# YouTube Comments Scraper – Replies, Likes & Top Words (`anatolia-data/youtube-comments-scraper`) Actor

Scrape comments and replies from any YouTube video or Short: text, author, likes, reply count, pinned and hearted-by-creator flags, date. Plus a free video summary with views, likes, comment count and the most-used words. No login, no API key. Pay per comment.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/anatolia-data/youtube-comments-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Oğulcan Katmer](https://apify.com/anatolia-data) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.50 / 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

## YouTube Comments Scraper – Replies, Likes & Top Words

Get the comments from any YouTube video or Short, with each comment's text, author, like count, reply count and date. The scraper also flags pinned comments and comments hearted by the creator. Replies are optional.

No login, no API key and no YouTube Data API quota needed.

### What you get

#### Per comment

| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| `text` | The comment |
| `author`, `authorChannelId` | Who wrote it (public channel handle) |
| `likes`, `replyCount` | Engagement on the comment |
| `publishedTimeText`, `publishedAtApprox` | "3 days ago" as shown on YouTube, and the approximate date |
| `isPinned`, `isHeartedByCreator`, `authorIsChannelOwner` | Creator interaction |
| `isReply`, `parentCommentId` | Thread structure when replies are included |
| `isEdited` | Whether the comment was edited |
| `commentUrl` | A direct link that opens the comment on YouTube |
| `videoTitle`, `channelName` | The video the comment belongs to |

#### Per video (free)

- Title, channel, subscribers, views, likes, total comment count and publish date
- Comments and replies collected
- The **25 most-used words** in the comments, for a quick read of what viewers talk about

### Input

```json
{
  "videos": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ", "https://youtube.com/shorts/xxxxxxxxxxx"],
  "maxComments": 500,
  "sort": "newest",
  "includeReplies": true,
  "keywords": ["price", "shipping"]
}
```

- **Videos** can be watch links, Shorts, youtu.be links, live streams or plain video ids.
- **Sort** by newest or by YouTube's top comments.
- **Keywords** and **minimum likes** filter the comments. You pay only for the comments that match.

### Common uses

- **Audience research.** Find out what viewers ask, praise or complain about.
- **Product feedback.** Read comments on review and unboxing videos about your product or a competitor's.
- **Sentiment and NLP datasets.** Get clean comment text with like counts.
- **Giveaways and community management.** Export every comment with a direct link.
- **Influencer vetting.** See how engaged a creator's audience really is.

### Notes and limits

- If the creator turned off comments, you get a status row that says so.
- Like counts above 1,000 are shown by YouTube in rounded form ("1.2K"). They are converted to numbers.
- Dates are relative on YouTube ("2 weeks ago"). `publishedAtApprox` converts them to an approximate date.
- Only public comments are collected. The scraper never logs in.
- This is an independent tool. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to YouTube or Google.

### Pricing

You pay per comment or reply returned. The video summary rows and status rows are free. You can cap the spend of a run with **Max cost per run** in the Apify Console.

### Support

Something missing or wrong? Open an issue on the **Issues** tab with the input you used and the run ID.

# Actor input Schema

## `videos` (type: `array`):

One per line: a YouTube video link (watch, Shorts, youtu.be, live) or an 11-character video id.

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

Same as above, for long lists loaded from a file or another Actor.

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

Top-level comments to collect from each video. Replies are counted separately.

## `sort` (type: `string`):

Newest first, or YouTube's top comments.

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

Also collect the replies under each comment.

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

Only used when replies are included.

## `keywords` (type: `array`):

Keep only comments containing at least one of these words. You pay only for comments that match.

## `minLikes` (type: `integer`):

Keep only comments with at least this many likes.

## `includeVideoSummary` (type: `boolean`):

Add one free row per video: title, channel, subscribers, views, likes, total comment count, comments collected and the 25 most-used words.

## `language` (type: `string`):

Language code for dates and labels, e.g. en, de, tr.

## `country` (type: `string`):

Two-letter country code.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Apify Proxy is recommended.

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

How many requests run at once.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "videos": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ],
  "startUrls": [],
  "maxComments": 100,
  "sort": "newest",
  "includeReplies": false,
  "maxRepliesPerComment": 20,
  "keywords": [],
  "minLikes": 0,
  "includeVideoSummary": true,
  "language": "en",
  "country": "US",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  },
  "maxConcurrency": 5
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

All rows.

## `overview` (type: `string`):

Open the dataset in a table view.

# 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 = {
    "videos": [
        "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("anatolia-data/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 = { "videos": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("anatolia-data/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 '{
  "videos": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ]
}' |
apify call anatolia-data/youtube-comments-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,anatolia-data/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/VKCgkvkEgewVmbeYt/builds/9UWdyLVuyZhNHNz8n/openapi.json