⚡ Fast YouTube Channel Scraper

Fast YouTube Channel Scraper is an Apify Actor that extracts videos, Shorts and live streams from any public YouTube channel, with exact views, likes, tags, engagement rate and an outlier flag, and no API key. Paste channel links, @handles or channel IDs and get one row per video in JSON, CSV or Excel. Pay per result: $0.002 on the Free plan, down to $0.0014 on the Gold plan. 🚀 Try it free

What can Fast YouTube Channel Scraper do?

• 📺 Videos, Shorts and live streams in one run. Set a separate limit for each tab. It works as a YouTube channel videos scraper and a YouTube Shorts scraper. It is also a YouTube live streams scraper.
• 🔢 Exact numbers per video. View, like and comment counts, tags, category and publish date, plus the channel's subscribers, total views and total videos.
• 📈 Built-in insights. Every row gets an engagement rate, a views-to-subscribers ratio and an outlier flag, so you can find the videos that beat a channel's usual reach.
• 💰 Sponsor and affiliate signals. YouTube sponsor detection plus a basic YouTube affiliate link finder flag videos as leads to verify.
• 💬 Comments and transcripts on demand. Turn on top comments and transcripts in four formats when you need them.
• 🔁 Monitor mode. Stop at a video you already have for YouTube channel monitoring that collects only newer uploads, with an optional webhook.
• ⚡ Results while it runs. Rows reach your dataset as each video finishes, with ready-made views in the Output tab.
• 🔌 Export and integrations. Download JSON, CSV or Excel, or use schedules, webhooks and the Apify API.

Fast YouTube Channel Scraper is a YouTube data API alternative: it works as a YouTube channel scraper without API quota, and it needs no YouTube API key.

What data can I extract from YouTube channels?

As a YouTube channel data scraper, the Actor reads public pages on YouTube and saves one flat row per video, Short or stream. Each row holds the video fields followed by the channel fields.

Field	Description
🆔 videoId	Video ID.
🎬 title	Video title.
🔗 url	Watch link for the video.
🔖 type	video, short or stream.
⌛ durationSeconds	Length in seconds (can be empty for live or upcoming items).
⌛ duration	Length as text, for example 10:42.
📅 publishedAt	Exact publish time in UTC. Filled when Deep video enrichment is on.
📅 relativeDateText	Publish age as shown on the channel page, for example 3 weeks ago.
👀 viewCount	View count. Exact with details on, rounded listing value with details off.
👀 viewCountText	View count as shown on the channel page.
📷 thumbnailUrl	Thumbnail link.
🔴 isLive	True for live content, including past streams when details are on.
📝 description	Full description (details on).
🔖 tags	Video tags for YouTube video tags in bulk, the core of a YouTube video tags and category extractor (details on).
🗂 category	Video category (details on).
👍 likeCount	Like count (details on). Empty when the creator hides it.
🔒 isFamilySafe, isUnlisted, isMembersOnly, isAgeRestricted, playable	Visibility and access flags for the video (details on).
💬 commentCount, commentCountText	Comment count as a number and as text. Added when Collect top comments is on.
💬 topComments	Top comments with commentId, author, authorChannelId, authorIsVerified, text, publishedTimeText, likeCount, replyCount and isPinned.
📝 transcript	Caption text in the chosen format. Added when a caption track exists.
💰 sponsorSignal	YouTube sponsor detection result, an object with hasSponsorSignal, sponsorPhraseMatched and affiliateLinks (url, reason).
📈 engagementRate	(likes + comments) divided by views, as a ratio, like a YouTube engagement rate calculator.
📈 viewsToSubsRatio	YouTube views to subscribers ratio: views divided by the channel's subscriber count.
🚀 isOutlier, outlierBasis	Outlier flag and the sample it was judged against.
🆕 isNew	True on every row in monitor mode.
📺 channelId, channelName, channelHandle, channelUrl	Channel identity, as in a YouTube channel info scraper.
🔗 inputChannelUrl, channelStandardizedUrl	The link you gave and the channel's About page link.
📝 channelDescription, channelDescriptionLinks	About text and external links (text, url, isLikelyAffiliate).
👥 channelSubscriberCount, channelSubscriberCountText	Subscribers as a number and as shown by YouTube, as in a YouTube channel subscriber count scraper.
📊 channelTotalViews, channelTotalVideos	Channel totals, as in a YouTube channel statistics scraper.
🌍 channelCountry, channelJoinedDate, channelCreationDate	Country, join date text and creation time.
🔒 channelIsFamilySafe, channelIsAgeRestricted	Channel-level safety flags.
📷 channelAvatarUrl, channelBannerUrl	Avatar and banner links.

Use it as a YouTube channel stats scraper and YouTube video stats scraper. It is also a YouTube channel metadata scraper and YouTube video details scraper. Some fields can be empty, for example when a channel hides data or a video has no captions. As a YouTube channel about scraper, channel About data needs Channel About panel turned on; comments, transcripts, sponsor signals and the detail fields need Deep video enrichment.

What can you do with the data from YouTube channels?

🔎 Run a YouTube competitor analysis

1. Track a competitor YouTube channel: put competing channels into urls and set maxResults to 50.
2. Set sortVideosBy to POPULAR and keep enrichVideos on.
3. Export the dataset to CSV and sort by engagementRate to find top performing videos on a YouTube channel, a simple YouTube channel analysis tool.

🚀 Find outlier videos on a YouTube channel

1. Collect at least 20 videos per channel with maxResults.
2. Open the Insights view in the Output tab.
3. Filter isOutlier to see which topics beat the channel's usual reach.

💰 Do YouTube sponsorship and YouTube influencer research

1. Keep detectSponsors and includeAboutInfo on.
2. Open the Sponsors view and use the data as a YouTube creator research tool for brand deals.
3. Check each flag by hand, because it is a lead and not a certainty.

🔔 Monitor new YouTube videos from a channel

1. Turn on monitorMode and paste the last known video ID into sinceVideoId.
2. Add a webhookUrl if you want a notification when new videos appear.
3. Schedule the Actor in Apify to run daily.

🤖 Build datasets for AI and analysis

1. Scrape YouTube channel transcripts: turn on includeTranscript and choose a transcriptFormat.
2. Scrape YouTube comments too: add includeComments with maxComments for audience feedback.
3. Export titles, tags, descriptions and transcripts as JSON.

How do I use Fast YouTube Channel Scraper?

Follow these steps to scrape all videos from a YouTube channel, or from many channels at once as a YouTube bulk channel scraper.

1. Open Fast YouTube Channel Scraper on Apify and click Try for free.
2. Paste one or more channel links, @handles or channel IDs into urls.
3. Set maxResults for videos, and maxResultsShorts and maxResultStreams to scrape YouTube Shorts and live streams from a channel too.
4. Choose sortVideosBy and, if needed, oldestPostDate to stop at older videos.
5. Switch on includeComments or includeTranscript if you need them.
6. Click Start and watch the log while rows arrive.
7. Open the Dataset tab, pick a view and export as JSON, CSV or Excel. To get all video URLs from a YouTube channel, export the url column.

How much does it cost to scrape YouTube channels?

Fast YouTube Channel Scraper uses pay-per-event pricing. You pay one result event for each video, Short or stream saved to the dataset. Rows that only report an error are saved without the result charge. Apify platform usage is billed in addition.

Plan	Price per result	Per 1,000 results
🆓 Free	$0.002	$2.00
🥉 Bronze	$0.0018	$1.80
🥈 Silver	$0.0016	$1.60
🥇 Gold, Platinum and Diamond	$0.0014	$1.40

Every run also has an Actor start event of $0.00005 per GB of memory, minimum one. The default memory is 1 GB (1,024 MB), so one start event costs $0.00005.

Example: on the Free plan, a run that saves 500 videos costs 500 x $0.002 = $1.00, plus the $0.00005 start event and platform usage.

Is scraping YouTube channels free?

There is no monthly rental: you pay per saved result at your plan's price, from $0.002 on the Free plan to $0.0014 on Gold, Platinum and Diamond. A run that saves nothing only pays the $0.00005 start event and platform usage. You can also set a maximum spend per run, and the Actor stops cleanly when it is reached.

How much does Fast YouTube Channel Scraper cost per 1,000 results?

1,000 results cost $2.00 on the Free plan, $1.80 on Bronze, $1.60 on Silver and $1.40 on Gold, Platinum and Diamond. Each run adds one $0.00005 start event at the default 1 GB of memory, and Apify platform usage is billed in addition. Keeping Deep video enrichment off makes a listing-only run faster.

Input

Only urls is required. Every other field has a default, so you can paste a channel and click Start. Below, the fields are grouped by what they control.

Channels and limits

Field	Type	Required	Description	Default
urls	array	Yes	Channel links, @handles or channel IDs, one per line. Bulk input is supported.	["https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd"] (prefill)
maxResults	integer	No	Videos to collect from each channel's Videos tab. 0 skips videos. Range 0 to 500,000.	10
maxResultsShorts	integer	No	Shorts to collect per channel. 0 skips Shorts.	0
maxResultStreams	integer	No	Live, upcoming and past streams to collect per channel. 0 skips streams.	0
sortVideosBy	string	No	NEWEST, POPULAR or OLDEST. If a channel does not offer an order, its default order is used.	NEWEST
oldestPostDate	string	No	Stop at videos older than this. Use YYYY-MM-DD or a value like 30 days. Forces the Newest order.	empty

Details, comments and transcripts

Field	Type	Required	Description	Default
enrichVideos	boolean	No	Deep video enrichment: exact counts, description, tags, category and publish date. Needed for comments, transcripts and sponsor detection.	true
includeAboutInfo	boolean	No	Adds the channel About details: description, country, joined date, totals and links.	true
detectSponsors	boolean	No	Adds sponsorSignal to each row. Needs deep enrichment.	true
includeComments	boolean	No	Collects top comments for each video.	false
maxComments	integer	No	Comments to keep per video.	5
includeTranscript	boolean	No	Collects the video's caption text when a caption track exists.	false
transcriptFormat	string	No	text, timestamped, srt or segments (a JSON array).	text

Monitor mode

Field	Type	Required	Description	Default
monitorMode	boolean	No	Forces the Newest order and stops each channel at sinceVideoId, so only newer videos are returned.	false
sinceVideoId	string	No	The 11-character video ID to stop at. Leave empty to collect the newest videos on every run.	empty
webhookUrl	string	No	When monitor mode finds new videos for a channel, the Actor posts {channel, newVideos} once per channel to this URL.	empty

Advanced settings

Field	Type	Required	Description	Default
proxyConfiguration	object	No	Optional connection settings. Leave the default unless you need your own.	{"useApifyProxy": false}
cookie	string	No	Optional raw Cookie header value, stored encrypted.	empty
outputFormat	string	No	nested or flat. The key-value store OUTPUT record is the nested shape in both cases.	nested
maxConcurrency	integer	No	Videos enriched at the same time per channel, 1 to 20.	5
maxRetries	integer	No	Attempts per request, 1 to 10.	3
maxScrollRetries	integer	No	Listing pages with no new videos allowed before a tab counts as finished, 1 to 10.	3
maxScanned	integer	No	Safety cap on listing rows examined per tab, 100 to 200,000.	20000

Input example

{
  "urls": ["https://www.youtube.com/@examplechannel"],
  "maxResults": 50,
  "maxResultsShorts": 20,
  "maxResultStreams": 0,
  "sortVideosBy": "NEWEST",
  "enrichVideos": true,
  "includeAboutInfo": true,
  "detectSponsors": true,
  "includeComments": true,
  "maxComments": 5,
  "includeTranscript": true,
  "transcriptFormat": "text"
}

Output

Results go to the default Apify dataset, one flat row per video, Short or stream, and appear while the run is going. Export them as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or HTML from the Dataset tab or through the API. The dataset has seven views: Overview, Insights, Channel, Sponsors, Comments & Transcript, Media and Errors.

The key-value store also holds an OUTPUT record with every processed channel and its videos nested together, and a run-summary record with channels processed, results per type, errors and run time.

Video row

{
  "channelId": "UCexample0000000000000000",
  "channelName": "Example Channel",
  "channelHandle": "@examplechannel",
  "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@examplechannel",
  "inputChannelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@examplechannel",
  "channelStandardizedUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@examplechannel/about",
  "channelDescription": "Example channel description.",
  "channelDescriptionLinks": [
    { "text": "Website", "url": "https://example.com", "isLikelyAffiliate": false }
  ],
  "channelSubscriberCount": 1200000,
  "channelSubscriberCountText": "1.2M subscribers",
  "channelTotalViews": 250000000,
  "channelTotalVideos": 800,
  "channelCountry": "United States",
  "channelJoinedDate": "Jan 1, 2015",
  "channelCreationDate": "2015-01-01T00:00:00Z",
  "channelIsFamilySafe": true,
  "channelIsAgeRestricted": null,
  "channelAvatarUrl": "https://example.com/avatar.jpg",
  "channelBannerUrl": "https://example.com/banner.jpg",
  "videoId": "abcDEF12345",
  "title": "Example video title",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abcDEF12345",
  "type": "video",
  "durationSeconds": 642,
  "duration": "10:42",
  "publishedAt": "2026-01-15T12:00:00.000Z",
  "relativeDateText": "3 weeks ago",
  "viewCount": 1500000,
  "viewCountText": "1.5M views",
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://example.com/thumbnail.jpg",
  "isLive": false,
  "description": "Example description. Use code EXAMPLE for 10% off: https://example.com/deal?ref=abc",
  "tags": ["example", "demo"],
  "category": "Science & Technology",
  "likeCount": 45000,
  "isFamilySafe": true,
  "isUnlisted": false,
  "isMembersOnly": false,
  "isAgeRestricted": false,
  "playable": true,
  "commentCountText": "2,345",
  "commentCount": 2345,
  "topComments": [
    {
      "commentId": "exampleCommentId",
      "author": "@exampleviewer",
      "authorChannelId": "UCexampleviewer000000000",
      "authorIsVerified": false,
      "text": "Example comment text.",
      "publishedTimeText": "2 weeks ago",
      "likeCount": 120,
      "replyCount": 4,
      "isPinned": false
    }
  ],
  "transcript": "Example transcript text.",
  "sponsorSignal": {
    "hasSponsorSignal": true,
    "sponsorPhraseMatched": true,
    "affiliateLinks": [
      { "url": "https://example.com/deal?ref=abc", "reason": "affiliate/tracking params" }
    ]
  },
  "engagementRate": 0.03156,
  "viewsToSubsRatio": 1.25,
  "isOutlier": false,
  "outlierBasis": "median of 50 videos collected this run: 900,000 views",
  "isNew": true
}

Error row

When a channel link cannot be read, or a video cannot be collected, the Errors view shows a row like this.

{
  "error": "no channel data was returned: check the link, the channel may be deleted, or access was blocked",
  "inputUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@examplechannel"
}

Notes and limitations

• Without Deep video enrichment, rows have rounded view counts from the channel page and no likeCount, tags, category or publishedAt.
• isNew appears only in monitor mode, and comment and transcript fields only when enabled.
• isOutlier compares a video with the median of the same-type videos collected from that channel in the same run and needs at least five of them; otherwise it stays empty.
• sponsorSignal is a lead to verify, not proof of a paid deal.
• The date cutoff in oldestPostDate is approximate and does not apply to the Shorts tab.
• The transcript comes from the first caption track a video offers; you cannot pick a language.
• Private, deleted or unavailable videos and channels return an error row or no data.

FAQ

Is it legal to scrape YouTube channels?

Fast YouTube Channel Scraper collects public data that any visitor can see, but the legal position depends on your country, your use and the data you keep, including personal data under GDPR or CCPA. Read the platform terms and consult a lawyer if unsure. This is not legal advice. See https://blog.apify.com/is-web-scraping-legal/ for background.

Can I scrape YouTube without an API key, account or cookies?

No. You only need channel links, @handles or channel IDs. There is no login and no YouTube API key to create, and so no API quota to watch. The optional cookie field exists for advanced cases, is stored encrypted, and can stay empty for normal runs.

How many videos can I scrape per run?

Each channel and tab has its own limit: maxResults, maxResultsShorts and maxResultStreams accept up to 500,000. The listing stops after maxScanned rows per tab, which is 20,000 by default and 200,000 at most, so raise it for very large channels. The run also ends when a channel has no more videos.

How do I export a YouTube channel video list to CSV or Excel?

Run the Actor, open the Dataset tab, choose a view such as Overview, and export as CSV, Excel, JSON, XML or HTML. To export a YouTube channel video list with only links, download the url column. To export YouTube comments to CSV, turn on includeComments first. The same data is available through the Apify API.

Can I schedule a YouTube channel scrape or monitor new videos?

Yes. Turn on monitorMode and set sinceVideoId to the last video you have, and each run returns only newer uploads. Add a webhookUrl to be notified per channel. Use Apify schedules to run it daily or hourly, and combine it with webhooks or integrations to push new videos into your own tools.

Can I use Fast YouTube Channel Scraper with the Apify API or an MCP server?

Yes. You can start runs, read datasets and manage schedules through the Apify API using the Python or JavaScript clients, or connect the Actor to an MCP server so an AI assistant can call it. The ready-made code samples are in the API tab; the full reference is at https://docs.apify.com/api/v2 for developers.

Why am I getting fewer results than expected?

Common reasons: a tab limit is 0, the channel has no Shorts or Live tab, oldestPostDate or sinceVideoId stopped the listing early, maxScanned was reached, or the run hit your maximum spend. Private or deleted videos are also skipped. Check the Errors view and the run log, raise the limits, and run again.

How can I check if a YouTube video is sponsored?

Treat the sponsorSignal field as a lead. It looks for sponsor wording and tracking links in the description, so it can miss deals or flag normal links. A video is an outlier when its views are at least three times the median of that channel's same-type videos in the run, which needs five or more.

How is it different from the YouTube Data API?

The Actor needs no API key or quota setup and returns one ready-to-export table per run, combining channel details and video details with engagement rate, outlier flag and sponsor signals. You pay per saved result instead of managing quota. It reads public channel data only and cannot access private videos or account data.

Fast YouTube Channel Scraper not working?

First check the run log and the Errors view for the channel link that failed, and make sure it points to a public channel. Try fewer channels or lower limits, then run again. If it still fails, open the Issues tab of the Actor with your run link and input, and we will look into it.

Related Actors

Actor	Use it to
🔗 YouTube Scraper	Scrape YouTube videos, Shorts, streams, channels, playlists, hashtags and search results.
🔗 YouTube Shorts Scraper	Extract Shorts from any channel with views, likes, comments, hashtags and channel details.
🔗 YouTube Transcript Scraper	Extract YouTube transcripts, subtitles and captions in bulk.
🔗 YouTube Comments Scraper	Extract video comments and replies with author, text, likes and publish date.

Support and disclaimer

Found a bug or need a feature? Open an issue in the Issues tab. For custom solutions, integrations or questions, email hello.dataminds@gmail.com. Fast YouTube Channel Scraper is independent and not affiliated with YouTube or Google; trademarks belong to their owners. It collects publicly available data, and you are responsible for complying with applicable laws and the site's terms.

Last updated: 2026-10-17