# YouTube Scraper (Videos, Comments, Transcripts) (`eccentric_layout/youtube-scraper`) Actor Scrape YouTube without an API key: video metadata, comments, and transcripts/captions by video URL, video ID, or keyword search. Uses YouTube's InnerTube endpoints. Export JSON/CSV/Excel. - **URL**: https://apify.com/eccentric\_layout/youtube-scraper.md - **Developed by:** [Shahryar](https://apify.com/eccentric_layout) (community) - **Categories:** Videos, Social media, Marketing - **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing from $8.00 / 1,000 results 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 – Videos, Comments & Transcripts (No API Key) **YouTube Scraper** extracts structured data from **YouTube** without an API key or login: **video metadata**, **comments** (with replies), and **transcripts/captions** — by video URL, video ID, or keyword search. Export to **JSON, CSV, or Excel**. This is a no-API-key **YouTube comments API**, **YouTube transcript scraper**, and video-metadata scraper in one Actor. Built for **content researchers, marketers, data teams, and creators** who need YouTube data at scale without the official Data API's quota limits. ### What it does - 🎬 **Video metadata** – title, description, channel name/ID/URL, view count, approximate like count, publish/upload date, duration, category, tags/keywords, thumbnails, and the list of available caption languages. - 💬 **Comments** – author, text, like count, reply count, relative published time, pinned/hearted flags, and an avatar URL. Optionally expand reply threads. - 📝 **Transcripts** – full transcript text plus timestamped segments, for manual or auto-generated captions, in your preferred language. Best-effort (see FAQ). - 🔎 **Keyword search** – run a YouTube video search and automatically enrich every matching video. - 🌍 **Language control** – pick the caption language and prefer human captions over auto-generated ones. - 📤 **Export anywhere** – download the dataset as **JSON, CSV, or Excel**, or pull it via the Apify API. ### Why this scraper - **No API key, no login, no quota.** Uses YouTube's internal **InnerTube** endpoints (the same JSON APIs the website calls), reading the live client config from the watch page so the client version is never stale. - **Honest transcripts.** Captions are gated by YouTube; this Actor uses the most reliable path available (InnerTube `get_transcript` via the iOS client, with a timedtext fallback) and is transparent about when a transcript can't be obtained. - **Built for reliability.** Residential proxy by default, fresh proxy session per video, retries with jitter, and resumable state so a restarted run does not refetch finished videos. - **One Actor, four data types.** Every record carries a `type` field (`video`, `comment`, `transcript`, `searchResult`) so you can split the dataset cleanly. - **Pairs with our other scrapers** for social/video data (TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, and more) when you need cross-platform coverage. ### How it works (and why it's reliable) 1. **Seed** – fetches the watch page once per video and extracts the live `INNERTUBE` config plus the initial comments token. 2. **Metadata** – read straight from the player response (no extra request). 3. **Transcript** – resolves the caption track list (language + manual/auto) from the mobile `player` response, then fetches the text in two stages: - **Primary:** the InnerTube `get_transcript` (transcript-panel) endpoint, called with the **iOS** mobile client. The `params` is a base64-protobuf built from the video ID + chosen track; this endpoint still returns segment text where the plain caption URL does not. - **Fallback:** the timedtext caption `baseUrl` (`fmt=json3`). The desktop/web client returns empty caption bodies (`exp=xpe` / PoToken gate), so mobile clients are used on purpose, but even mobile caption URLs can be gated on some IPs. Transcripts are therefore **best-effort**: when both paths are gated for a given video/IP, no transcript item is emitted (the video and comments are unaffected). A **residential proxy** materially improves the hit rate. 4. **Comments** – paginates the InnerTube `next` endpoint, joining the thread structure with the `frameworkUpdates` entity payloads to recover the real text/author/likes. > ⚠️ **Use a residential proxy.