# YouTube Comments Scraper API - No API Key (`groupoject/youtube-comments-scraper-api`) Actor

Scrape public YouTube comments from video URLs. Export comment text, authors, likes, reply counts, pinned/hearted flags, timestamps, video IDs, and comment URLs without a YouTube API key.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/groupoject/youtube-comments-scraper-api.md
- **Developed by:** [Group Oject](https://apify.com/groupoject) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media, Videos, Lead generation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.50 / 1,000 comments

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#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 Comments Scraper API - No API Key

Scrape public YouTube comments from video URLs without a YouTube API key.

This Actor is built for social listening, sentiment research, creator analytics, audience research, comment mining, competitor monitoring, and brand tracking.

### Features

- Scrape comments from YouTube video URLs, Shorts URLs, and video IDs
- Export comment text, author, likes, reply counts, pinned status, hearted status, and timestamps
- Supports top comments and newest-first sorting
- No YouTube API key required
- Clean dataset for CSV, JSON, Excel, Google Sheets, Make, Zapier, APIs, and AI workflows

### Input Example

```json
{
  "videoUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"],
  "maxCommentsPerVideo": 100,
  "maxTotalComments": 100,
  "sortBy": "TOP_COMMENTS"
}
```

### Output Example

```json
{
  "commentId": "Ugzge340dBgB75hWBm54AaABAg",
  "commentText": "can confirm: he never gave us up",
  "authorName": "@YouTube",
  "likeCount": 308000,
  "replyCount": 963,
  "publishedTime": "1 year ago",
  "isPinned": true,
  "isHearted": true,
  "videoUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
}
```

### Use Cases

- Monitor comments on competitor videos
- Analyze audience feedback on product launches
- Collect comments for sentiment and topic analysis
- Track creator engagement and pinned comments
- Build datasets for YouTube social listening
- Export YouTube comments for research or moderation workflows

### Pricing

Recommended pricing: **$0.50 per 1,000 comments** (`$0.0005` per comment), matching the low-entry, high-volume pricing pattern used by leading YouTube comment scrapers.

### Notes

This Actor uses publicly available YouTube surfaces and an unofficial InnerTube client. Some videos have comments disabled, hidden, or restricted; those videos are reported in the `ERRORS` key-value record.

# Actor input Schema

## `videoUrls` (type: `array`):

YouTube video URLs, Shorts URLs, or 11-character video IDs.

## `maxCommentsPerVideo` (type: `integer`):

Maximum comments to scrape from each video.

## `maxTotalComments` (type: `integer`):

Maximum comments to output across all videos.

## `sortBy` (type: `string`):

YouTube comment sorting mode.

## `language` (type: `string`):

YouTube language code.

## `country` (type: `string`):

YouTube country code.

## `dedupe` (type: `boolean`):

Remove duplicate comment IDs across all videos.

## `debugMode` (type: `boolean`):

Verbose logging.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "videoUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ],
  "maxCommentsPerVideo": 100,
  "maxTotalComments": 100,
  "sortBy": "TOP_COMMENTS",
  "language": "en",
  "country": "US",
  "dedupe": true,
  "debugMode": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `comments` (type: `string`):

One row per YouTube comment.

## `summary` (type: `string`):

Totals, video counts, and warnings.

## `errors` (type: `string`):

Videos that failed or had unavailable comments.

# 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 = {
    "videoUrls": [
        "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("groupoject/youtube-comments-scraper-api").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 = { "videoUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("groupoject/youtube-comments-scraper-api").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 '{
  "videoUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ]
}' |
apify call groupoject/youtube-comments-scraper-api --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

```

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/zZrldwwnOZSpDDGTW/builds/LdPKKgqRgXSkNNrFC/openapi.json