YouTube Comments Scraper — No API Key, No Quota Limits

Extract YouTube comments using YouTube's internal Innertube API — the same API that youtube.com uses. No YouTube Data API key needed, no quota limits, no rate throttling.

Why This Scraper?

Other YouTube scrapers use the official YouTube Data API which has strict quota limits (10,000 units/day free). This scraper uses YouTube's Innertube API — the internal API that loads comments when you scroll on youtube.com. Benefits:

• ✅ No API key needed — zero setup, just paste video URLs
• ✅ No quota limits — YouTube Data API gives you 10K units/day. We have no such limit.
• ✅ Latest comment format — parses commentEntityPayload (2025+ format), not the deprecated commentRenderer
• ✅ Sorting support — Top comments or Newest first
• ✅ Batch processing — multiple videos in one run
• ✅ Cloud-tested — verified on Apify Cloud ✅

Output Data

{
  "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "commentId": "Ugzge340dBgB75hWBm54AaABAg",
  "author": "@YouTube",
  "text": "can confirm: he never gave us up",
  "likes": 200,
  "publishedAt": "10 months ago",
  "isReply": false,
  "replyCount": 961,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-03-18T05:37:18.571Z"
}

Features

• Author name and channel ID for each comment
• Like count and reply count
• Nested replies detection
• Sorting — Top (most liked) or Newest first
• Pagination — automatically fetches all pages
• Multiple videos — process 10+ videos in one run
• Rate limiting — built-in delays to avoid detection

Use Cases

• Sentiment analysis — analyze audience reactions to content
• AI training data — build NLP datasets from real YouTube conversations
• Competitor monitoring — track comments on competitor videos
• Influencer research — study audience engagement patterns
• Content ideas — discover what viewers want to see next
• Brand monitoring — find mentions in YouTube comments
• Academic research — collect social media data for studies

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
videoUrls	Array	required	YouTube video URLs or video IDs
maxCommentsPerVideo	Number	100	Max comments per video (1-5000)
sortBy	String	"top"	Sort: top or newest

Technical Details

• Method: YouTube Innertube API (/youtubei/v1/next)
• Format: Parses frameworkUpdates.entityBatchUpdate.mutations with commentEntityPayload (2025+ format)
• No heavy dependencies: Pure fetch() — no Cheerio, no Playwright, no browser automation
• Rate limiting: Random delays 0.8-2s between pagination requests

Cost Estimation

• ~$0.30 per 100 comments
• Free tier available on Apify free plan

FAQ

Q: Why not use the YouTube Data API? A: The YouTube Data API has a strict quota of 10,000 units per day. Each comment list request costs 1 unit, but with pagination and multiple videos, you can easily hit the limit. Our Innertube API approach has no such quota.

Q: Will this stop working if YouTube changes their API? A: The Innertube API is YouTube's core internal API — they can't remove it without breaking youtube.com itself. We parse the latest format (commentEntityPayload) which has been stable since 2025.

Q: Can I get replies to comments? A: Currently we detect if a comment is a reply and include reply counts. Full reply thread extraction is on the roadmap.

---

Part of 30+ data collection tools by knotless_cadence. See also: Reddit Scraper Pro, Bluesky Scraper, Trustpilot Scraper

YouTube Tool Family

• YouTube Channel Scraper
• YouTube Search Scraper
• YouTube Transcript Scraper

More

• 60+ scrapers | Reports | MCP Servers