YouTube Scraper - Extract Video Metadata from YouTube Videos, Channels & Playlists

The most powerful YouTube scraper for extracting video data, channel information, and playlist metadata without YouTube API limits.

🚀 What is YouTube Scraper?

YouTube Scraper is a fast and reliable Apify Actor that lets you scrape YouTube videos, scrape YouTube channels, and scrape YouTube playlists to extract comprehensive video metadata including titles, descriptions, view counts, likes, upload dates, thumbnails, and more.

Why Use This YouTube Video Scraper?

✅ No API Key Required - Scrape YouTube without YouTube Data API v3 quotas
✅ Scrape YouTube Videos - Extract metadata from individual videos
✅ YouTube Channel Scraper - Get all videos from any YouTube channel
✅ YouTube Playlist Scraper - Extract all videos from playlists
✅ YouTube Title Scraper - Bulk extract video titles for SEO research
✅ Fast & Reliable - Built with Crawlee and Apify SDK
✅ Proxy Support - Rotate IPs to avoid rate limiting
✅ Export to CSV/JSON - Download scraped data in multiple formats

🎯 Use Cases

1. Scrape YouTube Videos for Content Research

Extract video metadata to analyze trending content, popular topics, and successful video strategies in your niche.

2. YouTube Channel Scraper for Competitor Analysis

Monitor competitor channels by scraping all their videos, tracking upload frequency, view counts, and engagement metrics.

3. YouTube Playlist Scraper for Curation

Build databases of educational content, music playlists, or tutorial series by scraping entire YouTube playlists.

4. YouTube Title Scraper for SEO Optimization

Analyze thousands of video titles to identify high-performing keywords and title patterns for your YouTube SEO strategy.

5. Scrape YouTube for Market Research

Gather video data across multiple channels to understand market trends, audience preferences, and content gaps.

6. Video Metadata Extraction

Extract thumbnails, descriptions, tags, view counts, like counts, and upload dates for comprehensive video analysis.

📊 What Data Can You Scrape from YouTube?

This YouTube scraper extracts:

• Video ID - Unique YouTube video identifier
• Video Title - Full video title (YouTube title scraper)
• Video URL - Direct link to the video
• Video Description - Complete video description
• Channel Name - Creator/channel name
• Channel URL - Link to the channel
• View Count - Number of views
• Upload Date - When the video was published
• Thumbnail URL - Video thumbnail image
• Duration - Video length
• Like Count - Number of likes (when available)
• Comment Count - Number of comments (when available)

🔧 How to Use This YouTube Scraper

Input Configuration

{
  "inputType": "channel",
  "channelUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast"],
  "videoLimit": 50,
  "videoSelection": "uploads",
  "sortBy": "newest",
  "extractThumbnails": true,
  "extractSubtitles": false,
  "extractTranscripts": false,
  "extractFormats": false,
  "extractChapters": false,
  "skipShorts": false,
  "skipLivestreams": false,
  "useProxy": true,
  "maxConcurrency": 2
}

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
inputType	String	What to scrape: "video", "channel", or "playlist"
videoUrls	Array	YouTube video URLs (if inputType=video)
channelUrls	Array	YouTube channel URLs (if inputType=channel)
playlistUrls	Array	YouTube playlist URLs (if inputType=playlist)
videoLimit	Integer	Max videos to scrape per channel/playlist (default: 50)
videoSelection	String	Channel tab: "uploads", "shorts", "live", "playlists"
sortBy	String	Sort order: "newest", "oldest", "popular"
extractThumbnails	Boolean	Extract thumbnail URLs (default: true)
extractSubtitles	Boolean	Extract subtitle URLs (default: false)
extractTranscripts	Boolean	Extract full transcripts (default: false)
extractFormats	Boolean	Extract video/audio formats (default: false)
extractChapters	Boolean	Extract video chapters (default: false)
skipShorts	Boolean	Skip YouTube Shorts (default: false)
skipLivestreams	Boolean	Skip livestreams (default: false)
useProxy	Boolean	Use Apify proxies (default: true)
maxConcurrency	Integer	Parallel processing (default: 2)

📤 Output Example

{
  "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Music Video)",
  "description": "The official video for "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley...",
  "channelName": "Official Rick Astley",
  "viewCount": "1.5B views",
  "uploadDate": "13 years ago",
  "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/maxresdefault.jpg",
  "scrapedAt": "2025-01-16T10:30:00.000Z"
}

