# YouTube Channel & Video Scraper - Profiles, Videos, Shorts (`criatolabs/youtube-channel-scraper`) Actor

Scrape YouTube channels (subscribers, total views, links, country, join date) with their videos, Shorts and lives, plus keyword search results. No API key, no quota, no Actor fee.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/criatolabs/youtube-channel-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Criato Labs](https://apify.com/criatolabs) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media, Videos, Lead generation
- **Security:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per usage

This Actor is paid per platform usage. The Actor is free to use, and you only pay for the Apify platform usage, which gets cheaper the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-usage

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## YouTube Channel & Video Scraper: profiles, videos, Shorts and search

Scrape YouTube channels and their content in one run. You get the **channel profile** (subscribers, exact total views, video count, country, join date and external links) plus its **videos, Shorts and live streams**, and **keyword search results**.

There's **no Actor fee**: you only pay Apify platform usage. In our test that was **about $0.006 per 1,000 videos**. You also don't need an API key, and there's no daily quota.

### What you get

**For each channel**

- 👤 **Name, @handle, URL, avatar, banner, description and keywords**
- 📊 **Subscribers**, the **exact total channel views** and the **video count**
- 🌍 **Country and join date**
- 🔗 **External links** from the About tab (Instagram, X, TikTok, website…)
- 📧 `hasBusinessEmail`: whether the channel lists a business email

**For each video, Short or live**

- 🎬 **Title, URL, views, publish date, duration** (text and seconds) and **thumbnail**
- 🏷️ **Flags** for Shorts and live videos
- 🔎 **Search results** with channel name and ID, sortable by relevance, upload date or view count

### Tested at scale

**8 channels, 924 channel videos and 120 search results** took **23 seconds** with **0 failures**. It used **$0.006** of platform usage.

### Use cases

- **Influencer and creator research:** compare channels by subscribers, total views and posting frequency.
- **Competitor tracking:** monitor a competitor's uploads, Shorts and views over time with scheduled runs.
- **Content strategy:** find the most-viewed videos for a topic with keyword search sorted by views.
- **Lead generation:** collect channel links and websites, and see whether a business email is listed.

### Input

```json
{
  "channels": ["@MrBeast", "https://www.youtube.com/@veritasium", "UCsooa4yRKGN_zEE8iknghZA"],
  "maxVideosPerChannel": 50,
  "includeVideos": true,
  "includeShorts": true,
  "includeLive": false,
  "searchQueries": ["python tutorial"],
  "maxResultsPerSearch": 50,
  "searchSortBy": "views",
  "language": "en",
  "country": "US"
}
```

Tip: YouTube may auto-translate video titles into the interface `language`. To keep original titles, set it to the creators' language, for example `pt` for Brazilian channels.

### Output

Each item has a `type` of either `channel` or `video`.

```json
{
  "type": "channel",
  "name": "MrBeast",
  "handle": "@MrBeast",
  "subscribers": 525000000,
  "totalViews": 145642371073,
  "videoCount": 1011,
  "country": "United States",
  "joinedDate": "Feb 19, 2012",
  "links": [{ "title": "Follow", "url": "https://instagram.com/mrbeast" }],
  "hasBusinessEmail": true
}
```

```json
{
  "type": "video",
  "source": "channel:videos",
  "rank": 1,
  "videoId": "_c2e1NcI3Sc",
  "title": "Beat LeBron In Basketball, Win $100,000",
  "channelName": "MrBeast",
  "views": 58000000,
  "viewsText": "58M views",
  "publishedTimeText": "3 days ago",
  "duration": "22:28",
  "durationSeconds": 1348,
  "isShort": false,
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c2e1NcI3Sc"
}
```

Channel tabs show rounded view counts (for example "58M"), while search results show exact ones. Some videos have no public view count on YouTube itself (for example members-first uploads); for those, `views` is `null`.

### Pricing

This Actor has no fee of its own: you pay only Apify platform usage. In our test, 1,052 items cost $0.006.

### More YouTube and trends tools from Criato Labs

- [YouTube Comments Scraper](https://apify.com/criatolabs/youtube-comments-scraper): comments and replies from any video or Short
- [YouTube Transcript Scraper](https://apify.com/criatolabs/youtube-transcript-scraper): transcripts of videos or whole channels
- [Google Trends Batch Scraper](https://apify.com/criatolabs/google-trends-batch-scraper): including what people search for on YouTube

### FAQ

**Does it need a YouTube API key?** No. It reads the same public pages the YouTube website shows.

**Can I get the business email?** YouTube only shows business emails to signed-in users after a captcha, so this Actor doesn't collect them. It does tell you whether a channel has one (`hasBusinessEmail`) and returns all public links.

**How many videos can I get per channel?** All of them. Set `maxVideosPerChannel` as high as you need. Videos are returned newest first.

# Actor input Schema

## `channels` (type: `array`):

Channel URLs, @handles or channel IDs (UC...). One per line. Returns the channel profile plus its videos.

## `searchQueries` (type: `array`):

Keywords to search on YouTube. Returns matching videos with views, duration and channel.

## `maxVideosPerChannel` (type: `integer`):

Newest first. Set 0 to get only the channel profile.

## `includeVideos` (type: `boolean`):

Videos tab of each channel.

## `includeShorts` (type: `boolean`):

Shorts tab of each channel.

## `includeLive` (type: `boolean`):

Live tab of each channel (past and upcoming streams).

## `includeAbout` (type: `boolean`):

Exact total views, video count, join date, country and external links (Instagram, website...).

## `maxResultsPerSearch` (type: `integer`):

Videos per search query.

## `searchSortBy` (type: `string`):

Same as YouTube's search filter.

## `language` (type: `string`):

Interface language (en, pt, es...). YouTube may auto-translate titles to this language; use the creator's language to keep original titles.

## `country` (type: `string`):

Two-letter country code used for search results (US, BR, GB...).

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Apify Proxy is recommended. The Actor rotates IPs automatically when YouTube rate-limits.

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

Channels/searches processed at the same time.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "channels": [
    "@MrBeast",
    "https://www.youtube.com/@veritasium"
  ],
  "maxVideosPerChannel": 30,
  "includeVideos": true,
  "includeShorts": false,
  "includeLive": false,
  "includeAbout": true,
  "maxResultsPerSearch": 20,
  "searchSortBy": "relevance",
  "language": "en",
  "country": "US",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  },
  "maxConcurrency": 5
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `channels` (type: `string`):

Channel profiles (type = channel).

## `videos` (type: `string`):

Videos, Shorts and search results (type = video).

## `runSummary` (type: `string`):

Counts of channels, videos and failures.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "channels": [
        "@MrBeast",
        "https://www.youtube.com/@veritasium"
    ],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("criatolabs/youtube-channel-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "channels": [
        "@MrBeast",
        "https://www.youtube.com/@veritasium",
    ],
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": True },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("criatolabs/youtube-channel-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "channels": [
    "@MrBeast",
    "https://www.youtube.com/@veritasium"
  ],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}' |
apify call criatolabs/youtube-channel-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,criatolabs/youtube-channel-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/9IgoYEbbupT5FdieQ/builds/Z2rd3HfbuqpjQVV4k/openapi.json