** YouTube rate-limits datacenter IPs quickly (HTTP 429s and empty responses), especially for comment pagination. The default proxy group is `RESIDENTIAL` for this reason — and residential bandwidth is the main cost driver of a run. ### Example input ```json { "videoUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"], "searchQueries": ["lofi hip hop"], "maxResultsPerSearch": 25, "scrapeVideoMetadata": true, "scrapeTranscript": true, "scrapeComments": true, "maxComments": 100, "includeCommentReplies": false, "commentsSortBy": "top", "language": "en", "preferManualCaptions": true, "emitSearchResults": false, "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"] } } ```` ### Example output Each item carries a `type` field so you can split the dataset by record type. A video that is private, members-only, age-restricted, region-blocked, or not playable is emitted as a `type: "skipped"` item (with a `reason`) instead of crashing the run. **Video** (`type: "video"`) ```json { "type": "video", "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ", "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ", "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Music Video)", "description": "The official video for \"Never Gonna Give You Up\" by Rick Astley...", "channelName": "Rick Astley", "channelId": "UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw", "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw", "viewCount": 1600000000, "likeCount": 17000000, "publishDate": "2009-10-25", "uploadDate": "2009-10-25", "durationSeconds": 212, "category": "Music", "keywords": ["rick astley", "never gonna give you up"], "isLiveContent": false, "isFamilySafe": true, "thumbnails": [{ "url": "https://i.ytimg.com/...", "width": 1280, "height": 720 }], "availableCaptionLanguages": [{ "languageCode": "en", "name": "English", "isAutoGenerated": false }], "commentCountApprox": 2200000, "foundViaQuery": null, "scrapedAt": "2026-06-26T10:00:00.000Z" } ``` **Transcript** (`type: "transcript"`) ```json { "type": "transcript", "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ", "language": "en", "isAutoGenerated": false, "trackName": "English", "fullText": "We're no strangers to love ...", "segments": [{ "start": 18.5, "dur": 3.2, "text": "We're no strangers to love" }], "scrapedAt": "2026-06-26T10:00:00.000Z" } ``` **Comment** (`type: "comment"`) ```json { "type": "comment", "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ", "commentId": "UgxKREWxIgDrw8w2e_Z4AaABAg", "text": "Still a banger in 2026.", "authorName": "@someuser", "authorChannelId": "UCabc...", "authorChannelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCabc...", "authorThumbnail": "https://yt3.ggpht.com/...", "likeCount": 1200, "replyCount": 8, "publishedTimeText": "3 weeks ago", "isPinned": false, "isHearted": false, "isReply": false, "parentCommentId": null, "scrapedAt": "2026-06-26T10:00:00.000Z" } ``` **Search result** (`type: "searchResult"`, only when **Also emit raw search results** is enabled) ```json { "type": "searchResult", "query": "lofi hip hop", "videoId": "jfKfPfyJRdk", "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfKfPfyJRdk", "title": "lofi hip hop radio", "channelName": "Lofi Girl", "channelId": "UCSJ4gkVC6NrvII8umztf0Ow", "viewCountText": "Streaming", "publishedTimeText": null, "lengthText": null, "thumbnails": [{ "url": "https://i.ytimg.com/...", "width": 360, "height": 202 }], "scrapedAt": "2026-06-26T10:00:00.000Z" } ``` ### Output fields **Video** (`type: "video"`) | Field | Type | Description | |---|---|---| | `type` | string | Always `"video"`. | | `videoId` | string | 11-character video ID. | | `url` | string | Canonical watch URL. | | `title` | string | Video title. | | `description` | string | Full description text. | | `channelName` | string | Channel (author) name. | | `channelId` | string | Channel ID. | | `channelUrl` | string | Channel URL. | | `viewCount` | integer | Total views (nullable). | | `likeCount` | integer | Approximate like count from the watch UI (nullable; YouTube does not expose an exact number). | | `publishDate` | string | Publish date from microformat (nullable). | | `uploadDate` | string | Upload date from microformat (nullable). | | `durationSeconds` | integer | Duration in seconds (nullable). | | `category` | string | Video category (nullable). | | `keywords` | array | Tags array (may be empty). | | `isLiveContent` | boolean | Whether the video is/was live (nullable). | | `isFamilySafe` | boolean | Family-safe flag (nullable). | | `thumbnails` | array | Array of `{ url, width, height }`. | | `availableCaptionLanguages` | array | Array of `{ languageCode, name, isAutoGenerated }`. | | `commentCountApprox` | integer | Approximate comment count from the header (nullable). | | `foundViaQuery` | string | The search query that surfaced this video (only present for videos discovered via `searchQueries`). | | `scrapedAt` | string | ISO 8601 timestamp. | **Transcript** (`type: "transcript"`) | Field | Type | Description | |---|---|---| | `type` | string | Always `"transcript"`. | | `videoId` | string | Video ID. | | `language` | string | Caption language code (nullable). | | `isAutoGenerated` | boolean | `true` for auto (ASR) captions. | | `trackName` | string | Human-readable track name (nullable). | | `fullText` | string | All segments joined into one string. | | `segments` | array | Array of `{ start, dur, text }` (seconds as floats; `start`/`dur` may be null). | | `scrapedAt` | string | ISO 8601 timestamp. | **Comment** (`type: "comment"`) | Field | Type | Description | |---|---|---| | `type` | string | Always `"comment"`. | | `videoId` | string | Video the comment belongs to. | | `commentId` | string | Comment ID. | | `text` | string | Comment body. | | `authorName` | string | Author handle / display name. | | `authorChannelId` | string | Author channel ID (nullable). | | `authorChannelUrl` | string | Author channel URL (nullable). | | `authorThumbnail` | string | Author avatar URL (nullable). | | `likeCount` | integer | Like count (defaults to 0 when not shown). | | `replyCount` | integer | Reply count (defaults to 0). | | `publishedTimeText` | string | Relative time string (e.g. "3 weeks ago"); YouTube does not expose absolute comment dates. | | `isPinned` | boolean | Whether the comment is pinned. | | `isHearted` | boolean | Whether the creator hearted it. | | `isReply` | boolean | `true` for replies. | | `parentCommentId` | string | Parent comment ID (null for top-level). | | `scrapedAt` | string | ISO 8601 timestamp. | **Search result** (`type: "searchResult"`) | Field | Type | Description | |---|---|---| | `type` | string | Always `"searchResult"`. | | `query` | string | The search query that matched. | | `videoId` | string | Video ID. | | `url` | string | Watch URL. | | `title` | string | Video title. | | `channelName` | string | Channel name (nullable). | | `channelId` | string | Channel ID (nullable). | | `viewCountText` | string | View-count display string from the search card (nullable). | | `publishedTimeText` | string | Relative publish-time display string (nullable). | | `lengthText` | string | Duration display string (nullable). | | `thumbnails` | array | Array of `{ url, width, height }`. | | `scrapedAt` | string | ISO 8601 timestamp. | **Skipped** (`type: "skipped"`) | Field | Type | Description | |---|---|---| | `type` | string | Always `"skipped"`. | | `videoId` | string | Video ID that could not be scraped. | | `url` | string | Watch URL. | | `reason` | string | Why it was skipped (e.g. `LOGIN_REQUIRED`, `AGE_VERIFICATION_REQUIRED`, `no_video_details`, `watch_fetch_failed: ...`). | | `scrapedAt` | string | ISO 8601 timestamp. | ### Input reference | Field | Type | Default | Description | |---|---|---|---| | `videoUrls` | array | – | YouTube watch URLs (`watch?v=`, `youtu.be/`, `/shorts/`, `/embed/`, `/live/`). Normalized to the 11-char ID. | | `videoIds` | array | – | Raw 11-character video IDs. | | `searchQueries` | array | – | Keyword search strings (videos only); matches are enriched like direct inputs. | | `maxResultsPerSearch` | integer | 50 | Max videos per search query (pagination stops once reached). | | `scrapeVideoMetadata` | boolean | true | Emit `type: "video"` items. | | `scrapeTranscript` | boolean | true | Fetch transcript/captions (best-effort). | | `scrapeComments` | boolean | false | Fetch comments (slowest, most rate-limited path). | | `maxComments` | integer | 100 | Max top-level comments per video; 0 = unlimited. | | `includeCommentReplies` | boolean | false | Also expand reply threads. | | `commentsSortBy` | string | top | `"top"` or `"newest"`. | | `language` | string | en | Preferred caption language code; also sets the InnerTube `hl` locale. | | `preferManualCaptions` | boolean | true | Prefer human captions over auto-generated. | | `emitSearchResults` | boolean | false | Also push raw `type: "searchResult"` items for searches. | | `proxyConfiguration` | object | RESIDENTIAL | Apify proxy; RESIDENTIAL strongly recommended (and the default). | ### Common use cases - **Transcript mining** – pull YouTube transcripts for summarization, search, or LLM/RAG pipelines. - **Comment & sentiment analysis** – export top or newest comments (and replies) as a YouTube comments API for NLP and analysis. - **Channel & topic research** – search a keyword and collect metadata across many videos at once. - **Content monitoring** – track view counts, approximate likes, and comment volume over time. - **Competitor & market research** – build datasets from competitor channels and export to JSON/CSV/Excel. ### FAQ **Do I need a YouTube/Google API key?** No. This YouTube scraper uses YouTube's internal InnerTube endpoints — no API key, no OAuth, no quota. **Why are some transcripts missing?** Transcripts are best-effort. Not every video has captions, and some only have auto-generated ones. YouTube also gates caption text behind PoToken/IP checks: the Actor first tries the InnerTube `get_transcript` panel endpoint via the iOS client (which still returns text on mobile clients) and falls back to the timedtext caption URL, but on a gated video/IP combination both can come back empty — in that case the video and comments are still scraped, just without a transcript. A residential proxy improves the YouTube transcript hit rate. **Why are comments slow, and why do they need a proxy?** Comments are the slowest, most rate-limited path: the Actor paginates the InnerTube `next` endpoint one page at a time with jitter to stay under YouTube's limits, so a video with many comments takes proportionally longer. Datacenter IPs get 429s and empty responses quickly, so a residential proxy is strongly recommended when scraping comments at volume. Comments are off by default for this reason. **Why do I need a residential proxy, and what does it cost?** Datacenter IPs get rate-limited (429s) and served empty responses, especially during comment pagination, so the default proxy group is `RESIDENTIAL`. Residential proxy bandwidth is the main cost driver of a run — fetching watch pages, comments, and transcripts all consume residential traffic — so scope your `maxComments` and `maxResultsPerSearch` to control spend. **Which languages are supported?** Any language YouTube has a caption track for. Set `language` to a language code (e.g. `en`, `es`, `de`, `fr`, `pt`, `hi`, `ja`) to pick the caption track and the InnerTube `hl` locale; if that exact track is missing, the scraper falls back to another track or an auto-generated one. `preferManualCaptions` controls whether human captions win over ASR. **How are limits and pagination handled?** `maxResultsPerSearch` caps videos per search query, and `maxComments` caps top-level comments per video (`0` = unlimited). Search and comments paginate automatically until the limit is hit or YouTube stops returning a continuation. Runs are resumable: a restarted run skips videos it already finished. **What export formats are available?** The dataset can be exported to **JSON, CSV, or Excel** (also XML, JSONL, RSS, or HTML table) from the Apify Console, or fetched programmatically via the Apify API. *** This YouTube scraper pairs well with our other social and video scrapers (TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, and more) when you need cross-platform data. # Actor input Schema ## `videoUrls` (type: `array`): YouTube watch URLs to scrape. Accepts watch?v=, youtu.be/, /shorts/ and /embed/ forms; each is normalized to its 11-character video ID. You can paste plain strings or { "url": "..." } objects. ## `videoIds` (type: `array`): Raw 11-character YouTube video IDs to scrape directly, e.g. "dQw4w9WgXcQ" (alternative to Video URLs). ## `searchQueries` (type: `array`): Keyword search strings. Each runs a YouTube search (videos only); matched videos are then enriched exactly like direct inputs. ## `maxResultsPerSearch` (type: `integer`): Maximum number of videos to collect per search query (pagination stops once reached). ## `scrapeVideoMetadata` (type: `boolean`): Emit a `type: "video"` item per video (title, channel, views, publish date, duration, keywords, thumbnails, available caption languages, etc.). ## `scrapeTranscript` (type: `boolean`): Fetch the transcript (full text plus timestamped segments). Best-effort: uses YouTube's InnerTube transcript-panel endpoint via the