YouTube Engagement & Comment Scraper

Extract comments, replies, likes, and author data from YouTube videos with zero coding required. Perfect for sentiment analysis, market research, and social listening.

This powerful YouTube scraper extracts comprehensive comment data from any YouTube video, including author information, like counts, reply counts, timestamps, and more. Ideal for marketers, researchers, content creators, and data analysts who need to understand audience engagement and sentiment.

What can YouTube Engagement & Comment Scraper do?

• ✅ Extract all comments - Get top comments or newest first with customizable sorting
• ✅ Complete metadata - Author names, IDs, like counts, reply counts, timestamps
• ✅ Bulk scraping - Process multiple videos in a single run
• ✅ Flexible limits - Control how many comments to extract per video
• ✅ Export formats - JSON, CSV, Excel, HTML for easy analysis
• ✅ Integrations - API, webhooks, Make, Zapier, Google Sheets
• ✅ No coding required - Simple interface, just paste video URLs

Why scrape YouTube comments?

YouTube comments contain valuable insights for:

• 🎯 Sentiment Analysis - Understand audience reactions and opinions about your content
• 📊 Market Research - Discover customer pain points, desires, and feedback
• 📍 Competitor Analysis - Monitor what people say about competitor videos
• 💬 Community Management - Track engagement and respond to your audience
• 🔍 Trend Discovery - Identify emerging topics and discussions in your niche
• 📈 Content Strategy - Learn what resonates with your target audience

What data can you extract from YouTube?

Data Field	Description	Example
comment	The comment text content	"Great video! Very helpful..."
author	Comment author's display name	"John Smith"
authorId	Unique author identifier	"UCxyz123..."
voteCount	Number of likes on the comment	42
replyCount	Number of replies to the comment	5
publishedTimeText	When the comment was posted	"2 days ago"
hasCreatorHeart	Whether creator hearted the comment	true/false
type	Comment or reply	"comment"
videoId	YouTube video ID	"jNQXAC9IVRw"
title	Video title	"How to Build..."
pageUrl	Full video URL	"https://youtube.com/watch?v=..."
scrapedAt	Timestamp of data extraction	"2026-01-27T17:30:00.000Z"

How to scrape YouTube comment data

1. Click "Try for free" to start the Actor
2. Enter video URLs - Paste one or more YouTube video URLs
3. Configure options - Set max comments and sorting preference (Top or Newest)
4. Start the scraper - Click "Start" and let it run
5. Download results - Export as JSON, CSV, or Excel when complete

Input

Configure the scraper with these options. Click the Input tab for all available settings.

Key settings:

• Video URLs - List of YouTube video URLs to scrape (required)
• Max Comments - Maximum number of comments to extract per video (default: 100)
• Sort Comments By - Choose "Top Comments" or "Newest First" (default: Top Comments)
• Proxy Configuration - Residential proxies recommended for high-volume scraping

Input example

{
  "startUrls": [
    { "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw" }
  ],
  "maxComments": 100,
  "commentsSortBy": "1",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}

Output

You can download data in multiple formats:

• JSON - For developers and data processing
• CSV - For Excel and spreadsheet analysis
• Excel - Ready-to-use spreadsheet with all data
• HTML - For viewing in browser

Output example

{
  "cid": "dom-1706380800000-0.123",
  "comment": "This is exactly what I was looking for! Thank you for this comprehensive guide.",
  "author": "Tech Enthusiast",
  "authorId": "",
  "authorIsChannelOwner": false,
  "voteCount": 42,
  "replyCount": 3,
  "publishedTimeText": "2 days ago",
  "hasCreatorHeart": false,
  "type": "comment",
  "videoId": "jNQXAC9IVRw",
  "title": "How to Build Amazing Apps",
  "pageUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-01-27T17:30:00.000Z"
}

How much does it cost to scrape YouTube?

Free tier: $5 in credits = ~2,000-2,500 comments

Cost estimates:

• Basic scraping: ~400-500 comments per $1
• With proxies: ~300-400 comments per $1

Pricing breakdown:

• Actor start: $0.00005 (one-time per run)
• Per comment: $0.002 ($2.00 per 1,000 comments)

Tips to reduce costs:

• Limit max comments to only what you need
• Batch multiple videos in one run
• Use datacenter proxies for non-sensitive scraping
• Schedule runs during off-peak hours

Is it legal to scrape YouTube?

Yes, scraping publicly available data from YouTube is legal. This Actor only extracts public information that anyone can see without logging in.

Best practices:

• Use ethically and responsibly
• Respect YouTube's rate limits
• Don't use data for spam or harassment
• Review YouTube's Terms of Service
• Consider YouTube Data API for official access

Note: This scraper is for educational and research purposes. Always ensure your use case complies with applicable laws and regulations.

Troubleshooting

No comments found

• Solution 1: Check if the video has comments enabled
• Solution 2: Try increasing wait times (video may load slowly)
• Solution 3: Verify the URL is correct and accessible

Timeout errors

• Solution 1: Reduce max comments per video
• Solution 2: Use residential proxies for better reliability
• Solution 3: Check your internet connection

Incomplete data

• Solution 1: Some fields may not be available for all comments
• Solution 2: Increase wait times for dynamic content to load
• Solution 3: Try scraping during off-peak hours

Rate limiting or blocking

• Solution 1: Enable residential proxies in configuration
• Solution 2: Reduce concurrency (contact support for custom settings)
• Solution 3: Add delays between requests

Use cases

Sentiment Analysis for Brands

Extract comments from your brand's videos or competitor videos to understand customer sentiment. Analyze positive, negative, and neutral feedback to improve products and marketing strategies.

Content Creator Insights

Track audience engagement on your videos. Identify which topics generate the most discussion, what questions viewers have, and how to improve future content.

Market Research

Discover what people are saying about products, services, or topics in your industry. Find pain points, desires, and unmet needs directly from your target audience.

Academic Research

Collect data for social media studies, communication research, or behavioral analysis. Export to CSV for statistical analysis in R, Python, or SPSS.

Competitor Analysis

Monitor competitor video comments to understand their audience, identify gaps in their offerings, and discover opportunities for your business.

YouTube API alternative

Comparison with official YouTube Data API:

• ✅ No API key required vs complex OAuth setup
• ✅ No quota limits vs 10,000 units/day limit
• ✅ Complete comment data vs limited fields
• ✅ Simple interface vs technical API knowledge needed
• ✅ Bulk processing vs manual pagination
• ⚠️ Note: For official access, consider YouTube Data API v3

Integrations

Connect with 1000+ apps through Apify integrations:

• Google Sheets - Auto-update spreadsheets with new comments
• Slack - Get notifications when scraping completes
• Webhooks - Send data to your custom applications
• API - Programmatic access for developers
• Make (Integromat) - Build automated workflows
• Zapier - Connect to thousands of apps
• Power BI / Tableau - Create data visualizations

Support and feedback

• 📧 Issues? Use the Issues tab above to report bugs
• 💬 Questions? Check the troubleshooting section first
• 🔧 Custom solution? Contact us for enterprise features
• ⭐ Feedback? Rate this Actor and leave a review

Related Actors

• YouTube Video Scraper - Extract video metadata, stats, and descriptions
• YouTube Channel Scraper - Get channel information and video lists
• Instagram Comment Scraper - Scrape Instagram post comments
• Twitter Scraper - Extract tweets and replies

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License: Apache-2.0 | Version: 1.0.0 | Author: Apify Community

Keywords: youtube, comments, scraper, sentiment analysis, social media, engagement, market research, data extraction