# YouTube Scraper (`dami_studio/youtube-scraper`) Actor

Scrape YouTube video metadata by search keyword or channel (URL, @handle, UC id): videoId, title, watch URL, channel, views, publish time, length, thumbnail. No API key.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/dami\_studio/youtube-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Dami's Studio](https://apify.com/dami_studio) (community)
- **Categories:** Videos, Social media, Integrations
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$2.50 / 1,000 video returneds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

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

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js.md):

```bash
npm install apify-client
```

In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.md):

```bash
pip install apify-client
```

In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md):

````bash
# MacOS / Linux
curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash
# Windows
irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex
```bash

In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp.md).

If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).


# README

## YouTube Scraper

Scrape YouTube videos by **search keyword** or by **channel** (URL, `@handle`, or `UC…` id) using YouTube's internal InnerTube (`youtubei/v1`) JSON API. No API key, no cookies, no login. Auto-paginates via continuation tokens to reach your requested item count.

For every video it returns: `videoId`, `title`, watch `url`, `channelName`, `channelId`, `viewCountText`, `publishedTimeText`, `lengthText`, and the largest `thumbnail`.

### What it does

- **Search mode** — give one or more keywords; each query returns up to `maxItems` matching videos.
- **Channel mode** — give one or more channels; each returns up to `maxItems` of its newest videos.

You can use either mode or both in a single run. Results are de-duplicated by `videoId` across all queries and channels, so you never pay for the same video twice in one run.

### Input

| Field | Type | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `searchQueries` | string[] | Keywords to search, one per line. Optional if you supply `channelUrls`. |
| `channelUrls` | string[] | Channel URLs, `@handles`, or raw `UC…` ids. Optional if you supply `searchQueries`. |
| `maxItems` | integer | Max videos **per query and per channel** (1–1000, default 50). |
| `proxyConfiguration` | object | Proxy for all requests. **Residential Apify Proxy is strongly recommended** — YouTube blocks datacenter/cloud IPs aggressively. |

You must provide at least one of `searchQueries` or `channelUrls`. If both are empty the actor pushes an uncharged `BAD_INPUT` diagnostic row (it does not crash).

#### Example input

```json
{
  "searchQueries": ["lofi hip hop", "python tutorial"],
  "channelUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/@LofiGirl", "UCSJ4gkVC6NrvII8umztf0Ow"],
  "maxItems": 50,
  "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"] }
}
````

### Output

Each successful video is one dataset row with `ok: true`:

```json
{
  "ok": true,
  "videoId": "n61ULEU7CO0",
  "title": "lofi hip hop radio - beats to relax/study to",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n61ULEU7CO0",
  "channelName": "Lofi Girl",
  "channelId": "UCSJ4gkVC6NrvII8umztf0Ow",
  "viewCountText": "123,456 views",
  "publishedTimeText": "2 years ago",
  "lengthText": "1:02:33",
  "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/n61ULEU7CO0/hqdefault.jpg",
  "mode": "search"
}
```

#### Nullable / empty fields

YouTube's modern channel grid uses a different layout than search results, so a few fields can come back as an empty string `""` depending on which layout a video uses:

- `channelId` — may be empty for some channel-grid videos (the grid layout does not always carry the id).
- `viewCountText`, `publishedTimeText`, `lengthText` — may be empty for live streams, premieres, or radio-style "videos" that have no view count or fixed duration.
- `thumbnail` — falls back to `https://i.ytimg.com/vi/<videoId>/hqdefault.jpg` if no source URL is present, so it is rarely empty.

`videoId`, `title`, and `url` are always present on `ok: true` rows.

### Pricing

This actor charges **per returned video** (pay-per-result). You are charged only for genuine `ok: true` video rows.

- **Blocked, rate-limited, network-error, and empty (`NO_RESULTS`) runs are never charged.** When something goes wrong the actor pushes an `ok: false` diagnostic row with an `errorCode` instead of charging you.

