YouTube Video Details Scraper

Get complete metadata for any YouTube video in bulk. This YouTube video details scraper — also a YouTube metadata extractor and video data scraper — takes video URLs or IDs and returns exact views, likes, description, tags and more, with no login, no cookies and no Google API key.

It returns the exact numbers YouTube hides behind abbreviations (9B → 9,023,750,780) plus the full description, every tag and the category. Hydrate thousands of video IDs in a single run and export to CSV, JSON or Excel.

No login · No API key · Exact views & likes · Full description & tags · Bulk hydration · YouTube API alternative · Scrape YouTube without API key · Export YouTube data to CSV/JSON · YouTube video tags scraper

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What you get

Each video is saved as one structured row with these fields:

• title — video title
• viewCount — exact view count (e.g. 9023750780), not the abbreviated 9B
• likeCount — like count (best-effort; null when YouTube hides it)
• description — the full video description
• keywords — every tag/keyword the creator set (gold for video SEO)
• category — e.g. Music, Education
• publishDate — ISO publish date
• duration / lengthSeconds — formatted ("4:42") and seconds (282)
• channelTitle / channelId — the channel
• thumbnail — max-resolution thumbnail URL
• videoId / url / scrapedAt — identifiers and timestamp

Export every field to CSV, JSON, Excel or HTML, or pull it via the Apify API and integrations (Make, Zapier, n8n, Google Sheets).

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Use cases

• Video SEO & tag research — pull the tags, titles and descriptions of top-ranking videos for a keyword.
• Competitor content analysis — compare exact views, likes, durations and categories across a set of videos.
• Dataset enrichment — hydrate videoIds from the Channel/Search scrapers into full records.
• Trend & performance tracking — schedule it to snapshot view/like growth over time.
• AI & analytics pipelines — clean, structured per-video facts for models and dashboards.

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How to use

No code required — get YouTube video metadata in bulk:

1. Open the actor on Apify and click Try for free.
2. Paste video URLs or IDs into the videos field (watch links, youtu.be, Shorts, or bare 11-char IDs).
3. (Optional) Toggle includeLikes; keep the RESIDENTIAL proxy on to unlock tags/category for music/Vevo videos.
4. Click Start.
5. Export the metadata to CSV, Excel or JSON, or pull it via the Apify API.

Building a pipeline? Collect IDs with the YouTube Channel Scraper or YouTube Search Scraper, then hydrate them here into full records.

Input fields

Field	Type	Default	Description
videos (required)	string[]	—	Video URLs or 11-char IDs.
includeLikes	boolean	true	Try to extract the like count (best-effort).
maxResults	integer	0	Cap on videos saved. 0 = unlimited.
proxyConfiguration	object	RESIDENTIAL	Recommended — unlocks full details on videos that block datacenter IPs.

Example input

{
  "videos": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJQP7kiw5Fk",
    "https://youtu.be/9bZkp7q19f0",
    "dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ],
  "includeLikes": true
}

Example output

{
  "videoId": "kJQP7kiw5Fk",
  "title": "Luis Fonsi - Despacito ft. Daddy Yankee",
  "viewCount": 9023750780,
  "likeCount": 56243495,
  "lengthSeconds": 282,
  "duration": "4:42",
  "category": "Music",
  "publishDate": "2017-01-12T00:00:00-08:00",
  "keywords": ["despacito", "luis fonsi", "daddy yankee"],
  "channelTitle": "LuisFonsiVEVO"
}

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How it works

This YouTube metadata extractor loads each video's public watch page and parses the embedded video data (the same data the page renders with). That route returns exact view counts, full descriptions, tags and category reliably. Like counts are read best-effort from the page data. Built-in retries handle hiccups; private/unavailable videos are skipped with a logged reason.

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FAQ

Do I need a YouTube API key to get video details?

No — no key, no login, and no Google API quota.

Are the view counts exact?

Yes — exact integers, not the abbreviated counts shown in search/channel listings.

Can I scrape video tags / keywords for SEO?

Yes — the keywords field returns every tag the creator set, alongside the full description and category.

Can I scrape video details in bulk?

Yes — pass thousands of URLs/IDs in one run. Pair with the Channel or Search scraper to collect them first.

Is this a YouTube API alternative?

Yes — it's an unofficial way to scrape YouTube without an API key, login or Google API quota. It reads the public watch page, so it works as a YouTube API alternative for video metadata.

How do I export YouTube video data to CSV or JSON?

Every field is saved as a structured row you can download as CSV, JSON, Excel or HTML, or pull via the Apify API — a simple YouTube data export for spreadsheets and pipelines.

Can I use it as a YouTube video tags scraper?

Yes — the keywords field returns every tag the creator set, making it a YouTube video tags scraper alongside the full description and category for video SEO research.

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Limits & notes

• Like counts are best-effort — most videos expose them, some hide the count (then null).
• Private, deleted or age-restricted videos can't be read and are skipped.
• For comments use the YouTube Comments Scraper; for a channel's full video list use the YouTube Channel Scraper.

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The complete YouTube scraping toolkit

• YouTube Channel Scraper — all videos of a channel
• YouTube Search Scraper — find videos by keyword
• YouTube Comments Scraper — all comments for a video
• YouTube Creator Email Finder — creator business emails for outreach

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Pricing & support

Pay-per-result — you only pay for the videos you actually get. No proxy or YouTube API costs. Need engagement rate, comment counts, or chapter/timestamp extraction per video? Open an issue on the actor's page.

📝 Changelog

2026-06-07

• Docs: added coverage for using this as a YouTube API alternative, scraping YouTube without an API key, and exporting YouTube video data to CSV/JSON.

2026-06-05

• 🛡️ Reliability fix: results are no longer dropped by strict output validation — runs now complete cleanly even at high volume (thousands of results).
• ⚡ Stability & performance hardening; fresh rebuild.

2026-06-04

• Verified live & refreshed build — reliability/maintenance pass.