mobile client, with the timedtext caption URL as a fallback. YouTube gates caption text behind PoToken/IP checks, so a transcript may be unavailable for some videos/IPs even when captions exist — a residential proxy improves the hit rate. ## `scrapeComments` (type: `boolean`): Fetch comments. This is the slowest, most rate-limited path, so it is off by default. A residential proxy is strongly recommended when enabled. ## `maxComments` (type: `integer`): Maximum top-level comments per video. Set 0 for unlimited (will paginate until YouTube stops returning a continuation). ## `includeCommentReplies` (type: `boolean`): Also expand reply threads (one extra request per thread that has replies). Replies are emitted as comment items with `isReply: true` and a `parentCommentId`. ## `commentsSortBy` (type: `string`): Which comment ordering to request from YouTube. ## `language` (type: `string`): Preferred caption language code (e.g. "en", "es", "de"). The matching caption track is selected when available; otherwise the scraper falls back to another track or an auto-generated one. Also sets the InnerTube `hl` locale. ## `preferManualCaptions` (type: `boolean`): Prefer human-written (non-ASR) captions over auto-generated ones when both exist for the chosen language. ## `emitSearchResults` (type: `boolean`): When using search queries, also push a lightweight `type: "searchResult"` item for each matched video (query, title, channel, view-count text, etc.) in addition to the enriched video/transcript/comment items. ## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`): YouTube rate-limits datacenter IPs aggressively (429s and empty responses), so a RESIDENTIAL proxy is strongly recommended, especially for comments at volume. ## Actor input object example ```json { "videoUrls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ", "https://youtu.be/9bZkp7q19f0" ], "videoIds": [ "dQw4w9WgXcQ" ], "searchQueries": [ "lofi hip hop", "machine learning tutorial" ], "maxResultsPerSearch": 50, "scrapeVideoMetadata": true, "scrapeTranscript": true, "scrapeComments": false, "maxComments": 100, "includeCommentReplies": false, "commentsSortBy": "top", "language": "en", "preferManualCaptions": true, "emitSearchResults": false, "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": [ "RESIDENTIAL" ] } } ``` # Actor output Schema ## `videos` (type: `string`): No description ## `comments` (type: `string`): No description ## `transcripts` (type: `string`): No description ## `searchResults` (type: `string`): No description ## `skipped` (type: `string`): No description # 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 '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "videoUrls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" ], "maxResultsPerSearch": 50, "maxComments": 100, "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": [ "RESIDENTIAL" ] } }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("eccentric_layout/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 '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = { "videoUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"], "maxResultsPerSearch": 50, "maxComments": 100, "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": True, "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"], }, } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("eccentric_layout/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 '{ "videoUrls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" ], "maxResultsPerSearch": 50, "maxComments": 100, "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": [ "RESIDENTIAL" ] } }' | apify call eccentric_layout/youtube-scraper --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=eccentric_layout/youtube-scraper", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "YouTube Scraper (Videos, Comments, Transcripts)", "description": "Scrape YouTube without an API key: video metadata, comments, and transcripts/captions by video URL, video ID, or keyword search. Uses YouTube's InnerTube endpoints. Export