Cheapest YouTube Comment Scraper

YouTube Comments Scraper: export video comments and replies to CSV, JSON or Excel

YouTube Comments Scraper turns YouTube video URLs into a spreadsheet of comments. Each row is one comment or reply with its text, like count, author name and channel link, post time and the video it came from. It is built for creators, brand and community managers, researchers and ML teams who need comment data without the YouTube Data API quota.

• Replies included. Top-level comments and replies come in one dataset. parent is root for a top-level comment, otherwise the ID of the comment it answers.
• Top or newest. Set sortCommentsBy to top for the most engaged comments or new for the latest discussion.
• You set the volume. maxCommentsPerUrl limits comments per video. Use 0 to collect all of them.
• Many videos per run. Add as many video URLs as you like. Every row carries video_id, video_url and video_title.
• Pay per comment, no login. No API key or YouTube account. Prices drop with higher Apify plans. Export to JSON, CSV, Excel or Google Sheets.

Scope: This Actor collects comments from videos you name. For transcripts use YouTube Transcript Scraper. For thumbnails use YouTube Thumbnail Downloader or YouTube Thumbnail Search Scraper.

What can you do with YouTube Comments Scraper?

Goal	How
Sentiment analysis	Run text through a classifier and weight by like_count.
Find the best comments	Sort by like_count, or collect with sortCommentsBy: "top".
Monitor new feedback	Schedule runs with sortCommentsBy: "new" and sort on timestamp.
Rebuild conversations	Group rows by parent to reconstruct reply threads.
Spot creator replies	Filter author_is_uploader and author_is_verified.
Find engaged commenters	Count comments per author_id and open author_url.
Build text datasets for LLMs	Export text with video_title as context. Combine with video transcripts from YouTube Transcript Scraper or pages from Webpage to Markdown.

How it compares

What you need	YouTube Comments Scraper	YouTube Data API	Manual copy-paste
Setup	Paste URLs	Google project, API key	None
Daily limits	None set by the Actor	Daily quota units	Your time
Replies	Included, linked by parent	Extra calls	Click each thread
Export	JSON, CSV, Excel, API	Build it yourself	Manual
Cost	Pay per comment	Free within quota	Free

Quick start

1. Click Try for free and sign in to Apify.
2. Add video URLs to Start URLs.
3. For a first run, set Max Comments to 20.
4. Click Start, then export from the Output tab.

Input

{
    "startUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"],
    "sortCommentsBy": "top",
    "maxCommentsPerUrl": 100,
    "maxRepliesPerComment": 5
}

Field	Type	Default	Effect
startUrls	Array of strings	Required	YouTube video URLs (watch, youtu.be, Shorts, live) or IDs.
sortCommentsBy	String	"top"	"top" or "new".
maxCommentsPerUrl	Integer	100	Maximum comments per video, replies included. 0 means all.
maxRepliesPerComment	Integer	5	Maximum replies under each comment. 0 skips replies.

Output

{
    "id": "Ugzge340dBgB75hWBm54AaABAg",
    "parent": "root",
    "text": "can confirm: he never gave us up",
    "like_count": 238000,
    "author_id": "UCBR8-60-B28hp2BmDPdntcQ",
    "author": "@YouTube",
    "author_thumbnail": "https://yt3.ggpht.com/...",
    "author_is_uploader": false,
    "author_is_verified": true,
    "author_url": "https://www.youtube.com/@YouTube",
    "is_favorited": true,
    "_time_text": "1 year ago",
    "timestamp": 1747180800,
    "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "video_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "video_title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Video) (4K Remaster)"
}

Notes: timestamp is a Unix time in seconds and can be null. _time_text is a relative label for display, so sort on timestamp. video_url is the URL you supplied. is_favorited means the video owner hearted or favorited the comment. Missing values are null.

Monitor YouTube comments over time with scheduled runs

Apify can run the Actor for you on a schedule and send the results wherever you need them.

1. Save your input as a task

Open the Actor, set your video URLs and options, then click Save as a new task. A task is a saved input you can run again with one click or on a schedule.

2. Schedule the task

In Apify Console, go to Schedules, click Create new, choose how often to run (for example daily at 06:00 in your time zone), and add your task. See Schedules and How to create a schedule.

Watch how to schedule an Actor:

Or schedule a saved task:

Common schedules:

Use case	Frequency	Cron expression
Moderation and brand monitoring (new sort)	Daily	0 6 * * *
Launch week feedback	Every 6 hours	0 */6 * * *
Weekly sentiment report	Weekly (Monday)	0 6 * * 1

3. Send the results to a spreadsheet

Connect Google in the task's Integrations tab to save every run to Google Sheets or Google Drive automatically:

4. Compare runs

Every row has id, video_id and timestamp, so runs are easy to join:

• New comments: keep ids you have not seen before, or filter timestamp after your last run.
• Engagement growth: like_count per id over time.
• Sentiment trend: average sentiment of text per video_id and week.
• Creator activity: new rows with author_is_uploader set to true.

FAQ

How many comments can I get?

Set maxCommentsPerUrl to 0 for all comments. Very large videos take longer and cost more, so start with a limit or set a maximum cost per run.

Does it include replies?

Yes. Replies are rows whose parent is another comment's id. They count toward maxCommentsPerUrl. maxRepliesPerComment (default 5) caps replies under each comment so one long thread doesn't use up the limit; set it to 0 for top-level comments only, or raise it for full threads.

Why are there no results for a video?

Comments may be disabled, or the video may be private or unavailable. The Actor logs the reason, moves to the next URL and lists failed videos in the run's status message. Channel, playlist and search URLs are skipped; add the video URLs instead.

Do I need an API key or login?

No. The Actor uses Apify's residential proxies for you.

Can I scrape a whole channel?

No, it takes video URLs. Collect the URLs you want and paste them in.

Is it legal?

It reads publicly visible comments. You are responsible for complying with YouTube's terms and privacy laws such as GDPR when you store or analyze personal data.

Cost

Pay per event: one comment is one event, plus Apify's start event. Comment prices by plan are $0.001 (Free), $0.0005 (Bronze) and $0.0004 (Silver and above), so $1, $0.50 and $0.40 per 1,000 comments. The start event is $0.01 per GB of memory, at least one. Check the Pricing tab for the current prices.

Comments	Free plan	Bronze plan
1,000	$1.01	$0.51
10,000	$10.01	$5.01

Related Actors

• YouTube Transcript Scraper: captions and AI transcripts.
• YouTube Thumbnail Downloader: download video thumbnails.
• YouTube Thumbnail Search Scraper: thumbnails from YouTube searches.
• Webpage to Markdown: web pages as clean Markdown for LLM pipelines.

Support

Found a problem? Open an issue in the Issues tab and include the run ID and your input.

This Actor is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by YouTube or Google. YouTube is a trademark of Google LLC.