YouTube Channel Search Scraper: Creator Finder

YouTube channel search scraper: type a topic and get the YouTube channels and creators behind it, one row per channel with subscribers, video and view counts, country, join date, recent activity, links, emails, social profiles and keywords.

Channel	Handle	Subscribers	Videos	Total views	Country	Joined	Found in	Search term
Mill City Roasters®	@MillCityRoasters	42,800	201	2,561,895	United States	2014-02-07	Channel results #1	coffee roasting
James Hoffmann	@jameshoffmann	2,570,000	411	398,042,201	United Kingdom	2014-12-08	Video results #1	coffee roasting
Walk at Home	@LeslieSansonesWalkatHome	6,060,000	294	1,305,415,463	United States	2011-07-11	Video results #1	home workout

$0.35 per 1,000 channels on Starter ($0.39 Free, $0.27 Scale, $0.20 Business). The prefilled run (50 channels) costs about $0.02. No start fee; channels your filters leave out are free.

What it does

• Finds channels two ways: YouTube's own channel results for your term (its Channels filter) and the creators behind the video results. By default both lists are merged result by result, so a 25-channel run already mixes channel names that match the term with the creators who actually make videos about it.
• Finds channels like the ones you know: give seed channels in similarToChannels and get the channels each one features on its home page, then the creators of videos on its topics (its own keywords, or what its newest videos are about). Each row names the seed it's similar to.
• One full profile per channel: subscribers, exact video and view counts, country, join date, description, every About-panel link (with Instagram, TikTok, X, Facebook, LinkedIn and website pulled out into their own columns), the email addresses written in the description, keywords, avatar and banner, verification, memberships and whether a business email is on file.
• Recent activity, included: when the channel last uploaded (to the second), how many uploads it made in the last 30 days, the average views of its newest uploads and the exact time the channel was created, from its RSS feed. Optionally its newest uploads' links, titles and dates (recentVideos).
• Shows why each channel is there: the search term, which result list found it, its rank there and, for video results, the video (title, link, views, age).
• Filters before you pay: subscriber, video and view ranges, verified only, business email on file, join date, uploaded within N days, channel country, channels to leave out and words to leave out. Channels left out are never charged and don't count toward your maximum. When the search page already shows the value (subscribers on channel results), the channel isn't even read.
• No login, no API key, no browser. Plain calls to YouTube's own web API through Apify's datacenter proxy. In our runs the first channel arrived after 1-4 seconds; 50 channels took 8 seconds, 300 channels 11 seconds and 400 channels 53 seconds, with the recent activity read for every channel.

Input

Field	What it does
🔍 Search terms (searchQueries)	Topics, niches or products, one per line. YouTube search links work too, with their filters.
💯 Channels per search term (maxResults)	The most channels to save per term (100 when empty, up to 5,000).
🧭 Find channels in (discoveryMode)	both (default), channelFilter (YouTube's channel results only) or videoResults (creators of video results only).
🎛️ Filters	minSubscribers, maxSubscribers, minVideos, maxVideos, minViews, maxViews, verifiedOnly, onlyWithBusinessEmail, channelCountries (codes or English names), joinedAfter / joinedBefore (a date or a period such as 2 years), activeWithinDays (newest upload at most N days old), excludedChannels (links, @handles, ids), excludeKeywords.
🔎 Search settings	sortBy (relevance or popularity), uploadDate (find creators by videos from the last hour, today, this week, month or year), country and language of the search, expandQueries (also search up to 10 of YouTube's autocomplete suggestions per term), maxTotalResults for the whole run, recentActivity (on by default), recentVideos (0-15 newest uploads per row), onlyNew (skip channels earlier runs of the same task delivered; stateStoreName names that memory).
🔗 More inputs (startUrls)	YouTube search links, or channel links, @handles and UC... ids to look up one channel each.
🧲 Find channels similar to (similarToChannels)	Seed channels (links, @handles, UC... ids). For each: the channels it features, then the creators of videos on its topics, up to maxResults per seed, with the same filters. The seeds themselves aren't saved.

