YouTube Search Scraper — Results, Ranks & Filters (No API Key)

YouTube Search Scraper extracts search results from youtube.com for any keyword or search-page URL: the videos, Shorts, channels and playlists YouTube lists for that query, in the order YouTube shows them, with rank, views, publish date, duration, channel, badges and description snippet. It uses the same filters as the YouTube search page (result type, upload date, duration, sort order, features such as live, 4K or subtitles), works for any region, and needs no YouTube API key, no Google account and no browser. You pay per result row.

This Actor is the search-only edition of our YouTube Videos Scraper, which also reads channels, playlists and single videos with per-video details. Use this one when the search result page is what you care about: keyword rankings, what competes for a query, which channels and playlists appear, and how that changes over time. For channel-centric data see our YouTube Channel Scraper, for Shorts feeds the YouTube Shorts Scraper and for comment threads the YouTube Comments Scraper.

What you get

One flat row per search result, all types in the same table:

Field	Example	Notes
resultType	video, short, channel, playlist	what the row is
position, page	1, 1	rank in YouTube's list for that search and the page it came from
searchQuery, searchUrl	espresso machine review, https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=…	the search that produced the row
id, url, title	mAYbmcqPphc, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAYbmcqPphc	video, Short, channel or playlist id and link
channelName, channelId, channelHandle, channelUrl	James Hoffmann, UCMb0O…, @jameshoffmann	owner of the video or playlist; the channel itself for channel rows
viewCount, viewCountText	830643, 830,643 views	exact for videos, rounded for Shorts (as YouTube shows them)
liveViewers, isLive, isUpcoming	430, true, false	live streams and premieres
publishedText, publishedAt	2 months ago, 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z	the relative text and an approximate ISO date derived from it
duration, durationSeconds	34:16, 2056	videos only
badges, isVerified	["4K", "CC"], true	YouTube badges (New, 4K, CC, LIVE, products…) and the channel's verification mark
descriptionSnippet	Join The Drip Feed Newsletter…	the snippet YouTube shows; e-mails and phone numbers are hidden
thumbnailUrl	https://i.ytimg.com/vi/…
subscriberCount, subscriberCountText	53600, 53.6K subscribers	channel rows
videoCount	17	playlist rows
shelfTitle	Shorts, Ultimate Food Hacks	Shorts that came from a titled shelf on the page
estimatedResults	8157369	YouTube's total estimate for the query
scrapedAt	ISO time

A SUMMARY record in the key-value store lists, per search, the estimated total, pages read, rows listed and saved, any query correction YouTube applied ("showing results for…") and errors.

Use cases

• YouTube SEO and rank tracking — schedule a daily run for your target keywords and see which videos, channels and Shorts hold the top positions and how your own content moves.
• Competitor and niche research — list the top results for "best budget 3D printer" or "recetas veganas" with views, dates and lengths to see what works in a niche.
• Channel discovery and lead lists — resultType: channel returns the channels YouTube ranks for a topic with subscriber counts, handles and snippets.
• Content and playlist research — playlists per keyword with their video counts and owners; long or recent videos only with the duration and upload-date filters.
• Datasets for analytics and AI — titles, snippets, ranks and engagement numbers as JSON, CSV or Excel for dashboards, LLM pipelines or model training on public metadata.

How to use it

1. Enter one or more search keywords (or paste YouTube search URLs copied from your browser; their filters are kept).
2. Pick the result type (all, videos, Shorts, channels, playlists, live) and, if you want, sort order, upload date, duration and features.
3. Set max results per search and max results (total), optionally the region.
4. Run it and download the dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML, or read it through the API.

Input example: top results for two keywords

{
  "searchQueries": ["espresso machine review", "best espresso machine under 500"],
  "resultType": "all",
  "maxResultsPerQuery": 50,
  "maxItems": 100
}

Input example: most viewed long videos of the last month, UK region

{
  "searchQueries": ["react tutorial"],
  "resultType": "video",
  "sortBy": "views",
  "uploadDate": "month",
  "duration": "long",
  "region": "GB",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Input example: channels for a topic, plus a search URL with its own filters

{
  "searchQueries": ["space agency"],
  "searchUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nasa+artemis&sp=CAISBAgCEAE%253D"],
  "resultType": "channel",
  "maxResultsPerQuery": 20
}

The sp part of a search URL is YouTube's own filter code: a URL keeps it, so you can set up a search on youtube.com, copy the address and paste it here. (In this example the URL asks for today's videos sorted by upload date, while the keyword uses the input filters.)

Output example

A real video row from a local test run on 19 October 2026:

{
  "resultType": "video",
  "position": 1,
  "page": 1,
  "searchQuery": "espresso machine review",
  "searchUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=espresso+machine+review",
  "id": "mAYbmcqPphc",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAYbmcqPphc",
  "title": "The Fellow ES1 Espresso Machine Review",
  "channelName": "James Hoffmann",
  "channelId": "UCMb0O2CdPBNi-QqPk5T3gsQ",
  "channelHandle": "@jameshoffmann",
  "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@jameshoffmann",
  "viewCount": 830643,
  "viewCountText": "830,643 views",
  "liveViewers": null,
  "publishedText": "2 months ago",
  "publishedAt": "2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z",
  "duration": "34:16",
  "durationSeconds": 2056,
  "isLive": false,
  "isUpcoming": false,
  "isVerified": true,
  "badges": ["4K", "CC"],
  "descriptionSnippet": "Join The Drip Feed Newsletter (and check out the first issue) here: https://thedripfeed.coffee/ Our video which explains what a PID ...",
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/mAYbmcqPphc/hq720.jpg?sqp=…",
  "subscriberCount": null,
  "subscriberCountText": null,
  "videoCount": null,
  "shelfTitle": null,
  "estimatedResults": 8157369,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-20T01:23:32.414Z"
}

Channel rows fill subscriberCount and descriptionSnippet; playlist rows fill videoCount and the owner channel; Short rows carry the rounded views and the shelf they came from.

Pricing

Pay per event: US$0.45 per 1,000 results saved (US$0.00045 per row), proxy and compute included.

• 100 results ≈ US$0.05
• 1,000 results = US$0.45
• 10,000 results = US$4.50

Rows are charged only when saved; duplicates within a search are not. If you set a maximum cost per run, the Actor stops cleanly when it is reached.

How it compares

• YouTube Data API v3 — official, but needs a Google Cloud project and key, and each search.list call costs 100 quota units for 50 results, so the default daily quota caps you at about 5,000 results a day. It also does not reproduce the mixed result page (Shorts shelves, channels and playlists in rank order) that visitors actually see. This Actor reads that page.
• Other YouTube search scrapers in the Store — the most used ones charge between US$0.50 and US$2.50 per 1,000 results. This one costs US$0.45, returns all four result types with rank and page, and accepts YouTube's own filter codes from search URLs.
• Limits — YouTube decides how deep a search goes; in our tests a query kept paging past 100 results (about 20 videos plus Shorts shelves per page). publishedAt is derived from the relative text YouTube shows ("2 months ago"), so it is approximate; Shorts in search carry rounded views and no date or length. Our YouTube Videos Scraper adds exact dates, likes, tags and descriptions when you need them.

Integrations

Call it from the Apify API, the JavaScript or Python client, or schedule it in Apify Console. Send the results to n8n, Make, Zapier, Google Sheets, Airtable or a webhook. AI agents (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other MCP clients) can discover and run it through the Apify MCP server, e.g. "get the top 20 YouTube results for home espresso sorted by views".

FAQ

Is it legal to scrape YouTube search results? The Actor reads only the public search page YouTube shows to logged-out visitors. Channel names, handles and snippets can be personal data when a channel belongs to a private person, so laws such as GDPR, CCPA or Chile's Ley 21.719 may apply to how you store and use them; e-mail addresses and phone numbers are hidden in snippets. Videos belong to their creators. This is not legal advice.

Do I need a proxy? No setup needed. The Apify datacenter proxy is used by default; if YouTube blocks it twice in a row, the run switches to Apify residential proxy (country = region) for the rest of the run.

Why do positions skip numbers when I pick "video"? They don't: with resultType: video YouTube itself returns a videos-only list, so ranks are consecutive. With all, Shorts shelves, channels and playlists take their own positions, exactly as on the page.

Are results the same as in my browser? Close, but not identical: YouTube personalises and varies the layout (where Shorts shelves appear, which related channels are shown). The Actor sends no account or history, so you get the neutral page for the chosen region.

Does it return comments, likes or video descriptions? No. Search pages carry the snippet only; use the YouTube Videos Scraper with details for the full description, likes and tags.

Which languages work? Any query in any language. Keep language: en so view counts and dates are parsed; results themselves depend on the query and the region.

Changelog

• 2026-10-19 — First version: keyword and search-URL input, all four result types with rank and page, YouTube's filters (type, upload date, duration, sort, features), region and language, continuation paging, pay per result.

En español

YouTube Search Scraper extrae los resultados de búsqueda de YouTube para cualquier palabra clave o URL de búsqueda, sin API key ni login: videos, Shorts, canales y listas de reproducción en el orden en que YouTube los muestra, con posición, vistas, fecha aproximada, duración, canal, insignias y fragmento de descripción. Admite los mismos filtros que la página de YouTube (tipo de resultado, fecha de subida, duración, orden y características como directo, 4K o subtítulos), cualquier región, y respeta el código de filtros sp de una URL copiada del navegador. Cobra US$0,45 por cada 1.000 resultados guardados, con proxy incluido. Para detalles por video (likes, fecha exacta, etiquetas), canales o comentarios usa nuestro YouTube Videos Scraper y sus hermanos.