YouTube Channel Data & API Alternative | $0.15 / 1K videos

YouTube Channel Scraper | YouTube Channel Data: Subscribers, Views & Videos

Get YouTube channel data without an API key or quota units. Paste channel handles, URLs or ids and get one row per channel with the subscriber count, total views, video count, join date, country, verified badge, avatar, banner and the external links the channel lists. Add the channel's video list too: title, views, publish time, duration, thumbnail and link. Export as JSON, CSV or Excel, or send it to Google Sheets, Make, n8n or Zapier.

It reads YouTube's public channel pages and the same internal "innertube" API the YouTube web player uses. No login, no browser, no proxy. $0.004 per channel row, $0.00015 per video row ($0.15 per 1,000 videos), plus a $0.002 start fee per run.

What can you do with YouTube channel data?

• Check YouTube channel statistics. Subscribers, total views, video count and join date for any public channel, as plain numbers plus the text YouTube shows.
• Compare competitor channels. Put several channels in one run and line up their subscribers, views and age in one table.
• Export a channel's video list. Every video the run reaches, with title, view count as shown, relative publish time, duration and link.
• Track new uploads from competitors. Turn on incremental mode and each scheduled run returns only the videos published since the last run.
• Vet creators for outreach and sponsorships. See subscribers, country, verified badge and the website and social links a creator lists on their About page.
• Replace the YouTube Data API for read-only channel jobs. If you only need public channel data and keep running into API keys, quota units and approval steps, this does the same reading job without them. See the FAQ for what it does not cover.

Input

Field	What it does
channels	Channels to scrape: a handle (@nasa), a channel URL or a UC... id, one per line. Required.
scrapeChannelInfo	Emit the channel info row (default on).
scrapeVideos	Emit the channel's videos (default on).
mode	all (default) or changes. changes is incremental mode for videos: only videos new since your last run of that channel.
maxItems	Cost cap on video rows across all channels combined. Default 100. It does not limit channel info rows.
maxPagesPerSource	How many pages of videos to follow per channel. Default 10.
firstRunSince	How far back a channel's first incremental run looks, for example 30 days (default) or all.
maxRetries	Retries with backoff for network errors and 5xx responses.
stateStoreName, stateNamespace	Optional: where incremental mode keeps its per-channel marks.

Turn either output off with scrapeChannelInfo or scrapeVideos if you only need one.

Input example

{
  "channels": ["@nasa", "@veritasium"],
  "scrapeChannelInfo": true,
  "scrapeVideos": false
}

Output

Rows have a kind field: channel for channel info and video for videos. The dataset has two views on the Output tab, Channel info and Videos.

Channel info row

A real row (description shortened, links trimmed):

{
  "kind": "channel",
  "channelId": "UCLA_DiR1FfKNvjuUpBHmylQ",
  "handle": "NASA",
  "title": "NASA",
  "description": "NASA's mission is to pioneer the future in space exploration...",
  "country": null,
  "isVerified": true,
  "subscriberCount": 15100000,
  "subscriberCountText": "15.1M subscribers",
  "videoCount": 6193,
  "videoCountText": "6,193 videos",
  "viewCount": 1130337610,
  "viewCountText": "1,130,337,610 views",
  "joinDate": "2008-06-03",
  "joinedDateText": "Joined Jun 3, 2008",
  "avatarUrl": "https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/...",
  "bannerUrl": "https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/...",
  "canonicalUrl": "http://www.youtube.com/@NASA",
  "externalLinks": [
    { "title": "nasa.gov", "url": "https://nasa.gov" },
    { "title": "X", "url": "https://x.com/nasa" },
    { "title": "Instagram", "url": "https://instagram.com/nasa" }
  ]
}

country is null when the channel has not set one. subscriberCount is a plain integer from the page data. YouTube rounds subscriber counts publicly (15.1M, not the last digit), so it is only as precise as YouTube shows it.

