YouTube Scraper — Videos, Channels & Search, Cheap (No API Key)

Scrape public YouTube data without an API key, a login or a browser: search results, channel videos, Shorts, live streams, playlists and single videos, plus channel profiles. Fast HTTP-only runs, tiny memory footprint, and a built-in proxy ladder (datacenter first, residential only if YouTube blocks).

No comments and no commenter data are collected. Only public video and channel metadata.

What you get

• Search: any keyword, with upload-date, length, sort-order and feature filters (HD, 4K, live, subtitles, Creative Commons...).
• Channels: paste a @handle, /channel/UC... or /c/... URL to list the channel's videos (optionally Shorts and past live streams) and get one channel profile record.
• Playlists: every video of a public playlist.
• Single videos: paste any watch / youtu.be / Shorts URL.
• Video details (optional add-on): full description, exact like count, exact view count, category, tags, chapters, exact upload timestamp.

Who it is for

• Content creators and YouTube strategists researching which titles, lengths and topics get views in a niche.
• Marketing and influencer teams building lists of channels with subscriber counts, video counts, country and public links.
• SEO teams studying titles, tags and chapters that rank for a keyword.
• Brands and agencies tracking competitors' channels and new uploads on a schedule.
• Data and AI teams building video metadata datasets without YouTube API quotas.

How to scrape YouTube without the API

1. Add search queries, or paste URLs: channels (@handle, /channel/UC…, /c/…), channel tabs, playlists, search pages, single videos or Shorts.
2. For searches, choose sort order, upload date, duration and features (HD, 4K, live, subtitles, Creative Commons…).
3. For channels, decide whether to include Shorts and past live streams, and whether to save a channel profile record.
4. Turn on video details if you need full descriptions, exact likes and views, category, tags, chapters and exact upload dates.
5. Set maxResultsPerQuery and maxItems, run, and export as JSON, CSV or Excel.

Input examples

Search with filters:

{
  "searchQueries": ["react tutorial", "python for beginners"],
  "maxResultsPerQuery": 100,
  "maxItems": 200,
  "uploadDate": "month",
  "duration": "long",
  "sortBy": "views"
}

Channel + playlist + one video, with details:

{
  "startUrls": [
    { "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@LofiGirl" },
    { "url": "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFgquLnL59alCl_2TQvOiD5Vgm1hCaGSI" },
    { "url": "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ" }
  ],
  "maxResultsPerQuery": 50,
  "includeShorts": true,
  "includeVideoDetails": true
}

Most viewed first, uploaded this month (the "Most viewed AI tutorials this month" example task):

{ "searchQueries": ["ai tutorial"], "sortBy": "views", "uploadDate": "month", "maxItems": 50, "maxResultsPerQuery": 50 }

Spanish-language recipe videos for Mexico (the "Videos de recetas en español" task):

{ "searchQueries": ["recetas fáciles"], "language": "es", "region": "MX", "maxItems": 50, "maxResultsPerQuery": 50 }

Field	Meaning
searchQueries	Keywords to search (one list entry each).
startUrls	Video, Shorts, channel, channel tab, playlist or search-results URLs. Bare @handle entries work too.
maxItems	Hard cap on videos saved in the whole run (default 50). Channel profile records are extra.
maxResultsPerQuery	Videos per query / channel / playlist (default 50).
sortBy, uploadDate, duration, features	Search filters.
includeShorts	Search: keep Shorts. Channels: also read the Shorts tab.
includeStreams	Channels: also read the live / past streams tab.
includeChannelInfo	Save one channel profile record per channel URL (default on).
includeVideoDetails	Add-on: description, likes, category, tags, chapters, exact dates.
language, region	hl / gl sent to YouTube.
proxyConfiguration	Starts on Apify datacenter proxy, falls back to residential automatically.

