Youtube Shorts Scraper

YouTube Shorts Scraper

YouTube Shorts Scraper extracts structured information from YouTube channel pages and their Shorts content. Provide one or more YouTube channel URLs, choose the maximum number of Shorts to process per channel, and receive detailed records for the discovered Shorts.

The returned dataset can include Short titles, video IDs, watch URLs, thumbnails, view counts, upload dates, duration, descriptions, channel information, hashtags, tags, and transcript samples when caption data is available.

This Actor is designed for content research, YouTube analytics, channel research, dataset creation, competitive analysis, and automated Shorts data collection. It accepts multiple channel URLs in a single run, making it suitable for workflows that need structured information from more than one YouTube channel.

What Is a YouTube Shorts Scraper?

A YouTube Shorts Scraper is a data extraction tool that collects information about Shorts associated with YouTube channels. Instead of manually opening individual videos and recording their information, you can provide channel URLs and let the Actor return structured records.

This YouTube Shorts Scraper focuses on channel-level Shorts discovery. It processes the supplied channel URLs, identifies Shorts-related video records, and then returns detailed information for the discovered videos.

The output is structured for further analysis, storage, dataset creation, and automated workflows. Each result represents a Short and contains fields covering video metadata, channel information, engagement data, publishing information, and available transcript content.

Key Features

Feature	Description	User Benefit
Channel URL input	Accepts one or more YouTube channel URLs or share links through startUrls.	Process multiple channels in one run.
Shorts discovery	Identifies Shorts-related video IDs from supplied channel pages.	Collect Shorts without manually opening every video.
Maximum Shorts control	maxshorts controls the maximum number of Shorts requested per channel.	Control the size of each channel's collection.
Detailed video metadata	Returns title, ID, URL, description, duration, upload date, and other information.	Build richer Shorts datasets.
View count data	Provides formatted and raw view count values when available.	Support quantitative content analysis.
Channel information	Returns channel name, channel URL, and channel ID when available.	Connect each Short with its publishing channel.
Thumbnail extraction	Returns a thumbnail URL when available.	Support visual content research.
Hashtag extraction	Extracts hashtag-like terms from the Short description.	Analyze topics and content themes.
Tag collection	Returns available video keyword tags.	Support content and topic analysis.
Transcript sample	Attempts to collect available caption text when caption information is available.	Add textual content to research datasets.
Structured dataset records	Pushes each processed result to the Actor dataset.	Make collected information easier to analyze and reuse.

What Data Can You Extract?

The YouTube Shorts Scraper returns a broad set of fields describing each discovered Short.

Video information includes the title, video type, video ID, YouTube watch URL, description, duration, upload date, and thumbnail URL.

Engagement information includes a human-readable viewCount and a numeric viewCountRaw when the source provides a usable view count.

Channel information includes channelName, channelUrl, and channelId. The inputChannelUrl field records the first supplied channel URL used by the current run.

Content information includes hashtags derived from the description, available tags, and a transcript sample when caption data can be retrieved.

Additional processing-related fields include liveBroadcastDetails and processingDetails, which describe the returned record's live status and processing/playability information.

Why Use This Actor?

Manually collecting Shorts data can involve repeatedly opening channel pages, identifying individual Shorts, recording metadata, and organizing the information into a consistent dataset.

The YouTube Shorts Scraper turns that workflow into a repeatable data collection process. You provide channel URLs and a maximum Shorts count, then receive structured records that can be reviewed or used in downstream research.

It is particularly useful when your workflow requires more than a video title or URL. The Actor can return channel information, view counts, descriptions, tags, thumbnails, durations, dates, and transcript samples in the same dataset.

Benefits

• Automated Shorts research: Reduce repetitive manual collection of individual video information.

• Multiple channel processing: Supply more than one channel URL through the startUrls input.

• Structured data: Results are returned as structured dataset records instead of requiring manual copying.

• Flexible collection size: Use maxshorts to control the requested number of Shorts per channel.

