YouTube Comments Scraper

Export public YouTube and Shorts comments and replies with authors, likes, creator signals, thread context, keyword filters, and downloadable datasets.

This Apify actor helps teams collect public comment data from YouTube videos for social listening, creator analytics, moderation research, brand monitoring, audience research, and community reporting.

It accepts YouTube video URLs or video IDs, reads public comment threads, and saves clean dataset rows with author, text, timestamps, reply metadata, and source video details.

At a glance

• Input: YouTube or Shorts URLs/IDs, limits, top/newest/both sorting, reply controls, keyword/like filters, run tags, and optional proxy settings.
• Output: One row per public comment or reply with stable IDs, direct comment URL, author/channel data, likes, pins, creator signals, thread metadata, and timestamps.
• Best for: Social listening, creator analytics, moderation research, brand monitoring, audience research, and community reporting.
• Pricing unit: A start event per run plus one comment event for each saved public comment or reply row.
• Login required: No. The Actor reads public YouTube comment data only.

Ready-to-run examples

• Export top YouTube video comments - Start with top comments from one public video.
• Export YouTube comments with replies - Keep reply context for thread-level analysis.
• Monitor newest YouTube video comments - Pull newest comments for recurring monitoring.
• YouTube top comments for video - Use a saved task pattern for quick comment exports.

What can it do?

YouTube Comments Scraper collects public comments from one or more YouTube videos.

Use it when you need structured comment data instead of manually scrolling through a video page.

The actor returns one dataset item per comment or reply.

Each row includes the video ID, canonical video URL, video title, comment ID, author name, author channel URL, text, visible published time, reply relationship fields, requested sort mode, and scrape timestamp.

Who is it for?

Social listening teams

Track what viewers say about a campaign, product, creator, brand mention, or announcement video.

Creators and channel managers

Export comments for content planning, community analysis, moderation workflows, and audience research.

Agencies

Collect public viewer feedback across client videos and competitor videos for recurring reporting.

Researchers

Analyze public conversations around media, politics, education, entertainment, and cultural trends.

Support and community teams

Find repeated complaints, questions, feature requests, or praise in video comment sections.

Why use this actor?

• Export comments into JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or HTML from Apify datasets.
• Process multiple public videos in one run.
• Include reply metadata so nested conversations stay understandable.
• Use stable IDs such as commentId, parentCommentId, and videoId for deduplication and follow-up analysis.
• Run repeatable workflows manually, on a schedule, through the API, or from automation tools.
• Connect output to spreadsheets, BI dashboards, sentiment tools, moderation queues, or LLM pipelines.

Output fields

Field	Description
videoId	YouTube video ID
videoUrl	Canonical YouTube watch URL
videoTitle	Public video title when exposed by YouTube
commentId	Public comment identifier when exposed by YouTube
parentCommentId	Parent comment ID for replies
isReply	Whether the row is a nested reply
authorName	Public author display name
authorChannelUrl	Public author channel URL
authorThumbnailUrl	Public author avatar image URL
text	Comment or reply text
likeCount	Visible like count when available
publishedTimeText	Relative published time shown by YouTube
replyCount	Visible reply count when available
commentUrl	Direct public URL to the comment when its ID is exposed
authorChannelId	Stable public author channel ID when exposed
authorIsChannelOwner	Whether the author owns the video channel when exposed
authorIsVerified	Whether YouTube exposes a verified-author badge
isPinned	Whether the comment is pinned when exposed
isEdited	Whether the visible timestamp indicates an edited comment
hasCreatorHeart	Whether the creator-heart signal is exposed
sort	Requested comment sort mode
runTag	Optional caller-supplied workflow label
scrapedAt	ISO timestamp when the row was saved

Pricing

This Actor uses pay-per-event pricing. Input is validated before the one-time start charge, and every billed comment event corresponds to one row stored in the dataset.

Event	Billing unit	Free	Bronze	Silver	Gold	Platinum	Diamond
start	Once per valid run	$0.005	$0.005	$0.005	$0.005	$0.005	$0.005
comment	Per 1,000 stored comments or replies	$0.04694	$0.04081	$0.03184	$0.02449	$0.01633	$0.01143

Apify may also charge platform usage for compute, storage, proxies, or data transfer outside this Actor pricing. Check the Actor run and the Apify Pricing tab for the exact cost shown to your account.

