YouTube Scraper: Videos, Channels, Shorts & Search, $0.50/1K
Pricing
$0.50 / 1,000 results
YouTube Scraper: Videos, Channels, Shorts & Search, $0.50/1K
Scrape YouTube videos, Shorts, channels, playlists and search results: views, likes, comments count, exact date, duration, description, hashtags, tags, category and channel subscribers. A YouTube API alternative: no login, no API key. $0.50 per 1,000 results, all-in. Find influencers by keyword.
Pricing
$0.50 / 1,000 results
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Melon Data
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What is this YouTube Scraper?
YouTube Scraper is a YouTube channel scraper, YouTube Shorts scraper and YouTube search scraper in one: it turns searches, channels, playlists and video links into clean YouTube video data. For every video and Short you get the title, full description, views, likes and comments count, exact publication date, duration, hashtags and tags, category, thumbnail, live status and the channel with its subscribers. For every channel you get subscribers, total views, exact video count and joined date, plus country and external links when the channel shows them. $0.50 per 1,000 results, all included: video details, comments count, channel data, date filter, proxies and platform usage. No add-ons, no start fee.
A YouTube API alternative: it uses plain HTTP requests to YouTube's public pages, with no browser, no login and no YouTube API key or quota. In our benchmark (October 2026), a 500-video search finished in about 3.5 minutes and 5 complete channels (1,779 videos, Shorts and live streams, plus the 5 channel results) in about 7.5 minutes.
Use it for market and trend research, influencer and competitor monitoring, content strategy, video SEO or data enrichment. Run it from Apify Console, through the API, on a schedule, or from Make, n8n and Zapier. Apify's free plan ($5 of monthly credit) covers up to 10,000 results a month.
🇫🇷 Scraper YouTube : vidéos, Shorts, chaînes, playlists et recherches, avec vues, likes, nombre de commentaires, date exacte et abonnés. 0,50 $ les 1 000 résultats, tout compris. 🇩🇪 YouTube Scraper: Videos, Shorts, Kanäle, Playlists und Suchergebnisse mit Aufrufen, Likes, Kommentaranzahl und Abonnenten. 0,50 $ pro 1.000 Ergebnisse, alles inklusive. 🇪🇸 Scraper de YouTube: vídeos, Shorts, canales, listas y búsquedas con vistas, likes, número de comentarios y suscriptores. 0,50 $ por 1.000 resultados.
- Full details on every video, not just what a list shows: exact view count, like count, comments count, ISO publication date (UTC), duration in seconds, full description, hashtags, tags, category, Short and live flags, channel subscribers.
- Videos, Shorts and live streams separately. Set how many regular videos, Shorts and live streams you want per search term or channel.
- Channels. Paste
@handle,/channel/UC…,/c/…or/user/…links: one channel result plus its videos, Shorts and live streams, sorted by latest, popular or oldest. - Search filters. Upload date, duration, result type (videos, Shorts, channels, playlists, movies), popularity, country and language.
- Date filter for channels and playlists, included. Only videos published after a date (
2026-01-31) or in the last30 days. - No duplicates. A video found by two searches is delivered and charged once.
- Safe on big jobs. Runs resume after a platform restart with no double charge, stop cleanly before the run's time limit and at your maximum cost per run. Error rows are free.
- Drop-in for other YouTube scrapers. The input names most used on the Store also work (
searchQueries,startUrls,maxResults,maxResultsShorts,maxResultStreams,sortingOrder,dateFilter…).
⭐ If this actor saves you time, please bookmark it and leave a review: it helps other users find it.
How to scrape YouTube (step by step)
- Enter one or more search terms (
lofi hip hop,iphone 17 review,home workout…), and/or paste channels, playlists or video links. - Set Max videos per search term, channel or playlist. Add Max Shorts and Max live streams if you want them too.
- Optional: pick filters (upload date, duration, type, popularity), a country, or a date for channels and playlists.
- Click Start, then download the results as CSV, Excel or JSON, or send them to Google Sheets, your database, Make, n8n or Zapier.
What YouTube data can you extract?
| Data | Fields | Filled in our benchmark* |
|---|---|---|
| Video identity | videoId, url, title, thumbnailUrl | 100% |
| Description | description (full text, as written by the creator) | 96% to 99% (some videos have none) |
| Statistics | viewCount, likeCount, commentCount | views 97.5% to 100%, likes 97% to 99.9%, comments 97% to 98% |
| Date and length | publishedAt (ISO 8601, UTC), durationSeconds | date 100%, duration 99.6% to 100% (none while a stream is live) |
| Topics | category, keywords (tags), hashtags | category 100%, tags 75% to 86% |
| Type | isShort, isLive, isUpcoming, isLiveContent, liveStartedAt, liveEndedAt | flags 100%, live times on live streams only |
| Channel of the video | channelName, channelId, channelUrl, channelHandle, channelSubscriberCount | 99% (subscribers) to 100% |
| Channel results | subscriberCount, videoCount, viewCount, country, joinedAt, links, description, avatarUrl, bannerUrl, isVerified | subscribers, video count, total views, joined date 100%; country and links only when the channel shows them |
| Context | searchQuery, sourceUrl, sourceType, sourceList, rank, scrapedAt | always set (searchQuery only on search results) |
* A 500-video search and 5 complete channels (1,784 results), October 2026. Fields stay empty when YouTube does not show them (likes hidden by the creator, comments turned off, no tags). In the rare case YouTube refuses a video's details on every IP, the video comes with what the list showed (approximate date, no likes or tags) and detailsStatus: "partial"; this did not happen in our benchmark.
Why this YouTube Scraper?
| This actor | |
|---|---|
| Price for 1,000 videos with full details | $0.50, all included (no start fee, no add-ons) |
| Comments count and channel subscribers on each video | ✅ Included (can be turned off for about 20% faster runs) |
| Channels with Shorts and live streams, sorted latest / popular / oldest | ✅ Included |
| Only videos published after a date (channels, playlists) | ✅ Included (a paid add-on in the most used YouTube scraper) |
| Exact date and duration in seconds | ✅ publishedAt ISO 8601 (UTC), durationSeconds |
| Category and tags | ✅ Included |
| Login, cookies or YouTube API key | ❌ Not needed |
For comparison, the most used YouTube scraper on the Apify Store charges $4.00 per 1,000 videos on Apify's Free plan down to $2.40 on Business ($1.00 on the highest tier), plus $1.30 to $0.60 per 1,000 on the same plans for its channel date-range add-on (public Store prices, October 2026). On the 22 videos both scrapers returned in a 30-video test, view counts matched within 0.02% and dates, durations and titles were identical. Their like counts were rounded (35,000,000) where ours are exact (35,969,169); their comments counts were exact where ours are rounded above 1,000 (1,200,000 for 1,244,140).
YouTube scraper input
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
searchQueries | Search terms, one search per line. |
maxResults | Regular videos per search term, channel and playlist (20 when no limit at all is set). |
maxResultsShorts | Shorts per search term and channel (0 = none). |
maxResultStreams | Live streams per search term (streams live now) and per channel (its Live tab: live, upcoming and past streams) (0 = none). |
channelUrls | Channel links or handles. Each one gives a channel result plus its videos, Shorts and streams. |
playlistUrls | Playlist links or IDs. Videos in playlist order. |
videoUrls | Video links or IDs: watch?v=, youtu.be/, /shorts/, /live/. |
startUrls | Any mix of the links above and search result links, or a CSV/text file of links. As in other YouTube scrapers, search terms are ignored when start URLs are given. |
uploadDate, duration, type, sortBy | Search filters: upload date (last hour to this year), duration (< 3 min, 3–20 min, > 20 min), result type (videos, Shorts, channels, playlists, movies), relevance or popularity. |
country, language | Country of the search results (US, FR, JP…) and interface language of the searches. |
sortVideosBy | Order of a channel's videos: NEWEST, POPULAR or OLDEST. |
oldestPostDate | Channels and playlists: only videos published after this date (2026-01-31) or this period (30 days, 6 months). |
includeCommentCount | Comments count and channel subscribers on each video (default on). |
Example inputs
Search, with Shorts:
Recent videos of several channels (last 30 days, videos and Shorts):
Find channels on a topic (one channel result each, with subscribers, total views and links):
Specific videos and a playlist:
Input written for another YouTube scraper (works as is; here dateFilter and sortingOrder also apply to the pasted search link):
YouTube data output example
A video (from the home workout benchmark search, description and tags shortened, some fields left out):
A Short (from a channel's Shorts tab, some fields left out):
A channel (links shortened, some fields left out):
Videos, channels and playlists come in one dataset (type tells them apart). The Videos, Channels and Video details tabs of the output show the main columns. Inputs that cannot be scraped (a channel that does not exist, a private video) give a free row with status: "error", an error code and the input.
How much does it cost to scrape YouTube?
$0.50 per 1,000 results (videos, Shorts, channels or playlists actually delivered), everything included. You are never charged for error rows, duplicates or results above your limits, and the run stops at your maximum cost per run. Apify's free plan ($5 of monthly credit) covers about 10,000 results a month.
| Job | Results | Time (benchmark) | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 videos from links | 20 | ~20 s | $0.01 |
| 500 videos from one search | 500 | ~3.5 min | $0.25 |
| 5 complete channels (videos, Shorts, streams) | 1,784 | ~7.5 min | $0.89 |
Use it via API, Make, n8n or AI agents
Start a run and get the results with one HTTP call:
The same actor works in Make, n8n and Zapier (Apify modules), from the Apify JavaScript and Python clients, and from AI agents through the Apify MCP server. If you used another YouTube scraper, replace its actor ID with fit_melon/youtube-scraper: the usual input names work. Output fields are named as in the YouTube data above; the table below maps the most common other names.
| Other scrapers | This actor |
|---|---|
id | videoId |
text | description |
date | publishedAt |
likes | likeCount |
commentsCount | commentCount |
duration (00:03:27) | durationSeconds (207) |
numberOfSubscribers | channelSubscriberCount (videos) / subscriberCount (channels) |
channelUsername | channelHandle |
order | rank |
YouTube Scraper FAQ
How much does it cost to scrape YouTube?
$0.50 per 1,000 results, all included: details of each video, comments count, channel data, date filter, proxies and platform usage. No start fee and no paid options.
Does it get the comments count, likes and subscribers?
Yes. Likes and views are exact. The comments count is exact below 1,000 and rounded above, as YouTube shows it next to the video (for example 2400000 for "2.4M"; comment texts are never loaded). It is 0 when comments are open but empty, and empty (null) when comments are turned off, the video is live or age-restricted, or the option is off. Subscriber counts are rounded by YouTube itself (3 significant digits, like 25800000) for every tool.
Can I scrape YouTube Shorts?
Yes. Set Max Shorts for search terms (YouTube's Shorts filter) or channels (the channel's Shorts tab). Each Short gets the same details as a video, with isShort: true and a /shorts/ URL.
Can I get all videos of a channel?
Yes: set all three limits high (for example maxResults, maxResultsShorts and maxResultStreams at 10,000; a limit you leave out counts as 0 once another one is set). You get everything the channel's Videos, Shorts and Live tabs list. In our benchmark, 1,779 of the 1,780 uploads announced by 5 channels were delivered.
How do I get only recent videos?
For searches, use Upload date (last hour, today, this week, this month, this year). For channels and playlists, use Only videos published after with a date or a period like 7 days: with the Latest order, the channel is scanned only down to that date.
Does it scrape transcripts, subtitles or comments?
No. For transcripts and subtitles, use our YouTube Transcript Scraper. Comment texts and commenter data are not collected.
Can I download videos or audio?
No. This actor only collects public metadata; it never downloads videos or audio.
Do I need a YouTube API key, an account or proxies?
No. No API key, no quota, no login or cookies. Apify proxies are included in the price.
How many results can I get from one search?
YouTube ends a search after about a hundred to a few hundred results. When it stops early, the actor runs the same search again with other filters (popularity, duration, upload date) and merges the results without duplicates, so a 500-video search delivered 500 unique videos in our benchmark. Very niche searches simply have fewer videos.
How fast is it?
About 140 results per minute on a single search and about 240 per minute on several channels in parallel (benchmark, default settings). Turn off the comments count for about 20% faster runs. Small runs take 20 to 90 seconds.
Which memory should I use?
The default (1 GB). In our benchmark it was 1.7 to 2.8 times faster than 512 MB. Your price is $0.50 per 1,000 results whatever the memory.
Is it legal to scrape YouTube?
This actor only reads public pages, as a logged-out visitor, at a moderate rate. Video and channel data can still include personal data (for example a creator's name in a description). If you process it, you are responsible for doing it lawfully (GDPR, CCPA) and for respecting YouTube's terms and copyright. This actor is not affiliated with, endorsed or sponsored by YouTube or Google.
Can I switch from another YouTube scraper?
Yes: the most common input names are accepted, so your input usually works as is (see the last example input). Output names differ for a few fields (id, text, date, likes…): remap them in your workflow with the table above.
Use cases
- Market and trend research: what gets views in a niche, which formats and lengths work, how Shorts compare with long videos.
- Influencer marketing: find channels on a topic with their subscribers, total views, country and links, then check their recent videos.
- Competitor monitoring: track a list of channels every day or week with the date filter, and watch views, likes and comments grow.
- Content and video SEO: titles, tags, hashtags and descriptions of the videos that rank for your keywords, by country.
- Research and data science: build datasets of videos with exact dates, durations, categories and engagement.
Limitations & fair use
- Public data only, as seen by a logged-out visitor: no private, members-only or age-gated content beyond its public details, no login, no CAPTCHA solving.
- Subscriber counts are rounded by YouTube for every tool. Comments counts above 1,000 are rounded as in YouTube's video panel (
1200000for "1.2M"), because the actor never loads the comments themselves. - Search results depend on YouTube's ranking for the chosen country and can change from one run to the next.
- The actor keeps a moderate request rate. Very large jobs are best split into several runs.
Changelog
- 2026-10-30: faster channel runs. A channel's Videos, Shorts and Live tabs are now read at the same time instead of one after another (a video listed by two tabs is still delivered and charged once).
- 2026-10-29: faster small runs. A slow proxy connection can no longer hold a run: every request has a hard deadline, a video whose details are slow is replaced by the next listed one, and the requests still in flight are cancelled as soon as an input has its max results.
- 1.0 (2026-10-28): first public version. Videos, Shorts, live streams, channels, playlists and searches; comments count and channel subscribers; date filter; input names of other YouTube scrapers.
More actors by this developer
- YouTube Transcript Scraper: transcripts and subtitles of YouTube videos.
- Google Maps Scraper: local business leads with phones, websites and emails, $0.50 per 1,000 places.
