YouTube Video Info Scraper - Metadata, Views, Tags API

The YouTube Video Info Scraper extracts complete YouTube video metadata at scale — titles, view counts, likes, comments, tags, descriptions, channel info, thumbnails, and upload dates — from any YouTube video URL, with no API key, no quotas, and no login. Paste a list of video URLs and get a clean, structured JSON record per video in seconds, ready for Google Sheets, a database, a dashboard, or an AI pipeline. It is the fastest way to pull YouTube video data without the official YouTube Data API and its 10,000-units/day cap.

What does the YouTube Video Info Scraper do?

The YouTube Video Info Scraper is a YouTube video metadata API built on Apify that pulls the full public metadata for any YouTube video you provide. You pass in one or many YouTube URLs (standard videos, Shorts, or live streams), and it returns a structured record for each — without OAuth, without an API key, and without being subject to YouTube Data API quotas.

• Scrape YouTube video metadata without an API key — start extracting immediately, no Google Cloud project required
• Get YouTube view count, likes, and comment count for any public video
• Extract YouTube video tags and description for SEO and keyword research
• Bulk scrape multiple YouTube URLs — pass an array, get an array of clean JSON records
• Scrape YouTube Shorts and live streams — full URL-format coverage
• Pull channel name, channel URL, and subscriber count alongside each video
• Export YouTube data to CSV, Excel, JSON, or Google Sheets via Apify's built-in dataset exports

What data can I extract?

Every record returned by this YouTube data scraper matches the fields below, extracted live on each run.

Field	Description
id	YouTube video ID
title	Video title
description	Full video description
tags	Tags array
categories	YouTube categories
view_count	Lifetime view count
like_count	Like count
comment_count	Comment count
upload_date	ISO date (YYYY-MM-DD)
duration	Duration in seconds
duration_string	Human-readable duration (e.g. "12:34")
thumbnail	Highest-resolution thumbnail URL
webpage_url	Canonical video URL
channel	Channel display name
channel_url	Channel page URL
channel_follower_count	Subscriber count
average_rating	Rating (when available)
age_limit	Age restriction (0 / 18)
platform	Source platform identifier

How to scrape YouTube video data (step-by-step)

1. Open the YouTube Video Info Scraper on Apify and click Try for free.
2. Paste one or more YouTube video URLs into the YouTube video URLs field (youtube.com/watch?v=, youtu.be/, or youtube.com/shorts/).
3. Leave Proxy configuration on Apify Proxy (recommended — YouTube rate-limits datacenter IPs).
4. (Optional) Paste a Netscape-format cookies.txt if you need age-gated or region-restricted videos.
5. Click Start and watch records stream into the dataset.
6. Export the results to CSV, Excel, JSON, or Google Sheets, or pull them via the Apify API.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
videoUrls	array of strings	required	One or more YouTube video URLs to extract metadata from. Supports youtube.com/watch?v=, youtu.be/, and youtube.com/shorts/.
proxyConfiguration	object	{ "useApifyProxy": true }	Routes yt-dlp through Apify Proxy. A proxy is required for reliable extraction; failed videos auto-retry via the RESIDENTIAL group.
cookies	string	""	Optional Netscape-format cookies.txt from a logged-in session, for age-gated, region-restricted, or heavily bot-challenged videos.

{
    "videoUrls": [
        "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
        "https://youtu.be/9bZkp7q19f0",
        "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/abc123"
    ],
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true }
}

Output example

{
    "id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Video)",
    "channel": "Rick Astley",
    "channel_url": "https://www.youtube.com/@RickAstleyYT",
    "channel_follower_count": 4200000,
    "view_count": 1543210000,
    "like_count": 16800000,
    "comment_count": 2400000,
    "upload_date": "2009-10-25",
    "duration": 213,
    "duration_string": "3:33",
    "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/maxresdefault.jpg",
    "tags": ["Rick Astley", "Music", "Pop"],
    "categories": ["Music"],
    "age_limit": 0,
    "platform": "Youtube"
}

Use cases

• Content research — analyze top-performing videos in your niche by view count and engagement
• Competitor analysis — track competitor video stats and upload cadence over time
• YouTube SEO research — extract titles, tags, and descriptions to mine keyword ideas
• Influencer marketing — qualify creators by view count, likes, and subscriber count
• AI / ML training data — build structured datasets of video metadata for model training
• Trend tracking — monitor viral videos, new uploads, and news content as it happens
• Data journalism — analyze public YouTube information for stories and reports

Pricing

This actor runs on Apify's usage-based pricing — you pay only for the compute time and proxy you use, with no per-video fee. It is small and fast: memory stays under 256 MB and a single video typically extracts in 1–3 seconds, so bulk runs of thousands of URLs remain inexpensive. See the actor's Pricing tab for current details.

Why this YouTube scraper instead of the YouTube Data API?

The official YouTube Data API requires a Google Cloud project, an API key, and caps you at 10,000 quota units per day — enough for only a few hundred video lookups. This actor uses yt-dlp, the gold-standard open-source extractor, to query YouTube's public web endpoints the same way a browser does and parse the embedded player JSON. No key, no OAuth, no daily quota, and no fragile DOM selectors.

FAQ

Is it legal to scrape YouTube video data?

This actor extracts only publicly available video metadata. You are responsible for using the data in compliance with YouTube's Terms of Service and applicable laws such as GDPR and CCPA.

Do I need a YouTube Data API key or account?

No. The actor works entirely without API credentials, OAuth, or a Google login.

How much does it cost to scrape YouTube?

It runs on Apify's usage-based pricing — you pay for compute and proxy only. Extractions are fast (1–3 seconds per video) and run under 256 MB, so costs stay low.

Does it work on YouTube Shorts and live streams?

Yes. Shorts (youtube.com/shorts/...) and live-stream URLs are fully supported.

Can I export the data to CSV, Excel, JSON, or Google Sheets?

Yes. Apify lets you export every dataset to CSV, Excel, JSON, or Google Sheets, or pull results via the Apify API.

Will I get blocked, and does it use proxies?

The actor routes requests through Apify Proxy and automatically retries failed videos via the residential proxy group to avoid YouTube's bot challenges.

How fresh is the data?

Data is extracted live, in real time, on every run — there is no cache or staleness window.

Can it handle age-restricted videos?

Public metadata for age-restricted videos is returned with age_limit set to 18. For videos that fail the bot challenge, paste a cookies.txt from a logged-in session.

Related actors

• YouTube Channel Scraper — extract a channel's full video history and stats
• YouTube Competitor Analyzer — compare up to 5 channels side-by-side
• YouTube Downloader — get downloadable MP4 / MP3 URLs
• TikTok Scraper — scrape TikTok by hashtag, profile, and search
• Reddit Scraper — scrape Reddit posts, comments, and communities

Support

Found a bug or need a tweak? Open an issue on the actor's Issues tab. Custom scraping solutions and enterprise integrations are available on request.