YouTube SponsorBlock Segments Scraper

Export crowdsourced SponsorBlock timestamps for any batch of YouTube videos. Every row is one segment: what it is, when it starts and ends, how the community voted, who submitted it when that is public, and the YouTube title, channel, and thumbnail that make the segment easy to join onto other datasets.

No YouTube login, SponsorBlock account, API key, browser, or proxy is needed. The actor reads the public SponsorBlock database and YouTube's public metadata endpoints.

Two ways to read the data

• Visible segments (default) — exactly what SponsorBlock returns to its extension: the segments viewers are currently offered, with the video duration attached to each segment.
• All submissions — the full search database, with views and submission time. Hidden, shadow-hidden, and disputed submissions are included only when Include hidden submissions is enabled. This mode is for research and moderation work, not for deciding what to skip.

Both modes accept the same category, action, vote, and per-video cap filters.

What you get

One dataset row per segment. Status rows explain videos with no matching segments, invalid inputs, or a failed lookup. Optional summary rows give per-video and whole-run totals.

Field	Example	Meaning
recordType	segment	segment, status, videoSummary, or runSummary
videoId	7wtfhZwyrcc	11-character YouTube ID
videoUrl	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wtfhZwyrcc	Canonical watch URL
segmentId	1561e818...	SponsorBlock segment UUID
category / categoryName	sponsor / Sponsor	Category key and readable label
actionType / actionName	skip / Skip	Skip, mute, full video, highlight/POI, or chapter
startTime / endTime	0 / 31.861	Seconds from the start of the video
durationSeconds	31.861	Segment length in seconds
videoDurationSeconds	361	Video duration reported by SponsorBlock or YouTube
votes	0	Community vote score
locked	false	Whether the segment is locked from edits
views	213	Reported views on the submission (when available)
timeSubmitted	2021-06-07T01:55:42+00:00	Submission time (when available)
hidden / shadowHidden	false	Moderation or shadowban state (all-submissions mode)
description	Pre-Lyrics	Community note, when one exists
submitterId	62fc5a8d...	Public SponsorBlock submitter ID
submitterName	blabdude	Public username, when the submitter set one
submitterSegmentCount	23402	Public submitter segment count
submitterReputation	27	Public submitter reputation score
submitterMinutesSaved	13669789.992	Public minutes-saved total
submitterViewCount	41955231	Public submitter view total
submitterVip	true	Public VIP flag
videoTitle	Imagine Dragons - Believer...	YouTube title from oEmbed/player
channelName / channelId	ImagineDragonsVEVO / UCpx_k...	Channel name and ID
channelUrl	https://www.youtube.com/@ImagineDragonsVEVO	Channel URL
thumbnailUrl	https://i.ytimg.com/...	Public thumbnail
youtubeDurationSeconds	217	Duration reported by YouTube
videoViewCount	3072396590	YouTube view count
publishedAt	2017-03-07	YouTube publish date
isLive	false	Live-stream flag
status	no_segments	Status rows only
error	...	Status rows only
scrapedAt	2026-11-05T...	Capture timestamp

Every empty value is omitted at every depth. There are no null placeholders, empty strings, empty lists, or empty objects in the dataset.

Status rows

status	Meaning
no_segments	The lookup succeeded but no segment matched the category, action, vote, hidden, or cap filters.
invalid_video	The input was not a YouTube video URL or ID.
failed	SponsorBlock did not return a usable response after retries.

Summary rows

Set Include summary rows to add:

