# YouTube Channel Scraper (`happy_b/youtube-channel-scraper`) Actor Extract complete video data from YouTube channels — exact view counts, ISO timestamps, tags, categories, and 37 fields per video. - **URL**: https://apify.com/happy\_b/youtube-channel-scraper.md - **Developed by:** [Happy B](https://apify.com/happy_b) (community) - **Categories:** Social media, Videos - **Stats:** 4 total users, 3 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 2 bookmarks - **User rating**: 5.00 out of 5 stars ## Pricing Pay per usage This Actor is paid per platform usage. The Actor is free to use, and you only pay for the Apify platform usage, which gets cheaper the higher subscription plan you have. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-usage ## What's an Apify Actor? Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases. 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. In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js.md): ```bash npm install apify-client ``` In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.md): ```bash pip install apify-client ``` In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): ````bash # MacOS / Linux curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash # Windows irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex ```bash In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp.md). If your project is in a different language, use 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 ### What is YouTube Channel Scraper? YouTube Channel Scraper extracts complete video data from any public YouTube channel with **exact numbers, ISO 8601 timestamps, and 37 fields per video** — ready for spreadsheets, dashboards, and analysis pipelines. Every number is an exact integer. Every date is ISO 8601. No "1.2M" guesses, no "10 months ago" approximations. #### Data points extracted per video | Field | Description | Example | |-------|-------------|---------| | `videoId` | YouTube video ID | `pAnGwRiQ4-4` | | `title` | Video title | `$1 vs $1,000,000,000 Futuristic Tech!` | | `publishedAt` | ISO 8601 upload timestamp | `2026-01-24T17:00:01Z` | | `viewCount` | Exact view count | `66009191` | | `likeCount` | Exact like count | `2009889` | | `commentCount` | Exact comment count | `62785` | | `duration` | ISO 8601 duration | `PT23M4S` | | `durationSeconds` | Duration in seconds | `1384` | | `tags` | Video tags | `tech,futuristic,expensive` | | `categoryId` | YouTube category ID | `24` | | `categoryName` | Human-readable category | `Entertainment` | | `definition` | Video quality | `hd` | | `type` | Video type | `video` / `shorts` | | `channelName` | Channel display name | `MrBeast` | | `channelSubscriberCount` | Exact subscriber count | `464000000` | | `channelIsVerified` | Verification badge | `true` | **37 fields per video. Every number exact. Every date ISO 8601.** ### Why use this scraper? #### Our Actor vs Top YouTube Channel Actors | Field | Us | Streamers | Grow Media | |-------|:--:|:---------:|:----------:| | `publishedAt` ISO 8601 exact | ✅ | ❌ relative | ✅ | | `likeCount` exact integer | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | | `commentCount` exact integer | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | | `subscriberCount` exact integer | ✅ | ❌ abbreviated | ❌ abbreviated | | `tags` | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | | `categoryId` | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | | `topicDetails` | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | | `definition` (HD/SD) | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | | `hasCaptions` | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | | `isAgeRestricted` | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | | `durationSeconds` integer | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | | Bulk channels | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ 1 only | | Shorts support | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | Date filter | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | - **One row, full picture** — 37 fields per video, flat CSV. No second API call, no post-processing to parse "1.2K" into a number. Download, open in Excel, done. - **Incremental delivery** — Results appear in your dataset within seconds. Export anytime, don't wait for the run to finish. - **From $0.50 per 1,000 items** — Volume discounts down to $0.25 on Business plan. ### Use cases - **Influencer marketing** — Find and evaluate creators with exact subscriber counts, posting frequency, and content categories. Filter by verified status, monetization, and topic. - **Competitive intelligence** — Track competitor channels: what they post, when they post, what tags they use, which videos get the most engagement. Run weekly on a schedule. - **Content strategy** — Analyze top-performing videos by views, likes, and engagement ratios. Find the optimal video length, best posting times, and winning tags. - **Market research** — Benchmark channels by size, growth, and content mix. Build datasets for reports and presentations with exact numbers. - **Ad targeting** — Filter channels by monetization status, content category, and audience size for ad placement decisions. - **ML training data** — Structured JSON with 37 fields per video, ready for recommendation systems, trend analysis, or content classification. ### How much does it cost? Each video or short counts as one item. | Plan | Price per 1,000 items | |------|----------------------| | Free | $0.50 | | Starter | $0.45 | | Scale | $0.40 | | Business | $0.25 | | Scenario | Items | Cost | |----------|-------|------| | 1 channel, 100 videos | 100 | $0.05 | | 10 channels, 100 videos each | 1,000 | $0.50 | | 50 channels, 200 videos each | 10,000 | $5.00 | | 1 channel, full history (2,000 videos) | 2,000 | $1.00 | **Shorts are opt-in.