# YouTube Search Scraper | $3/1K Results (`ethereal_wool/youtube-search-scraper`) Actor

Extract YouTube search data — title, author, and more. Scrape by keyword, URL or ID. Export to JSON, CSV & Excel, use the API, schedule runs and integrate. No code required.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/ethereal\_wool/youtube-search-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Jackie Chen](https://apify.com/ethereal_wool) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media, Videos
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, NaN bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$3.00 / 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 Search Scraper

![youtube-search-scraper](https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/48FFrfZnw5XqzUC1C/records/youtube-search-scraper__hero)

Search **YouTube** by keyword and get clean, structured results for every video.
Returns the video id, title, channel (name + id + URL), view count, length,
publish time, description, thumbnails and more. Each query is paginated
automatically via YouTube's continuation token.

> **Unofficial.** This Actor is not affiliated with, authorized, or endorsed by
> YouTube or Google LLC. It is an independent tool that retrieves publicly
> available data via a third-party API. Use it in compliance with YouTube's terms
> and all applicable laws; you are responsible for how you use the retrieved data.

### What it does

- **Keyword search** — give one or more queries; the Actor paginates YouTube
  search results for each until `maxItems` is reached.
- **Sort & locale** — order by relevance, upload date, view count, or "this month",
  and set the language and country for region-aware results.
- **Clean output** — flat, ready-to-use records (no raw YouTube innertube blobs).

### Input

| Field | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| `searchKeywords` | string[] | `["python tutorial"]` | Queries to search. Each is paginated independently. |
| `maxItems` | integer | `20` | Max total videos across all keywords. |
| `orderBy` | enum | `this_month` | `relevance` / `upload_date` / `view_count` / `this_month`. |
| `languageCode` | string | `en` | ISO language code (e.g. `en`, `es`, `zh`). |
| `countryCode` | string | `us` | ISO country code (e.g. `us`, `gb`, `in`). |

#### Example input

```json
{
  "searchKeywords": ["python tutorial", "rust async"],
  "maxItems": 100,
  "orderBy": "view_count",
  "languageCode": "en",
  "countryCode": "us"
}
````

### Output

One dataset item per video:

```json
{
  "videoId": "S5tOMUCvPFA",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5tOMUCvPFA",
  "title": "How I would learn Python programming FAST (If I could start over)",
  "author": "Tech With Tim",
  "channelId": "UC4JX40jDee_tINbkjycV4Sg",
  "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4JX40jDee_tINbkjycV4Sg",
  "viewCount": 20391,
  "videoLength": "13:37",
  "publishedTime": "12 days ago",
  "description": "The best beginner-friendly Python resources ...",
  "isLiveContent": null,
  "category": null,
  "type": "NORMAL",
  "keywords": [],
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/S5tOMUCvPFA/hq720.jpg",
  "thumbnails": [{ "url": "https://...", "width": 720, "height": 404 }],
  "source": "search:python tutorial"
}
```

### Notes

- Data is sourced live; the upstream API occasionally rate-limits, so the Actor
  retries transient blocks with exponential backoff.
- Video IDs are de-duplicated within a run.

### Quick start

1. Open the Actor and press **Run** — the default input works out of the box.
2. Adjust the input fields below to your target (keywords, IDs, or URLs) and set `maxItems` to cap spend.
3. Grab results from the **Dataset** tab as JSON / CSV / Excel, or pull them via the [Apify API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2) and MCP from your own code.

No proxies to configure, no cookies to paste, no login — the Actor handles everything server-side.

### Why teams switch to this YouTube search scraper

The official YouTube Data API burns quota fast and caps results; browser
scrapers are slow and break. This Actor uses a direct HTTP API to return search
results — title, channel, views, duration, publish date, and video URL — as
clean JSON at **$3 per 1,000 videos**, with no quota to manage.

### What people build with it

- **Topic research** — map every video ranking for your keywords, with views
  and recency to gauge demand.
- **Competitor monitoring** — track who ranks for your category terms and how
  their catalogue grows.
- **Content gap analysis** — find high-search, low-quality topics worth making
  better videos about.
- **Discovery pipelines** — feed results into transcript or channel actors to
  build a full text corpus.
- **Datasets** — keyword-scoped video metadata with engagement signals for
  research or training.

### Tips for better results

- Pass several specific queries rather than one broad term for cleaner coverage.
- Turn discovered videos into text with
  [YouTube Transcript Scraper](https://apify.com/ethereal_wool/youtube-transcript-scraper),
  or expand a channel with
  [YouTube Channel Videos Scraper](https://apify.com/ethereal_wool/youtube-channel-videos-scraper).
- All counts are numeric, so ranking and filtering downstream is trivial.

***

### Why this Actor

- **Direct API, no headless browser** — fast, stable runs with nothing to babysit.
- **No login, no cookies** — we never touch your accounts, so there's no ban risk.
- **Fresh, real-time data** — every run reads the source live, not a stale cache.
- **Pay per result** — you're billed only for the rows actually delivered.
- **Structured JSON** — export to CSV, Excel, or JSON, or pull straight from the API / MCP.