JSON/CSV/Excel.", "version": "0.1", "x-build-id": "s88VWWalWzs6IiyUk" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/eccentric_layout~youtube-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-eccentric_layout-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": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/eccentric_layout~youtube-scraper/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-eccentric_layout-youtube-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$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": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/eccentric_layout~youtube-scraper/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-eccentric_layout-youtube-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$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": { "videoUrls": { "title": "Video URLs", "type": "array", "description": "YouTube watch URLs to scrape. Accepts watch?v=, youtu.be/, /shorts/ and /embed/ forms; each is normalized to its 11-character video ID. You can paste plain strings or { \"url\": \"...\" } objects.", "items": { "type": "string" } }, "videoIds": { "title": "Video IDs", "type": "array", "description": "Raw 11-character YouTube video IDs to scrape directly, e.g. \"dQw4w9WgXcQ\" (alternative to Video URLs).", "items": { "type": "string" } }, "searchQueries": { "title": "Search queries", "type": "array", "description": "Keyword search strings. Each runs a YouTube search (videos only); matched videos are then enriched exactly like direct inputs.", "items": { "type": "string" } }, "maxResultsPerSearch": { "title": "Max results per search", "minimum": 1, "type": "integer", "description": "Maximum number of videos to collect per search query (pagination stops once reached).", "default": 50 }, "scrapeVideoMetadata": { "title": "Scrape video metadata", "type": "boolean", "description": "Emit a `type: \"video\"` item per video (title, channel, views, publish date, duration, keywords, thumbnails, available caption languages, etc.).", "default": true }, "scrapeTranscript": { "title": "Scrape transcript / captions", "type": "boolean", "description": "Fetch the transcript (full text plus timestamped segments). Best-effort: uses YouTube's InnerTube transcript-panel endpoint via the mobile client, with the timedtext caption URL as a fallback. YouTube gates caption text behind PoToken/IP checks, so a transcript may be unavailable for some videos/IPs even when captions exist — a residential proxy improves the hit rate.", "default": true }, "scrapeComments": { "title": "Scrape comments", "type": "boolean", "description": "Fetch comments. This is the slowest, most rate-limited path, so it is off by default. A residential proxy is strongly recommended when enabled.", "default": false }, "maxComments": { "title": "Max comments per video", "minimum": 0, "type": "integer", "description": "Maximum top-level comments per video. Set 0 for unlimited (will paginate until YouTube stops returning a continuation).", "default": 100 }, "includeCommentReplies": { "title": "Include comment replies", "type": "boolean", "description": "Also expand reply threads (one extra request per thread that has replies). Replies are emitted as comment items with `isReply: true` and a `parentCommentId`.", "default": false }, "commentsSortBy": { "title": "Comments sort order", "enum": [ "top", "newest" ], "type": "string", "description": "Which comment ordering to request from YouTube.", "default": "top" }, "language": { "title": "Preferred caption language", "type": "string", "description": "Preferred caption language code (e.g. \"en\", \"es\", \"de\"). The matching caption track is selected when available; otherwise the scraper falls back to another track or an auto-generated one. Also sets the InnerTube `hl` locale.", "default": "en" }, "preferManualCaptions": { "title": "Prefer manual captions", "type": "boolean", "description": "Prefer human-written (non-ASR) captions over auto-generated ones when both exist for the chosen language.", "default": true }, "emitSearchResults": { "title": "Also emit raw search results", "type": "boolean", "description": "When using search queries, also push a lightweight `type: \"searchResult\"` item for each matched video (query, title, channel, view-count text, etc.) in addition to the enriched video/transcript/comment items.", "default": false }, "proxyConfiguration": { "title": "Proxy configuration", "type": "object", "description": "YouTube rate-limits datacenter IPs aggressively (429s and empty responses), so a RESIDENTIAL proxy is strongly recommended, especially for comments at volume.", "default": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": [ "RESIDENTIAL" ] } } } }, "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 } } } } } } } } } } ```