YouTube Search Scraper — Video Results & Metadata

What does YouTube Search Scraper do?

YouTube Search Scraper lets you extract video results for any keyword from YouTube without the YouTube Data API. Search for any term and get back video titles, URLs, view counts, uploaders, upload dates, thumbnails, durations, and descriptions — all as structured JSON, ready to analyze or pipe into your own tools.

This Actor runs on the Apify platform, which means you can schedule searches, export to CSV or Excel, and integrate results into any workflow via REST API.

Why use YouTube Search Scraper?

• No YouTube API key or quota — avoid YouTube Data API v3's strict 10,000 unit/day limit
• Batch keyword searches — run multiple search queries in one Actor run
• Full metadata — view count, duration, upload date, channel, description, thumbnails
• Automation-ready — schedule daily searches, connect to Google Sheets via Apify integrations
• Competitor & content research — track which videos rank for any keyword over time

How to use YouTube Search Scraper

1. Go to the Actor page and click Try for free
2. Enter one or more keywords in the queries input field
3. Set the maximum number of results per keyword (default: 20)
4. Click Start and wait a few seconds
5. Download results as JSON, CSV, or Excel from the Output tab

Input

{
  "queries": ["best Python tutorials 2024", "machine learning explained"],
  "maxResults": 20
}

Field	Type	Description	Default
queries	array	Search keywords or phrases	required
maxResults	integer	Max video results per query	20

Output

Results are stored in the Apify dataset. Download in JSON, CSV, HTML, or Excel.

{
  "query": "best Python tutorials 2024",
  "title": "Python Tutorial for Beginners - Full Course",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=example",
  "videoId": "example",
  "views": 4200000,
  "uploader": "Programming with Mosh",
  "uploadDate": "2024-01-15",
  "duration": "6:14:00",
  "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/example/hqdefault.jpg",
  "description": "Learn Python programming from scratch..."
}

Output fields

Field	Type	Description
query	string	The search keyword
title	string	Video title
url	string	Full YouTube URL
videoId	string	YouTube video ID
views	number	View count
uploader	string	Channel name
uploadDate	string	Upload date (ISO format)
duration	string	Video duration
thumbnail	string	Thumbnail image URL
description	string	Video description snippet

Cost

This Actor uses pay-per-result pricing. Estimated costs:

Volume	Estimated cost
100 results	~$0.05–$0.15
1,000 results	~$0.50–$1.50
10,000 results	~$5–$15

Tips

• Set maxResults to 50 or higher to get more comprehensive data for each keyword
• Run on a schedule (daily or weekly) to track ranking changes over time
• Combine with the YouTube Video Transcript Extractor Actor to also pull transcripts for found videos
• Use the Apify API to trigger searches programmatically from your own application

FAQ

Does this require a YouTube account or API key? No. The Actor accesses YouTube's public search interface directly.

How many results can I get per keyword? YouTube typically returns up to 200 results per search query. Set maxResults accordingly.

Can I search in a specific language or country? Yes — contact support for custom locale configurations.

Is this Actor maintained? Yes. Report bugs or feature requests in the Issues tab.

Need help or have questions? Open an issue in the Issues tab or reach out on Discord: maged03211