• Rich metadata: Collect video, channel, engagement, publishing, and content-related information together.

• Research-ready results: Use the dataset for content analysis, channel comparisons, topic research, or other data workflows.

How to Use the YouTube Shorts Scraper

1. Open the Actor input configuration.

2. Add one or more YouTube channel URLs to startUrls.

3. Set maxshorts if you want to change the default maximum of 20 Shorts per channel.

4. Review the available proxy configuration if your workflow requires it.

5. Start the Actor.

6. Review the resulting dataset records.

7. Use the structured Shorts data for research, analysis, dataset creation, or your next automation step.

The supplied URLs can be channel pages or channel URLs that point to Shorts-related pages. The Actor also handles channel paths where the Shorts section is already included.

Input

The Actor accepts three configured input fields: startUrls, maxshorts, and proxyConfiguration.

The required field is startUrls. The other fields provide additional control over the run.

Input Fields

Field	Type	Required	Default	Description
startUrls	Array	Yes	None	One or more YouTube channel URLs or share links to process.
maxshorts	Integer	No	20	Maximum number of Shorts to extract from each supplied channel.
proxyConfiguration	Object	No	UI prefill available	Optional proxy configuration exposed through the Apify input interface.

The startUrls field uses Apify's request-list style input. Each item should contain a URL.

The Actor also accepts channel URLs that already include /shorts. When a standard channel URL is supplied, the Actor can use the channel's Shorts-related path during collection.

Input Example

{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@KVNPRODUCTIONSOFFICIAL"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@BMWNOLIMITM5/shorts"
    }
  ],
  "maxshorts": 20,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}

Output

Each successfully processed Short is pushed as a dataset record.

The YouTube Shorts Scraper output contains video metadata, channel information, engagement values, content fields, and processing information. Some fields can be null, empty, or unavailable when the corresponding information is not present in the returned source data.

The Actor also attempts to populate transcriptSample when caption information is available. The transcript field is an array of text lines rather than a single combined paragraph.

Output Fields

Field	Description
title	Title of the Short.
type	Record type, returned as shorts.
id	YouTube video ID.
video_url	YouTube watch URL for the video.
thumbnailUrl	Available thumbnail URL.
viewCount	Human-readable view count such as 1.2M or 850k.
viewCountRaw	Numeric view count when available.
uploadDate	Publishing date when available.
duration	Video duration in seconds.
liveBroadcastDetails	Live-status information for the returned record.
processingDetails	Processing and embed-playability information.
description	Short description associated with the video.
channelName	Name of the publishing YouTube channel.
channelUrl	YouTube channel URL when a channel ID is available.
channelId	YouTube channel ID.
inputChannelUrl	First supplied channel URL associated with the run's processed records.
hashtags	Hashtag-like terms extracted from the description.
fromYTUrl	YouTube watch URL associated with the record.
tags	Available video keyword tags.
durationAlt	Duration represented as a string such as 32s.
transcriptSample	Available caption text represented as an array of transcript lines.

Output Example

The following example represents the structure of a returned dataset item. Values are illustrative.

{
  "title": "Example YouTube Short",
  "type": "shorts",
  "id": "AbCdEf12345",
  "video_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbCdEf12345",
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://example.com/thumbnail.jpg",
  "viewCount": "125.4k",
  "viewCountRaw": 125400,
  "uploadDate": "2026-09-10",
  "duration": 32,
  "liveBroadcastDetails": {
    "live_status": "not_live",
    "is_live": false
  },
  "processingDetails": {
    "status": "processed",
    "playable_in_embed": true
  },
  "description": "Example Short description #shorts #example",
  "channelName": "Example Channel",
  "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCExample",
  "channelId": "UCExample",
  "inputChannelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@ExampleChannel",
  "hashtags": [
    "#shorts",
    "#example"
  ],
  "fromYTUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbCdEf12345",
  "tags": [
    "example",
    "shorts"
  ],
  "durationAlt": "32s",
  "transcriptSample": [
    "Example transcript line one.",
    "Example transcript line two."
  ]
}

Use Cases

Content Research

Collect Shorts metadata across channels to study titles, descriptions, durations, hashtags, tags, publishing dates, and viewing activity.

