# YouTube Comments - Comments & Replies (`bin_ai_tools/youtube-comments`) Actor

Extract public YouTube comments and optional replies as clean rows with success-only pay-per-result billing.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/bin\_ai\_tools/youtube-comments.md
- **Developed by:** [Bin Bin](https://apify.com/bin_ai_tools) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media, Videos
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$0.50 / 1,000 comment results

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

Turn public YouTube video URLs into clean comment and reply rows for research, moderation analysis, VOC work, or API workflows.

### Input

- `urls`: 1–20 YouTube video URLs or IDs.
- `maxComments`: maximum delivered comment/reply rows per video, up to 1000.
- `includeReplies`: include available replies as separate rows.
- `sortBy`: `TOP_COMMENTS` or `NEWEST_FIRST`.

### Output

Each delivered row includes video ID, comment ID, optional parent comment ID, reply flag, author fields, clean text, likes and published-time text. Replies are linked to their parent comment instead of being mixed into one text blob.

### Billing

PPE event: `comment-result`.

Each comment or reply is charged only after that row is successfully written to the dataset. A hard video-level failure produces one diagnostic `FAILED` row and no PPE event. The Actor code does not add a separate start charge.

### Scope

This Actor focuses only on the job `video URL → comments/replies`. It does not fetch transcripts, search YouTube, or download media.

### Reliability and cost controls

- `maxComments` limits each video; `maxTotalResults` limits the whole run (default 1,000, maximum 10,000).
- Temporary provider failures are retried once. If a later page or reply expansion fails, already collected comments remain usable and the run reports a partial warning.
- Comment/reply rows are charged only after storage. Failed inputs, skipped inputs, warnings and retry attempts are free.

### Family recipes

Pair Comments with Transcript for content-and-response analysis, or with Channel Videos/Search/Playlist/Shorts to build a source list before collecting reactions.

# Actor input Schema

## `urls` (type: `array`):

Add 1–20 public YouTube video URLs or video IDs. Duplicate videos are processed once.

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

Maximum delivered comment and reply rows per video, from 1 to 1000.

## `maxTotalResults` (type: `integer`):

Run-wide safety cap across all videos. Processing stops before another video when this total is reached.

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

Expand available replies and return them as separate rows linked to their parent comment.

## `sortBy` (type: `string`):

Choose YouTube top comments or newest-first ordering.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ],
  "maxComments": 100,
  "maxTotalResults": 1000,
  "includeReplies": true,
  "sortBy": "TOP_COMMENTS"
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `dataset` (type: `string`):

No description

## `summary` (type: `string`):

No description

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

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

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

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,bin_ai_tools/youtube-comments"
        }
    }
}
```

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/Kf1BPGhEee31yJLsF/builds/5IblXvZb7oA0sY5bc/openapi.json