YouTube Scraper

Extract YouTube video data at scale — search results, channel videos, full metadata, and transcripts with timestamps — all via fast HTTP-only extraction. No browser, no login, no API key required.

Features

• Search YouTube — scrape video results for any keyword with automatic pagination
• Channel scraping — get all videos from any YouTube channel by URL or @handle
• Video details — exact publish dates, categories, like counts, and full descriptions via internal YouTube APIs
• Transcript extraction — pull full subtitles and captions with timestamps; supports auto-generated and manually uploaded captions in any language
• Multi-language subtitles — specify a preferred language code; falls back gracefully to the first available language
• Fast and lightweight — HTTP-only extraction, no headless browser overhead
• Auto-deduplication — results are deduplicated by video ID across all input sources
• Combine modes — mix search queries, channel URLs, and video URLs in a single run

Input

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
searchQueries	array of strings	—	Keywords to search on YouTube. Each query runs independently and returns up to maxResults videos.
channelUrls	array of strings	—	YouTube channel URLs to scrape. Supports /@handle, /channel/ID, and /c/name formats.
videoUrls	array of strings	—	Individual video URLs for targeted detail or transcript extraction.
maxResults	integer	50	Maximum videos to return per search query or channel (1–5000).
scrapeDetails	boolean	false	Fetch full video metadata (exact publish date, category, like count, full description) for each result. Slower but more complete.
includeTranscript	boolean	false	Extract full transcript/subtitles with timestamps. Works for any video with captions (auto-generated or manual).
transcriptLanguage	string	"en"	Preferred transcript language code (e.g. "en", "es", "ja", "de"). Falls back to the first available language if the requested one is not found.

At least one of searchQueries, channelUrls, or videoUrls is required.

Output Fields

Field	Type	Available in	Description
videoId	string	all modes	YouTube video ID
title	string	all modes	Video title
url	string	all modes	Full YouTube video URL
channelName	string	all modes	Channel display name
channelId	string	all modes	YouTube channel ID
channelUrl	string	all modes	Channel URL
viewCount	integer	all modes	Total view count
duration	string	search / channel	Human-readable duration (e.g. "1:08:23")
durationSeconds	integer	all modes	Duration in seconds
publishedText	string	search / channel	Relative publish time (e.g. "5 years ago")
publishedAt	string	details mode	Exact ISO 8601 publish date (e.g. "2020-11-18T08:05:43-08:00")
description	string	all modes	Video description — snippet for search results, full text when details are enabled
thumbnailUrl	string	all modes	Highest-quality thumbnail URL
category	string	details mode	Video category (e.g. "Education", "Science & Technology")
isLive	boolean	all modes	Whether the video is an active live stream
transcript	array of objects	transcript mode	Full transcript as an array of { "start": float, "duration": float, "text": string } entries
transcriptLanguage	string	transcript mode	Language code of the transcript that was returned
transcriptText	string	transcript mode	Full transcript as a single concatenated plain-text string

Usage Examples

Search YouTube

Search for videos matching one or more keywords. Pagination is handled automatically.

{
  "searchQueries": ["web scraping tutorial", "python automation"],
  "maxResults": 50
}

Scrape Channel Videos

Get all videos from a YouTube channel. Use the channel's @handle, /channel/ID, or /c/name URL.

{
  "channelUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/@freecodecamp",
    "https://www.youtube.com/@TechWithTim"
  ],
  "maxResults": 200
}

Get Video Details

Fetch full metadata for specific videos — exact publish date, category, like count, and complete description.

{
  "videoUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVv6mJpFOb0",
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ],
  "scrapeDetails": true
}

Extract Transcripts / Subtitles

Pull full transcripts with timestamps for any video that has captions (auto-generated or manually uploaded). This is a YouTube transcript extractor and YouTube subtitle extractor in one — no third-party captioning service required.

{
  "videoUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVv6mJpFOb0"],
  "includeTranscript": true,
  "transcriptLanguage": "en"
}

Each transcript entry in the output looks like:

{
  "start": 12.4,
  "duration": 3.2,
  "text": "Welcome to this tutorial on web scraping."
}

Search with Full Details and Transcripts

Combine all modes in one run — search for videos, enrich with exact metadata, and extract captions.

{
  "searchQueries": ["machine learning explained"],
  "maxResults": 20,
  "scrapeDetails": true,
  "includeTranscript": true,
  "transcriptLanguage": "en"
}

Pricing

Mode	Approximate throughput
Search only	~50 videos per compute unit
Search + details	~10 videos per compute unit
Search + details + transcript	~8 videos per compute unit

Transcript extraction is included at no extra cost — approximately $2 per 1,000 results, making this one of the most cost-effective YouTube scraping and transcript extraction solutions on Apify Store.

Notes

• No API key needed — this actor works entirely through publicly accessible YouTube endpoints. You do not need a Google/YouTube Data API key.
• No browser — pure HTTP extraction means faster runs and lower cost compared to browser-based scrapers.
• Transcript availability — transcripts are only available for videos where captions have been enabled by the creator or auto-generated by YouTube. Videos without any captions will return an empty transcript field.
• Language fallback — if the requested transcriptLanguage is not available, the actor returns the first available language and reports it in transcriptLanguage.
• Rate limits — the actor uses residential proxies automatically on the Apify platform. Running locally without proxies may result in temporary rate limiting on large runs.
• Public data only — all extracted data is publicly visible to any YouTube visitor without an account. No authentication or login is used.

Legal

This actor extracts publicly available data from YouTube. No login or authentication is used. All data is obtained from public pages and endpoints accessible to any internet user without an account.