YouTube Scraper: Channels, Search & Playlists

Scrape YouTube channels, search results and playlists. Every video comes with the numbers people actually need: exact views, exact likes, publish date, category, duration, type (video, Short or live) and the channel's subscriber count.

There is no API key, no daily quota and no Google Cloud project. You pay per video.

YouTube channel, search and playlist scraper: use cases

• Competitor and niche research: see a channel's latest uploads with views and likes side by side, and spot which topics outperform.
• Content strategy: search a topic and compare the top videos by views, likes, age and length before you film.
• Influencer and partner discovery: find channels that rank for a keyword, with subscriber counts and recent performance.
• Tracking: schedule a daily run on your own or rival channels and chart the views and likes over time.
• Data for AI agents: give Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor fresh YouTube stats through the Apify MCP server (see below).

YouTube video stats you get: views, likes, subscribers

Field	Example
title, url, videoId	But what is a neural network?
viewCount	24,223,498 (exact, not "24M")
likeCount	560,285 (exact)
publishDate, uploadDate	2017-10-05T08:11:25-07:00
category	Education
durationSeconds, type	1120, video / short / live
channelName, channelHandle, channelUrl	3Blue1Brown, @3blue1brown
channelSubscribers, channelVideoCount	8,610,000, 242
keywords, thumbnailUrl, description*	description when enabled
source, position	which channel, search or playlist it came from, and its rank there

How to scrape YouTube channel videos, search results and playlists

{
  "channels": ["@3blue1brown", "https://www.youtube.com/@veritasium"],
  "searchQueries": ["neural network explained"],
  "urls": ["https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZHQObOWTQDNU6R1_67000Dx_ZCJB-3pi"],
  "maxVideos": 50,
  "contentType": "videos",
  "includeDescription": false
}

• Channels: @handle, a channel URL, /channel/UC…, /c/… or /user/…. Uploads come newest first.
• Channel content: long videos, Shorts, live streams, or everything.
• Search terms: videos in YouTube's own ranking order. position is the rank.
• Playlists or videos: playlist URLs are expanded, and single video or Shorts URLs are taken as they are.
• Max videos: applies to each channel, search and playlist separately.

Output example (JSON)

{
  "videoId": "aircAruvnKk",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aircAruvnKk",
  "title": "But what is a neural network? | Deep learning chapter 1",
  "type": "video",
  "channelName": "3Blue1Brown",
  "channelHandle": "@3blue1brown",
  "channelId": "UCYO_jab_esuFRV4b17AJtAw",
  "channelSubscribers": 8610000,
  "channelSubscribersText": "8.61M",
  "channelVideoCount": 242,
  "viewCount": 24223498,
  "likeCount": 560285,
  "publishDate": "2017-10-05T08:11:25-07:00",
  "uploadDate": "2017-10-05T08:11:25-07:00",
  "publishedText": "8 years ago",
  "durationSeconds": 1120,
  "category": "Education",
  "keywords": [],
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/aircAruvnKk/hqdefault.jpg",
  "source": "search: neural network explained",
  "position": 1
}

The dataset has an Overview view and a Channel stats view. You can export to JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML, or read it through the API.

Pricing: one event is one video

You pay per video scraped: one event is one video row with its stats. The price is on the Pricing tab, and exact likes, dates and category are included. Private, removed or region-blocked videos and bad links still get a row with an error, and you are not charged for them. You can cap the cost of each run.

YouTube Data API alternative: no API key, no quota

The official YouTube Data API needs a Google Cloud project and an API key, and its default quota is 100 search.list calls a day plus 10,000 units a day for the other endpoints. This Actor has no quota: you set how many videos you want and pay only for what you get.

YouTube scraper API and integrations

• API: start a run with your channels, search terms or playlists and read the dataset. The API tab has ready-made snippets.
• Integrations: Make, Zapier, n8n and Google Sheets through Apify integrations, and Apify schedules for daily runs.

Use it with AI agents (MCP)

AI assistants such as Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor can find and run this Actor through the Apify MCP server: they search the Store with search-actors, read the input with fetch-actor-details and start a run with call-actor. To give an agent only this tool, connect it to https://mcp.apify.com?tools=hxckya/youtube-scraper-channels-search-playlists. Because the Actor is priced per event, agents can also pay for runs with the MCP server's agentic payments.

Example prompt:

Search YouTube for "home espresso machine review", take the top 20 videos, and give me a table of title, channel, subscribers, views, likes and publish date, sorted by likes per view.

Good to know

• Only public data is collected. The Actor never logs in, and it does not collect comments or anything about viewers.
• Subscriber counts are YouTube's rounded display (for example 8.61M becomes 8,610,000), because YouTube does not show exact figures publicly.
• If a creator hides likes, likeCount is empty.
• Requests go directly to YouTube first. If YouTube asks to confirm they are not from a bot, which is common from cloud servers, the run switches to a residential proxy automatically.
• This Actor is an independent tool. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by YouTube or Google.

FAQ

Does it work without a YouTube Data API key?

Yes. There is no API key, OAuth or Google Cloud project to set up, and no daily quota to run out of.

Can I scrape YouTube Shorts and live streams?

Yes. For channels, set Channel content to Shorts, Live streams or Everything; each row's type says video, short or live. Single Shorts URLs work too.

Can I get all videos of a channel?

Yes. Set Max videos high enough. Long videos, Shorts and live streams each come from their own list.

Does it scrape comments?

No. It returns public video and channel statistics only, without comments or anything about the people who watch.

Can I track views over time?

Yes. Create a schedule in Apify and export each run, or send it to Google Sheets.

Do I get transcripts?

Use YouTube Transcript & Subtitles Scraper for transcripts, translation and SRT/VTT.

Changelog

• 1.0: First release. Channels (videos, Shorts, live), search and playlists; exact views, likes, publish date and category per video; channel subscribers. No charge for unavailable videos.