YouTube Channel Research

Build structured datasets containing Shorts and their associated channel information for channel-level analysis.

Competitive Research

Compare publicly available Shorts information across multiple channels to understand content patterns, publishing activity, and audience engagement indicators.

Content Analysis

Use titles, descriptions, hashtags, tags, transcripts, and view counts as inputs for content categorization and topic analysis.

Dataset Creation

Create structured YouTube Shorts datasets for research, analytics, visualization, or other data-processing workflows.

Academic and Market Research

Use collected metadata and available transcript samples as research inputs when studying online video content, publishing behavior, or content trends.

Automation

Integrate recurring Shorts collection into broader data workflows where structured YouTube video records are useful.

Advantages

The main advantage of this YouTube Shorts Scraper is the combination of channel-based discovery and detailed Short-level output.

Instead of returning only URLs, the Actor provides multiple fields that can support deeper analysis. View counts, descriptions, channel identifiers, dates, durations, tags, hashtags, thumbnails, and transcript samples can be analyzed together.

Another practical advantage is configurable collection size. The maxshorts setting lets users control how many Shorts are requested from each channel.

The Actor also supports multiple channel inputs, which is useful for comparative research and larger structured datasets.

Limitations

• Results depend on the information available for the supplied YouTube content.

• Some output fields may be null or empty when the corresponding information is unavailable.

• Transcript content depends on caption information being available for the processed video.

• maxshorts controls the requested number of Shorts per channel, but the final number of returned records can be lower when suitable video information cannot be collected.

• The Actor is designed around YouTube channel and Shorts discovery rather than being a general-purpose scraper for every type of YouTube page.

• Multiple supplied channels can be processed in one run, but the current output assigns the first supplied startUrls value to inputChannelUrl for processed records.

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Supports one or more channel URLs	Some fields may be unavailable for individual videos
Configurable maximum Shorts count	Returned Shorts can be fewer than the requested maximum
Detailed video metadata	Transcript data depends on available captions
Includes channel information	Designed specifically around channel/Shorts collection
Provides formatted and raw view counts	Output availability can vary by source content
Structured dataset records	inputChannelUrl currently reflects the first supplied channel URL

Comparison With Alternative Approaches

Capability	This Actor	Manual / Typical Alternative
Channel-based Shorts collection	Supported	Often requires repeated manual navigation
Multiple channel inputs	Supported	Usually requires repeating the workflow
Maximum Shorts setting	Supported through maxshorts	Manual counting or separate configuration
Structured video records	Supported	May require manual formatting
View count fields	Included when available	Must often be recorded separately
Channel metadata	Included	Requires additional collection
Transcript sample	Attempted when captions are available	Requires separate caption collection
Dataset-oriented workflow	Supported	Often requires additional organization

This comparison is intended to describe workflow differences rather than claim universal superiority over other tools or methods.

Competitive Advantages

Users may choose this Actor when they need more than a simple list of YouTube Shorts URLs.

Its structured output combines video-level and channel-level information in individual records. This makes the resulting dataset useful for research workflows where title, description, view count, duration, publishing date, channel identity, tags, hashtags, and transcript information need to be analyzed together.

The ability to submit multiple channel URLs and control the maximum Shorts count also provides practical flexibility for both small tests and broader collection jobs.

Best Practices

• Start with one channel URL to verify that the returned dataset matches your requirements.

• Use valid YouTube channel URLs or channel Shorts URLs.

• Begin with the default maxshorts value before increasing the collection size.

• Review the first results before running a larger collection.

• Treat null or empty fields as potentially unavailable source information rather than assuming the record is invalid.

• Validate important view counts, dates, or transcript information before using them in high-value analysis.

