YouTube Search Scraper

Turn a YouTube keyword search into a compact dataset of video results. Find relevant tutorials, product reviews and topic coverage, with filters that help narrow the search before you inspect individual videos.

What you get

• Keyword search: video IDs and titles with available channels, durations, views and upload dates.
• Focused filters: filter by upload period, result type, duration or supported video features, and choose a sort order.
• Small result sets: request 1–20 results and export them as JSON or CSV.

Use it to shortlist videos for content research, compare coverage of a topic or collect video IDs for a separate metadata or caption lookup.

Example output

The YouTube Search results dataset contains one returned search item per row. This example is illustrative, not a live result:

{
  "query": "battery recycling explained",
  "videoId": "abcdefghijk",
  "title": "Example battery recycling explainer",
  "channel": "Example Science",
  "durationString": "5:00",
  "viewCount": 1234,
  "uploadDate": "2026-01-15",
  "request_id": "req_example"
}

Fields depend on the returned item and result type. Complete response and status preserves additional returned fields and usage information.

Quick start

1. Get a FlashData API key with youtube_search access and available Credits.
2. Enter a query and your key. Optionally set max_results and a JSON filters object.
3. Click Start, then open YouTube Search results to review or export the dataset.

{
  "flashdataApiKey": "YOUR_FLASHDATA_API_KEY",
  "query": "battery recycling explained",
  "max_results": 10,
  "filters": {
    "type": "video",
    "upload_date": "this_month"
  }
}

Input parameters

Parameter	Required	Description
query	Yes	One search query, e.g. battery recycling explained.
flashdataApiKey	Yes	Your FlashData API key, stored as encrypted input.
max_results	No	Maximum results (1–20). Actual count may be lower. Range: 1–20. Default: 20.
filters	No	JSON filters, e.g. {"upload_date":"this_week","type":"video"}. See README for supported values.

Each run searches one query. max_results defaults to 20; asking for 20 does not guarantee 20 results.

Search filters

Pass these fields inside filters:

Filter	Supported values
upload_date	today, last_hour, this_week, this_month, this_year
type	video, channel, playlist, movie
duration	<4, 4-20, >20 (minutes)
sort_by	rating, relevance, view_count, upload_date
Boolean features	360, 3d, 4k, creative_commons, hd, hdr, live, location, purchased, subtitles, vr180

For example, "subtitles": true filters discovery results; it does not fetch the subtitle text.

Pricing

Requests use your FlashData Credits at your applicable account rate. This Actor adds no service fee. Apify compute, storage and other platform usage are billed separately under your Apify plan.

FAQ

Can I collect more than 20 results?

This standard search requests up to 20 results. The separate YouTube Search Scraper – Extended supports larger requests at a different FlashData rate.

Does it return full descriptions, captions or video files?

It returns search metadata. Use the dedicated metadata, transcript or download Actor for those separate operations.

Why are fields missing for some results?

YouTube may return different data for videos, channels, playlists and other result types. Live videos and unavailable items can omit duration or date information.

What if a run fails?

Check key permissions and Credits for authentication errors. After a timeout or interruption, inspect Complete response and status and FlashData Jobs/usage before starting again: the request may already have been charged. A new run can create another charge.

Support

Open an issue on this Actor or email support@flashdata.dev with the run URL or request ID. Do not include API keys.

API documentation · Terms · Privacy

This is an independent FlashData integration, not an official YouTube product.