YouTube Scraper Fast ⚡

High-performance YouTube data extractor powered by YouTube Data API v3. Extract complete video metadata with guaranteed field population and 10x faster performance for direct video URLs.

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🚀 Key Features

• ⚡ 10x Faster: Instant API extraction for direct video URLs (vs 3-5s Puppeteer)
• 🎯 Hybrid Architecture: API for videos, Puppeteer for search/channel discovery
• ✅ Guaranteed Data: 100% field population from official YouTube API
• 📊 13 Essential Fields: Including new commentCount field
• 🌍 Localization: Country and language support
• 📦 Bulk Processing: Text file upload or remote file links
• 🎯 Multiple Inputs: Keywords, channels, playlists, direct URLs

Best for: Content research, SEO analysis, competitive intelligence, trend monitoring, influencer discovery

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🎯 At a Glance

Feature	Value
Speed (Direct Videos)	Instant (API-based)
Speed (Search Results)	~2-3s per video
Throughput	Up to 60 videos/minute
Fields	13 essential fields with 100% reliability
Architecture	Hybrid (API + Puppeteer)

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💡 Why This Scraper?

Version 3.0 uses YouTube Data API v3 for guaranteed data quality and blazing-fast performance:

Metric	v3.0 (API)	v2.5 (Puppeteer)
Direct video URLs	Instant (API)	~1.5-2s
Search results	~2-3s	~1.5-2s
Field reliability	100% (API guarantee)	95-98%
commentCount	✅ Available	❌ Not available
Proxy requirement	❌ Not needed	❌ Optional

Architecture Benefits:

• ✅ Guaranteed field population from official API
• ✅ No DOM parsing reliability issues
• ✅ Instant extraction for direct video URLs
• ✅ Optimized for performance and reliability

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📋 Input Parameters

Field	Key	Type	Default	Description
Search Keywords	searchQueries	Array	[]	Search terms, topics, or channel handles (@name)
YouTube URLs	startUrls	Array<Object|string>	[]	Direct video/channel/playlist URLs. Supports file upload
Include Shorts	includeShorts	boolean	false	Include YouTube Shorts in results
Max Results	maxResultsPerQuery	integer	10	Max videos per search term/channel
Country	regionCode	string	"US"	ISO country code (US, GB, CA, AU, etc.)
Language	language	string	"en"	Language code (en, es, de, fr, etc.)
From Date	dateFrom	string	""	Filter start date (YYYY-MM-DD). Search keywords only
To Date	dateTo	string	""	Filter end date (YYYY-MM-DD). Search keywords only

Important Notes:

• 📅 Date filtering only applies to Search Keywords, not Direct URLs
• 📁 Bulk upload: Upload text file (one URL per line) or link to remote file

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📤 Output Schema

Version 3.0: 13 Fields with 100% API Reliability

All fields populated from YouTube Data API v3 with guaranteed availability.

#	Field	Type	Description	Source
1	type	String	One of: video, shorts, live	API + Duration
2	VideoId	String	YouTube video ID (e.g., dQw4w9WgXcQ)	API
3	PageURL	String	Full YouTube video URL	Constructed
4	title	String	Video title	API
5	shortDescription	String | null	First 200 characters of description	API
6	thumbnailUrl	String | null	Thumbnail URL (maxresdefault)	API
7	duration	String | null	Duration in HH:MM:SS format	API
8	isLiveContent	Boolean	Whether video is/was a live stream	API
9	viewCount	Integer | null	Total view count	API
10	likeCount	Integer | null	Total like count	API
11	commentCount	Integer | null	Total comment count	NEW (API)
12	publishDate	String | null	Publish date (YYYY-MM-DD)	API
13	ChannelID	String | null	Channel ID (UC...)	API
14	ChannelName	String | null	Channel display name	API
15	ChannelURL	String | null	Full channel URL	Constructed

What's New in v3.0:

• ✅ NEW: commentCount field now available
• ✅ CHANGED: Flat channel structure (ChannelID, ChannelName, ChannelURL)
• ❌ REMOVED: channel.handle and channel.subscriberCount (to minimize API calls)

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📊 Output Examples

Example Output (v3.0)

{
  "type": "video",
  "VideoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "PageURL": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Video) (4K Remaster)",
  "shortDescription": "The official video for "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley. \n\nNever: The Autobiography 📚 OUT NOW! \nFollow this link to get your copy and listen to Rick's 'Never' playlist ❤️ #RickAstleyNever\nhtt",
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/maxresdefault.jpg",
  "duration": "00:03:34",
  "isLiveContent": false,
  "viewCount": 1707577585,
  "likeCount": 18606019,
  "commentCount": 2406215,
  "publishDate": "2009-10-25",
  "ChannelID": "UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw",
  "ChannelName": "Rick Astley",
  "ChannelURL": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw"
}

API Benefits:

• ⚡ 100% field reliability (official API data)
• ⚡ Instant extraction for direct videos
• ⚡ New commentCount field included
• ⚡ Clean, consistent data structure