Input configuration

Setting	JSON key	What to enter
YouTube video URLs	videoUrls	Public YouTube watch, Shorts, youtu.be, or embed URLs.
YouTube video IDs	videoIds	Raw 11-character IDs when you already have them.
Maximum comments per video	maxCommentsPerVideo	Cost and size cap per video.
Maximum comments to inspect	maxCommentsToScanPerVideo	Optional work cap for rare-match filtered runs; defaults to 3× the output limit.
Sort order	sort	Top comments or newest comments where YouTube exposes the order.
Include replies	includeReplies	Whether reply rows are collected with top-level comments.
Maximum replies per thread	maxRepliesPerComment	Bound reply fan-out for large threads.
Include/exclude keywords	includeKeywords, excludeKeywords	Case-insensitive filtering on comment text and author.
Minimum likes	minLikes	Save only comments meeting a visible-like threshold.
Run tag	runTag	Add a workflow or campaign label to each row.
Safe deadline	maxRunSeconds	Stop safely before the platform timeout.
Proxy configuration	proxyConfiguration	Apify proxy settings for the run.

Input notes

YouTube video URLs

Paste one or more public YouTube video URLs.

Supported examples:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dQw4w9WgXcQ

YouTube video IDs

If you already have video IDs, enter them directly.

dQw4w9WgXcQ

Maximum comments per video

Set a cap to control run size and cost.

For a quick test, use 10 to 25 comments.

For monitoring, increase the limit based on the size of the videos you track.

Sort order

Choose top comments or newest comments.

Newest-first depends on what YouTube exposes for the selected video at run time.

Include replies

Enable replies when you want conversation context.

Disable replies when you only need top-level comments.

Proxy configuration

The actor supports Apify Proxy configuration.

Automatic proxy settings are a good default for most runs.

Use residential proxy only if your workload is throttled.

Example input

{
  "videoUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ],
  "maxCommentsPerVideo": 25,
  "sort": "top",
  "includeReplies": true,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}

Example output

{
  "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "videoUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "videoTitle": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Video) (4K Remaster)",
  "commentId": "Ugzge340dBgB75hWBm54AaABAg",
  "parentCommentId": null,
  "isReply": false,
  "authorName": "@YouTube",
  "authorChannelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@YouTube",
  "authorThumbnailUrl": "https://yt3.ggpht.com/example=s88-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj",
  "text": "can confirm: he never gave us up",
  "likeCount": 255000,
  "publishedTimeText": "1 year ago",
  "replyCount": 960,
  "sort": "top",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-06-16T14:21:28.786Z"
}

How to scrape YouTube comments

1. Open the actor on Apify.
2. Paste one or more YouTube video URLs.
3. Set the maximum number of comments per video.
4. Choose top or newest sort.
5. Decide whether to include replies.
6. Click Start.
7. Download the dataset in your preferred format.

Tips for best results

• Start with a small limit to confirm the video has public comments.
• Use video IDs if you already have a list from another workflow.
• Disable replies when you only need high-level audience sentiment.
• Schedule recurring runs for campaign monitoring.
• Deduplicate downstream by commentId if you run the same video repeatedly.
• Use scrapedAt to compare comment exports over time.

Common use cases

• Brand sentiment tracking on product launch videos.
• Creator audience analysis across recent uploads.
• Exporting comments for moderation review.
• Detecting recurring customer questions.
• Researching public reaction to news or entertainment videos.
• Building datasets for natural language processing.
• Monitoring competitor campaign responses.

Integrations

Send results to Google Sheets through Apify integrations.

Load dataset exports into BigQuery, Snowflake, Airtable, or your BI stack.

Trigger the actor from Zapier, Make, n8n, GitHub Actions, or a custom backend.

Use webhooks to notify your team when a recurring monitoring run finishes.