• videoSummary per processed video: segmentCount, totalSegmentSeconds, averageSegmentSeconds, longestSegmentSeconds, category and action counts, and the YouTube metadata.
• runSummary once per run: requested/processed/with-segments/without-segments/failed counts, total segment count and seconds, category and action totals.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
videoUrls	string array, required	—	YouTube URLs or 11-character IDs. Watch, youtu.be, Shorts, live, embed, music, and no-cookie links are accepted. Add as many as you need.
categories	multi-select	all	Sponsor, Unpaid/Self Promotion, Interaction Reminder, Intro, Outro, Preview/Recap, Hook, Non-Music Section, Filler Tangent, Highlight, Exclusive Access, Chapter.
actionTypes	multi-select	all	Skip, Mute, Full video, Highlight/POI, Chapter.
source	select	visible	Visible segments or all submissions.
minVotes	integer	0	-2 includes every submission, 0 drops downvoted ones, higher values keep only well-confirmed segments.
includeHiddenSegments	boolean	false	Include hidden/shadow-hidden submissions in all-submissions mode.
includeDescriptions	boolean	true	Include community notes.
includeSubmitterInfo	boolean	true	Add public submitter name and stats, cached per submitter.
includeYouTubeMetadata	boolean	true	Add YouTube title, channel, thumbnail, duration, views, publish date, and live flag.
includeSummary	boolean	false	Add per-video and run summary rows.
maxSegmentsPerVideo	integer	0	Keep at most N segments per video after filtering and sorting. 0 means no limit.
concurrency	integer	4	Videos processed at once, from 1 to 10.

Legacy input keys from older tasks are still honored in code: videoIds, videoIDs, videos, urls, videoId, videoUrl, category, actionType, actions, and includeDescription. A comma- or newline-separated videoUrls string also works. They are intentionally not shown in the input form.

Example: batch with filters

{
  "videoUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0",
    "https://youtu.be/kJQP7kiw5Fk",
    "dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ],
  "categories": ["sponsor", "selfpromo", "intro", "outro"],
  "actionTypes": ["skip"],
  "minVotes": 0,
  "includeYouTubeMetadata": true,
  "includeSummary": true,
  "maxSegmentsPerVideo": 25,
  "concurrency": 4
}

Example: full research mode

{
  "videoUrls": ["kJQP7kiw5Fk"],
  "source": "all",
  "minVotes": -2,
  "includeHiddenSegments": true,
  "includeSubmitterInfo": true,
  "includeYouTubeMetadata": true
}

Use cases

• Player overlays and cut lists — exact start/end times and the recommended action.
• Sponsor-load analytics — sponsor seconds as a share of total runtime, by video or channel.
• Dataset enrichment — stable segment UUIDs plus video/channel/thumbnail join keys.
• Transcript cleanup — remove sponsor, intro, outro, and self-promo spans before analysis.
• Community research — compare submissions, votes, lock state, and public submitter stats.

FAQ

What is SponsorBlock?

SponsorBlock is a public crowdsourced database of timestamped YouTube segments such as sponsor reads, intros, outros, and self-promotions.

Do I need cookies, an API key, or a proxy?

No. Every request uses public endpoints. The actor never asks for credentials and never configures a proxy.

Why does one video return no rows?

SponsorBlock is crowdsourced. A video may have no submissions, or every submission may be filtered out by the selected categories, actions, votes, hidden setting, or per-video cap. A no_segments status row tells you which case occurred.

What is the difference between visible segments and all submissions?

Visible segments are what SponsorBlock would currently act on. All submissions also includes hidden, shadow-hidden, and disputed records, which is useful for research but should not be used to build a skip list.

Why do some rows have no thumbnail or title?

Age-restricted, private, or deleted videos can reject the public YouTube metadata endpoints. Segments are still returned; the unavailable metadata fields are simply omitted.

Why is submitterName sometimes missing?

SponsorBlock only exposes a public username when the submitter set one and the public lookup succeeds. Otherwise the row keeps the public submitterId and any aggregate stats that were available.

Why do some segments have zero duration or start and end at zero?

full and some chapter/poi submissions use a single point or the whole video. The actor preserves exactly what SponsorBlock stores and does not invent times.

Can I get the global SponsorBlock leaderboard?

No. The public getTopUsers endpoint is disabled and returns 404. The actor does not expose a mode that cannot return real data.

Does this download videos, captions, or promo codes?

No. It reads timestamps and public metadata only. Promo codes are not part of the SponsorBlock database and are out of scope.

Is this affiliated with YouTube or SponsorBlock?

No. It is an independent reader of public APIs and is not endorsed by either project.

Limits

• SponsorBlock coverage is community-driven and varies by video and channel.
• Votes, views, hidden state, and lock state are a snapshot at fetch time.
• source=all is a separate database view, not a moderation tool; it never submits, votes, or edits anything.
• getTopUsers is disabled upstream, and mute submissions may be absent for a given video.
• The actor keeps every existing output field and adds new ones; old tasks continue to work.