** With `maxShorts` at 0 (default), you only pay for regular videos. Set it higher to include Shorts as separate items. Apify also charges a small compute cost (CU) for the actor's runtime — typically under $0.01 for most runs. ### Input | Parameter | Type | Default | Description | |-----------|------|---------|-------------| | `channelUrls` | string[] | *required* | YouTube channel URLs, handles (@MrBeast), or channel IDs (UC...). Supports /channel/, /@, /c/, /user/ formats. | | `maxVideos` | integer | 100 | Maximum regular videos to fetch per channel. | | `maxShorts` | integer | 0 | Maximum Shorts to fetch per channel. Set to 0 to skip. | | `sortBy` | string | `latest` | `latest`, `popular`, or `oldest`. | | `oldestVideoDate` | string | — | Only include videos published after this date (ISO 8601, e.g. `2025-01-01`). | | `includeChannelInfo` | boolean | `true` | Attach channel metadata (subscribers, description, country) to each video row. Disable to reduce output size. | ### Output example Each item in the dataset is a single video: ```json { "videoId": "pAnGwRiQ4-4", "title": "$1 vs $1,000,000,000 Futuristic Tech!", "description": "This video made me truly realize how awesome the future is...", "descriptionLinks": "https://shopify.com/mrbeast", "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/pAnGwRiQ4-4/maxresdefault.jpg", "publishedAt": "2026-01-24T17:00:01Z", "duration": "PT23M4S", "durationSeconds": 1384, "viewCount": 66009191, "likeCount": 2009889, "commentCount": 62785, "tags": "tech,futuristic,expensive", "categoryId": 24, "categoryName": "Entertainment", "topicDetails": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifestyle_(sociology)", "definition": "hd", "hasCaptions": true, "isAgeRestricted": false, "privacyStatus": "public", "commentsTurnedOff": false, "hashtags": "#tech #futuristic", "type": "video", "order": 0, "channelId": "UCX6OQ3DkcsbYNE6H8uQQuVA", "channelName": "MrBeast", "channelUsername": "@MrBeast", "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX6OQ3DkcsbYNE6H8uQQuVA", "channelDescription": "SUBSCRIBE FOR A COOKIE!...", "channelCountry": "US", "channelJoinedAt": "2012-02-20T00:43:50Z", "channelSubscriberCount": 464000000, "channelTotalViews": 109144471886, "channelTotalVideos": 942, "channelAvatarUrl": "https://yt3.ggpht.com/...", "channelBannerUrl": "https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/...", "channelIsVerified": true, "scrapeTimestamp": "2026-04-02T12:00:00Z" } ```` Download your results as **JSON**, **CSV**, **Excel**, **XML**, or **HTML** from the dataset tab, or access them via the [Apify API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2#/reference/datasets). ### Good to know **Subscriber counts are exact integers.** Other scrapers return abbreviated text like "1.2M" that you have to parse. We return `1200000` — ready for calculations, sorting, and filtering. **Channel info is repeated on every row.** This makes every CSV row self-contained. If you're scraping 50 channels and need to group by subscriber count, it's already there. Disable `includeChannelInfo` to reduce output size if you don't need it. **Shorts are separate items.** A Short is a video under 60 seconds. They appear in the dataset with `type: "shorts"`. Use `maxShorts: 0` (default) to skip them entirely. ### Integrations Connect this actor to your workflow with [Apify integrations](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations): - **Make (Integromat)** — trigger workflows when new data is available - **Zapier** — push videos to Google Sheets, Slack, or databases - **GitHub** — store results in repositories - **Google Drive** — export directly to spreadsheets - **Webhooks** — notify your API when the run completes - **Apify API** — programmatic access for custom pipelines ### Legal and personal data This actor extracts publicly available data from YouTube. You should ensure your use of the extracted data complies with YouTube's [Terms of Service](https://www.youtube.com/t/terms), applicable data protection laws (GDPR, CCPA), and your jurisdiction's regulations regarding web scraping and data processing. Channel and video information is public content visible to anyone on YouTube. ### Support Found a bug or have a feature request? Open an issue on the [Issues tab](https://apify.com/happy_b/youtube-channel-scraper/issues/open) or contact us through Apify messaging. # Actor input Schema ## `channelUrls` (type: `array`): YouTube channel URLs, handles (@MrBeast), or channel IDs. Supports youtube.com/channel/, youtube.com/@, youtube.com/c/ formats. ## `maxVideos` (type: `integer`): Maximum number of regular videos to fetch per channel. ## `maxShorts` (type: `integer`): Maximum number of Shorts to fetch per channel. Set to 0 to skip Shorts. ## `sortBy` (type: `string`): How to sort videos from each channel. ## `oldestVideoDate` (type: `string`): Only include videos published after this date. ISO 8601 format (e.g. 