• If transcript information is important to your workflow, check whether the returned records contain transcriptSample.

• Use multiple channel URLs when you need comparative Shorts research.

Troubleshooting

Invalid Input

Check that startUrls contains valid YouTube channel URLs or supported channel-related URLs. Each request-list item should contain a url value.

Empty Results

Verify that the supplied URL points to a YouTube channel and that the channel has Shorts or discoverable video content. You can also try a smaller test with a known active channel URL.

Fewer Shorts Than Requested

maxshorts is a maximum rather than a guarantee that exactly that number will always be returned. The available and successfully processed content can result in fewer records.

Missing Fields

Some fields can be unavailable for individual videos. Review the specific dataset record and use the fields that are populated.

Missing Transcript

The transcriptSample field depends on caption information being available. An empty transcript does not necessarily mean that the Short itself is unavailable.

Temporary Collection Problems

If a run does not return the expected records, review the input URLs and run a smaller test again. Checking the Actor run logs can also help identify whether the supplied channel URLs were processed successfully.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does the YouTube Shorts Scraper do?

The YouTube Shorts Scraper collects structured information about Shorts discovered from supplied YouTube channel URLs.

What input does the Actor require?

The required input is startUrls, an array containing one or more YouTube channel URLs or supported channel share links.

Can I process multiple YouTube channels?

Yes. startUrls accepts multiple URL entries, allowing more than one channel to be included in a run.

How many Shorts does it collect?

The maxshorts input controls the maximum number of Shorts requested from each channel. Its default value is 20.

What information is returned?

Results can include titles, video IDs, URLs, thumbnails, view counts, upload dates, durations, descriptions, channel information, hashtags, tags, and transcript samples when available.

Does the YouTube Shorts Scraper return view counts?

Yes. The output includes viewCount as a human-readable value and viewCountRaw as a numeric value when the source provides usable view count information.

Does it collect transcripts?

The Actor attempts to collect available caption text and places the resulting lines in transcriptSample. Transcript availability depends on the processed content.

Can I use the results for content research?

Yes. The returned metadata can support content research, channel research, competitive analysis, topic analysis, and structured dataset creation.

Why did I receive fewer results than maxshorts?

maxshorts defines the maximum requested number. The final result count can be lower when suitable Shorts cannot be discovered or individual video information cannot be successfully processed.

Can I change the proxy configuration?

The input interface includes an optional proxyConfiguration object. You can review and configure it through the Actor's Apify input interface according to your run requirements.

What should I do before a large run?

Start with a small test using one channel and a modest maxshorts value. Review the returned fields and then increase the collection size if the results meet your requirements.

NLP Keywords

• YouTube Shorts scraper
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• YouTube channel scraper
• Shorts video metadata
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• YouTube content extraction
• YouTube video information
• Shorts engagement data
• YouTube view count extraction
• YouTube video tags
• YouTube hashtags
• YouTube transcript data
• YouTube thumbnail extraction
• Shorts channel research
• structured YouTube data

Related Keywords

• scrape YouTube Shorts from channel
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• YouTube Shorts view count scraper
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• YouTube Shorts hashtag scraper
• YouTube Shorts transcript extractor
• YouTube Shorts thumbnail scraper
• bulk YouTube channel scraper
• multiple YouTube channel data extraction
• YouTube Shorts content analysis
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Final Overview

The YouTube Shorts Scraper provides a structured way to collect Shorts information from one or more YouTube channel URLs. It combines channel-based Shorts discovery with detailed video records containing metadata, engagement information, publishing details, channel identifiers, tags, hashtags, thumbnails, and available transcript samples.

The Actor accepts startUrls, supports configurable maxshorts collection limits, and returns structured dataset records for each successfully processed Short. This makes it useful for content research, competitive analysis, channel research, data analysis, and dataset creation.

For the best workflow, begin with a small test run, verify the returned fields, and then scale the collection according to your research requirements.

Contact me: Alphascraper69@gmail.com