YouTube Shorts Scraper — Hashtag, Keyword & Channel | $1.50/1k

What does YouTube Shorts Scraper do?

YouTube Shorts Scraper collects YouTube Shorts by hashtag, keyword search, channel or link, without a YouTube API key, a Google account or a quota. Give it #cooking, the search term street food, the channel @TED or a list of Shorts links, and you get one clean row per Short: title, exact views, likes, comments, publish date, full description, hashtags, and the channel name, ID and subscriber count.

It works as a YouTube Shorts API: call it from the Apify API, a schedule, Make, Zapier, n8n or an AI agent, and read the results as JSON, CSV or Excel. It costs $1.50 per 1,000 Shorts, about half of what the most used Shorts scraper charges, and video details are included in that price.

• Hashtag feeds: the Shorts YouTube shows on youtube.com/hashtag/<tag>/shorts, hundreds per hashtag.
• Keyword search: YouTube's own Shorts search, with upload-date and popularity filters.
• Channels: a channel's Shorts tab, sorted by Latest, Popular or Oldest.
• Links and IDs: any youtube.com/shorts/... link, youtu.be link or video ID.

Use cases

• Trend watch: follow a hashtag (#skincare, #fitness, #booktok) every day and see which Shorts take off, with exact view and like counts.
• Competitor Shorts: export every Short of the brands you compete with, sorted by Popular, and see which formats win.
• Rank tracking: check where your Shorts appear for the keywords you care about (position is the rank in the search or feed).
• Influencer and creator research: find the channels that publish the most-viewed Shorts for a topic, with subscriber counts.
• Content ideas and AI datasets: titles, descriptions and hashtags of thousands of Shorts in one CSV, ready for analysis or an LLM.

Why use YouTube Shorts Scraper?

• Four ways in: hashtag, keyword, channel or link, in one run. The best-known Shorts scraper takes channels only.
• Exact numbers: views, likes and comments come from each Short's own page, not rounded "1.2M" labels.
• Cheap and simple: $1.50 per 1,000 Shorts, no monthly rental, details included, failed rows free.
• No browser, no login: plain HTTP requests through Apify's datacenter proxy, so runs are fast and cheap.
• One Short, one row: repeats inside a hashtag feed or search are removed, so you never pay twice for the same Short in one source.

What data can YouTube Shorts Scraper extract?

Field	Example	Notes
url	https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ytyzsAV4pxA	The Short's link
videoId	ytyzsAV4pxA	11-character video ID
title	Hint: It's all you need #TEDTalks
type	short	Always short
source	hashtag	hashtag, search, channel or video (a link you gave)
hashtag	#cooking	The hashtag feed the Short came from
searchQuery	street food	The search term the Short came from
inputUrl	https://www.youtube.com/@TED	The channel or link you gave
position	1	Rank in the feed, search or channel tab
viewCount	19085324	Exact with Short details
likeCount	537011	With Short details
commentCount	6000	With Short details
publishedAt	2026-06-25	YYYY-MM-DD, with Short details
publishedTimeText	3 months ago	YouTube's own text
channelName	TED	The publishing channel
channelId	UCAuUUnT6oDeKwE6v1NGQxug	Join it with channel data from YouTube Scraper
channelVerified	true	Verified badge
subscriberCount	27900000	The channel's subscribers, as YouTube rounds them
description	...	Full description; emails, phone numbers, @mentions and social-profile links are masked
hashtags	["#TEDTalks"]	Hashtags in the title and description
thumbnailUrl	https://i.ytimg.com/vi/.../hqdefault.jpg
isMembersOnly	false
commentsTurnedOff	false
isAgeRestricted	false
detailsError		Only when the details of a Short could not be read; the row keeps its list data
status, error, scrapedAt	ok	See below

Result status (tri-state output)

Every row has a status:

• ok: a Short with data. Only these rows are billed.
• not_found: YouTube answered, but there is nothing there (a hashtag without Shorts, a deleted Short, a search with no Shorts for your filters). Free.
• error: the source could not be read after several retries, with the reason in error. Free.

