YouTube Channel Scraper

Extract channel metadata and video listings from any YouTube channel — subscriber counts, total views, video titles, view counts, durations, thumbnails, and more. Uses YouTube's internal InnerTube API directly (no browser, no Selenium, no Playwright). Fast, reliable, and low-cost.

---

What Does It Do?

YouTube Channel Scraper fetches two types of data from any YouTube channel:

1. Channel metadata — name, handle, description, subscriber count, total videos, total views, avatar, banner, verification status, keywords, and external links.
2. Video listings — all public videos with their title, URL, view count, duration, thumbnail, and relative publish time (e.g., "3 days ago", "2 years ago").

It handles all common channel URL formats: @handles, /channel/UCxxxxxxx IDs, and full youtube.com URLs.

---

Who Is It For?

• Content creators researching competitors and trending channels in their niche
• Marketing teams building influencer databases or tracking channel growth
• Data analysts building YouTube datasets for modeling and reporting
• Developers integrating YouTube channel data into dashboards, CRMs, or apps
• Researchers studying social media, digital culture, or media trends
• SEO professionals tracking video publishing cadence and view velocity

---

Why Use This Scraper?

• No browser required — pure HTTP via InnerTube API means fast runs and minimal memory
• 256 MB memory — runs efficiently without expensive compute instances
• Handles pagination — fetches up to 5,000 videos per channel with automatic continuation
• Flexible input — accepts @handles, channel IDs, or full YouTube URLs
• Structured output — two clean item types (channel + video) ready for export
• Cost-efficient pricing — pay per channel scraped and per video listed, not per page loaded

---

Data Fields

Channel Item (type: "channel")

Field	Type	Description
type	string	Always "channel"
channelId	string	YouTube channel ID (UCxxxxxxx)
channelName	string	Display name of the channel
channelHandle	string	@handle (e.g. @MrBeast)
channelUrl	string	Canonical channel URL
description	string	Full channel description
subscriberCount	number	Subscriber count as a number (null if hidden)
totalVideos	number	Total public videos on the channel
totalViews	number	All-time total views across all videos
joinedDate	string	Date the channel was created
location	string	Channel's stated location
country	string	Country from channel metadata
avatarUrl	string	URL to the channel avatar image
bannerUrl	string	URL to the channel banner image
isVerified	boolean	Whether the channel has a verified badge
isFamilySafe	boolean	Whether the channel is marked family-safe
keywords	array	Channel keywords/tags
links	array	External links with {text, url} for each

Video Item (type: "video")

Field	Type	Description
type	string	Always "video"
videoId	string	YouTube video ID
title	string	Video title
url	string	Full YouTube video URL
thumbnailUrl	string	URL to the video thumbnail
viewCount	number	Total views as a number (null if hidden)
duration	string	Duration in HH:MM:SS or MM:SS format
publishedText	string	Relative publish time (e.g. "2 months ago")
channelName	string	Name of the channel this video belongs to
channelId	string	ID of the channel this video belongs to

---

Pricing

This actor uses pay-per-event pricing — you only pay for results:

Event	Price	Description
Run start	$0.005	One-time charge when the actor starts
Channel scraped	$0.003	Per channel metadata item extracted
Video scraped	$0.001	Per video listing extracted

Example costs:

• 1 channel + 50 videos: $0.005 + $0.003 + $0.050 = $0.058
• 5 channels + 100 videos each: $0.005 + $0.015 + $0.500 = $0.520
• 1 channel + 500 videos: $0.005 + $0.003 + $0.500 = $0.508

Compute costs (memory/time) are minimal since this is HTTP-only with no browser.

---

How to Use

1. Open the actor on Apify Store
2. Enter channel URLs in the "Channels to Scrape" field — one per line. Accepts @handles, full URLs, or channel IDs.
3. Set max videos — how many videos to collect per channel (default: 50, max: 5,000)
4. Choose what to include — toggle channel info and/or video listings on/off
5. Click Start and wait for results (usually seconds for small channels, minutes for large ones)
6. Download results as JSON, CSV, or Excel from the dataset tab

---

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
channels	array	required	Channel URLs, @handles, or channel IDs to scrape
maxVideosPerChannel	integer	50	Max videos to fetch per channel (0 = skip videos)
includeChannelInfo	boolean	true	Include channel metadata item in output
includeVideos	boolean	true	Include individual video items in output

Accepted Channel Input Formats

All of the following are valid entries in the channels array:

@MrBeast
https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX6OQ3DkcsbYNE6H8uQQuVA
UCX6OQ3DkcsbYNE6H8uQQuVA
https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBeast6000

---

Output Example

Channel item

{
  "type": "channel",
  "channelId": "UCX6OQ3DkcsbYNE6H8uQQuVA",
  "channelName": "MrBeast",
  "channelHandle": "@MrBeast",
  "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX6OQ3DkcsbYNE6H8uQQuVA",
  "description": "SUBSCRIBE FOR A COOKIE\n\nOr don't. I'm a description, not a cop.",
  "subscriberCount": 350000000,
  "totalVideos": 800,
  "totalViews": 60000000000,
  "joinedDate": "Feb 19, 2012",
  "location": "",
  "country": "US",
  "avatarUrl": "https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/...",
  "bannerUrl": "https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/...",
  "isVerified": true,
  "isFamilySafe": true,
  "keywords": ["mrbeast", "challenge", "philanthropy"],
  "links": [
    { "text": "Instagram", "url": "https://www.instagram.com/mrbeast/" },
    { "text": "Twitter", "url": "https://twitter.com/MrBeast" }
  ]
}

Video item

{
  "type": "video",
  "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "title": "I Spent 50 Hours Buried Alive",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/maxresdefault.jpg",
  "viewCount": 45000000,
  "duration": "14:32",
  "publishedText": "3 months ago",
  "channelName": "MrBeast",
  "channelId": "UCX6OQ3DkcsbYNE6H8uQQuVA"
}

---

Tips and Best Practices

Scraping many channels efficiently

• Use an array of channels in a single run — the actor processes them sequentially without extra cost.
• Set includeChannelInfo: false if you only need video listings for channels you already have metadata for.
• Set maxVideosPerChannel: 0 if you only want channel metadata without any videos.

Getting more than 50 videos

The default is 50 videos per channel for quick runs. To get all videos from a large channel, set maxVideosPerChannel to a high value like 5000. The actor handles pagination automatically.

Channels with hidden subscriber counts

Some channels (especially smaller creators) hide their subscriber count. In that case, subscriberCount will be null rather than a number.

Private or removed channels

If a channel URL is invalid, private, or the channel has been terminated, the actor will log a warning and skip it — it will not fail the entire run.

---

Integrations

Google Sheets / Spreadsheets

Use the Apify → Google Sheets integration to automatically push scraped channel or video data into a spreadsheet. Go to Integrations tab → Google Sheets → connect your account.

Webhooks and Zapier

Trigger downstream workflows when the actor finishes using webhooks. Compatible with Zapier, Make (Integromat), and n8n for no-code automations like sending results to Slack or updating a CRM.

Scheduled Runs

Use Apify's built-in scheduler to run this actor daily or weekly to track channel growth over time. Combine with a Google Sheet integration to build a live dashboard.

---

API Usage

Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_API_TOKEN' });

const run = await client.actor('automation-lab/youtube-channel-scraper').call({
  channels: ['@MrBeast', '@mkbhd'],
  maxVideosPerChannel: 25,
  includeChannelInfo: true,
  includeVideos: true,
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient(token="YOUR_API_TOKEN")

run = client.actor("automation-lab/youtube-channel-scraper").call(run_input={
    "channels": ["@MrBeast", "@mkbhd"],
    "maxVideosPerChannel": 25,
    "includeChannelInfo": True,
    "includeVideos": True,
})

for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

cURL

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/automation-lab~youtube-channel-scraper/runs?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "channels": ["@MrBeast"],
    "maxVideosPerChannel": 10
  }'

---

Use with Claude AI (MCP)

This actor is available as a tool in Claude AI through the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Add it to Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, or any MCP-compatible client.

Setup for Claude Code

$claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com"

Setup for Claude Desktop, Cursor, or VS Code

Add this to your MCP config file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com"
        }
    }
}

Example prompts

• "Get the last 50 videos from @LinusTechTips along with their view counts and durations."
• "Scrape the channel metadata for these 10 YouTube channels and compare their subscriber counts."
• "Fetch all videos from @mkbhd and list the ones with over 5 million views."

Learn more in the Apify MCP documentation.

---

Legal and Ethical Use

This actor accesses publicly available YouTube channel pages and video listings using the same InnerTube API that YouTube's own web client uses. All data extracted is publicly visible to any visitor on YouTube.

Important notes:

• Only public channels and public videos are accessible
• Private videos, private channels, and age-restricted content cannot be accessed
• Do not use this tool for harassment, doxxing, or bulk-tracking individual creators without legitimate purpose
• Respect YouTube's Terms of Service and use data responsibly
• This tool does not download video files, only metadata

---

FAQ

Q: Does this work with brand accounts or YouTube Music channels? A: Yes — any public YouTube channel with a UC... channel ID works, including brand accounts and music channels.

Q: Why is subscriberCount null for some channels? A: YouTube allows creators to hide their exact subscriber count. When a channel has fewer than 1,000 subscribers or has opted to hide the count, the API returns no number. The actor returns null in that case.

Q: Can I get video comments or descriptions? A: This actor focuses on channel and video listing data. For video transcripts and metadata including descriptions, use YouTube Transcript Scraper.

Q: Why are some videos missing from large channels? A: YouTube sometimes limits how many videos appear in the videos tab for very large channels (1,000+ videos). This is a YouTube platform limitation, not an actor bug. Setting a high maxVideosPerChannel value will fetch all available videos.

Q: Why is publishedText relative ("2 months ago") instead of an exact date? A: YouTube's InnerTube API returns relative time for the videos listing tab. To get exact publish dates, you would need to call the individual video page, which would significantly increase cost. The relative text is sufficient for most use cases.

Q: How do I get data for multiple channels at once? A: Simply enter multiple channels in the channels array. Each channel is processed in the same run — there's no need to run the actor separately for each one.

Q: The actor skipped my channel — what happened? A: The actor logs a warning and continues when a channel cannot be resolved. Check the actor log for details. Common causes: typo in the handle, channel deleted or suspended, or channel set to private.

---

Related Scrapers

• YouTube Transcript Scraper — Extract full video transcripts and captions
• YouTube Shorts Scraper — Scrape YouTube Shorts with engagement data
• Google News Scraper — Collect news articles from Google News
• Google Trends Scraper — Track keyword trends over time