YouTube Scraper (Videos, Shorts, Channels & Comments)

Get public YouTube data as clean JSON, CSV or Excel rows: videos and Shorts with views, exact likes, comment count, length, exact upload time, tags and description; channels with subscribers, total views, joined date, country and links; and comments with replies, pinned and hearted flags. Search with YouTube's own filters, or paste channels, playlists and video links. No login, no API key, no daily quota.

• Competitor and creator research: every new video from a list of channels, with views, likes and comments, newest or most popular first.
• Content and keyword research: what YouTube ranks for a search term this week, filtered by length, Shorts or live, with tags and hashtags.
• Influencer shortlists: search for channels by topic and get subscribers, total views, video count, country and their links in one row each.
• Audience and sentiment analysis: the top or newest comments on any video, with replies, likes and the creator's pinned and hearted picks.
• Monitoring on a schedule: turn on Only new videos and comments and pay only for what appeared since the last run.

Quick start

Paste this into the JSON tab of the input and click Start:

{"searchTerms": ["cold brew coffee"], "maxResults": 10}

You get the top 10 videos YouTube shows for "cold brew coffee", each opened for its full details: 10 rows, usually in under 15 seconds.

More examples:

{"channels": ["@MrBeast", "https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd"], "channelTabs": ["videos", "shorts"], "maxResults": 50}

{"videoUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"], "includeComments": true, "maxComments": 500, "includeReplies": true}

{"searchTerms": ["iphone 17 review"], "uploadDate": "week", "duration": "3to20", "sortBy": "popularity", "maxResults": 100}

{"searchTerms": ["specialty coffee"], "searchType": "channels", "maxResults": 50}

Any YouTube link works in any list: a channel link pasted under video links is still read as a channel.

What data can I get?

Four kinds of row, set by the type field: video, channel, comment and unavailable (a free row for a missing video, comments turned off, a missing channel tab or an unusable entry, saying why).

Row	Fields
Video	id, url, title, channelName, channelId, channelHandle, channelUrl, channelVerified, subscriberCount, viewCount, likeCount, commentCount, commentsTurnedOff, durationSeconds, duration, publishedAt (exact time, UTC), publishDate, publishedText, description, tags, hashtags, category, thumbnail, isShort, isLive, watchingNow, wasLive, isUpcoming, details, rank
Channel	id, url, handle, name, description, subscriberCount, subscriberCountText, videoCount, viewCount (all videos), joinedDate, country, links (title and link), keywords, avatar, banner, verified
Comment	videoId, videoUrl, commentId, parentId (for replies), isReply, text, likeCount, replyCount, publishedText, isEdited, authorHandle, authorChannelUrl, authorIsCreator, authorIsVerified, isPinned, isHeartedByCreator, sortedBy
Every row	type, source (search, channel, playlist or url), input (what you typed), scrapedAt

A real video row and comment from a run on 2026-11-01 (description and tags shortened):

{
  "type": "video",
  "id": "BxWQVe5CaS4",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxWQVe5CaS4",
  "title": "Perfect Cold Brew Coffee at Home Without Fancy Gear",
  "channelName": "Dero_De_Barista",
  "channelId": "UCu_LkXCi9-rZYYvkWvuStxA",
  "channelHandle": "@Derothebarista",
  "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@Derothebarista",
  "subscriberCount": 81000,
  "viewCount": 4225,
  "likeCount": 136,
  "commentCount": 27,
  "commentsTurnedOff": false,
  "durationSeconds": 852,
  "duration": "14:12",
  "publishedAt": "2026-07-22T15:49:22.000Z",
  "publishDate": "2026-07-22",
  "publishedText": "3 months ago",
  "description": "Is your cold brew tasting watery, weak, bitter, or too strong? The problem might not be your coffee beans…",
  "tags": ["cold brew coffee recipe", "coffee recipe", "cold brew", "how to make cold brew"],
  "hashtags": ["#ColdBrew", "#ColdBrewCoffee", "#CoffeeRecipe", "#HomeBarista"],
  "category": "Education",
  "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/BxWQVe5CaS4/hqdefault.jpg",
  "isShort": false,
  "isLive": false,
  "wasLive": false,
  "details": "full",
  "source": "search",
  "input": "cold brew coffee",
  "rank": 1,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-11-01T14:44:40.059Z"
}

{
  "type": "comment",
  "videoId": "BxWQVe5CaS4",
  "commentId": "UgykObWp7kAcTbbMRAB4AaABAg",
  "parentId": null,
  "isReply": false,
  "text": "Yes you can use dark only challenge is that it tends to have bitterness for the roast",
  "likeCount": 2,
  "replyCount": 1,
  "publishedText": "3 months ago",
  "authorHandle": "@Derothebarista",
  "authorIsCreator": true,
  "isPinned": false,
  "isHeartedByCreator": false,
  "sortedBy": "top"
}

Full video details is on by default: each video is opened on its own, for exact likes, the exact upload time, the full description, tags, category, the comment count and the channel's subscribers. Turn it off for faster runs that return what the search, channel tab or playlist shows (title, views, length, relative date, channel); the price is the same.