🎬 Scrape YouTube Videos - Step by Step

1. Scrape a Single YouTube Video

{
  "inputType": "video",
  "videoUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"]
}

2. Scrape YouTube Channel (YouTube Channel Scraper)

{
  "inputType": "channel",
  "channelUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast"],
  "videoLimit": 100
}

3. Scrape YouTube Playlist (YouTube Playlist Scraper)

{
  "inputType": "playlist",
  "playlistUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOeiKm4sgNOknGvNjby9efdf"
  ]
}

4. Bulk Scrape Multiple YouTube Channels

{
  "inputType": "channel",
  "channelUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/@Channel1",
    "https://www.youtube.com/@Channel2",
    "https://www.youtube.com/@Channel3"
  ],
  "videoLimit": 50
}

🎬 Scrape YouTube Videos - Step by Step

1. Scrape a Single YouTube Video

{
  "startUrls": [{ "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" }]
}

2. Scrape YouTube Channel (YouTube Channel Scraper)

{
  "startUrls": [{ "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@ChannelName" }],
  "maxVideos": 100
}

3. Scrape YouTube Playlist (YouTube Playlist Scraper)

{
  "startUrls": [{ "url": "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAYLIST_ID" }]
}

4. Bulk Scrape Multiple YouTube Channels

{
  "startUrls": [
    { "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@Channel1" },
    { "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@Channel2" },
    { "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@Channel3" }
  ],
  "maxVideos": 50
}

🔍 YouTube Scraper vs YouTube API

Feature	YouTube Scraper	YouTube API v3
API Key Required	❌ No	✅ Yes
Daily Quota Limits	❌ No limits	✅ 10,000 units/day
Cost	Pay per scrape	Free tier limited
Metadata Richness	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Bulk Operations	✅ Unlimited	⚠️ Quota limited
Setup Complexity	Easy	Requires API setup

💡 Pro Tips for Scraping YouTube

1. Use Proxies - Enable proxy rotation to avoid rate limiting when scraping large channels
2. Respect Rate Limits - Add delays between requests to avoid being blocked
3. Start Small - Test with maxVideos: 10 before scraping entire channels
4. Export Data - Download results as CSV for analysis in Excel or Google Sheets
5. Monitor Runs - Check Actor logs to ensure successful scraping

🛠️ Technical Details

• Core Library: yt-dlp (Python) - No API keys required
• Transcript Extraction: youtube-transcript-api - Enhanced transcript support
• Data Processing: pandas - CSV export and data manipulation
• SDK: Apify SDK (Python)
• Runtime: Python 3.11+
• Proxy Support: Yes (Apify Proxy recommended)
• Export Formats: JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, RSS
• Scheduling: Run on schedule (hourly, daily, weekly)
• Metadata Fields: 40+ fields including views, likes, duration, thumbnails, transcripts

Technology Stack Benefits

✅ yt-dlp: Extracts 40+ metadata fields, handles playlists/channels natively, built-in proxy support
✅ youtube-transcript-api: Reliable transcript extraction (manual + auto-generated)
✅ pandas: Efficient data processing and CSV export capabilities
✅ No API Keys: Bypass YouTube API quota limits completely

📚 Related YouTube Scrapers

• YouTube Video Scraper - Extract individual video metadata
• YouTube Channel Scraper - Scrape all videos from channels
• YouTube Playlist Scraper - Extract playlist contents
• YouTube Title Scraper - Bulk extract video titles
• YouTube Comment Scraper - Extract video comments (coming soon)
• YouTube Search Scraper - Scrape search results (coming soon)

🚦 Getting Started

1. Sign up for a free Apify account
2. Open this YouTube Scraper Actor
3. Configure your input (add YouTube URLs)
4. Click "Start" to scrape YouTube
5. Download your scraped data in CSV or JSON

🔗 Useful Links

• Apify Platform
• Apify SDK Documentation
• Crawlee Documentation
• YouTube Scraping Guide

📞 Support

Need help scraping YouTube? Contact us:

• Email: support@apify.com
• Discord: Join Apify Discord
• Documentation: docs.apify.com

📄 License

ISC License - Free to use and modify

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Start scraping YouTube now! 🎥