# YouTube Shorts Scraper (`gocreative.ai/youtube-shorts-scraper`) Actor

Scrape YouTube Shorts by channel or by keyword. Returns title, URL, view count and thumbnail as one row per Short — read from YouTube's own Shorts surfaces.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/gocreative.ai/youtube-shorts-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [GoCreative AI](https://apify.com/gocreative.ai) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media, Videos
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.00 / 1,000 short results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## YouTube Shorts Scraper

Pull YouTube Shorts two ways in a single run — straight from a channel's Shorts tab, or from
YouTube's own search results. One clean row per Short: title, URL, view count and thumbnail.

No API key. No YouTube Data API quota. No browser automation.

### These are real Shorts, not a duration guess

Most "Shorts" scrapers search YouTube and keep anything under a minute — which sweeps in ordinary
short videos and misses Shorts that run to the full three minutes.

This Actor reads YouTube's own Shorts classification on both paths: `channels` reads the
channel's dedicated **Shorts tab**, and `queries` reads the Shorts block YouTube returns in
search results. Every row is a Short because YouTube says so. `source` records which path each
row came from.

### What you get

| Field | Example |
|---|---|
| `source` | `channel` or `search` |
| `source_input` | `@BroCodez` or `cooking hacks` |
| `title` | `🔢 NumPy summarized in 60 seconds #coding` |
| `url` | `https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DCwgXXv5Z_w` |
| `video_id` | `DCwgXXv5Z_w` |
| `view_count` | `37654` |
| `view_count_text` | `37K views` |
| `thumbnail` | `https://i.ytimg.com/vi/DCwgXXv5Z_w/oardefault.jpg` |
| `fetched_at` | `2026-08-15T19:44:02+00:00` |

`view_count` is a real integer — sort and filter it directly instead of parsing `37K`.

### Input

```json
{
  "channels": ["@BroCodez", "https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd"],
  "queries": ["cooking hacks", "desk setup"],
  "maxResultsPerSource": 30,
  "minViews": 10000
}
```

| Option | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| `channels` | — | Handles, URLs or `UC…` IDs. Read from the Shorts tab. |
| `queries` | — | The Shorts YouTube returns for each keyword. |
| `maxResultsPerSource` | `30` | Per channel *and* per keyword. |
| `minViews` | `0` | Drop low-view Shorts. |

Set `channels`, `queries`, or both — at least one is required.

### What people use it for

- **Short-form trend research** — run a keyword list weekly and watch which formats climb.
- **Creator benchmarking** — pull a competitor's whole Shorts catalogue and sort by views.
- **Hook and title mining** — Shorts titles are dense with the phrasing that earns clicks.
- **Sourcing creators** — filter by `minViews` to find channels with proven short-form reach.

### Export

Results land in a standard Apify dataset: CSV, JSON, Excel or XML download, or straight from the
API.

### Notes

- YouTube's Shorts surfaces do not expose a duration or publish date for each Short, so those
  fields are not returned. View counts are, and are parsed to real integers.
- Channels or keywords that return nothing are logged as warnings and skipped; the run still
  completes with everything else.
- This Actor returns metadata only. It does not download video or audio.

# Actor input Schema

## `channels` (type: `array`):

Read each channel's Shorts tab. Accepts @handles, channel URLs or UC… IDs.

## `queries` (type: `array`):

Read the Shorts that YouTube returns for each search keyword. Use with or instead of channels.

## `maxResultsPerSource` (type: `integer`):

How many items to pull from each channel and each keyword.

## `minViews` (type: `integer`):

Drop Shorts below this view count. Set 0 to keep everything.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

YouTube rate-limits cloud IPs, so runs go through Apify Proxy by default. Leave as-is unless you have a reason to change it.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "channels": [
    "@BroCodez"
  ],
  "queries": [
    "cooking hacks"
  ],
  "maxResultsPerSource": 30,
  "minViews": 0,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "BUYPROXIES94952"
    ]
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "channels": [
        "@BroCodez"
    ],
    "queries": [
        "cooking hacks"
    ],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true,
        "apifyProxyGroups": [
            "BUYPROXIES94952"
        ]
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("gocreative.ai/youtube-shorts-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "channels": ["@BroCodez"],
    "queries": ["cooking hacks"],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": True,
        "apifyProxyGroups": ["BUYPROXIES94952"],
    },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("gocreative.ai/youtube-shorts-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "channels": [
    "@BroCodez"
  ],
  "queries": [
    "cooking hacks"
  ],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "BUYPROXIES94952"
    ]
  }
}' |
apify call gocreative.ai/youtube-shorts-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,gocreative.ai/youtube-shorts-scraper"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/VgH9LJ9LHOq1r5SqL/builds/lVh17ht1hDdWvDmPi/openapi.json