🎯 YouTube Scraper

📺 What does YouTube Scraper do?

This actor searches YouTube by query and extracts public metadata from search results. It is focused on parsing YouTube search pages and returning a dataset of video items with basic metadata (title, thumbnail, duration, publish time, channel info and view counts).

• 🔎 Extracts core search-result fields: video id, title, thumbnail URL, duration, published time, channel id/name/url/thumbnail, view count
• ⚡ Designed for quick ad-hoc searches via the q input parameter
• 💾 Outputs results to the Apify dataset so you can download JSON/CSV/Excel from the Storage tab

💡 How to use scraped YouTube data

You can use the scraped data to:

• 📈 Monitor trends and search visibility for keywords
• 🧾 Collect public metadata for analysis or aggregation
• 🔗 Feed video metadata to other tools (recommendation systems, analytics, dashboards)

🔎 What data can you scrape from YouTube?

This actor returns (from search results):

• Video id, title, thumbnail URL
• Duration (text) and duration in seconds
• Published timestamp (ISO) and a published text string
• Channel id, name, URL and thumbnail/handle when available
• View count (numeric) and human-readable view text

The actor focuses on metadata available in search results.

🚀 How to scrape YouTube data — quick start

This actor is intentionally simple. Current inputs are listed in INPUT_SCHEMA.json and the actor runs locally or on Apify.

1. Configure the INPUT_SCHEMA.json (the actor requires q and accepts limit).
2. Provide a search query in the q field and optionally a limit.
3. Click Start (or run the actor locally). Results are written to the dataset.

⬆️ Input example

You can provide input via the Apify Console fields or directly as JSON.

Example (search by term):

{
  "q": "best of 2025",
  "limit": 24
}

🔗 How to scrape by URL or search term

• This actor supports scraping search results by providing a search q term.

Scraping by search term

Type keywords like you would into YouTube search. Then set how many results to extract and click Start.

🎬 How to scrape Shorts and Streams

Search results may include Shorts or live streams when present; the actor parses items found on the search page.

📅 How to filter videos by date

You can post-process the dataset after extraction to filter by publishedAt or other fields.

⬇️ Output example

Results are stored as a dataset (Storage tab). The dataset preview shows a table but may hide some fields — download the full JSON for complete data.

Channel info example (snippet):

{
  "id": "HV6OlMPn5sI",
  "title": "Lofi Girl",
  "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSJ4gkVC6NrvII8umztf0Ow",
  "thumbnail": "https://yt3.ggpht.com/ytc/AAUvwng...",
  "handle": "@lofigirl"
}

Single video example (snippet):

{
  "title": "Stromae - Santé (Live)",
  "id": "CW7gfrTlr0Y",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW7gfrTlr0Y",
  "viewCountText": "35,582,192 views",
  "views": 35582192,
  "duration": "00:03:17",
  "duration_seconds": 197
}

Search results example (JSON)

A continuación hay un ejemplo realista de salida cuando se ejecuta una búsqueda por término (campo q). El actor devuelve un objeto con la consulta, una lista de videos y contadores. Mantengo solo los campos que el actor efectivamente devuelve — sencillo y claro.

[
  {
    "id": "HKB2H7IM6NY",
    "title": "Value Investing Explained in 5 Levels of Difficulty",
    "thumbnail": "https://youtube-api-delta-blond.vercel.app/api/thumb?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FHKB2H7IM6NY%2Fhq720.jpg%3Fsqp%3D-oaymwEXCNAFEJQDSFryq4qpAwkIARUAAIhCGAE%3D%26rs%3DAOn4CLA0uOfAbWF5e7I8xDQTEf75z2G_5w",
    "duration": "18:36",
    "duration_seconds": 1116,
    "publishedAt": "2023-11-02T11:14:09.474Z",
    "publishedText": "2 years ago",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKB2H7IM6NY",
    "channel": {
      "id": "UCAeAB8ABXGoGMbXuYPmiu2A",
      "name": "The Swedish Investor",
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@TheSwedishInvestor",
      "thumbnail": "https://youtube-api-delta-blond.vercel.app/api/thumb?u=https%3A%2F%2Fyt3.ggpht.com%2Fytc%2FAIdro_mLDpasWkSwR781DqbOBaV_G4LnEf-yvg6YjEgO5PmKyA%3Ds68-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj",
      "handle": "@TheSwedishInvestor"
    },
    "viewCountText": "278,995 views",
    "views": 278995
  },
  {
    "id": "V0Es0c3YF6Q",
    "title": "Value investing - Finding the cheapest stock markets",
    "thumbnail": "https://youtube-api-delta-blond.vercel.app/api/thumb?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FV0Es0c3YF6Q%2Fhq720.jpg%3Fsqp%3D-oaymwEXCNAFEJQDSFryq4qpAwkIARUAAIhCGAE%3D%26rs%3DAOn4CLDNjX0JUnQ5LQv5QHK8UWCT1RwT6Q",
    "duration": "14:25",
    "duration_seconds": 865,
    "publishedAt": "2025-11-01T10:14:09.475Z",
    "publishedText": "1 hour ago",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0Es0c3YF6Q",
    "channel": {
      "id": "UCRsUWQcmlu5QiOKHU-A6Z2Q",
      "name": "Fidelity UK",
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@fidelityuk",
      "thumbnail": "https://youtube-api-delta-blond.vercel.app/api/thumb?u=https%3A%2F%2Fyt3.ggpht.com%2Fymw2KF0d9vlLsmwS-7312HhQNNSzYwv4u0kAcDSzpvSmsvzexneOMklFfMEZIx6yo2yOO1VvlQ%3Ds68-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj",
      "handle": "@fidelityuk"
    },
    "viewCountText": "168 views",
    "views": 168
  }
]

🧰 Specialized scrapers and related tools

• 💬 Fast YouTube Videos Scraper
• 🏎 Fast YouTube Channel Scraper
• ▶️ Fast YouTube Channel Videos Scraper
• 📽️ Fast YouTube Channel Videos Scraper Fallback

You can combine results with other social media scrapers (TikTok, Instagram, Facebook) or feed data to AI agents (e.g., sentiment analysis, influencer discovery).

❓ FAQ

• How much does scraping cost?

  • Costs depend on the platform and pricing model. If using the Apify Store, check the actor's pricing tab. Self-hosting costs depend on infrastructure and network usage.

• How many videos can I scrape?

  • The actor can extract up to ~20,000 videos per URL in optimal conditions. Actual throughput varies with input complexity, location, proxies and other factors.

• Should I use a proxy?

  • Yes. For reliable large-scale scraping use proxies (datacenter or Apify Proxy recommended).

• Is scraping YouTube legal?

  • Scraping public data is generally lawful but you must comply with copyright and data protection laws (GDPR, etc.). Do not scrape personal/sensitive data without legal basis.

🐞 Feedback & issues

If you find bugs or have suggestions open an issue in the repository or the actor's Issues tab on Apify Console.

ℹ️ More info

Check INPUT_SCHEMA.json for the full list of input parameters and descriptions. If you want, I can add API usage snippets for Node.js and Python or example inputs for different scraping modes.