### Use cases

- Track trends, keywords, and hashtags as they emerge.
- Find top creators and viral content in any niche.
- Run competitor and category research at scale.
- Build content-idea pipelines and trend dashboards.

### FAQ

**Do I need an account, cookies, or to log in anywhere?**
No. The Actor talks to a fast, direct HTTP API server-side — you just provide inputs and run it.

**How am I billed?**
Pay-per-result: a fixed price per row returned, with no separate platform/compute charge. Caps like `maxItems` keep spend predictable.

**Can I run it on a schedule or call it from my app?**
Yes — use Apify Schedules, the REST API, the JavaScript / Python clients, or the MCP server. See the **API** tab.

**Is this affiliated with YouTube?**
No. It's an independent tool that collects publicly available data. Use it in line with the platform's terms and applicable law.

### More YouTube scrapers by us

- [**YouTube Transcripts**](https://apify.com/ethereal_wool/youtube-transcript-scraper) — Subtitles / transcripts for LLM datasets
- [**YouTube Channel Videos**](https://apify.com/ethereal_wool/youtube-channel-videos-scraper) — All videos for a channel · stats
- [**YouTube Channel Info**](https://apify.com/ethereal_wool/youtube-channel-info-scraper) — Channel profile · subs · about
- [**YouTube Comments**](https://apify.com/ethereal_wool/youtube-comments-scraper) — Video comments + replies

Browse the full fleet → **https://apify.com/ethereal\_wool**

# Actor input Schema

## `searchKeywords` (type: `array`):

Keywords / queries to search YouTube for. Each query is searched and paginated independently.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum total number of videos to scrape across all keywords.

## `orderBy` (type: `string`):

How to sort search results.

## `languageCode` (type: `string`):

ISO language code for the results (e.g. en, es, zh, fr).

## `countryCode` (type: `string`):

ISO country code for the results (e.g. us, gb, in, jp).

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Optional. Route the upstream API calls through an Apify Proxy to vary the source IP. Usually not needed.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchKeywords": [
    "python tutorial"
  ],
  "maxItems": 20,
  "orderBy": "this_month",
  "languageCode": "en",
  "countryCode": "us",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

# 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 '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "searchKeywords": [
        "python tutorial"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("ethereal_wool/youtube-search-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 '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "searchKeywords": ["python tutorial"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("ethereal_wool/youtube-search-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 '{
  "searchKeywords": [
    "python tutorial"
  ]
}' |
apify call ethereal_wool/youtube-search-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=ethereal_wool/youtube-search-scraper",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

```json
{
    "openapi": "3.0.1",
    "info": {
        "title": "YouTube Search Scraper | $3/1K Results",
        "description": "Extract YouTube search data — title, author, and more. Scrape by keyword, URL or ID. Export to JSON, CSV & Excel, use the API, schedule runs and integrate. No code required.",
        "version": "0.1",
        "x-build-id": "bq3hA3RPnhg3E4Uth"
    },
    "servers": [
        {
            "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2"
        }
    ],
    "paths": {
        "/acts/ethereal_wool~youtube-search-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-ethereal_wool-youtube-search-scraper",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$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/ethereal_wool~youtube-search-scraper/runs": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "runs-sync-ethereal_wool-youtube-search-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/ethereal_wool~youtube-search-scraper/run-sync": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-ethereal_wool-youtube-search-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": {
                    "searchKeywords": {
                        "title": "Search keywords",
                        "type": "array",
                        "description": "Keywords / queries to search YouTube for. Each query is searched and paginated independently.",
                        "default": [
                            "python tutorial"
                        ],
                        "items": {
                            "type": "string"
                        }
                    },
                    "maxItems": {
                        "title": "Max videos",
                        "minimum": 1,
                        "maximum": 100000,
                        "type": "integer",
                        "description": "Maximum total number of videos to scrape across all keywords.",
                        "default": 20
                    },
                    "orderBy": {
                        "title": "Sort order",
                        "enum": [
                            "relevance",
                            "upload_date",
                            "view_count",
                            "this_month"
                        ],
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "How to sort search results.",
                        "default": "this_month"
                    },
                    "languageCode": {
                        "title": "Language code",
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "ISO language code for the results (e.g. en, es, zh, fr).",
                        "default": "en"
                    },
                    "countryCode": {
                        "title": "Country code",
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "ISO country code for the results (e.g. us, gb, in, jp).",
                        "default": "us"
                    },
                    "proxyConfiguration": {
                        "title": "Proxy configuration",
                        "type": "object",
                        "description": "Optional. Route the upstream API calls through an Apify Proxy to vary the source IP. Usually not needed.",
                        "default": {
                            "useApifyProxy": false
                        }
                    }
                }
            },
            "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
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}
```