### Diagnostics

On any failure the actor pushes a diagnostic row (`ok: false`) carrying a clear `errorCode` rather than silently returning nothing:

| `errorCode` | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| `BAD_INPUT` | No `searchQueries` or `channelUrls` were provided. |
| `BLOCKED` | YouTube blocked the request (anti-bot / 403). Use a residential proxy. |
| `RATE_LIMITED` | Hit a 429. The actor backed off and retried; lower volume or add a proxy. |
| `SERVER_ERROR` | YouTube returned a 5xx. Usually transient — retry later. |
| `NO_RESULTS` | The request succeeded but matched no videos for your input. |
| `NETWORK` | A network error reaching YouTube. |

### Troubleshooting

- **Got `NO_RESULTS` or `BLOCKED` for a channel you know has videos?** YouTube blocks cloud/datacenter IPs aggressively. Enable **Apify Proxy with the `RESIDENTIAL` group** and re-run — this resolves the large majority of empty/blocked results.
- **`RATE_LIMITED` on large runs?** A high `maxItems` (toward 1000) requires many paginated requests. Lower `maxItems`, run fewer queries per run, or keep the residential proxy on.
- **Channel won't resolve (`BAD_INPUT: could not resolve channel`)?** Double-check the handle/URL, or pass the raw `UC…` channel id directly.

# Actor input Schema

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

Keywords to search YouTube for, one per line (e.g. "lofi hip hop", "python tutorial"). Each query returns up to Max videos. Leave empty if you only want channel videos. Empty results usually mean the query genuinely has no matches, or that geo-blocking / anti-bot triggered for the run IP — try again with the residential proxy enabled.

## `channelUrls` (type: `array`):

YouTube channels to pull videos from, one per line. Accepts full channel URLs (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/@LofiGirl, https://www.youtube.com/c/ChannelName, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSJ4gkVC6NrvII8umztf0Ow), @handles (e.g. @LofiGirl), or raw UC channel ids (e.g. UCSJ4gkVC6NrvII8umztf0Ow). Each channel returns up to Max of its newest videos.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of videos to return per search query and per channel. Pagination via continuation tokens is used to reach this number. Values up to a few hundred are realistic; very large values (toward 1000) require many paginated requests and raise the chance of YouTube rate-limiting or blocking the run IP — keep a residential proxy enabled for high values.

## `notionConnector` (type: `string`):

Optional. Write each video as a page into your Notion when the run finishes. Authorize a Notion connector once in Settings → API & Integrations → MCP connectors, then pick it here. Leave empty to skip (default) — results are always saved to the dataset regardless.

## `notionParentId` (type: `string`):

Optional. The Notion data source ID of the database to write into (only used if a Notion connector is set). Leave empty to create the pages privately in your workspace instead.

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

Proxy used for all InnerTube requests. Apify Proxy is recommended; residential proxies are most reliable for YouTube from cloud IPs.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchQueries": [
    "lofi hip hop"
  ],
  "maxItems": 50,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

Scraped rows are stored in the default dataset (one row per result). Blocked/empty/error runs return a single uncharged diagnostic row instead.

# 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 = {
    "searchQueries": [
        "lofi hip hop"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("dami_studio/youtube-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 = { "searchQueries": ["lofi hip hop"] }

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

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

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

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "searchQueries": [
    "lofi hip hop"
  ]
}' |
apify call dami_studio/youtube-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=dami_studio/youtube-scraper",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

```json
{
    "openapi": "3.0.1",
    "info": {
        "title": "YouTube Scraper",
        "description": "Scrape YouTube video metadata by search keyword or channel (URL, @handle, UC id): videoId, title, watch URL, channel, views, publish time, length, thumbnail. No API key.",
        "version": "0.1",
        "x-build-id": "SPy0mfrV8aOIPq2UP"
    },
    "servers": [
        {
            "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2"
        }
    ],
    "paths": {
        "/acts/dami_studio~youtube-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-dami_studio-youtube-scraper",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK"
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/dami_studio~youtube-scraper/runs": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "runs-sync-dami_studio-youtube-scraper",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK",
                        "content": {
                            "application/json": {
                                "schema": {
                                    "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema"
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/dami_studio~youtube-scraper/run-sync": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-dami_studio-youtube-scraper",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK"
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    },
    "components": {
        "schemas": {
            "inputSchema": {
                "type": "object",
                "properties": {
                    "searchQueries": {
                        "title": "Search queries",
                        "type": "array",
                        "description": "Keywords to search YouTube for, one per line (e.g. \"lofi hip hop\", \"python tutorial\"). Each query returns up to Max videos. Leave empty if you only want channel videos. Empty results usually mean the query genuinely has no matches, or that geo-blocking / anti-bot triggered for the run IP — try again with the residential proxy enabled.",
                        "items": {
                            "type": "string"
                        }
                    },
                    "channelUrls": {
                        "title": "Channel URLs / handles",
                        "type": "array",
                        "description": "YouTube channels to pull videos from, one per line. Accepts full channel URLs (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/@LofiGirl, https://www.youtube.com/c/ChannelName, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSJ4gkVC6NrvII8umztf0Ow), @handles (e.g. @LofiGirl), or raw UC channel ids (e.g. UCSJ4gkVC6NrvII8umztf0Ow). Each channel returns up to Max of its newest videos.",
                        "items": {
                            "type": "string"
                        }
                    },
                    "maxItems": {
                        "title": "Max videos per query / channel",
                        "minimum": 1,
                        "maximum": 1000,
                        "type": "integer",
                        "description": "Maximum number of videos to return per search query and per channel. Pagination via continuation tokens is used to reach this number. Values up to a few hundred are realistic; very large values (toward 1000) require many paginated requests and raise the chance of YouTube rate-limiting or blocking the run IP — keep a residential proxy enabled for high values.",
                        "default": 50
                    },
                    "notionConnector": {
                        "title": "Notion connector (optional)",
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "Optional. Write each video as a page into your Notion when the run finishes. Authorize a Notion connector once in Settings → API & Integrations → MCP connectors, then pick it here. Leave empty to skip (default) — results are always saved to the dataset regardless."
                    },
                    "notionParentId": {
                        "title": "Notion target data source ID",
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "Optional. The Notion data source ID of the database to write into (only used if a Notion connector is set). Leave empty to create the pages privately in your workspace instead."
                    },
                    "proxyConfiguration": {
                        "title": "Proxy",
                        "type": "object",
                        "description": "Proxy used for all InnerTube requests. Apify Proxy is recommended; residential proxies are most reliable for YouTube from cloud IPs.",
                        "default": {
                            "useApifyProxy": true
                        }
                    }
                }
            },
            "runsResponseSchema": {
                "type": "object",
                "properties": {
                    "data": {
                        "type": "object",
                        "properties": {
                            "id": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "actId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "userId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "startedAt": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "format": "date-time",
                                "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z"
                            },
                            "finishedAt": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "format": "date-time",
                                "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z"
                            },
                            "status": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "example": "READY"
                            },
                            "meta": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "origin": {
                                        "type": "string",
                                        "example": "API"
                                    },
                                    "userAgent": {
                                        "type": "string"
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "stats": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "inputBodyLen": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 2000
                                    },
                                    "rebootCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "restartCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "resurrectCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "computeUnits": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "options": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "build": {
                                        "type": "string",
                                        "example": "latest"
                                    },
                                    "timeoutSecs": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 300
                                    },
                                    "memoryMbytes": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 1024
                                    },
                                    "diskMbytes": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 2048
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "buildId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultKeyValueStoreId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultDatasetId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultRequestQueueId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "buildNumber": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "example": "1.0.0"
                            },
                            "containerUrl": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "usage": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 1
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_SERPS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "usageTotalUsd": {
                                "type": "number",
                                "example": 0.00005
                            },
                            "usageUsd": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "number",
                                        "example": 0.00005
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_SERPS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}
```