YouTube Shorts Scraper - Views, Likes & Dates

Scrape YouTube Shorts without logging in or an API key: every Short on a channel, Shorts search results, or any list of Shorts links, with exact views, likes, publish date, duration, description and channel stats for each one. $1.00 per 1,000 results. No quota, no cookies, no proxy, no browser.

What data you get

Shorts (one row each, same columns every time):

• views and likes (exact, from each Short's own page)
• publishedAt (exact date), durationSeconds, title, full description, hashtags, url (the /shorts/ link)
• Channel: channelName, channelHandle, channelId, channelUrl, channelSubscribers, channelVerified
• thumbnailUrl, isShort, and where it came from: source (search, channel or url), sourceValue, sourceRank

Channels: subscribers, videoCount, description, keywords, verified, avatarUrl, channelId, handle.

How to use

1. Add channels (@handles or links), Shorts searches, or Shorts links, one per line.
2. Optionally narrow searches to the last hour, day, week, month or year, order them by popularity, or keep only Shorts newer than a date or an age like "7 days".
3. Run it, then download JSON, CSV or Excel, or pull the rows through the API. Schedule it to follow new Shorts.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
channels	array	—	@handles, channel links or channel ids. Lists the channel's Shorts tab, newest first.
searchQueries	array	—	One search per line, with YouTube's Shorts filter.
videoUrls	array	—	/shorts/ links, watch links or video ids. Also urls, startUrls.
maxResultsPerSource	integer	20	Shorts per search and per channel (0 = as many as YouTube lists, up to 1,000).
contentType	string	shorts	shorts, or videos for a channel's Videos tab and normal search.
fetchVideoDetails	boolean	true	Read each Short's page for exact views, likes, date, duration and description. Off keeps only the title and rounded views.
includeChannelInfo	boolean	true	One row per channel.
searchSort	string	relevance	relevance or popularity.
uploadDate	string	any	hour, today, week, month, year (searches).
newerThan	string	—	A date or an age like "7 days". Older Shorts are left out and not charged.
maxConcurrency	integer	5	Pages read in parallel.
timeoutSecs	integer	30	Per request.
proxyConfiguration	object	off	Not needed.

Output example

A real row from a run on Apify with "channels": ["@NASA"] on 2026-09-29:

{
  "ok": true,
  "type": "video",
  "id": "QP5Fs3AYuWE",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/QP5Fs3AYuWE",
  "title": "2026 Total Solar Eclipse Over Spain",
  "channelName": "NASA",
  "channelId": "UCLA_DiR1FfKNvjuUpBHmylQ",
  "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@NASA",
  "channelHandle": "@NASA",
  "channelSubscribers": 15100000,
  "channelVerified": true,
  "views": 182912,
  "viewsApproximate": false,
  "likes": 5588,
  "commentCount": null,
  "commentCountApproximate": false,
  "publishedAt": "2026-08-12T19:08:21.000Z",
  "publishedAtApproximate": false,
  "publishedText": "Aug 12, 2026",
  "durationSeconds": 35,
  "description": "On Aug. 12, 2026, a total solar eclipse passed over Greenland, Iceland, northern Russia, the Atlantic Ocean, Spain, and a small corner of Portugal.\n\nWatch the moment that our teams captured totality over Spain.\n\nCredit: NASA",
  "hashtags": [],
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/QP5Fs3AYuWE/hqdefault.jpg",
  "isShort": true,
  "isLive": false,
  "source": "channel",
  "sourceValue": "@NASA",
  "sourceRank": 2,
  "detailed": true,
  "inputUrl": "@NASA",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-09-29T17:49:44.939Z"
}

Each channel also gets one row with its subscribers, video count, description and keywords. An input that cannot be read comes back as one row with ok: false and a plain reason, such as channel not found on YouTube or the channel lists no Shorts. Those rows are free.

Pricing

$1.00 per 1,000 results: one charge per Short or channel row written. Failed inputs, repeats (a Short found twice is written once) and Shorts filtered out by date are free.

Paid Apify plans pay less: 10% off on Bronze, 20% on Silver and 30% on Gold and higher tiers.

Use cases

• Creator and competitor tracking: schedule a daily run on a list of channels and follow each new Short's views and likes.
• Trend research: which Shorts rank for a topic this week, how many views they get, and who makes them.
• Influencer discovery: find Shorts creators by topic, then compare subscribers with real engagement per Short.
• Enrich a list of Shorts links with exact stats for campaign reports.

FAQ

Do I need a YouTube API key? No, and there is no daily quota. The Actor reads the same public pages a visitor sees.

Are views exact? Yes when each Short's page is read (the default). The Shorts tab itself rounds views (182K) and shows no dates; with Read each Short's page off you get those list values, and viewsApproximate says so.

Why is channelSubscribers empty for some Shorts? A Short's own page does not show the channel's subscriber count. Shorts found through a channel carry it from the channel page; Shorts from searches and links leave it empty.

How many Shorts can I get from a channel? Up to 1,000 per channel, newest first. YouTube pages them in batches of about 48.

Is it legal? It reads public pages that anyone can see without logging in. You are responsible for how you use the data, including data protection rules for personal data.

Integrations

Run it from the Apify API or a client library, schedule it in Apify Console, or connect it to n8n, Make, Zapier or any MCP client through Apify's integrations. Results are available as JSON, CSV, Excel and through the dataset API.

More tools from clearfetch

• YouTube Scraper: search, channels and exact video stats
• YouTube Comments Scraper: every comment and reply under a video or Short
• TikTok Scraper: hashtags, profiles, sounds and video stats

Changelog

• 1.0.0 (2026-09) — first release: a channel's Shorts, Shorts search with date filter and popularity order, Shorts links, exact views, likes and dates from each Short's page.