Output

Video record:

{
  "type": "video",
  "videoId": "Fxqv9xdLMG4",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxqv9xdLMG4",
  "title": "Journey Through Time - Ancient China [lofi beats to celebrate Chinese New Year]",
  "channelName": "Lofi Girl",
  "channelId": "UCSJ4gkVC6NrvII8umztf0Ow",
  "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@LofiGirl",
  "viewCount": 346101,
  "publishedText": "8 months ago",
  "publishedAt": "2026-02-10T09:00:06-08:00",
  "duration": "1:00:40",
  "durationSeconds": 3640,
  "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Fxqv9xdLMG4/hq720.jpg",
  "isShort": false,
  "isLive": false,
  "isUpcoming": false,
  "badges": [],
  "searchQuery": null,
  "inputUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@LofiGirl",
  "description": "Start the Chinese New Year with calming lofi...",
  "likeCount": 9056,
  "category": "Music",
  "keywords": ["lofi", "chinese new year"],
  "chapters": [{ "title": "Intro", "startSeconds": 0 }],
  "uploadDate": "2026-02-10T09:00:06-08:00"
}

Without includeVideoDetails, the detail fields (description, likeCount, category, keywords, chapters, uploadDate) are null, and publishedAt is derived from the relative text ("8 months ago" becomes a date at day precision). With details it is the exact upload timestamp.

Channel record ("type": "channel"): channelId, name, handle, url, subscriberCount (YouTube rounds it, e.g. 15.8M), subscriberCountText, videoCount, totalViews, description, country, joinedDate, links (the channel's own public links), avatar, isVerified, keywords.

Notes: Shorts from search or channel tabs show only title and views until you enable details (YouTube does not list their duration or date in the feed). The same video is saved once per run even if several queries find it.

Output fields

Field	Record	Description
type	both	video or channel.
videoId / url / title	video	Video id, watch URL and title.
channelName / channelId / channelUrl	video	Channel that published the video.
viewCount	video	Views (exact with details).
publishedText / publishedAt	video	Relative text ("8 months ago") and a date derived from it (exact with details).
duration / durationSeconds	video	Length as text and in seconds.
thumbnail	video	Thumbnail URL.
isShort / isLive / isUpcoming / badges	video	Shorts, live and upcoming flags; YouTube badges.
descriptionSnippet	video	Short description text from search results, when shown.
searchQuery / inputUrl	video	The query or URL that found the video.
description / likeCount / category / keywords / chapters / uploadDate	video	Detail add-on fields.
name / handle / url	channel	Channel name, @handle and URL.
subscriberCount / subscriberCountText	channel	Subscribers (rounded by YouTube) and the original text.
videoCount / totalViews	channel	Number of videos and total views.
description / country / joinedDate / links	channel	About-page information.
avatar / isVerified / keywords	channel	Profile image, verification badge and channel keywords.
scrapedAt	both	When the record was collected.

How much does it cost to scrape YouTube?

Event	When it is charged
video-result	Each video saved
video-details	Add-on, per video enriched with details
channel-result	Each channel profile saved
apify-actor-start	Once per run (a fraction of a cent)

From 30 October 2026, 1,000 videos cost US$3 on the Apify Free plan; paid Apify plans pay less per video — see the Pricing tab. Video details add US$1 per 1,000 videos and channel profiles cost US$1.50 per 1,000 on every plan, so 1,000 videos with full details cost US$4 on the Free plan. You can cap spending with Apify's "maximum cost per run": the Actor stops cleanly when the limit is reached.

FAQ

Do I need a YouTube API key? No. No key, no OAuth and no quota.

Does it need a login or cookies? No, only public data.

Does it scrape comments? No. Comments and commenter data are deliberately not collected.

How many results can one search return? YouTube serves roughly 20 results per page and keeps paging for hundreds of results per query; split very broad topics into several queries for more coverage.

Why are subscriber counts rounded? YouTube only publishes rounded subscriber counts for public channels.

Will it get blocked? Requests start on Apify datacenter proxies. If YouTube answers with a block or bot check twice in a row, the run switches to residential proxies automatically and logs it. Video details use an extra bot-checked endpoint that is retried on fresh IPs; if it still fails for a video, the rest of the details (description, likes, chapters, upload date) are returned and category / keywords stay empty.

Which languages work? Any language / region pair is accepted; view and subscriber counts are parsed most reliably in English.

What happens if a run finds nothing? It fails with the reason (for example, an invalid channel URL or YouTube returning nothing), so you are not charged for results and scheduled monitors do not silently report zero.

Can I monitor a channel's new uploads? Yes. Save the channel URL as a task with a small maxResultsPerQuery (the Videos tab lists newest first) and schedule it daily; compare videoId across runs.

Does it download videos or transcripts? No. It only returns metadata. It does not download video files.

Use cases

Content research and trend monitoring, competitor and influencer lists, SEO keyword and title research, dataset building for AI/ML (titles, tags, chapters), channel growth tracking, and feeding BI dashboards or automations (Make, n8n, Zapier) through the Apify API.

Is it legal to scrape YouTube?

This actor only collects public video and channel metadata that YouTube shows to any visitor, without logging in, and it deliberately does not collect comments or commenter data. Channel names, handles, descriptions and links can still be personal data when a channel belongs to an individual, so laws such as the EU GDPR, Chile's Ley 21.719 or the California CCPA may apply to how you store and use them; you are responsible for a lawful purpose. Videos, thumbnails and descriptions are the creators' content, so respect copyright and YouTube's terms of service. This is general information, not legal advice.

Integrations

Run the YouTube Scraper from the Apify API or the JavaScript and Python clients, trigger follow-up steps with webhooks, or schedule channel and keyword checks in Apify Console. It works with n8n, Make and Zapier, and with LangChain and LlamaIndex through their Apify integrations. AI agents in Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other MCP clients can find and run it through Apify's MCP server. Export as JSON, CSV or Excel, or read from the dataset API.

Use with AI agents

Use this actor to get public YouTube video metadata for search keywords, channels, playlists or video URLs, plus channel profiles, without a YouTube API key.

{ "searchQueries": ["home espresso review"], "sortBy": "views", "maxItems": 20 }

Main output fields: title, url, channelName, viewCount, publishedAt, durationSeconds, isShort; with details description, likeCount, keywords, chapters; channel records name, handle, subscriberCount, videoCount. It is pay-per-event: an agent pays a small start fee plus a fixed price per video (and per detail or channel record), not for compute time.

Related actors

• Bilibili Scraper — the same kind of video data from China's Bilibili.
• Google Trends Scraper — YouTube search interest over time (property: youtube).
• Google News Scraper — news coverage of the topics and creators you track.
• Google Ads Transparency Scraper — a brand's Google ads, including video ads.

Ready-made examples

• Most viewed AI tutorials this month
• Videos de recetas en español

Changelog

• 2026-10-16 — README expanded: how-to, more input examples, output field table, FAQ, legal notes, integrations and example tasks.
• 2026-10-15 — Tiered pricing announced, effective 2026-10-30 (lower per-video price on paid Apify plans).
• 2026-10-13 — Builds 0.1.1–0.1.8: initial release with search, channels (videos, Shorts, streams), playlists, single videos, channel profiles and the video-details add-on; retries on fresh IPs for the bot-checked details endpoint; default memory 512 MB.

En español

Extrae datos públicos de YouTube sin API key ni login: resultados de búsqueda (con filtros de fecha, duración y orden), videos de canales, Shorts, directos, listas de reproducción y videos individuales, más el perfil del canal (suscriptores, videos, vistas totales, país, enlaces). Con includeVideoDetails agrega descripción completa, likes, categoría, etiquetas, capítulos y fecha exacta. No recolecta comentarios. Se cobra por video guardado, con extras opcionales por detalles y por perfil de canal; el precio vigente para tu plan está en la pestaña Pricing. Usa proxy datacenter de Apify y cambia a residencial automáticamente si YouTube bloquea.