YouTube Scraper API – Videos, Channels & Search, No Login

YouTube Scraper API: Video Stats, Metadata, Channels, No Login

Get YouTube video stats and metadata from a link, a search, a channel or a playlist, with no login, no cookies and no API key. Paste video links or IDs, or search by keyword. You get one tidy row per video or Short with exact views and likes, comment count, length, publish date, full description, hashtags, chapters and channel subscribers. Export to JSON, CSV or Excel, or call it as an API from code, n8n, Make, Zapier or an AI agent.

Your first run costs half a cent, which Apify's free monthly credit covers. Click Start and the prefilled search of 10 videos is done in about 5 seconds. Every month the first 500 results, 200 video details and 50 channel summaries are free. After that you pay $0.40 per 1,000 results, or $1.00 per 1,000 videos with full details on the Bronze plan ($1.20 on the Free plan). Filters and date limits cost nothing extra. An unofficial tool, not affiliated with YouTube or Google.

Real rows from a search for coffee review on 5 November 2026:

Title	Channel	Views	Likes	Comments	Published	Length (s)	Subscribers
Top 50 Coffee Reviews (2020-2026)	Coffee Reviews	6,288	138	50	2026-08-29	985	5,240
YouTuber Coffee Brands: How And Why They're A Thing	James Hoffmann	530,116	17,403	1,400	2020-08-15	643	2,570,000
A Beginner's Guide To Buying Great Coffee	James Hoffmann	5,314,122	113,078	4,100	2021-05-20	1,569	2,570,000

🚀 Pick your starting point

You want	Paste this input
Stats for a list of videos	{ "startUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ", "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/aqz-KE-bpKQ"] }
YouTube search results	{ "searchQueries": ["coffee review"], "maxResults": 100 }
Every video of a channel	{ "startUrls": ["@veritasium"], "maxResults": 5000 }
A channel's most popular videos	{ "startUrls": ["@veritasium"], "channelSort": "popular", "maxResults": 50 }
Shorts of a channel	{ "startUrls": ["@NASA"], "channelContent": ["shorts"] }
All videos in a playlist	{ "startUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-osiE80TeTt2d9bfVyTiXJA-UTHn6WwU"] }
Find channels on a topic	{ "searchQueries": ["home barista"], "searchType": "channels" }
New videos on a schedule	{ "startUrls": ["@competitor"], "monitorName": "competitors" }
A fast, cheap list	{ "searchQueries": ["ai agents"], "videoDetails": false, "maxResults": 500 }

🔍 What does it do?

• YouTube search. Search videos, Shorts, channels, playlists or everything, with YouTube's own filters: upload date, length, live, 4K, HD, subtitles, Creative Commons and more.
• Channels. Read the Videos, Shorts and Live tabs in Latest, Popular or Oldest order, plus one summary row with subscribers, total views, video count, country, join date and external links.
• Playlists. Every video in a public playlist, with one summary row.
• Video stats by link. Paste watch, youtu.be, Shorts or live links, or bare video IDs, and get views, likes, comments, length and the rest for each one.
• Monitoring. Give a schedule a monitorName. Each run returns and charges only videos that name hasn't returned yet.
• Date limits. Use publishedAfter with a date or an age such as 7 days.

💡 Why choose this actor?

	This actor	Other popular YouTube scrapers on the Store
Video with full details	$1.00 / 1,000	From about $2.40 to $4 / 1,000 on the best-known actor
List only	$0.40 / 1,000	From about $0.50 / 1,000
Filters and date limits	✅ Free	Some charge about $1 / 1,000 extra for channel date ranges
Free every month	✅ 500 results + 200 details + 50 channels	Usually none
Only new videos	✅ One field, memory kept for you	Usually you keep track yourself
Duplicates	✅ One charge per video in a run	Varies
Login or API key	❌ None, ever	Varies
Transcripts and subtitles	❌ Not available here	Offered by several others

Our test runs: 874 rows with details from 6 searches and channels, 0 videos without details, 0 duplicates, in about 4.5 minutes. A 158-video playlist returned 158 rows in 9 seconds.

💰 Pricing

You pay per event, and only for rows you receive.

Event	What you get	Free plan	Bronze	Silver	Gold and up
result	One row: a video, Short, stream, channel or playlist	$0.50 / 1K	$0.40 / 1K	$0.35 / 1K	$0.30 / 1K
video-details	Exact likes and views, date, description, chapters and more	$0.70 / 1K	$0.60 / 1K	$0.55 / 1K	$0.50 / 1K
channel	One channel or playlist summary row	$1.00 / 1K	$0.80 / 1K	$0.70 / 1K	$0.60 / 1K
apify-actor-start	Charged once per run	$0.005	$0.005	$0.005	$0.005

Free every month, per user: 500 result, 200 video-details, 50 channel. Set a maximum cost per run and the actor stops cleanly at that limit. If a video's page can't be read, its details aren't charged.

📥 Input

Field	What it does
searchQueries	Search terms, one per line
startUrls	Video, Shorts, channel, @handle, playlist or search links, or video IDs
maxResults	Limit per search, channel tab or playlist. Default 50
videoDetails	Add exact stats and the full description. Default on
channelDetails	Add a summary row per channel or playlist link. Default on
searchType	videos, shorts, channels, playlists or all
sortBy	relevance or popular
uploadDate, duration, features	YouTube's search filters
country	Two-letter code, such as US, KR or DE
channelContent	videos, shorts, streams
channelSort	latest, popular or oldest
publishedAfter	2026-10-01 or 7 days
monitorName	Returns only videos not returned before under this name
dedupe	One row per video in a run. Default on

📤 Output

{
  "type": "video",
  "id": "8tUot8CDIMU",
  "title": "Top 50 Coffee Reviews (2020-2026)",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tUot8CDIMU",
  "channelName": "Coffee Reviews",
  "channelHandle": "@CoffeeReviews",
  "channelId": "UC9I6fzNMY1btXsGTuo7UmGQ",
  "subscriberCount": 5240,
  "viewCount": 6288,
  "likeCount": 138,
  "commentCount": 50,
  "publishedAt": "2026-08-29",
  "publishedAtIsExact": true,
  "duration": "16:25",
  "durationSeconds": 985,
  "description": "A list of our top 50 coffees we have reviewed on this channel…",
  "hashtags": [],
  "chapters": [],
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/8tUot8CDIMU/hqdefault.jpg",
  "detailsStatus": "OK",
  "inputType": "search",
  "input": "coffee review",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-11-05T18:48:45Z"
}

A channel row adds totalViews, videoCount, country, joinedAt and links. RUN_SUMMARY in the key-value store lists what happened to each search or link.

❓ FAQ

Do I need a YouTube account or API key? No. You get what a logged-out visitor sees, without the YouTube Data API's daily quota.

Are the numbers exact? Views and likes are exact with videoDetails on, as YouTube reports them. YouTube rounds subscribers and comment counts (2.57M, 4.1K), so those fields are rounded too. Without details, channel and playlist lists show rounded views.

Why is likeCount empty? The creator has hidden likes. A video without any likes shows 0. commentCount is empty when comments are off.

Can I get comments? Yes, with our sibling YouTube Comments Scraper API: comments and replies by video, channel or search, $0.25 per 1,000.

Can I get transcripts, subtitles or video files? No. YouTube doesn't give these to automated logged-out visitors, and we don't work around that.

Do pasted links and Shorts get a length? Yes. durationSeconds was filled on 35 of 36 videos and Shorts in our test. It can stay empty for a new Short with few views.

Are tags and the category included? Rarely. tags, category and the exact time in publishedAtTime are filled only when YouTube puts them in the page it sends, which was 1 of 36 videos in our test. Don't rely on them. publishedAt holds the date either way. Caption languages aren't available.

Can I sort search by newest? YouTube's search now offers Relevance and Popularity. For new videos, use uploadDate or publishedAfter, or read a channel with channelSort: "latest".

How many results does a search return? YouTube ends a search list on its own, usually after a few hundred results (406 in our test for python tutorial). Use more specific terms or several searches for more. Channels and playlists run to the end.

Why are some titles in English? Results are read in English so numbers and dates parse reliably, and YouTube shows English titles where one exists. Use country to get a country's results.

How fast is it? About 3 videos per second with details, and about 20 per second without. Large runs slow down on purpose to respect YouTube's rate limits.

Is it legal? It collects public data. You're responsible for how you use it, including YouTube's terms, copyright and privacy law. Descriptions can include personal details people published, so handle them with care.

🤖 Use it from code

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/k-data-lab~youtube-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"searchQueries":["coffee review"],"maxResults":20}'

🧠 Use it from AI agents (MCP)

Connect the Apify MCP server to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any MCP client, then add the actor k-data-lab/youtube-scraper. It returns plain JSON and needs no YouTube login, so an agent can call it straight away.

The agent is asked to	Input to send
Get views and likes of a YouTube video	{ "startUrls": ["<video link or ID>"] }
Get the metadata of 50 videos	{ "startUrls": ["<link 1>", "<link 2>"] }
Find YouTube videos on a topic	{ "searchQueries": ["<topic>"], "maxResults": 20 }
List a channel's latest videos	{ "startUrls": ["@handle"], "maxResults": 20 }
Get a channel's subscribers	{ "startUrls": ["@handle"], "channelContent": ["videos"], "maxResults": 1 }
Check what's new since last week	{ "startUrls": ["@handle"], "publishedAfter": "7 days" }

Every field is optional except that you need searchQueries or startUrls. A call for 20 videos with details costs about $0.03 at most, and nothing beyond the $0.005 start while the free monthly quota lasts. Read viewCount, likeCount, commentCount, durationSeconds and publishedAt from each row; a row with "type": "channel" holds subscriberCount, totalViews and videoCount.

🧰 More from K-Data Lab

Social and apps

• YouTube Comments Scraper API: comments and replies of any video or Short, $0.25/1K
• Telegram Scraper API: channels and keyword search, no login
• Google Play Scraper API: app details and reviews, any country
• Google Ads Transparency & Ad Library Scraper: every Google ad a competitor runs

Amazon

• Amazon Seller Central Review Scraper: brand reviews and monitoring
• Amazon ASIN Rating & Review Count Lookup: ratings, review counts and BSR, no login

Travel

• Agoda Scraper API: hotel prices, rooms and reviews
• Airline Award Seat Scraper: live miles, taxes and seats left

Korean data

• Korean Music Chart API: Melon, Genie, Bugs, FLO and VIBE in one chart
• Korea apartment prices: KB Land, R114

💬 Feedback

Need a field that's missing, or found a video that doesn't work? Open an issue on the Issues tab. We answer the same day.

Tags: youtube scraper, youtube api, youtube data api alternative, youtube video stats, youtube video statistics, youtube video metadata, youtube video details, youtube search scraper, youtube channel scraper, youtube shorts scraper, youtube playlist scraper, youtube monitor, no login