2025-01-01). ## `includeChannelInfo` (type: `boolean`): Attach full channel metadata (subscribers, description, country, etc.) to each video row. Disable to reduce output size. ## Actor input object example ```json { "channelUrls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast" ], "maxVideos": 100, "maxShorts": 0, "sortBy": "latest", "includeChannelInfo": true } ``` # Actor output Schema ## `videos` (type: `string`): No description ## `metadata` (type: `string`): No description # 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 '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "channelUrls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast" ] }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("happy_b/youtube-channel-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 '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = { "channelUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast"] } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("happy_b/youtube-channel-scraper").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"]) for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items(): print(item) # 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start ``` ## CLI example ```bash echo '{ "channelUrls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast" ] }' | apify call happy_b/youtube-channel-scraper --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=happy_b/youtube-channel-scraper", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "YouTube Channel Scraper", "description": "Extract complete video data from YouTube channels — exact view counts, ISO timestamps, tags, categories, and 37 fields per video.", "version": "0.1", "x-build-id": "AddnrGiYo5GYRT0TY" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/happy_b~youtube-channel-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-happy_b-youtube-channel-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/happy_b~youtube-channel-scraper/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-happy_b-youtube-channel-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK", "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/happy_b~youtube-channel-scraper/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-happy_b-youtube-channel-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } } }, "components": { "schemas": { "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "required": [ "channelUrls" ], "properties": { "channelUrls": { "title": "Channel URLs", "type": "array", "description": "YouTube channel URLs, handles (@MrBeast), or channel IDs. Supports youtube.com/channel/, youtube.com/@, youtube.com/c/ formats.", "items": { "type": "string" } }, "maxVideos": { "title": "Max Videos Per Channel", "minimum": 1, "type": "integer", "description": "Maximum number of regular videos to fetch per channel.", "default": 100 }, "maxShorts": { "title": "Max Shorts Per Channel", "minimum": 0, "type": "integer", "description": "Maximum number of Shorts to fetch per channel. Set to 0 to skip Shorts.", "default": 0 }, "sortBy": { "title": "Sort By", "enum": [ "latest", "popular", "oldest" ], "type": "string", "description": "How to sort videos from each channel.", "default": "latest" }, "oldestVideoDate": { "title": "Oldest Video Date", "type": "string", "description": "Only include videos published after this date. ISO 8601 format (e.g. 2025-01-01)." }, "includeChannelInfo": { "title": "Include Channel Info", "type": "boolean", "description": "Attach full channel metadata (subscribers, description, country, etc.) to each video row. Disable to reduce output size.", "default": true } } }, "runsResponseSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "data": { "type": "object", "properties": { "id": { "type": "string" }, "actId": { "type": "string" }, "userId": { "type": "string" }, "startedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "finishedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "status": { "type": "string", "example": "READY" }, "meta": { "type": "object", "properties": { "origin": { "type": "string", "example": "API" }, "userAgent": { "type": "string" } } }, "stats": { "type": "object", "properties": { "inputBodyLen": { "type": "integer", "example": 2000 }, "rebootCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "restartCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "resurrectCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "computeUnits": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "options": { "type": "object", "properties": { "build": { "type": "string", "example": "latest" }, "timeoutSecs": { "type": "integer", "example": 300 }, "memoryMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 1024 }, "diskMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 2048 } } }, "buildId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultKeyValueStoreId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultDatasetId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultRequestQueueId": { "type": "string" }, "buildNumber": { "type": "string", "example": "1.0.0" }, "containerUrl": { "type": "string" }, "usage": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 1 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "usageTotalUsd": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "usageUsd": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } } } } } } } } } ```