YouTube Channel Scraper — 3x Cheaper, 10x Faster ⚡

Scrape YouTube channel stats and video metadata using the official YouTube Data API v3. No browser, no Puppeteer — just blazing-fast API calls that return 1,000 videos in under 30 seconds.

💡 Why this actor? Official API = no breakage when YouTube updates their UI. Structured, complete data every time.

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✨ Key Features

• ⚡ Blazing fast — 1,000 videos in ~15-30 seconds (vs 5+ min with browser scrapers)
• 💰 3x cheaper — $0.001/result vs $0.003-0.005 for Puppeteer-based alternatives
• 🔒 100% reliable — Official YouTube API, never breaks on UI changes
• 📊 Complete metadata — tags, categories, languages, thumbnails, engagement metrics
• 🔄 Auto key rotation — spread quota across multiple API keys automatically
• 📺 Flexible input — accepts @handles, URLs, channel IDs, or plain names

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💰 How Much Does It Cost?

Videos scraped	This Actor	Puppeteer-based scrapers
50	$0.05	$0.15 - $0.25
500	$0.50	$1.50 - $2.50
1,000	$1.00	$3.00 - $5.00
10,000	$10.00	$30.00 - $50.00

You save 60-80% on every run. Plus zero compute wasted on browser rendering.

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🚀 Getting Started (3 Steps)

1. Get a free YouTube API key → Google Cloud Console (10,000 units/day free)
2. Set your API key as environment variable YOUTUBE_API_KEYS in actor settings
3. Run the actor with your channel list — that's it!

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📥 Input Example

{
    "channelNames": ["@MrBeast", "https://youtube.com/@veritasium"],
    "numberOfVideos": 50,
    "includeChannelInfo": true
}

Field	Type	Default	Description
channelNames	string[]	required	Channel @handles, URLs, IDs, or names
numberOfVideos	integer	50	Max videos per channel (0 = all)
includeChannelInfo	boolean	true	Include channel-level stats

All these formats work: @MrBeast · MrBeast · https://youtube.com/@MrBeast · UCX6OQ3DkcsbYNE6H8uQQuVA

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📤 Example Output

Video Data

{
    "type": "video",
    "title": "$456,000 Squid Game In Real Life!",
    "description": "I recreated every game from Squid Game...",
    "videoId": "0e3GPea1Tyg",
    "videoUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e3GPea1Tyg",
    "coverImage": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/0e3GPea1Tyg/maxresdefault.jpg",
    "author": "MrBeast",
    "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX6OQ3DkcsbYNE6H8uQQuVA",
    "viewCount": 456000000,
    "likeCount": 12000000,
    "commentCount": 850000,
    "subscriberCount": 250000000,
    "publishedAt": "2021-11-24T17:00:10Z",
    "duration": "25:41",
    "tags": ["squid game", "mrbeast", "challenge"],
    "categoryId": "24",
    "defaultAudioLanguage": "en"
}

Channel Data

{
    "type": "channel",
    "channelId": "UCX6OQ3DkcsbYNE6H8uQQuVA",
    "name": "MrBeast",
    "customUrl": "@mrbeast",
    "description": "SUBSCRIBE FOR A COOKIE!",
    "country": "US",
    "joinedDate": "2012-02-20T00:43:50Z",
    "subscriberCount": 250000000,
    "videoCount": 800,
    "viewCount": 45000000000,
    "keywords": "mrbeast philanthropy challenges"
}

---

🎯 Use Cases

Who	Use Case
📈 Marketers	Competitor analysis — track upload frequency, engagement rates, trending topics
🔍 Researchers	Content research — analyze video performance patterns at scale
🤝 Agencies	Influencer marketing — evaluate channels by engagement, subscribers, content fit
📰 Journalists	Media monitoring — track channels covering specific topics
🛠️ Developers	Build dashboards, analytics tools, or content recommendation engines

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❓ FAQ

Q: Do I need a YouTube API key? Yes — get one free at Google Cloud Console. Each key gets 10,000 units/day (enough for ~125,000 videos). You can add multiple keys for higher throughput.

Q: How fresh is the data? Real-time. Every run fetches live data directly from YouTube's API.

Q: What export formats are available? JSON, CSV, Excel (XLSX), XML, and RSS — all from the Apify console.

Q: What about quota limits? Scraping 50 videos from a known channel costs ~4 quota units. With 10,000 units/day per key, you can scrape ~125,000 videos daily with a single free key.

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📋 Output Fields

Field	Type	Description
type	string	video or channel
title	string	Video title
videoId	string	YouTube video ID
videoUrl	string	Full video URL
coverImage	string	Highest-resolution thumbnail URL
author	string	Channel name
channelUrl	string	Channel URL
viewCount	integer	Total views
likeCount	integer	Total likes
commentCount	integer	Total comments
subscriberCount	integer	Channel subscribers
publishedAt	string	ISO 8601 publish date
duration	string	Video duration (HH:MM:SS)
tags	string[]	Video tags
categoryId	string	YouTube category ID
defaultAudioLanguage	string	Audio language code

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⚡ Performance

Scale	Time
50 videos	~2 seconds
500 videos	~8 seconds
1,000 videos	~15-30 seconds
10,000 videos	~3-5 minutes

🔗 Integration Examples

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient("YOUR_API_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("joyouscam35875/youtube-channel-scraper").call(run_input={"channelUrls": ["@MrBeast"], "maxVideos": 10, "youtubeApiKey": "YOUR_KEY"})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';
const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_API_TOKEN' });
const run = await client.actor('joyouscam35875/youtube-channel-scraper').call({"channelUrls": ["@MrBeast"], "maxVideos": 10, "youtubeApiKey": "YOUR_KEY"});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Make / Zapier / n8n

Use the Apify integration — search for this actor by name in the Apify app connector. No code needed.

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🔗 More Scrapers by Ken Digital

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TikTok Scraper	Videos, likes, shares	$0.001/video
Google SERP Scraper	Search results, PAA, snippets	$0.003/search
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