# YouTube Comments Scraper — Comments & Replies (No API Key) (`datasiphon/youtube-comments-scraper`) Actor

YouTube comments scraper: top or newest comments and replies for any video, with author, likes, reply counts and timestamps. No login, no API key. Export JSON, CSV or Excel.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/datasiphon/youtube-comments-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Kashif Ali](https://apify.com/datasiphon) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$1.30 / 1,000 comments

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/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## 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 Comments Scraper — comments and replies, no API key

**YouTube Comments Scraper** extracts **comments and replies** from any YouTube video — top or newest — with author, likes, reply counts and timestamps. No login, no cookies and **no YouTube API key or quota**. Bulk video lists supported. Export JSON, CSV or Excel.

### What does it do?

Paste video URLs (watch, Shorts, youtu.be) or IDs and get one flat row per comment. Use it for **sentiment analysis**, audience research, **community and brand monitoring**, finding questions and ideas in comment threads, and building comment datasets for AI.

### Features

- **Scrape YouTube comments in bulk** from many videos in one run.
- **Top or newest** sorting (`sort`).
- **Replies** (`includeReplies`, `maxRepliesPerComment`) linked to their parent comment (`parentId`).
- Fields: comment text, author handle and channel ID/URL, **likes**, **reply count**, relative publish time, verified/creator flags, hearted-by-creator flag.
- Per-video cap (`maxCommentsPerVideo`), overall cap (`maxItems`), **incremental mode** (`onlyNew`) for monitoring.
- Videos with comments disabled return a free status row instead of failing the run.

### How to scrape YouTube comments

1. Add **video URLs or IDs**.
2. Choose top/newest, how many comments per video and whether to include replies.
3. Run and export the dataset.

### Input

`videoUrls`, `sort`, `maxCommentsPerVideo`, `includeReplies`, `maxRepliesPerComment`, `maxItems` (default 100), `onlyNew`, `maxConcurrency`, `proxyConfiguration`.

### Example output (real run)

```json
{
  "id": "Ugzge340dBgB75hWBm54AaABAg",
  "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "videoUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "text": "can confirm: he never gave us up",
  "author": "@YouTube",
  "authorChannelId": "UCBR8-60-B28hp2BmDPdntcQ",
  "authorUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBR8-60-B28hp2BmDPdntcQ",
  "authorIsVerified": true,
  "authorIsCreator": false,
  "likes": 322000,
  "replyCount": 962,
  "publishedTime": "1 year ago",
  "isReply": false,
  "heartedByCreator": true,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-01T19:34:02.618283+00:00",
  "schemaVersion": 1
}
```

### Pricing

Pay per event: **$1.30 per 1,000 comments** ($0.0013 each). Videos with comments disabled and errors are free.

### Use cases

Sentiment analysis · customer-feedback mining · influencer and competitor monitoring · FAQ and idea discovery · AI training data.

### FAQ

**Do I need the YouTube Data API?** No — no key, no quota.
**Can I get replies?** Yes, switch on `includeReplies`.
**How many comments per video?** Set `maxCommentsPerVideo`; thousands are possible, billed per comment.

### Limitations

Videos with comments disabled return a free status row. Like counts are approximate for large numbers (YouTube shows 1.2K). Replies are capped per comment by `maxRepliesPerComment`.

### Also useful for

Extract YouTube comments and replies in bulk — a comments scraper and downloader for any video, exported to JSON, CSV or Excel without an API key.

### Is it legal? No login, no cookies

This Actor only reads **publicly available** pages. It never asks for a cookie, password or account and does not access private data. You are responsible for using the data in line with the source site's terms and applicable law (GDPR/CCPA for personal data).

### Related scrapers by the same author

[YouTube Transcript Scraper](https://apify.com/datasiphon/youtube-transcript-scraper) · [YouTube Email Scraper](https://apify.com/datasiphon/youtube-email-scraper) · [Reddit Scraper](https://apify.com/datasiphon/reddit-scraper) · [Google News Scraper](https://apify.com/datasiphon/google-news-scraper) · [Bilibili Scraper](https://apify.com/datasiphon/bilibili-scraper) · [Airbnb Scraper](https://apify.com/datasiphon/airbnb-scraper)

# Actor input Schema

## `videoUrls` (type: `array`):

YouTube watch, Shorts or youtu.be links, or 11-character video IDs.

## `sort` (type: `string`):

Top comments or newest first.

## `maxCommentsPerVideo` (type: `integer`):

Cap per video (top-level comments; replies are counted separately).

## `includeReplies` (type: `boolean`):

Also return replies to each comment.

## `maxRepliesPerComment` (type: `integer`):

Cap on replies fetched per comment when replies are included.

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

Overall cap on billed rows across all videos (cost control).

## `onlyNew` (type: `boolean`):

Skip comments already returned by a previous run.

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

Videos processed in parallel.

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

Optional datacenter proxy. Residential is not supported (uneconomic at this price).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "videoUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ],
  "sort": "top",
  "maxCommentsPerVideo": 100,
  "includeReplies": false,
  "maxRepliesPerComment": 20,
  "maxItems": 100,
  "onlyNew": false,
  "maxConcurrency": 3,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

All rows as JSON/CSV/Excel.

# 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 = {
    "videoUrls": [
        "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
    ],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("datasiphon/youtube-comments-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 = {
    "videoUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"],
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": True },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("datasiphon/youtube-comments-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 '{
  "videoUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}' |
apify call datasiphon/youtube-comments-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,datasiphon/youtube-comments-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/mPyOyouFrKbCKYHNY/builds/5NPkCwYkplnKNZt1P/openapi.json