# YouTube Scraper: Videos, Channels, Search & Shorts Data (`clearfeed-labs/youtube-video-channel-scraper`) Actor

Scrape YouTube videos, channels, playlists, Shorts and search results: views, likes, comment count, exact publish date, duration, description, tags, category and channel subscribers. Fast, cheap, no login, no API key.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/clearfeed-labs/youtube-video-channel-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Clearfeed Labs](https://apify.com/clearfeed-labs) (community)
- **Categories:** Videos, Social media
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.20 / 1,000 videos

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

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 Scraper: Videos, Channels, Search & Shorts Data

Extract public data from YouTube **videos, Shorts, channels, playlists and search results** — views, likes, comment count, exact publish date, duration, full description, tags, category and channel subscribers. No login, no YouTube API key, no quota limits. Pay only per result.

### What you can scrape

- **Search results** for any keyword (with YouTube's upload-date and duration filters)
- **Channels**: latest videos, Shorts or live streams + a channel row with subscribers, description, tags, avatar and banner
- **Playlists**: every video in order
- **Single videos and Shorts** by URL or ID

### Output fields (per video)

| Field | Example |
|---|---|
| `title`, `url`, `videoId` | Laptop Buying Guide 2026 … |
| `viewCount`, `likeCount`, `commentCount` | 28,396 · 260 · 44 |
| `publishDate`, `uploadDate`, `relativeDateText` | 2026-10-22T06:00:17-07:00 · 2 days ago |
| `duration`, `durationSeconds` | 0:15:50 · 950 |
| `description`, `keywords`, `hashtags`, `category` | full text, tags, Science & Technology |
| `isShort`, `isLive`, `isFamilySafe`, `isUnlisted` | flags |
| `channelName`, `channelHandle`, `channelId`, `channelUrl` | Matthew Moniz · @MatthewMoniz |
| `channelSubscriberCount`, `channelIsVerified` | 1,230,000 · true |
| `thumbnailUrl` | max-resolution thumbnail |
| `sourceInput`, `sourceType`, `position` | where the video came from and its rank |

Channel rows (`type: "channel"`) contain `subscriberCount`, `description`, `tags`, `avatarUrl`, `bannerUrl`, `isVerified`.

### Use cases

- **Influencer & creator discovery** for marketing: find channels by keyword, compare subscribers and engagement.
- **Competitor and content research**: track what competitors publish, how often and how it performs.
- **SEO / keyword research**: see which videos rank for a search term and their tags.
- **Trend monitoring**: schedule daily runs for keywords with the "Today" filter.
- **AI datasets**: titles, descriptions and engagement metrics at scale. Need the spoken words too? Combine with our [YouTube Transcript Scraper for AI & RAG](https://apify.com/clearfeed-labs/youtube-transcripts-ai).

### Input example

```json
{
  "startUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd", "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFgquLnL59alCl_2TQvOiD5Vgm1hCaGSI"],
  "searchQueries": ["best laptop 2026"],
  "maxResultsPerSource": 100,
  "detailLevel": "full"
}
```

### Detail levels

- **full** (default): opens each video for likes, comment count, exact publish date, full description, tags and category.
- **fast**: listing data only (title, views, duration, channel, thumbnail, description snippet for search). Faster for very large lists.

### Pricing

Pay per event: one **video** result per video row and one **channel** result per channel row. Failed or invalid inputs are **not charged**, and videos filtered out by *Only videos published after* are not charged either. Set a max charge per run and the Actor stops cleanly at your limit.

### Notes

- Counts like comments and subscribers are rounded the way YouTube displays them (e.g. 2.4M).
- Likes are missing when the creator hides them.
- The Actor reads only public pages and data, never logs in and does not download video or audio.
- YouTube may not apply every search sort option to every query; use *Only videos published after* for strict date filtering.

### Need something else?

Open an issue on the Actor page — we respond quickly and add fields on request.

# Actor input Schema

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

Videos, Shorts, channels (@handle, /channel/UC..., /c/...), channel tabs (/videos, /shorts, /streams), playlists or search result URLs. Bare video IDs, @handles and UC... channel IDs also work.

## `searchQueries` (type: `array`):

Keywords to search on YouTube, one per line.

## `maxResultsPerSource` (type: `integer`):

Channels are listed newest first.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

0 = no limit.

## `detailLevel` (type: `string`):

Fast mode skips the per-video page and is quicker. Same price per video.

## `includeChannelInfo` (type: `boolean`):

One extra row per channel with subscriber count, description, tags, avatar and banner (charged as one 'channel' result).

## `channelTabs` (type: `array`):

Which tabs to take videos from when a channel URL has no tab.

## `publishedAfter` (type: `string`):

Drop (and don't charge) videos published before this date. Needs detail level 'full'.

## `searchSortBy` (type: `string`):

YouTube may not apply every sort option to every query.

## `searchUploadDate` (type: `string`):

YouTube's own upload-date filter.

## `searchDuration` (type: `string`):

YouTube's own duration filter.

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

Parallel video requests.

## `maxRetries` (type: `integer`):

Retries with a fresh IP when YouTube blocks a request.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Datacenter Apify Proxy is tried first; blocked requests are retried through residential IPs automatically.

## `residentialFallback` (type: `boolean`):

Recommended. Only small JSON responses go through residential IPs.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd",
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ],
  "searchQueries": [
    "best laptop 2026"
  ],
  "maxResultsPerSource": 50,
  "maxResults": 0,
  "detailLevel": "full",
  "includeChannelInfo": true,
  "channelTabs": [
    "videos"
  ],
  "searchSortBy": "relevance",
  "searchUploadDate": "any",
  "searchDuration": "any",
  "maxConcurrency": 10,
  "maxRetries": 6,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  },
  "residentialFallback": true
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `videos` (type: `string`):

No description

## `channels` (type: `string`):

No description

## `all` (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 = {
    "startUrls": [
        "https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd",
        "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
    ],
    "searchQueries": [
        "best laptop 2026"
    ],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("clearfeed-labs/youtube-video-channel-scraper").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 = {
    "startUrls": [
        "https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd",
        "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    ],
    "searchQueries": ["best laptop 2026"],
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": True },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("clearfeed-labs/youtube-video-channel-scraper").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 '{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd",
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ],
  "searchQueries": [
    "best laptop 2026"
  ],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}' |
apify call clearfeed-labs/youtube-video-channel-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,clearfeed-labs/youtube-video-channel-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

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/ytcnQipw03ApREFqI/builds/3Xe4vdUdd1hfXDH21/openapi.json