How to scrape YouTube Shorts

1. Open the Actor and fill one or more of Hashtags, Search terms, Channels or YouTube links.
2. Set Max Shorts per source (per hashtag, search term or channel) and Maximum results (for the whole run).
3. Click Start. A run of a few hundred Shorts takes one to three minutes.
4. Download the results as JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML, or read them through the API.

Which input finds what

You want	Use
Shorts that use a hashtag	Hashtags: cooking or #cooking
Shorts that match a keyword	Search terms: street food, with Upload date and Sort by
All Shorts of a channel	Channels: @TED, a channel link or UC... ID, with Channel sort order
Specific Shorts	YouTube links: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/..., youtu.be/... or IDs

Input examples

Daily trend watch on two hashtags:

{
    "hashtags": ["skincare", "#booktok"],
    "maxResultsPerSource": 200,
    "maxItems": 400
}

A competitor's most popular Shorts:

{
    "channels": ["@TED"],
    "channelSort": "popular",
    "maxResultsPerSource": 100
}

Rank tracking for keywords, this month only:

{
    "searchQueries": ["protein breakfast", "meal prep"],
    "uploadDate": "month",
    "maxResultsPerSource": 50
}

Specific Shorts:

{
    "startUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ytyzsAV4pxA", "7L-ttuTFeh8"]
}

Input fields

Field	What it does
hashtags	Hashtags whose Shorts feed to read, with or without #
searchQueries	Keywords, searched with YouTube's Shorts filter
channels	Channels whose Shorts tab to read
startUrls	Shorts links, video IDs, channel, hashtag or search links
maxItems	Stop after this many Shorts in total (default 20)
maxResultsPerSource	Cap per hashtag, search term or channel (default 10, up to 5,000)
includeVideoDetails	Open each Short for exact views, likes, comments, date and description (default on, same price)
channelSort	newest, popular or oldest for channels
uploadDate	Search only: hour, today, week, month, year
sortBy	Search only: relevance or views (popularity)
query	One search term as a plain string, for AI agents
proxyConfiguration	Apify datacenter proxy, on by default

Output

Two real rows from a run on 2026-10-19 (description shortened):

[
    {
        "url": "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ytyzsAV4pxA",
        "status": "ok",
        "type": "short",
        "source": "channel",
        "inputUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@TED",
        "position": 1,
        "title": "Hint: It's all you need #TEDTalks",
        "videoId": "ytyzsAV4pxA",
        "channelName": "TED",
        "channelId": "UCAuUUnT6oDeKwE6v1NGQxug",
        "channelVerified": true,
        "subscriberCount": 27900000,
        "viewCount": 19085324,
        "likeCount": 537011,
        "commentCount": 6000,
        "publishedAt": "2026-06-25",
        "publishedTimeText": "3 months ago",
        "isShort": true,
        "isMembersOnly": false,
        "commentsTurnedOff": false,
        "isAgeRestricted": false,
        "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ytyzsAV4pxA/hqdefault.jpg",
        "scrapedAt": "2026-10-19T11:52:52.979Z"
    },
    {
        "url": "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YPrtcYKHBDs",
        "status": "ok",
        "type": "short",
        "source": "search",
        "searchQuery": "street food",
        "position": 3,
        "title": "Red Ginger Milk & Sekoteng - Street Food Indonesia ⁉️#redgingermilk #ginger #sekoteng #streetfood",
        "videoId": "YPrtcYKHBDs",
        "channelName": "TasteID",
        "channelId": "UCg1nRNqUfAgbb5XpajHX6iw",
        "subscriberCount": 250,
        "viewCount": 732,
        "likeCount": 7,
        "publishedAt": "2026-10-19",
        "publishedTimeText": "50 minutes ago",
        "isShort": true,
        "isMembersOnly": false,
        "commentsTurnedOff": false,
        "isAgeRestricted": false,
        "description": "Red ginger milk combines creamy milk with the distinctive warmth and spicy aroma of red ginger. Sekoteng is a traditional Indonesian ginger-based drink, often s...",
        "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YPrtcYKHBDs/hqdefault.jpg",
        "scrapedAt": "2026-10-19T12:09:21.128Z"
    }
]

How much does it cost to scrape YouTube Shorts?

