🎬 YouTube Shorts Scraper - Channel Shorts to CSV

Export the Shorts of any YouTube channel: title, link, views and thumbnail, with the channel's name, handle and subscriber count on every row. Latest, most popular or oldest first. No API key, no login, no proxy to configure. Export to JSON/CSV/Excel, run on a schedule, call via API, or connect to Make, Zapier or n8n.

🔎 What is the YouTube Shorts Scraper?

It is an Apify Actor that reads a channel's Shorts tab the way YouTube's own site loads it, without a browser. The default run (ten Shorts) takes about four seconds, and the 201 Shorts of one channel took 3.5 seconds in our test on Apify.

Give it channel links (with or without /shorts), @handles or channel ids. Choose the order YouTube offers on the tab: latest, most popular or oldest first. With Include exact details on, every Short also gets its exact view count, publication date, likes and description.

What data does it extract?

• Short: video_id (also as short_id), url, title, thumbnail, source_position
• Reach: view_count
• With details on: exact view_count, upload_date, like_count, description, channel_is_verified
• Channel: channel, channel_id, channel_url, channel_handle, channel_subscribers

⬇️ Input

Field	Type	What it does
channelUrls	array	Channel links, @handles or channel ids (UC…)
maxResults	integer	Shorts per channel. 10 by default, up to 100,000
sort	string	latest, popular or oldest
includeDetails	boolean	Exact views, date, likes and description per Short

Example input

The 100 most popular Shorts of a channel, with exact numbers:

{
  "channelUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast/shorts"],
  "maxResults": 100,
  "sort": "popular",
  "includeDetails": true
}

⬆️ Output

A real row:

{
  "video_id": "W1Z9xX0gy14",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/W1Z9xX0gy14",
  "title": "How to find why the top TikToks in your niche are winning with one prompt #apify  #webscraping  #ai",
  "type": "short",
  "view_count": 510,
  "published": null,
  "duration_seconds": null,
  "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/W1Z9xX0gy14/sardefault.jpg",
  "channel": "Apify",
  "channel_id": "UCTgwcoeGGKmZ3zzCXN2qo_A",
  "channel_url": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTgwcoeGGKmZ3zzCXN2qo_A",
  "channel_handle": "@Apify",
  "channel_is_verified": null,
  "description": null,
  "channel_subscribers": 30200,
  "source_position": 1,
  "short_id": "W1Z9xX0gy14",
  "channel_follower_count": 30200,
  "scraped_at": "2026-10-03T11:18:30.357737+00:00"
}

published and duration_seconds stay empty for Shorts: YouTube shows neither on the Shorts tab. upload_date arrives with details on.

💰 How much does it cost?

You pay per saved row, plus a tiny start fee per run.

Apify plan	Price per 1,000 rows
Free	$1.50
Starter	$1.35
Scale	$1.275
Business	$1.20

The default run (ten Shorts) costs 1.5 cents. Details do not cost extra. Set Maximum cost per run in the run options and the Actor stops at that amount and says so in the status message.

💡 Use cases

• 🔥 Find a channel's winning Shorts: most popular first shows which hooks and topics took off.
• 📈 Track Shorts output: a scheduled run in latest order collects every new Short with its early view count.
• 🤝 Creator vetting: compare typical Shorts views with the subscriber count before a campaign.
• 🧠 Trend research: export the Shorts of the leading channels in a niche and compare titles and reach.

❓ FAQ

Do I need a YouTube API key or a Google account? No. The Actor reads what YouTube's own site loads for any visitor and uses no API quota.

Why are some view counts round numbers? YouTube shows large counts rounded in lists (88K, 4.3M). With Include exact details on, the row carries the exact number.

Why is there no exact date in the list rows? YouTube lists only show an age ("2 days ago"). Turn on Include exact details and each row gets upload_date, the exact view_count, like_count and the full description, at one extra request per video and the same price per row.

Is it legal to scrape YouTube? The Actor reads only what YouTube shows publicly to any visitor and does not log in. Channel and video data can be personal data, so GDPR, CCPA and similar rules apply to how you store and use it, and YouTube's terms apply to you as well. If in doubt, ask a lawyer.

Something is missing or broken? Open an issue on the Actor's Issues tab with the run ID. Issues are answered within one business day.

Does maxResults count per channel or per run? Per channel. To cap the whole run, set Maximum cost per run.

Why are short_id and channel_follower_count there? They repeat video_id and channel_subscribers under the names earlier versions of this Actor used, so existing integrations keep working.

What if a channel has no Shorts? It is named in the status message and the SUMMARY record, and the run still succeeds with the other channels.

Can it search Shorts by keyword? That is what the YouTube Search Results Scraper does: set its type filter to Shorts only.

🔗 You might also like

• YouTube Channel Videos Scraper
• YouTube Playlist Scraper
• YouTube Search Results Scraper
• YouTube Video Metadata Scraper
• YouTube Comments Scraper
• YouTube Transcript Scraper

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