YouTube Video Scraper By Hashtag

A powerful Apify Actor that scrapes YouTube videos by hashtags, keywords, or usernames. This actor efficiently extracts video metadata including titles, thumbnails, view counts, and URLs from YouTube search results.

Why Choose Us?

• Bulk Processing: Scrape multiple hashtags/keywords in a single run
• Smart Proxy Fallback: Automatically switches between no proxy, datacenter, and residential proxies if blocked
• Comprehensive Data: Extracts video IDs, titles, thumbnails, view counts, and more
• Shorts Support: Option to filter for YouTube Shorts only
• Robust Error Handling: Automatic retries and fallback mechanisms ensure maximum success rate

Key Features

• Scrape videos by hashtags, keywords, or usernames
• Support for bulk input (multiple hashtags at once)
• Filter for YouTube Shorts only
• Automatic proxy fallback (no proxy → datacenter → residential)
• Detailed logging for monitoring progress
• Continuation token handling for pagination
• Duplicate video detection

Input

Example Input

{
  "hashtags": ["chatgpt", "Bangladesh"],
  "maxResults": 100,
  "scrapeShortsOnly": false,
  "sortOrder": "relevance",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}

Input Fields

• hashtags (required): Array of YouTube hashtags (e.g., #chatgpt), keywords (e.g., chatgpt), or usernames to scrape. Supports bulk input.
• maxResults (optional, default: 100): Maximum number of videos to scrape per hashtag/keyword. Range: 1-1000.
• scrapeShortsOnly (optional, default: false): If enabled, only YouTube Shorts will be scraped.
• sortOrder (optional, default: "relevance"): Sort order for results. Options: "relevance", "date", "viewCount", "rating".
• proxyConfiguration (optional): Proxy configuration. By default, no proxy is used. If YouTube blocks the request, the actor will automatically fallback to datacenter proxy, then residential proxy.

Output

Example Output

[
  {
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/f2mRAGvKca8/hq720.jpg",
    "title": "How To Use ChatGPT in Bengali",
    "id": "f2mRAGvKca8",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2mRAGvKca8",
    "viewCount": 1224495,
    "type": "video",
    "hashtagCategoryData.categoryInfoText": "1.9M videos • 577K channels"
  }
]

Output Fields

• thumbnailUrl: URL of the video thumbnail image
• title: Title of the video
• id: YouTube video ID
• url: Full YouTube video URL
• viewCount: Number of views (as integer)
• type: Video type ("video" or "shorts")
• hashtagCategoryData.categoryInfoText: Category information text from YouTube

🚀 How to Use the Actor (via Apify Console)

1. Log in at https://console.apify.com and go to Actors.
2. Find your actor (youtube-video-scraper-by-hashtag) and click it.
3. Configure inputs:
   • Enter hashtags/keywords (supports bulk input)
   • Set maxResults per hashtag
   • Toggle scrapeShortsOnly if needed
   • Configure proxy settings (optional)
4. Run the actor.
5. Monitor logs in real time to see progress and proxy fallback events.
6. Access results in the OUTPUT tab.
7. Export results to JSON or CSV.

Best Use Cases

• Content Research: Find trending videos by hashtag
• Competitor Analysis: Monitor videos from specific keywords
• Trend Monitoring: Track popular content in your niche
• Data Collection: Gather video metadata for analysis
• SEO Research: Analyze video performance by topic

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I scrape comments?
A: This actor currently scrapes video metadata only. Comments scraping is not included.

Q: What happens if YouTube blocks my requests?
A: The actor automatically falls back through proxy options: no proxy → datacenter proxy → residential proxy (with 3 retries).

Q: How many videos can I scrape?
A: You can set maxResults from 1 to 1000 per hashtag. The actor will continue paginating until it reaches the limit or runs out of results.

Q: Does it work with private videos?
A: No, the actor only scrapes publicly available videos from YouTube search results.

Q: Can I filter for specific video types?
A: Yes, use the scrapeShortsOnly option to filter for YouTube Shorts only.

Support and Feedback

For issues, questions, or feedback, please contact support through the Apify platform.

Cautions

• Data is collected only from publicly available sources.
• No data is taken from private accounts or password-protected content.
• The end user is responsible for ensuring legal compliance (spam laws, privacy, data protection, etc.).
• Respect YouTube's Terms of Service and rate limits.
• Use proxies responsibly to avoid overwhelming YouTube's servers.