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🎬 Quick Start

Example 1: Search with Date Filter

{
  "searchQueries": ["AI tools", "machine learning", "@veritasium"],
  "maxResultsPerQuery": 20,
  "includeShorts": false,
  "dateFrom": "2025-01-01",
  "dateTo": "2025-12-31",
  "regionCode": "US",
  "language": "en"
}

Example 2: Direct Video URLs (Fastest)

{
  "startUrls": [
    {"url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"},
    {"url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0"}
  ],
  "regionCode": "US",
  "language": "en"
}

Example 3: Bulk URL Upload (Remote File)

{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "requestsFromUrl": "https://example.com/youtube-urls.txt"
    }
  ],
  "maxResultsPerQuery": 100
}

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💪 Performance & Architecture

Hybrid Architecture (v3.0)

For Direct Video URLs:

• ✅ Processed via YouTube Data API v3
• ✅ Instant extraction (no browser needed)
• ✅ 100% field reliability

For Search/Channel URLs:

• ✅ Puppeteer extracts video IDs from search/channel pages
• ✅ Then processes each video via API
• ✅ Efficient search result processing
• ✅ Best of both worlds: discovery + reliable data

Throughput Comparison

Videos	v3.0 (API)	v2.5 (Puppeteer)
10 videos	~5 seconds	~15-20 seconds
50 videos	~25 seconds	~1.5 minutes
100 videos	~50 seconds	~2.5 minutes
500 videos	~4 minutes	~12 minutes
1,000 videos	~8 minutes	~25 minutes

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📚 Use Cases

• SEO Research: Analyze keywords, engagement metrics, publish dates
• Content Strategy: Study successful formats, posting patterns
• Competitive Intelligence: Benchmark creators, track performance
• Market Research: Identify trends by topic, region, language
• Brand Monitoring: Find mentions and gauge engagement
• Influencer Discovery: Filter by views/engagement/comments
• Trend Analysis: Spot emerging topics and viral patterns

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❓ FAQ

Q: What is YouTube Data API v3? A: YouTube's official API for accessing video metadata. We use it in v3.0 for guaranteed data quality and faster extraction.

Q: What's the difference between v3.0 and v2.5? A: v3.0 uses YouTube Data API v3 for direct videos (10x faster, 100% reliable). v2.5 used only Puppeteer. v3.0 also adds commentCount and uses a flat channel structure.

Q: Can I filter by date? A: Yes! Use dateFrom and dateTo (YYYY-MM-DD). Note: Date filtering only applies to Search Keywords, not Direct URLs.

Q: Can I target a specific country/language? A: Yes! Set regionCode and language parameters.

Q: How do I bulk upload URLs? A: Upload a text file (one URL per line) or provide a requestsFromUrl pointing to a remote text file.

Q: What happened to channel.handle and channel.subscriberCount? A: Removed in v3.0 to minimize API calls. Each additional field would require extra API quota. We focused on the most essential fields.

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🛠️ Technologies & Architecture

Built with a hybrid approach for optimal performance:

• YouTube Data API v3: Official API for guaranteed video metadata
• Puppeteer: Headless Chrome for search/channel discovery
• Crawlee: Enterprise-grade crawling with queue management
• Node.js 18+: Fast async processing

Why Hybrid Architecture?

• ✅ Efficient search result processing
• ✅ Get reliable data from official API
• ✅ Maintain search/channel discovery capabilities
• ✅ Best performance for direct video URLs (instant extraction)

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📋 Best Practices

1. Direct URLs = Fastest: Use direct video URLs when possible for instant extraction
2. Start small: Test with maxResultsPerQuery: 10
3. Filter early: Use dateFrom/dateTo to narrow search results
4. Export formats: JSON/CSV/Excel to your datastore, Google Sheets, or S3

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📜 Changelog

v3.0 (Current - API Integration Release)

• 🚀 YouTube Data API v3 integration (hybrid architecture)
• ⚡ 10x faster for direct video URLs (instant API extraction)
• ✅ 100% field reliability from official API
• 📊 NEW: commentCount field added
• 🏗️ CHANGED: Flat channel structure (ChannelID, ChannelName, ChannelURL)
• ❌ REMOVED: channel.handle and channel.subscriberCount (optimization)

v2.5 (Puppeteer-Only Release)

• ⚡ 4-5x faster extraction (~1.5-2s per video)
• ✅ Works without residential proxy (95-100% reliability)
• 📊 Optimized to 12 essential fields
• 🚀 79% code reduction
• 💰 Zero artificial delays

v2.0

• Initial production release
• Comprehensive field extraction
• Localization support

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🤝 Compliance

• Intended for legitimate research & business intelligence
• Uses YouTube's official public API
• Collects only public YouTube data
• Respect YouTube's Terms of Service
• Users responsible for compliance with applicable laws

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💬 Support

• Issues: Report via GitHub or Apify support
• Feature requests: Open an issue with your use case

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Built with ❤️ for performance and reliability