API usage

Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });

const run = await client.actor('fetch_cat/youtube-comments-scraper').call({
  videoUrls: ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ'],
  maxCommentsPerVideo: 25,
  sort: 'top',
  includeReplies: true,
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient('MY-APIFY-TOKEN')

run = client.actor('fetch_cat/youtube-comments-scraper').call(run_input={
    'videoUrls': ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ'],
    'maxCommentsPerVideo': 25,
    'sort': 'top',
    'includeReplies': True,
})

items = client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).list_items().items
print(items)

cURL

curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/fetch_cat~youtube-comments-scraper/runs?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "videoUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"],
    "maxCommentsPerVideo": 25,
    "sort": "top",
    "includeReplies": true
  }'

MCP and AI agents

You can run this actor from Claude Desktop, Claude Code, and other MCP-compatible tools through Apify MCP.

Use this MCP URL pattern:

https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch_cat/youtube-comments-scraper

Claude Code setup:

$claude mcp add apify-youtube-comments https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch_cat/youtube-comments-scraper

Claude Desktop JSON configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify-youtube-comments": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch_cat/youtube-comments-scraper"
    }
  }
}

Example prompts:

• "Scrape the top 50 comments from this YouTube video and summarize the main viewer reactions."
• "Export public comments from these three video URLs and identify common product complaints."
• "Run the YouTube Comments Scraper for this video ID and group comments by sentiment."

Scheduling

Create a schedule in Apify Console to monitor the same video list daily, weekly, or monthly.

Scheduled runs are useful for campaigns, launches, music videos, trailers, tutorials, and recurring brand mentions.

Data quality notes

YouTube can change what it exposes for individual videos.

Some videos have comments disabled.

Some comments may be hidden, moderated, removed, region-limited, or unavailable.

Visible like counts and reply counts may not be available for every row.

Troubleshooting

Why did I get zero comments?

Check RUN_SUMMARY in the default key-value store. A public video with disabled or genuinely empty comments finishes as EMPTY_SOURCE. Private, deleted, age-restricted, blocked, or structurally unreadable videos are reported as failures instead of silently producing a green zero-row run. Keyword and minimum-like filters can also legitimately produce zero stored rows.

Why are some fields null?

YouTube does not expose every field for every comment.

The actor keeps the row instead of inventing values.

Should I use residential proxy?

Small runs may work without residential proxy. For larger or repeated workloads, residential proxy groups are more reliable. The Actor rotates proxy sessions and retries transient 403, 429, 5xx, timeout, and network failures.

Legality and privacy

This actor is designed to collect publicly visible YouTube comments.

Do not use it to collect private, account-only, or restricted data.

You are responsible for using the data in accordance with applicable laws, platform terms, and privacy requirements.

Avoid collecting more data than you need.

Related scrapers

Explore other actors by the same developer on Apify:

• YouTube Transcript Scraper
• YouTube Channel Videos Scraper

FAQ

Can I scrape multiple videos in one run?

Yes. Add multiple video URLs or IDs to the input.

Can I get replies?

Yes. Enable includeReplies to include nested replies when YouTube exposes them.

Can I export to CSV?

Yes. Apify datasets can be downloaded as CSV, JSON, Excel, XML, RSS, and HTML.

Can I run this from code?

Yes. Use the Apify API, JavaScript client, Python client, webhooks, schedules, or MCP.

Does this require a YouTube account?

No. The actor is designed for public comments visible without login.

Limitations

This actor does not use private accounts.

It does not bypass paywalls, login walls, or private video restrictions.

It cannot return comments that YouTube itself does not expose for the public video page.

Privacy and data handling

This Actor only requests the permissions needed to run the input you provide. It uses your input (such as URLs, search terms, identifiers, filters, and limits) only to fetch the requested public data from the relevant source site or API for this Actor, then writes results to your Apify dataset/key-value store.

Data may pass through Apify platform services and Apify Proxy during the run, and requests are sent only to the target site or public data provider required for this Actor's results. FetchCat does not send your inputs or outputs to advertising networks, data brokers, or model-training services, and does not retain run data outside Apify storage after the run except when you explicitly share run details for transient support debugging.

You are responsible for using this Actor lawfully, respecting the target site's terms, and avoiding unnecessary personal or sensitive data in inputs. Review the output before storing, sharing, or combining it with other data.

Support

If a public video does not behave as documented, include the Apify run ID or run URL, the input JSON, expected output, actual output, and a reproducible public URL. Please remove tokens, cookies, private URLs, and personal data before sharing a report.