Pay-per-event pricing, with Apify platform usage and proxies included:

Event	Price
Actor start	$0.005 per run (at the default 1 GB memory)
Short (status: ok row)	$0.0015 per Short ($1.50 per 1,000)

What typical jobs cost:

Job	Shorts	Cost
Default run (try it)	20	$0.035
One hashtag, 500 Shorts	500	$0.755
A channel's 1,000 latest Shorts	1,000	$1.505
Daily check of 5 hashtags, 100 Shorts each, for 30 days	15,000	about $22.65

Rows with status not_found or error are never billed, and Short details cost nothing extra. Cap spending with Maximum results and the run's Max total charge option; the Actor stops cleanly at the limit.

Use the YouTube Shorts Scraper API

Start a run and get the Shorts in one call:

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/glasswing~youtube-shorts-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_API_TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"hashtags": ["cooking"], "maxResultsPerSource": 50}'

The same works from the Apify Python and JavaScript clients, from schedules (for daily trend watch) and from MCP clients and AI agents, which can send just {"query": "street food"}.

Tips

• For trend watch, schedule a daily run per hashtag and compare viewCount per videoId from day to day.
• A keyword search ends after about 80-100 Shorts; split a broad topic into several narrower search terms, or use its hashtag, which goes much deeper.
• Switch off Include Short details when you only need titles and rounded views: runs are faster, the price is the same.

Limitations

• A keyword search returns at most about 80-100 Shorts (YouTube's own limit). Hashtag feeds and channels go deeper.
• YouTube applies its date and popularity filters to Shorts unevenly: for some terms a filtered Shorts search returns few or no Shorts, and the term then gets one free not_found row.
• The Short's length, the sound used and the tags are not part of the output (YouTube shows them only to its video player, which needs a signed-in or browser session).
• Playlists are not a Shorts source; use YouTube Scraper for them.
• Comments and commenters are not collected. Channel handles, avatars and the creator's profile links are not output.

FAQ

Do I need a YouTube API key or a Google account?

No. The Actor reads the public, logged-out pages that youtube.com itself uses, so there is no key, no OAuth and no quota.

How many Shorts can I get per hashtag?

Usually several hundred per hashtag (the measured run read 750+ unique Shorts from #cooking). Set Max Shorts per source as high as you need, up to 5,000.

How fresh is the data?

Live: every run reads YouTube at that moment, so view and like counts are current.

Why did I get fewer rows than Max Shorts per source?

The hashtag, search or channel ran out of Shorts, a keyword search reached YouTube's limit of about 80-100, or Maximum results was reached first. Repeats inside one source are removed and not billed.

Can I get long videos, live streams or channel profiles?

Use our YouTube Scraper, which covers videos, live streams, playlists and channel profiles at $1 per 1,000 results.

Why is a row not_found?

The hashtag has no Shorts, the Short was deleted or made private, or a filtered search had no Shorts. These rows are free.

Do I need proxies?

The Actor uses Apify's datacenter proxy by default, which is included in the price. Residential proxies are not needed.

Is it legal to scrape YouTube Shorts?

The Actor reads only public data. It does not log in or get around access controls. You are responsible for how you use the data; see the notice below.

Related Actors

• YouTube Scraper - use it for long videos, live streams, playlists and channel profiles, with the same videoId and channelId columns to join on.
• YouTube Comments Scraper - use it to read what viewers say under the Shorts you found.
• YouTube Transcript Scraper - use it to pull the spoken text of videos as timed segments or plain text.
• Google Trends Scraper - use it to see whether a topic is rising before you track its hashtag.

Legal and data-protection notice

This Actor extracts only data that YouTube publishes publicly to logged-out visitors. It does not collect comments or commenter names, channel handles, avatars or creators' profile links, and it masks e-mail addresses, phone numbers, @mentions and social-profile links inside titles and descriptions. Channel names are kept as the attribution of each Short. Your results could still contain personal data, which is protected by the GDPR in the European Union and by other regulations around the world. You should not scrape personal data unless you have a legitimate reason to do so. If you are unsure whether your reason is legitimate, consult your lawyers. You are responsible for complying with YouTube's terms of service and applicable law when using the extracted data.

This Actor is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by YouTube, Google or their owners. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.