost coverage.

This split pricing keeps transcript and proxy costs visible as separate billable events.

Output Example

{
  "id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Music Video)",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/maxresdefault.jpg",
  "viewCount": 1000000000,
  "likeCount": 10000000,
  "dislikeCount": 100000,
  "likeRatio": 0.98,
  "uploadDate": "2009-10-24",
  "duration": 212,
  "channelName": "RickAstleyVEVO",
  "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw",
  "playlistId": "PL7u4BG8iCLjkCzP5krcHZ-X5DsUl0xdg9",
  "playlistTitle": "Popular Videos",
  "transcriptText": "We're no strangers to love",
  "transcriptLanguage": "English",
  "transcriptLanguageCode": "en",
  "transcriptIsGenerated": true,
  "transcriptIsTranslatable": true,
  "transcriptError": null
}

Output Fields

Field	Description
id	YouTube video ID
title	Video title
url	Full YouTube video URL
thumbnailUrl	Video thumbnail URL
viewCount	Number of views
likeCount	Number of likes
dislikeCount	Number of dislikes
likeRatio	Ratio of likes to total votes
uploadDate	Upload date (YYYY-MM-DD)
duration	Video duration in seconds
channelName	Channel name
channelUrl	Channel URL
playlistId	Playlist ID
playlistTitle	Playlist title
transcriptText	Transcript flattened into a single text field
transcriptLanguage	Language name of the selected transcript
transcriptLanguageCode	Language code of the selected transcript
transcriptIsGenerated	Whether the transcript is auto-generated
transcriptIsTranslatable	Whether the transcript can be translated
transcriptError	Error returned when transcript extraction fails

Integration Options

This Actor works well with:

• Data analysis tools
• Content research workflows
• Social media monitoring systems
• YouTube channel performance tracking