YouTube Community Posts Scraper

This Apify Actor scrapes community posts from YouTube channels, extracting detailed information including post content, engagement metrics, attachments, and poll data. Perfect for content research, engagement analysis, and social media strategy development.

Features

• Comprehensive Data Extraction: Scrapes post text, author information, likes, comments, poll choices, images, and videos
• Multiple Channel Support: Process multiple YouTube channels in a single run
• Flexible Limits: Set maximum number of posts to scrape per channel
• Rich Metadata: Captures attachment types (video/image/poll/post), timestamps, and engagement metrics
• Reliable Scraping: Uses Camoufox browser automation for robust data extraction

Output Data

Each scraped post includes the following fields:

Field	Description
postId	Unique identifier for the community post
author	Name of the post creator
postLink	Direct URL to the post
publishedTime	Relative time when the post was published (e.g., "2 weeks ago")
timeOfDownload	Timestamp when the data was scraped
text	The text content of the post
likesCount	Number of likes the post received
commentsCount	Total number of comments on the post
videoLink	URL to attached video (if applicable)
images	Array of image URLs attached to the post (if applicable)
pollChoices	Array of poll choice options (if the post is a poll)
attachmentType	Type of attachment: "video", "image", "poll", or "post" (text-only)
channelUrl	URL of the YouTube channel the post belongs to

Input Configuration

The Actor accepts the following input parameters:

Required

• start_urls (array): List of YouTube channel URLs to scrape. Supports both formats:
  • https://www.youtube.com/@ChannelName
  • https://www.youtube.com/channel/CHANNEL_ID

Optional

• max_posts (integer, default: 10): Maximum number of posts to scrape per channel. YouTube typically allows up to 200 posts per channel.

Usage

Using Apify Console

1. Go to the Actor page in the Apify Console
2. Click "Start" to open the input configuration
3. Add YouTube channel URLs in the start_urls field
4. Optionally set max_posts to limit the number of posts scraped
5. Click "Start" to run the Actor
6. Wait for the run to complete and download results from the Dataset

Example Input

{
  "start_urls": [
    {"url": "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast"}
  ],
  "max_posts": 50
}

Using Apify API

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/YOUR_ACTOR_ID/runs" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "start_urls": [
      {"url": "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast"}
    ],
    "max_posts": 50
  }'

