# YouTube Channel Scraper (`khadinakbar/youtube-channel-scraper`) Actor Scrape public YouTube channel profiles and recent video listings by URL, channel ID, or @handle. Returns subscribers, views, links, country, tags, and videos. No cookies required. MCP-ready. - **URL**: https://apify.com/khadinakbar/youtube-channel-scraper.md - **Developed by:** [Khadin Akbar](https://apify.com/khadinakbar) (community) - **Categories:** Videos, Social media, MCP servers - **Stats:** 1 total users, 0 monthly users, 0.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing from $6.00 / 1,000 channel profiles This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event ## What's an Apify Actor? Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases. In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours, and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store. In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server. Actors are written with capital "A". ## How to integrate an Actor? If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects. You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready. The best way to integrate Actors is as follows. In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js.md): ```bash npm install apify-client ``` In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.md): ```bash pip install apify-client ``` In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): ````bash # MacOS / Linux curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash # Windows irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex ```bash In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp.md). If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md). For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below. For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt). # README ## YouTube Channel Scraper - Profiles and Videos Scrape public YouTube channel profiles and recent video listings by channel URL, channel ID, or `@handle`. This actor is built for AI agents, media researchers, creator analysts, and growth teams that need clean channel metadata without browser clicks or YouTube Data API quota work. ### What It Extracts | Field | Description | | --- | --- | | `channelName` | Public YouTube channel display name | | `handle` | Public `@handle` when YouTube exposes it | | `channelId` | Canonical YouTube channel ID | | `channelUrl` | Canonical channel URL | | `description` | Public channel bio/about text | | `subscriberCount` | Numeric subscriber count when available | | `videoCount` | Numeric total video count when available | | `viewCount` | Numeric total channel views when exposed | | `joinedDateText` | Public joined date text when exposed | | `country` | Public channel country when exposed | | `avatarUrl` / `bannerUrl` | Best available public channel images | | `rssUrl` | YouTube RSS feed URL for the channel | | `keywords` | Public channel tags or keywords | | `externalLinks` | Public website and social links from the channel | | `publicEmail` | Public email when the configured provider exposes one | | `recentVideos` | Capped recent regular videos and optional Shorts | ### When To Use It Use this actor when you already know the channels you want to inspect and need a structured profile record for each channel. It is a good fit for creator due diligence, influencer shortlists, competitor channel monitoring, YouTube portfolio enrichment, CRM enrichment, media research, and AI-agent workflows that need reliable JSON from one or more channel URLs. Use `youtube-search-scraper` when you need to discover channels by keyword first. Use `youtube-comments-scraper` for comment threads, `youtube-transcript-extractor` for transcripts, and `youtube-channel-email-extractor` when the main goal is contact discovery. ### Input ```json { "channelUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/@Apify", "@MrBeast"], "maxVideosPerChannel": 5, "includeShorts": false, "maxShortsPerChannel": 0, "sortVideosBy": "latest", "providerMode": "auto", "country": "US", "language": "en" } ```` #### Input Notes - `channelUrls` accepts full YouTube channel URLs, `@handles`, `/channel/UC...` IDs, and bare handles. - `maxVideosPerChannel` controls regular videos per channel. Set it to `0` for profile-only runs. - `includeShorts` and `maxShortsPerChannel` add Shorts when you need them. - `providerMode` defaults to `auto`. If owner-managed provider secrets are configured, the actor tries ScrapeCreators and SociaVault before direct YouTube extraction. If not, it uses direct YouTube extraction. - `country` and `language` localize YouTube labels. They do not filter channels by geography. ### Output Example ```json { "type": "channel", "source": "youtube", "input": "https://www.youtube.com/@Apify", "channelId": "UCTgwcoeGGKmZ3zzCXN2qo_A", "handle": "@Apify", "channelName": "Apify", "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTgwcoeGGKmZ3zzCXN2qo_A", "handleUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@Apify", "description": "Welcome to Apify's official YouTube channel.", "subscriberCount": 14000, "subscriberCountText": "14K subscribers", "videoCount": 248, "videoCountText": "248 videos", "viewCount": null, "viewCountText": null, "joinedDateText": null, "country": null, "avatarUrl": "https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/example=s900-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj", "bannerUrl": null, "rssUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UCTgwcoeGGKmZ3zzCXN2qo_A", "keywords": ["web scraping", "automation"], "externalLinks": ["https://apify.com/"], "publicEmail": null, "recentVideos": [ { "kind": "video", "videoId": "qMquIcJWZag", "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMquIcJWZag", "title": "Build on Apify", "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/qMquIcJWZag/hqdefault.jpg", "viewCount": 2500, "viewCountText": "2.5K views", "publishedTimeText": "7 months ago", "durationText": "8:31", "durationSeconds": 511 } ], "videoCountReturned": 1, "warnings": [], "scrapedAt": "2026-06-12T08:00:00.000Z" } ``` ### Pricing This actor uses predictable Pay Per Event pricing and Apify platform usage billing. | Event | Price | | --- | ---: | | Actor start | $0.00005 per run, scaled by RAM | | Channel profile | $0.006 per channel record | | Channel video | $0.0015 per video or Short listed | Example: 10 channels with 5 videos each costs about `$0.135` in PPE events before Apify platform usage. Set `maxVideosPerChannel` to `0` for profile-only runs. ### API Example ```bash apify call khadinakbar/youtube-channel-scraper --input='{ "channelUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/@Apify"], "maxVideosPerChannel": 5 }' ``` ### MCP And AI-Agent Use Tool description: Scrape public YouTube channel profiles and capped recent videos by URL, channel ID, or @handle. Use for creator research, competitor monitoring, and channel enrichment. Do not use for keyword discovery or comments. Returns one channel record with counts, links, and videos. Charged $0.006/channel + $0.0015/video. This actor is narrow on purpose. Agents can call it with one known channel, inspect a concise record, and decide whether to chain into transcript, comments, or email extraction actors. ### Reliability Notes The actor uses a direct YouTube HTTP path with consent cookies and Apify residential proxy support. When owner-managed ScrapeCreators or SociaVault secrets are configured, `providerMode: "auto"` can use provider endpoints first and fall back to direct YouTube when needed. YouTube may hide or localize some fields. Direct scraping often returns channel metadata, subscriber text, video count text, avatar, RSS URL, keywords, links, and recent videos. Provider-backed runs may return additional fields such as total views, joined date, country, and public email when those providers expose them. ### Limits - Public channel data only. - No login-only data, private analytics, Studio metrics, or private subscriber lists. - Recent videos are capped by `maxVideosPerChannel`. - Shorts are optional and capped separately. - Keyword discovery is intentionally out of scope. ### Legal And Compliance This actor extracts publicly available YouTube channel data. You are responsible for using the output in accordance with applicable laws, YouTube terms, privacy rules, and your own compliance requirements. Do not use scraped data for spam, harassment, credential collection, or unlawful profiling. # Actor input Schema ## `channelUrls` (type: `array`): Use this when you know the YouTube channels to inspect. Accepts full URLs, @handles, /channel IDs, or bare handles such as @Apify. Defaults to one small Apify channel test. Not for keyword search; use youtube-search-scraper for discovery. ## `maxVideosPerChannel` (type: `integer`): Use this to include recent regular videos from each channel. Set 0 for channel profile only, 5 for fast agent calls, or up to 100 for deeper exports. Defaults to 5. Not a global row limit; it applies separately to each channel. ## `includeShorts` (type: `boolean`): Use this when Shorts are part of the channel audit. If true, the actor also requests Shorts up to maxShortsPerChannel. Defaults to false for faster health checks. Not for global Shorts discovery; use youtube-shorts-scraper for that. ## `maxShortsPerChannel` (type: `integer`): Use this to cap Shorts collected when includeShorts is true. Accepts 0 to 50 and defaults to 0. Keep it small for MCP calls. Not used when includeShorts is false. ## `sortVideosBy` (type: `string`): Use this to choose how channel videos are listed. Accepted values are latest or popular, with latest as the default. The setting applies to regular videos and provider-backed Shorts when supported. Not a relevance search sort. ## `providerMode` (type: `string`): Use this to control the managed provider path. auto tries ScrapeCreators/SociaVault when the owner secret is configured and falls back to direct YouTube. direct skips providers. providerOnly soft-exits if no provider key is available. ## `country` (type: `string`): Use this to localize YouTube responses with a two-letter country code. Example: US, GB, PK, or DE. Defaults to US. Not a filter for channels by country. ## `language` (type: `string`): Use this to localize text labels returned by YouTube. Example: en, es, de, or fr. Defaults to en. Not a translation feature for channel descriptions. ## Actor input object example ```json { "channelUrls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/@Apify", "@MrBeast" ], "maxVideosPerChannel": 12, "includeShorts": false, "maxShortsPerChannel": 10, "sortVideosBy": "latest", "providerMode": "auto", "country": "US", "language": "en" } ``` # Actor output Schema ## `results` (type: `string`): Dataset items with one structured YouTube channel record per input channel. ## `summary` (type: `string`): Final run summary with channel count, videos returned, billing counters, provider source counts, and warnings. # API You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup. ## JavaScript example ```javascript import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client'; // Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token // Replace the '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "channelUrls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/@Apify" ], "maxVideosPerChannel": 5, "includeShorts": false, "maxShortsPerChannel": 0, "sortVideosBy": "latest", "providerMode": "auto", "country": "US", "language": "en" }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("khadinakbar/youtube-channel-scraper").call(input); // Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any) console.log('Results from dataset'); console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`); const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems(); items.forEach((item) => { console.dir(item); }); // 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs ``` ## Python example ```python from apify_client import ApifyClient # Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token # Replace '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = { "channelUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/@Apify"], "maxVideosPerChannel": 5, "includeShorts": False, "maxShortsPerChannel": 0, "sortVideosBy": "latest", "providerMode": "auto", "country": "US", "language": "en", } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("khadinakbar/youtube-channel-scraper").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"]) for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items(): print(item) # 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start ``` ## CLI example ```bash echo '{ "channelUrls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/@Apify" ], "maxVideosPerChannel": 5, "includeShorts": false, "maxShortsPerChannel": 0, "sortVideosBy": "latest", "providerMode": "auto", "country": "US", "language": "en" }' | apify call khadinakbar/youtube-channel-scraper --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=khadinakbar/youtube-channel-scraper", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "YouTube Channel Scraper", "description": "Scrape public YouTube channel profiles and recent video listings by URL, channel ID, or @handle. Returns subscribers, views, links, country, tags, and videos. No cookies required. MCP-ready.", "version": "0.1", "x-build-id": "dwCziMz2UotcUnw04" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/khadinakbar~youtube-channel-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-khadinakbar-youtube-channel-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/khadinakbar~youtube-channel-scraper/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-khadinakbar-youtube-channel-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK", "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/khadinakbar~youtube-channel-scraper/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-khadinakbar-youtube-channel-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } } }, "components": { "schemas": { "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "required": [ "channelUrls" ], "properties": { "channelUrls": { "title": "Channel URLs or handles", "type": "array", "description": "Use this when you know the YouTube channels to inspect. Accepts full URLs, @handles, /channel IDs, or bare handles such as @Apify. Defaults to one small Apify channel test. Not for keyword search; use youtube-search-scraper for discovery.", "items": { "type": "string" } }, "maxVideosPerChannel": { "title": "Max videos per channel", "minimum": 0, "maximum": 100, "type": "integer", "description": "Use this to include recent regular videos from each channel. Set 0 for channel profile only, 5 for fast agent calls, or up to 100 for deeper exports. Defaults to 5. Not a global row limit; it applies separately to each channel.", "default": 5 }, "includeShorts": { "title": "Include Shorts", "type": "boolean", "description": "Use this when Shorts are part of the channel audit. If true, the actor also requests Shorts up to maxShortsPerChannel. Defaults to false for faster health checks. Not for global Shorts discovery; use youtube-shorts-scraper for that.", "default": false }, "maxShortsPerChannel": { "title": "Max Shorts per channel", "minimum": 0, "maximum": 50, "type": "integer", "description": "Use this to cap Shorts collected when includeShorts is true. Accepts 0 to 50 and defaults to 0. Keep it small for MCP calls. Not used when includeShorts is false.", "default": 0 }, "sortVideosBy": { "title": "Video sort", "enum": [ "latest", "popular" ], "type": "string", "description": "Use this to choose how channel videos are listed. Accepted values are latest or popular, with latest as the default. The setting applies to regular videos and provider-backed Shorts when supported. Not a relevance search sort.", "default": "latest" }, "providerMode": { "title": "Provider mode", "enum": [ "auto", "direct", "providerOnly" ], "type": "string", "description": "Use this to control the managed provider path. auto tries ScrapeCreators/SociaVault when the owner secret is configured and falls back to direct YouTube. direct skips providers. providerOnly soft-exits if no provider key is available.", "default": "auto" }, "country": { "title": "Country", "minLength": 2, "maxLength": 2, "type": "string", "description": "Use this to localize YouTube responses with a two-letter country code. Example: US, GB, PK, or DE. Defaults to US. Not a filter for channels by country.", "default": "US" }, "language": { "title": "Language", "minLength": 2, "maxLength": 8, "type": "string", "description": "Use this to localize text labels returned by YouTube. Example: en, es, de, or fr. Defaults to en. Not a translation feature for channel descriptions.", "default": "en" } } }, "runsResponseSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "data": { "type": "object", "properties": { "id": { "type": "string" }, "actId": { "type": "string" }, "userId": { "type": "string" }, "startedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "finishedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "status": { "type": "string", "example": "READY" }, "meta": { "type": "object", "properties": { "origin": { "type": "string", "example": "API" }, "userAgent": { "type": "string" } } }, "stats": { "type": "object", "properties": { "inputBodyLen": { "type": "integer", "example": 2000 }, "rebootCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "restartCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "resurrectCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "computeUnits": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "options": { "type": "object", "properties": { "build": { "type": "string", "example": "latest" }, "timeoutSecs": { "type": "integer", "example": 300 }, "memoryMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 1024 }, "diskMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 2048 } } }, "buildId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultKeyValueStoreId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultDatasetId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultRequestQueueId": { "type": "string" }, "buildNumber": { "type": "string", "example": "1.0.0" }, "containerUrl": { "type": "string" }, "usage": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 1 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "usageTotalUsd": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "usageUsd": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } } } } } } } } } ```