YouTube Scraper: Videos, Channels & Search Results

Scrape YouTube search results, channel videos and individual videos into one clean row per video: title, views, likes, comments, duration, upload date, description, tags, hashtags, category and the channel's name, handle and subscriber count. No YouTube account or API key needed.

You pay per video scraped. Private, removed and region-blocked videos are listed in the run summary and never charged.

What can it do?

• 🔎 Search YouTube by keyword, sorted by relevance or popularity, filtered to today, this week, this month or this year. Results are videos only: Shorts shelves, playlists and channel cards never take result slots.
• 📺 List a channel's uploads from its Videos tab, newest first. Paste a channel URL, an @handle or a channel ID.
• 🎬 Look up specific videos from watch, youtu.be, Shorts or live URLs, or plain video IDs.
• 📊 Engagement numbers on every row: exact views and likes, the comment count, and the channel's subscribers.
• 🏷️ SEO data: the full description, hashtags and, when YouTube includes them on the page, the video's tags and category.
• 🧭 Where each video came from: the search or channel it was found in and its rank there, so you can track positions over time.

Who is it for?

• Marketers and agencies researching what ranks for a keyword, and how competitors' videos perform.
• Creators studying titles, lengths, tags and upload timing in their niche.
• Brand and PR teams monitoring videos that mention a product or topic, with the newest uploads first.
• Researchers and analysts building datasets of videos, channels and engagement.

How to use it

1. Add Search queries, Channels or Video URLs (any mix, one per row).
2. Set Max results per search or channel (default 20). Video URLs are always scraped.
3. For searches, optionally choose Sort by (relevance or popularity) and Upload date.
4. Run it, then export the dataset as JSON, CSV or Excel, or read it through the Apify API.

Input example

{
    "searchQueries": ["web scraping tutorial"],
    "channels": ["@veritasium"],
    "videoUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"],
    "maxResults": 50,
    "sortBy": "relevance",
    "uploadDate": "any"
}

Output example

One row per video (description shortened here):

{
    "videoId": "ng2o98k983k",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ng2o98k983k",
    "title": "Python Tutorial: Web Scraping with BeautifulSoup and Requests",
    "description": "In this Python Programming Tutorial, we will be learning how to scrape websites…",
    "duration": "45:48",
    "durationSeconds": 2748,
    "viewCount": 1196558,
    "likeCount": 25134,
    "commentCount": 1100,
    "publishedAt": "2017-11-08",
    "publishedDateText": "Nov 8, 2017",
    "publishedTimeAgo": "8y ago",
    "channelName": "Corey Schafer",
    "channelId": "UCCezIgC97PvUuR4_gbFUs5g",
    "channelHandle": "@coreyms",
    "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@coreyms",
    "channelSubscriberCount": 1560000,
    "keywords": [],
    "hashtags": [],
    "category": null,
    "isLive": false,
    "isFamilyFriendly": null,
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ng2o98k983k/hqdefault.jpg",
    "source": { "type": "search", "input": "web scraping tutorial", "rank": 6 },
    "scrapedAt": "2026-11-02T18:35:19.906Z"
}

The dataset has four views: Overview, Engagement, Channels, and Tags and descriptions. The run's OUTPUT record summarizes each input's outcome, unavailable videos with YouTube's reason, and failed pages.

Pricing

Pay per result: $3 per 1,000 videos on the Apify Free plan, down to $2.10 per 1,000 on Gold and above. Search and channel pages are free; you pay only for video rows. Unavailable videos are free. Apify adds a small start fee of $0.00005 per GB of run memory.

Set a maximum charge on the run and the Actor stops cleanly when it is reached.

Feedback and reviews

Something not working, or a field you need? Open an issue on the Issues tab and we'll take a look.

If this Actor saved you time, a short review on Apify Store helps other people decide whether it fits their needs.

FAQ

Why are tags, category or the exact upload time sometimes empty? YouTube leaves part of each watch page out when it serves the page to automated visitors. It did that on most pages in our tests (tags and category were present on about 1 in 6 videos). The page still shows the title, views, likes, comments, date, description and channel, so those fields are always filled. When the exact upload timestamp is missing, publishedAt holds the date shown on the page (2017-11-08). Duration then comes from the search or channel listing, so it can be empty only for videos you list by URL.

How exact are the numbers? Views and likes are exact counts. Comment and subscriber counts are rounded the way YouTube displays them (2.4M, 21.4M). Views are empty while a video is live.

Does it need a YouTube account or API key? No. It reads only what YouTube shows to logged-out visitors and never signs in. Age-restricted and members-only videos need a signed-in viewer, so they are reported as unavailable and not charged.

Why did a search return fewer videos than Max results? YouTube stopped offering more results for that query, or the date filter left fewer matches. The run summary shows how many videos each search and channel returned.

Does it scrape comments, transcripts or Shorts tabs? Not yet. It returns video-level data. Open an issue if you need one of these.

Is scraping YouTube allowed? The Actor collects only publicly visible video and channel information and no personal data beyond what channels publish. YouTube's terms restrict automated access, so check that your use complies with the terms and laws that apply to you.

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