Example Output

[
  {
    "postId": "Ugkx-B-xTpQa9uApirojWaZsjkWCUaEzc24y",
    "author": "MrBeast",
    "postLink": "https://www.youtube.com/post/Ugkx-B-xTpQa9uApirojWaZsjkWCUaEzc24y",
    "publishedTime": "11 days ago",
    "timeOfDownload": "19/12/2025, 10:40:43",
    "text": "I just launched a BRAND NEW Feastables product. Watch the video below to see what it is. I promise you'll love it!",
    "likesCount": "93K",
    "commentsCount": "974",
    "videoLink": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF0rqeymxmQ",
    "images": null,
    "pollChoices": null,
    "attachmentType": "video",
    "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast"
  },
  {
    "postId": "Ugkxb5JzX362uGUdzayf61nmJFOrqtglQBEg",
    "author": "MrBeast",
    "postLink": "https://www.youtube.com/post/Ugkxb5JzX362uGUdzayf61nmJFOrqtglQBEg",
    "publishedTime": "2 weeks ago",
    "timeOfDownload": "19/12/2025, 10:40:43",
    "text": "WE DID IT!!!!! TEAMWATER HIT ITS GOAL AND NOW 2,000,000 WILL GET CLEAN WATER 🥰 🎉",
    "likesCount": "330K",
    "commentsCount": "2.5K",
    "videoLink": null,
    "images": [
      "https://yt3.ggpht.com/DeT-ij2PlgUIyvnsJu594vpJoF6ukMiPK6ulR-R9XHlmw-0Ow_tCnBHmB23k3levQ5rtoqZ9id6izPs=s288-c-fcrop64=1,1ba30000e45cffff-rw-nd-v1",
      "https://yt3.ggpht.com/DeT-ij2PlgUIyvnsJu594vpJoF6ukMiPK6ulR-R9XHlmw-0Ow_tCnBHmB23k3levQ5rtoqZ9id6izPs=s400-c-fcrop64=1,1ba30000e45cffff-rw-nd-v1",
      "https://yt3.ggpht.com/DeT-ij2PlgUIyvnsJu594vpJoF6ukMiPK6ulR-R9XHlmw-0Ow_tCnBHmB23k3levQ5rtoqZ9id6izPs=s512-c-fcrop64=1,1ba30000e45cffff-rw-nd-v1",
      "https://yt3.ggpht.com/DeT-ij2PlgUIyvnsJu594vpJoF6ukMiPK6ulR-R9XHlmw-0Ow_tCnBHmB23k3levQ5rtoqZ9id6izPs=s640-c-fcrop64=1,1ba30000e45cffff-rw-nd-v1",
      "https://yt3.ggpht.com/DeT-ij2PlgUIyvnsJu594vpJoF6ukMiPK6ulR-R9XHlmw-0Ow_tCnBHmB23k3levQ5rtoqZ9id6izPs=s800-c-fcrop64=1,1ba30000e45cffff-rw-nd-v1",
      "https://yt3.ggpht.com/DeT-ij2PlgUIyvnsJu594vpJoF6ukMiPK6ulR-R9XHlmw-0Ow_tCnBHmB23k3levQ5rtoqZ9id6izPs=s1024-c-fcrop64=1,1ba30000e45cffff-rw-nd-v1",
      "https://yt3.ggpht.com/DeT-ij2PlgUIyvnsJu594vpJoF6ukMiPK6ulR-R9XHlmw-0Ow_tCnBHmB23k3levQ5rtoqZ9id6izPs=s1035-c-fcrop64=1,1ba30000e45cffff-rw-nd-v1"
    ],
    "pollChoices": null,
    "attachmentType": "image",
    "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast"
  },
  {
    "postId": "UgkxHfpLdJiBz5UK81CSIMaE77sHmErjkCN5",
    "author": "MrBeast",
    "postLink": "https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxHfpLdJiBz5UK81CSIMaE77sHmErjkCN5",
    "publishedTime": "4 weeks ago",
    "timeOfDownload": "19/12/2025, 10:40:43",
    "text": "If I offered you $1,000,000 but you only keep it if the first person you call answers, who would you call?",
    "likesCount": "382K",
    "commentsCount": "16K",
    "videoLink": null,
    "images": null,
    "pollChoices": null,
    "attachmentType": "post",
    "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast"
  },
]

Use Cases

• Content Research: Identify popular topics and trends within YouTube channels to align content with audience preferences
• Engagement Analysis: Track likes, comments, and interactions to understand what drives the most engagement
• Competitive Analysis: Monitor competitor channels to analyze their community post strategies
• Audience Insights: Understand audience behavior and preferences through poll results and engagement metrics
• Content Strategy: Use historical post data to inform future content planning and posting schedules
• Social Media Management: Aggregate community post data for comprehensive social media analytics

Limitations

• Post Limit: YouTube typically allows access to up to 200 posts per channel
• Rate Limiting: Be mindful of YouTube's rate limits when scraping multiple channels
• Channel Requirements: Only channels with a Community tab enabled will have scrapable posts
• Dynamic Content: Some posts may require JavaScript rendering, which this Actor handles automatically

Pricing

This Actor runs on the Apify platform. It requires a $5/month rental fee to access, in addition to compute resource usage (CPU time, memory, and data transfer).

Technical Details

• Browser Automation: Uses Camoufox (Playwright-based) for reliable JavaScript rendering
• Data Extraction: Parses embedded JSON data from YouTube's internal API
• Pagination: Automatically handles continuation tokens for fetching additional posts
• Error Handling: Robust error handling with detailed logging for debugging

Support

For issues, questions, or feature requests, please check the Actor's page on Apify or contact the maintainer.

FAQ

Q: How many posts can I scrape per channel?
A: YouTube typically allows access to up to 200 posts per channel. You can set the max_posts parameter to control this.

Q: Can I scrape multiple channels at once?
A: Yes! Add multiple channel URLs to the start_urls array to scrape multiple channels in a single run.

Q: What format is the output data?
A: All data is exported as JSON to the Apify Dataset, which can be downloaded in JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or HTML formats.

Q: Does this scrape post comments?
A: Currently, this Actor extracts comment counts but not individual comment content. The comment count is included in the commentsCount field.

Q: How do I handle rate limiting?
A: The Actor includes built-in delays and uses browser automation to minimize detection. For high-volume scraping, consider using Apify's proxy options.

Q: Can I run this Actor on a schedule?
A: Yes! Use Apify's scheduling feature to run the Actor automatically at specified intervals.