Video row

A real row (thumbnail link shortened):

{
  "kind": "video",
  "videoId": "Zezt6EsG9WE",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zezt6EsG9WE",
  "title": "NASA Moon Base: Rovers and Lunar Terrain Vehicles (October 2026 Update)",
  "channelId": "UCLA_DiR1FfKNvjuUpBHmylQ",
  "channelTitle": "NASA",
  "lengthSeconds": 558,
  "durationText": "9:18",
  "publishedTimeText": "14h ago",
  "viewCountText": "156K",
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Zezt6EsG9WE/hq720.jpg?..."
}

Other video fields: channelUrl, mode, sourceChannelHandle and sourceChannelId.

Things to know about the data

• Video dates are relative text. The channel video grid shows "12 days ago" or "2 weeks ago", not an exact timestamp. For an exact publish date and likes on specific videos, use YouTube Scraper & API Alternative, which fetches video details.
• Video view counts are the text YouTube shows in the grid, such as "156K".
• No email addresses. The Actor returns the links a channel lists on its About page, not hidden business emails.

Incremental mode: track new videos

Set mode to changes. The first run seeds from firstRunSince (default 30 days back). Every run after that resumes from a per-channel mark kept in a key-value store in your own account. Because the grid only shows relative times, the mark is an approximate cutoff, and a remembered set of video ids guarantees no video is returned or billed twice. A run cut short by your budget still advances the mark safely. This only affects videos: the channel info row is always fetched fresh.

Pricing

Event	Price
Actor start (once per run)	$0.002
Channel scraped	$0.004 per channel info row
Video scraped	$0.00015 per video row ($0.15 per 1,000)

Worked examples:

• 1 channel info row only: $0.002 + $0.004 = $0.006
• 100 channels, info only: $0.002 + 100 x $0.004 = $0.402
• 1 channel plus 100 videos: $0.002 + $0.004 + 100 x $0.00015 = $0.021
• 10 channels plus 1,000 videos in total: $0.002 + $0.04 + $0.15 = $0.192

maxItems caps billed video rows. Channel info rows are one per channel you list, so the number of channels you paste sets that cost.

Integrations and scheduling

• Apify Schedules: run it daily or weekly. With incremental mode, each run returns only new videos. Without it, schedule the channel info row to track subscriber growth over time.
• Google Sheets, Make, n8n, Zapier: push every run's dataset to your tools, for example by webhook when the run succeeds.
• API: start runs and read the dataset over the Apify API, or use the Apify client for JavaScript or Python.
• MCP and AI agents: call it from AI agents through Apify's MCP server.

FAQ

Is this a YouTube Data API alternative?

For reading public channel data, yes. You do not need a Google Cloud project, an API key or quota units. It cannot read private analytics (watch time, revenue, audience data), cannot upload or edit anything, and only sees what is public.

What is the difference between this and the YouTube Scraper Actor?

This one is built around the channel itself: the full info row (total views, join date, country, verified, links) plus its videos. YouTube Scraper & API Alternative covers channel video lists, search results and comments, with exact video details.

How do I get a channel's subscriber count?

Set scrapeVideos to false and paste the channel. subscriberCount is a plain integer (rounded the way YouTube rounds it publicly), subscriberCountText the text YouTube shows. Schedule it to log growth over time.

Can I get a channel's email address?

No. The Actor returns the website and social links a channel lists on its About page. It does not extract hidden business emails.

Can I scrape YouTube channel analytics like watch time or revenue?

No. Those are private to the channel owner. This Actor reads only public data.

Will YouTube block it?

YouTube can change or restrict access at any time. Requests are retried with backoff.

Is it legal?

It reads public pages only: no login, no private data. You are responsible for using the data in line with YouTube's Terms of Service and privacy laws such as GDPR.

Related Actors

• YouTube Scraper & API Alternative: channel videos, search results and comments in one Actor.
• YouTube Comments Scraper: comments and reply threads from any video.
• YouTube Shorts Scraper: a channel's Shorts with views, likes and publish dates.
• YouTube Transcript Scraper: video to text with timestamps.
• Fast YouTube Channel Scraper by streamers: a third-party alternative from another developer.