YouTube Video Finder ⚡

Fast YouTube video discovery tool optimized for speed and minimal data extraction. Extract 10 essential discovery fields to quickly identify relevant videos for deeper analysis. No residential proxy required.

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🚀 Key Features

• ⚡ 2x Faster: ~2-3s per video (vs 5-6s comprehensive scrapers)
• 💰 No Proxy Required: Works reliably without residential proxy (optional for high volume)
• 📊 10 Discovery Fields: Minimal fields for fast video identification, 95-100% reliability
• 🔄 Smart Rate Limiting: Error-based exponential backoff (0s delay when smooth)
• 🌍 Localization: Country and language support
• 📦 Bulk Processing: Text file upload or remote file links
• 🎯 Multiple Inputs: Keywords, channels, playlists, direct URLs
• 🎬 Two-Step Workflow: Discover fast, then extract detailed data selectively

Best for: Video discovery, candidate selection, building watch lists, first-pass filtering before comprehensive scraping

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🎯 At a Glance

Feature	Value
Speed	~2-3s per video
Throughput	20-30 videos/minute (1,200-1,800/hour)
Fields	10 essential fields with 95-100% reliability
Proxy	Optional (works great without)
Concurrency	5 parallel video visits
Code Size	79% smaller than v2.4 (optimized for speed)

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💡 Why This Scraper?

Traditional YouTube scrapers are slow and expensive. YouTube Video Finder fixes that:

Metric	YouTube Video Finder	Traditional Scrapers
Time per video	~2-3s	~5-6s
Proxy requirement	❌ Optional	✅ Required
Artificial delays	0s (error-based only)	3-8s per video
Field reliability	95-100% without proxy	10-50%
Cost per 1,000 videos	$0 (no proxy)	$0.50-$2 (proxy required)
Videos per minute	20-30	10-12

Performance Optimizations:

• Zero artificial delays (smart error-based backoff only)
• Streamlined field extraction (10 fields vs 30+)
• Multiple DOM fallbacks for reliability
• Resource blocking (video streams, fonts, ads)
• Optimized timeouts (8s page load, 6s data check, 15s navigation, 20s handler)

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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
Use Proxy	useResidentialProxy	boolean	false	Enable residential proxy (optional, costs apply)
Proxy Country	proxyCountryCode	string	""	Proxy exit country (e.g., "US", "AU")

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
• 🌐 Proxy: Optional - scraper works reliably without it for most use cases

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📤 Output Schema

Discovery-Optimized: 10 Minimal Fields

All fields have multiple extraction fallbacks for 95-100% reliability without proxy.

#	Field	Type	Description	Reliability
1	type	String	One of: video, shorts, live	✅ 100%
2	VideoId	String	YouTube video ID (e.g., dQw4w9WgXcQ)	✅ 100%
3	PageURL	String	Full YouTube video URL	✅ 100%
4	title	String	Video title	✅ 100%
5	duration	String | null	Duration in HH:MM:SS format	✅ 98%
6	viewCount	Integer | null	Total view count	✅ 98%
7	likeCount	Integer | null	Total like count	✅ 95%
8	publishDate	String | null	Publish date (YYYY-MM-DD)	✅ 98%
9	channelId	String | null	Channel ID (UC...)	✅ 98%
10	channelHandle	String | null	Channel handle (e.g., @username)	✅ 100%

Why These 10 Fields?

• ✅ Discovery-focused: Just enough info to decide if a video is worth deeper analysis
• ✅ Ultra-fast extraction: No waiting for lazy-loaded content, thumbnails, or descriptions
• ✅ Lightweight payload: ~150-200 bytes per record
• ✅ Reliable without proxy: Multiple DOM fallbacks for each field
• ✅ Consistent population: 95-100% reliability across all videos
• ✅ Filtering-friendly: All fields needed for sorting, filtering, and candidate selection

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📊 Output Examples

Single Video Output

{
  "type": "video",
  "VideoId": "E19_kwN0f38",
  "PageURL": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E19_kwN0f38",
  "title": "GPT-5 Codex is the best way to build apps with AI ever (5 tricks you need to know)",
  "duration": "16:39",
  "viewCount": 2176,
  "likeCount": 123,
  "publishDate": "2025-10-09",
  "channelId": "UCfQNB91qRP_5ILeu_S_bSkg",
  "channelHandle": "@AlexFinnOfficial"
}

Multiple Videos (Batch Discovery)

[
  {
    "type": "video",
    "VideoId": "E19_kwN0f38",
    "PageURL": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E19_kwN0f38",
    "title": "GPT-5 Codex is the best way to build apps with AI ever (5 tricks you need to know)",
    "duration": "16:39",
    "viewCount": 2176,
    "likeCount": 123,
    "publishDate": "2025-10-09",
    "channelId": "UCfQNB91qRP_5ILeu_S_bSkg",
    "channelHandle": "@AlexFinnOfficial"
  },
  {
    "type": "shorts",
    "VideoId": "7Sx0o-41r2k",
    "PageURL": "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7Sx0o-41r2k",
    "title": "Quick AI tip #shorts",
    "duration": "00:45",
    "viewCount": 15200,
    "likeCount": 892,
    "publishDate": "2025-10-10",
    "channelId": "UCfQNB91qRP_5ILeu_S_bSkg",
    "channelHandle": "@AlexFinnOfficial"
  }
]

Performance Benefits:

• ⚡ Lightweight: ~150-200 bytes per record (vs 2KB+ traditional)
• ⚡ Fast: ~2-3s extraction time
• ⚡ Reliable: 95-100% field population without proxy
• ⚡ Clean: No null-heavy bloat
• ⚡ Perfect for discovery and filtering before deep extraction

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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

{
  "startUrls": [
    {"url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Sx0o-41r2k"},
    {"url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oAnKSCP4do"}
  ],
  "maxResultsPerQuery": 10,
  "regionCode": "US",
  "language": "en"
}

Example 3: Bulk URL Upload (Remote File)

{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "requestsFromUrl": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/coregentdevspace/youtube-scraper-assets/main/youtube-scraper-pro-direct-url-text-file.txt"
    }
  ],
  "maxResultsPerQuery": 100,
  "useResidentialProxy": false
}

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💪 Performance & Reliability

Architecture

• Concurrency: 5 parallel video page visits
• Timeouts: Optimized (8s page load, 6s data check, 15s navigation, 20s handler)
• Rate Limiting: Error-based exponential backoff (2s→4s→8s→16s→30s)
• Resource Blocking: Blocks video streams, fonts, ads for speed
• DOM Fallbacks: Multiple extraction paths for each field
• Script Parsing: Early exit optimization (max 5 scripts processed)

Smart Rate Limiting

Traditional scrapers add 3-8s artificial delays every video. YouTube Video Finder adds 0s delay when running smoothly, only backing off when errors occur.

• ✅ 0 errors: Full speed (no delays)
• ⚠️ 1-2 errors: 2-4s backoff
• ⚠️ 3-5 errors: 8-16s backoff
• ✅ 5 successes: Backoff resets to 0

Throughput Comparison

Videos	YouTube Video Finder	Traditional Scraper
10 videos	~20-30 seconds	~50-60 seconds
50 videos	~2-3 minutes	~4-5 minutes
100 videos	~4-5 minutes	~8-10 minutes
500 videos	~25 minutes	~40-50 minutes
1,000 videos	~30-50 minutes	~85 minutes

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📚 Use Cases

• SEO Research: Analyze keywords, tags, titles, descriptions
• 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 in your niche
• Trend Analysis: Spot emerging topics and viral patterns

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❓ FAQ

Q: Do I need residential proxy? A: No! The scraper works reliably without proxy for most use cases. All 10 fields populate consistently (95-100%) without proxy. Enable proxy only for high-volume scraping or specific geo-targeting needs.

Q: What about Shorts and live videos? A: Toggle includeShorts to control Shorts inclusion. Live/live-replay videos are auto-detected via type field.

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. For stronger geo-targeting, enable useResidentialProxy and set proxyCountryCode.

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: Why are some fields removed compared to v2.4? A: We optimized for discovery speed and reliability. Fields like shortDescription, thumbnailUrl, isLiveContent, category, tags, commentCount, and captions were removed to focus on minimal discovery fields. The current 10 fields provide just enough data to identify interesting videos for deeper analysis, with 95-100% reliability.

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🛠️ Technologies & Architecture

Built with modern web scraping tools for maximum performance and reliability:

• Browser Engine: Puppeteer (headless Chrome) - Full JavaScript execution
• Framework: Crawlee - Enterprise-grade crawling with queue management
• Runtime: Node.js 18+ - Fast async processing
• Extraction: Direct parsing of YouTube's internal APIs (ytInitialData, ytInitialPlayerResponse)
• Anti-Detection: Advanced fingerprinting, human-like behavior, smart request handling
• Optimization: Resource blocking (video streams, fonts, ads), parallel processing, intelligent timeouts

Why These Technologies?

• ✅ Reliable data extraction from complex single-page applications
• ✅ Efficient handling of dynamic content and lazy loading
• ✅ Automatic retry logic and error recovery
• ✅ Scalable architecture for high-volume scraping

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📋 Best Practices

1. Start small: Test with maxResultsPerQuery: 10
2. Filter early: Use dateFrom/dateTo to narrow results
3. Bulk wisely: Group URLs by topic/channel for better performance
4. Proxy optional: Only enable for high-volume or geo-specific needs
5. Export: JSON/CSV/Excel to your datastore, Google Sheets, or S3

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📜 Changelog

v2.5 (Current - Production Ready - Discovery Release)

• ⚡ 2x faster extraction (~2-3s per video vs 5-6s)
• ✅ Works without residential proxy (95-100% reliability)
• 📊 Optimized to 10 minimal discovery fields (from 30+)
• 🚀 79% code reduction (34KB vs 165KB)
• 💰 Zero artificial delays (error-based backoff only)
• 🎯 Flat field structure (channelId, channelHandle)
• 📅 Date range filtering for search keywords
• 📁 Bulk URL upload via text file or remote link
• ⚡ Script parsing optimization (early exit, max 5 scripts)
• 🎯 Discovery-focused: lightweight fields for fast video identification

v2.0

• Caption tracks in output
• Richer channel fields
• Improved localization

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🤝 Compliance

• Intended for legitimate research & business intelligence
• 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
• Documentation: See /docs folder for detailed guides

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Built with ❤️ for performance and reliability