Example: UK finance creators with 10K-2M subscribers.

{
  "searchQueries": ["personal finance uk"],
  "discoveryMode": "channelFilter",
  "maxResults": 60,
  "minSubscribers": 10000,
  "maxSubscribers": 2000000,
  "country": "GB",
  "channelCountries": ["GB"]
}

Example: active fitness creators (an upload in the last 14 days), with their 3 newest uploads, new to you on every daily run.

{
  "searchQueries": ["home workout"],
  "maxResults": 100,
  "activeWithinDays": 14,
  "recentVideos": 3,
  "onlyNew": true
}

Example: up to 50 channels like each of three you know, with 10K subscribers or more.

{
  "similarToChannels": ["@jameshoffmann", "@mkbhd", "@JeffNippard"],
  "maxResults": 50,
  "minSubscribers": 10000
}

Example: Spanish-language cooking creators who posted this month.

{
  "searchQueries": ["recetas faciles"],
  "discoveryMode": "videoResults",
  "uploadDate": "month",
  "maxResults": 80,
  "country": "MX",
  "language": "es"
}

Moving from another YouTube channel search Actor

Saved inputs from maximedupre's, hyperbach's and coregent's channel search Actors run here as they are: searchTerms, searchUrls, searchTermsFiles (TXT or CSV links), discoveryMode (both, videoResults, channelFilter), maxChannelsPerSearchTerm / maxChannelsPerQuery / maxResultsPerQuery, maxTotalResults / maxItems (over all searches; 0 = no limit), minSubscribers / maxSubscribers (0 = no limit), minVideos, verifiedOnly, excludedChannels / excludeChannels, countries, activeWithinDays, recentVideos, expandQueries, onlyNew / stateStoreName, languageHint / countryHint / regionCode / region, dateFrom / dateTo (join date), channels / channelOrVideoInputs (channels; video links are skipped with a note) and hyperbach's similarToChannels (its seed_channel_id is similarToChannelId here). Hyperbach's channels and videos modes and its views order are accepted too. Coregent's activity-score add-on is in every row here (the activity columns). Not offered: coregent's niche presets and its subscriber/join-date output sort (rows keep YouTube's order and their rank; sort the dataset after the run).

Output

One row per channel, the same keys in every row. Views: 📊 Overview, 📈 Stats, 💌 Outreach (links and emails), 🆕 Activity (recent uploads) and 🧭 Discovery (where the search found it).

Key	What it is
position	The channel's place among this term's saved channels
channelAvatarUrl, channelName, channelHandle, channelUrl	Profile picture, name, @handle, link
channelDescription	The About panel's description, in full
isChannelVerified, isChannelArtist	Verified badge; official artist channel
numberOfSubscribers, subscribersText	Subscribers as YouTube shows them (rounded by YouTube for every viewer) and its text
channelTotalVideos, videosText, channelTotalViews, viewsText	Exact video and view counts and their texts
avgViewsPerVideo, viewsPerSubscriber, sizeTier	Views per video, views per subscriber, Nano / Micro / Mid-tier / Macro / Mega
lastUploadAt, lastUploadDaysAgo	The newest upload's time (UTC, to the second) and whole days since
uploadsLast30Days, recentAvgViews	Uploads in the last 30 days among the newest 15 (15 = 15 or more), and those 15 uploads' average views
recentVideoUrls, recentVideoTitles, recentVideoDates	With recentVideos: the newest uploads' links, titles and times, newest first
channelLocation, channelCountryCode	Country on the About panel and its code
channelJoinedDate, joinedDateText, channelCreatedAt	Creation day (YYYY-MM-DD), YouTube's text, and the exact creation time (UTC, to the second)
keywords, tags	The channel's keywords, as written and as a list
externalLinks, websiteUrl, instagramUrl, tiktokUrl, twitterUrl, facebookUrl, linkedinUrl	Every About-panel link, and the main ones in their own columns
hasBusinessEmail, emailsInDescription, hasMemberships	A business email on file (YouTube shows the address only to signed-in viewers); the email addresses written in the description; paid memberships
tabs, tabUrls	The channel's tabs (Videos, Shorts, Live, Podcasts, Store...) and their links
isFamilySafe, isUnlisted, isNoindex	YouTube's flags for the channel page
channelBannerUrl, avatarImages	Banner (largest size) and the avatar in every size
discoveredVia, searchRank, searchTermMatch	Channel results / Video results / Search link / Channel link (similar channels: Similar to: featured channel / Similar to: video results), the rank there, and how much of the term the channel's own text contains (0-100)
similarToChannelName, similarToChannelId	Similar channels: the seed channel the row was found for
sourceVideoTitle, sourceVideoUrl, sourceVideoId, sourceVideoDateText, sourceVideoViews	Video results: the video that showed the channel
searchQuery, input, fromYTUrl, country, language	The search the row came from (for similar channels, what the seed was searched on), the term or seed as you gave it, and the search's country and language
id, channelId, channelUsername, rssUrl	Channel id (UC...), handle without @, the channel's video feed
ownerUrls, alternateUrls, availableCountryCodes	YouTube's own links for the channel and where it's available
scrapedAt	When the row was read (UTC)

A full row (James Hoffmann, found through his video for "coffee roasting", live run of 2026-10-18; description and country list shortened):

{
  "position": 2,
  "channelAvatarUrl": "https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/2k3-P8cX-0sawteUmQSzaQb7pLaCOKcNtEYDEXy1y8Y5wv97Ecgzhgg50b6NYCwxm677h9bT=s160-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj",
  "channelName": "James Hoffmann",
  "channelHandle": "@jameshoffmann",
  "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@jameshoffmann",
  "channelDescription": "Hi! My name is James, and I make videos about anything and everything to do with coffee...",
  "isChannelVerified": true,
  "isChannelArtist": false,
  "numberOfSubscribers": 2570000,
  "subscribersText": "2.57M subscribers",
  "channelTotalVideos": 411,
  "videosText": "411 videos",
  "channelTotalViews": 398151391,
  "viewsText": "398,151,391 views",
  "avgViewsPerVideo": 968738,
  "viewsPerSubscriber": 154.9,
  "sizeTier": "Mega",
  "lastUploadAt": "2026-10-14T14:36:45Z",
  "lastUploadDaysAgo": 4,
  "uploadsLast30Days": 2,
  "recentAvgViews": 615836,
  "recentVideoUrls": null,
  "recentVideoTitles": null,
  "recentVideoDates": null,
  "channelLocation": "United Kingdom",
  "channelCountryCode": "GB",
  "channelJoinedDate": "2014-12-08",
  "joinedDateText": "Joined Dec 8, 2014",
  "channelCreatedAt": "2014-12-08T15:27:06Z",
  "keywords": "coffee \"james hoffmann\" jimseven \"james hoffman\"",
  "tags": ["coffee", "james hoffmann", "jimseven", "james hoffman"],
  "externalLinks": ["http://linktree.com/jimseven", "https://www.tenshundredsthousands.com", "https://www.instagram.com/jimseven", "https://www.twitter.com/jimseven"],
  "websiteUrl": "http://linktree.com/jimseven",
  "instagramUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/jimseven",
  "tiktokUrl": null,
  "twitterUrl": "https://www.twitter.com/jimseven",
  "facebookUrl": null,
  "linkedinUrl": null,
  "hasBusinessEmail": true,
  "emailsInDescription": null,
  "hasMemberships": false,
  "tabs": ["Home", "Videos", "Shorts", "Live", "Playlists", "Posts", "Store"],
  "tabUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/@jameshoffmann/featured", "https://www.youtube.com/@jameshoffmann/videos", "..."],
  "isFamilySafe": true,
  "isUnlisted": false,
  "isNoindex": false,
  "channelBannerUrl": null,
  "avatarImages": ["https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/2k3-P8cX-0sawteUmQSzaQb7pLaCOKcNtEYDEXy1y8Y5wv97Ecgzhgg50b6NYCwxm677h9bT=s72-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj", "..."],
  "discoveredVia": "Video results",
  "similarToChannelName": null,
  "similarToChannelId": null,
  "searchRank": 1,
  "searchTermMatch": 50,
  "sourceVideoTitle": "Coffee Roasting Explained",
  "sourceVideoUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6BJVM5tvnw",
  "sourceVideoId": "N6BJVM5tvnw",
  "sourceVideoDateText": "3 years ago",
  "sourceVideoViews": 2150189,
  "searchQuery": "coffee roasting",
  "input": "coffee roasting",
  "fromYTUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=coffee+roasting",
  "country": "US",
  "language": "en",
  "id": "UCMb0O2CdPBNi-QqPk5T3gsQ",
  "channelId": "UCMb0O2CdPBNi-QqPk5T3gsQ",
  "channelUsername": "jameshoffmann",
  "rssUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UCMb0O2CdPBNi-QqPk5T3gsQ",
  "ownerUrls": ["http://www.youtube.com/@jameshoffmann"],
  "alternateUrls": ["https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCMb0O2CdPBNi-QqPk5T3gsQ", "android-app://com.google.android.youtube/http/youtube.com/channel/UCMb0O2CdPBNi-QqPk5T3gsQ", "ios-app://544007664/http/youtube.com/channel/UCMb0O2CdPBNi-QqPk5T3gsQ"],
  "availableCountryCodes": ["DK", "QA", "SX", "GL", "AS", "..."],
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-18T23:14:41Z"
}

The run's summary (key-value store record OUTPUT) lists every search term with its channel count and status, the channels each filter left out, and the stop reason.

FAQ

How many channels does one search term give? YouTube's channel results usually end after a few hundred channels; the video results go deeper. With both, a term gives more channels than either list alone.

Why is a subscriber count rounded? YouTube rounds subscriber counts for every viewer (14.2K, 2.57M). Video and view counts are exact. A channel that hides its subscribers has numberOfSubscribers: null, and is left out when you set a subscriber limit.

Can I get the business email address? Not the one behind YouTube's "View email address" button: YouTube shows it only to signed-in viewers behind a captcha, and this Actor never signs in. hasBusinessEmail tells you which channels have one, emailsInDescription gives the addresses channels write in their description, and the links columns give their website and social profiles.

Where does the activity come from? From the channel's RSS feed, which lists its newest 15 uploads (videos, Shorts and streams) with exact times and views, and whose own date is the channel's creation time. When the feed doesn't answer, the Videos tab gives lastUploadDaysAgo, uploadsLast30Days and recentAvgViews from its "3 days ago" texts (long videos only), without the exact times. Set recentActivity to false to skip it.

How are similar channels found? For each seed: first the channels on its home page's channel shelves (Featured Channels, its other channels), then the creators behind YouTube's video results for the seed's own keywords (its first three together, then the one its newest titles repeat most). When its keywords are only its name (MKBHD's are), the words its newest titles repeat most are searched instead ("pro iphone"). searchQuery shows what was searched for each row, and your filters apply as for search terms.

Is the same channel charged twice? No. A channel is saved and charged once per run, with the first search term or seed that found it, even when several find it.

What if the run is restarted? Channels saved before the restart are skipped and not charged again; the run continues to your maximum.

Do I need a proxy or a YouTube account? No. Apify's datacenter proxy is set by default, and nothing needs a login.

Related Actors

• YouTube Channel Scraper: every video of the channels you found, with views, likes and dates.
• YouTube Scraper: channels, Shorts, search results and video details in one Actor.
• YouTube Comments Scraper: comments and replies of any video.
• YouTube Transcript API: transcripts and captions in any language.

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