How much does it cost?

You pay per row, nothing for the run itself (apart from a one-time $0.00005 start fee):

Row	Free and Starter plans	Scale	Business
Video or Short	$0.50 per 1,000	$0.375 per 1,000	$0.275 per 1,000
Channel	$0.50 per 1,000	$0.375 per 1,000	$0.275 per 1,000
Comment or reply	$0.25 per 1,000	$0.1875 per 1,000	$0.1375 per 1,000

Free rows, never charged: missing or removed videos, videos with comments turned off, channels without the tab you asked for, searches with no results, unusable input, and anything skipped by Only new videos and comments.

Apify's free $5 monthly credit covers about 10,000 videos or 20,000 comments. On the Free plan a run stops at 1,000 rows; any paid Apify plan removes that cap. Set a Max cost per run in the run options and the run stops cleanly at that amount.

Limits

• Public data only, read the way a signed-out visitor sees it. Private, members-only and some age-restricted videos (YouTube asks for a signed-in account) return a free "not found" row. We never sign in.
• Subscriber counts and comment likes are rounded by YouTube itself above 1,000 (4.55M, 72K). Video likes and views are exact. Comment counts are exact when comments are collected, otherwise rounded the same way.
• Search sorts by Relevance or Popularity, the two orders YouTube's own Filters panel offers. For recent videos, add an upload date such as Today or This week.
• Live chat, transcripts, video downloads and the channel's business email (which YouTube shows only after a sign-in and CAPTCHA) are not included. For transcripts, see YouTube Transcript Scraper below.
• Email addresses and phone numbers are removed from comments, descriptions and channel About text, and replaced with [email removed] or [phone removed]. Commenters appear only as the public @handle and channel link YouTube shows.

Only new videos and comments, and scheduling

Turn on Only new videos and comments and schedule the run (daily or weekly) in Apify Console. Each run returns only the videos and comments this same input hasn't returned before; the rest are skipped and not charged. It works as a window: "of the latest 50 videos, only the new ones", so a run never digs further back just to fill the number. With comments on, already-seen videos are still checked for new comments. Channel rows are always returned, so their counts stay current.

Integrations

• API: start a run and fetch the dataset with Apify's REST API or the JavaScript and Python clients; every row is JSON.
• n8n and Make: use the Apify node or module, pick this Actor, paste the input JSON.
• AI agents (MCP): the Actor works as a tool through Apify's MCP server, so an AI assistant can search YouTube or read a video's comments for you.
• Exports: JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or HTML from the dataset tab, or straight to Google Sheets with Apify's integration.

FAQ

What does a typical run cost? 100 videos with full details cost $0.05. The same 100 videos with 100 comments each cost $0.05 + 10,000 comments × $0.25 / 1,000 = $2.55.

Can I use it from code? Yes. Call the Actor through the Apify API with the same JSON input as in the examples above, then read the dataset.

Does it work with AI agents? Yes, through Apify's MCP server and any agent framework that can call Apify Actors.

Is it legal to scrape YouTube? This Actor reads only public pages, the way a signed-out visitor sees them, with no account and no cookies. Videos, descriptions and comments belong to their creators and commenters: use the data for analysis and research, respect copyright, and follow the laws on personal data that apply to you (GDPR, CCPA). If in doubt, ask a lawyer.

Why are some fields empty? A list-only row (Full video details off) has no likes, tags or exact date. Live streams have no view count while they are live (watchingNow instead). Some channels list no country or links. Comment counts are empty when comments are turned off.

What if YouTube changes its pages? The Actor runs a daily self-test, and we fix breakage the same day.

More from locaihost data

• YouTube Transcript Scraper: transcripts and subtitles of videos, channels, playlists and searches.
• Instagram Scraper: public profiles, posts and reels, no login.
• TikTok Profile Scraper: creator profiles with engagement rate and brand deals.
• Google Trends Scraper: interest over time and related queries.

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