YouTube Channel Scraper

YouTube Channel Scraper

Scrape YouTube channel metadata at scale. Extract subscriber counts, video counts, view counts, descriptions, external links, country, join date, and more from any YouTube channel.

Why use this Actor

Use this Actor when you need reliable channel-level enrichment at scale — ideal for lead lists, creator research, brand monitoring, and competitive analysis.

Features

• Multiple input formats: Channel URLs, @handles, and channel IDs
• Batch scraping: Process hundreds of channels in a single run
• Rich metadata: 16 data fields per channel including social links
• Automatic retry: Built-in retry logic with exponential backoff
• Rate limiting: Respectful request delays to avoid blocks

Input

Field	Type	Description
start_urls	Array	List of YouTube channel URLs (supports /channel/ and /@handle formats)
ids	String	Comma-separated channel IDs or @handles (e.g. @MrBeast,UC16niRr50-MSBwiO3YDb3RA)
max_results	Integer	Maximum number of channels to scrape (0 = no limit)
request_timeout	Integer	HTTP request timeout in seconds (default: 30)

You can use either start_urls or ids or both. The Actor will merge and deduplicate them.

Quick Start

1. Paste one or more channel URLs, handles, or IDs.
2. Keep max_results low for a quick test run.
3. Run the Actor and verify that channelId, title, and subscriberCount are present.

Verification Steps

• Start with @BBCNews or another known channel.
• Confirm the dataset includes fetchedAt and channelUrl.
• If you enabled a batch input, check that each row is unique and deduplicated.

Output Fields

Field	Type	Description
channelId	String	Unique YouTube channel ID (e.g. UC16niRr50-MSBwiO3YDb3RA)
avatar	String	URL of the channel's profile picture
banner	String	URL of the channel's banner image
title	String	Channel display name
verified	Integer	Whether the channel is verified (1 = yes, 0 = no)
hasBusinessEmail	Integer	Whether the channel has a business email (1 = yes, 0 = no)
indexUrl	String	Canonical channel URL
channelUrl	String	Full channel page URL
description	String	Channel's about description
joinDate	String	Date the channel was created (e.g. Apr 7, 2006)
country	String	Country of the channel
links	Array	External links from the channel's about page
viewCount	Integer	Total view count across all videos
videoCount	Integer	Total number of uploaded videos
subscriberCount	Integer	Total subscriber count
fetchedAt	String	ISO 8601 timestamp of when the data was scraped

Sample Output

[
  {
    "channelId": "UC16niRr50-MSBwiO3YDb3RA",
    "avatar": "https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/v4JamQ9B-PUiJHjmZQs9UwTaoLQW8vijJMMpV5QvA2wHQ6iwWM8Q1s6O4jgTl0dtDigVWAi7SA=s900-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj",
    "banner": "https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/xDk7iLEwnQRQkEzHiNXonOI8UbLbYKATVoPoErXOKleYpfS4PYvJmg8DYcAj7MQXiIZvqC_s8fE=w2560",
    "title": "BBC News",
    "verified": 1,
    "hasBusinessEmail": 0,
    "indexUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@BBCNews",
    "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC16niRr50-MSBwiO3YDb3RA",
    "description": "Breaking news, live updates and in-depth analysis from BBC News journalists around the world.",
    "joinDate": "Apr 7, 2006",
    "country": "United Kingdom",
    "links": [
      {"title": "BBC News", "link": "bbc.com/news"},
      {"title": "TikTok", "link": "tiktok.com/@bbcnews"},
      {"title": "Instagram", "link": "instagram.com/bbcnews"},
      {"title": "Facebook", "link": "facebook.com/bbcnews"},
      {"title": "X", "link": "twitter.com/BBCWorld"}
    ],
    "viewCount": 6768411372,
    "videoCount": 29218,
    "subscriberCount": 19500000,
    "fetchedAt": "2026-03-23T06:30:00Z"
  }
]

Example Inputs

Single channel

{
  "ids": "@BBCNews"
}

Batch scrape

{
  "start_urls": [
    {"url": "https://www.youtube.com/@BBCNews"},
    {"url": "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast"}
  ],
  "max_results": 2
}

Use Cases

• Brand monitoring: Track competitor YouTube channels and their growth metrics
• Influencer research: Analyze YouTuber profiles for marketing campaigns
• Market analysis: Compare channel statistics across an industry
• Lead generation: Find channels with business emails for outreach
• Data journalism: Collect channel data for research and reporting

Tips

• For large batches (100+ channels), the Actor processes them sequentially with built-in delays to avoid YouTube rate limits
• If a channel is terminated or unavailable, it will be skipped with a warning in the logs
• The fetchedAt timestamp helps you track data freshness when running periodic scrapes

Related Actors

• TikTok Videos Watermark-Free Scraper — Download TikTok videos without watermark
• Twitter Tweets Scraper — Scrape tweets from Twitter/X
• Hacker News Scraper — Scrape stories, comments, and search results from Hacker News

Maintenance

This Actor is actively maintained and regularly updated to ensure compatibility with YouTube's latest changes.

Rate this Actor

If this scraper saves you time, please leave a rating on Apify Store — it helps us prioritize fixes and improvements.

Notes

• Use channel URLs, @handles, or channel IDs.
• For large batches, keep max_results reasonable to avoid long runs.
• If a channel is unavailable, the Actor skips it and continues.