YouTube Video Details Scraper

Extract comprehensive metadata from YouTube videos and Shorts: one URL or a list of up to 500 in a single run. Get title, views, likes, comments, subtitles, chapters, categories, tags, thumbnails, and more — all in structured JSON ready for your workflow.

What does YouTube Video Details do?

Provide one or more YouTube video URLs and this Actor returns every available metadata field for each video. It handles age-restricted content, Shorts, live videos, and regional content reliably.

Why use this Actor?

• Bulk input — paste a list of video URLs and get them all in one run and one dataset, with one start fee instead of one per video
• Deep extraction — get fields the official YouTube API doesn't provide (chapters, subtitles by language, full comment data)
• Shorts support — detects Shorts automatically; filter to include or exclude them
• Comments — optionally fetch top comments with author, text, likes, and timestamp
• Subtitles — retrieve available subtitles in all languages
• No YouTube API key required — no quota limits, no daily caps
• Proxy support — built-in proxy configuration to avoid IP blocks

How to use YouTube Video Details

1. Open the Actor and click Try for free
2. Paste one or more YouTube video URLs into the Video URLs field (one per line)
3. Toggle include_comments or include_subtitles if needed
4. Run the Actor — results appear in the Output tab in seconds
5. Export as JSON or CSV, or call via the Apify REST API

Input

{
  "video_urls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "https://youtu.be/jNQXAC9IVRw",
    "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/abc123"
  ],
  "include_comments": false,
  "include_subtitles": false,
  "shorts_only": false,
  "exclude_shorts": false,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}

Field	Type	Description	Default
video_urls	array	YouTube video or Shorts URLs, up to 500 per run (duplicates removed)	required
video_url	string	Single URL (legacy field, still supported; merged with video_urls)	—
include_comments	boolean	Fetch top comments (increases runtime)	false
include_subtitles	boolean	Fetch available subtitles in all languages	false
shorts_only	boolean	Only process if the video is a Short	false
exclude_shorts	boolean	Skip the video if it is a Short	false
proxyConfiguration	object	Apify proxy configuration. Residential proxy is enabled by default for best reliability.	Apify Residential

Output

The Actor keeps the original compact result for backward compatibility, then also pushes normalized dataset rows for the video and nested arrays. Comments, chapters, categories, tags, and subtitles are available as individual rows with an entityType field so exports and billing reflect the amount of data returned.

{
  "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Music Video)",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "uploader": "Rick Astley",
  "uploader_id": "UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw",
  "upload_date": "20091025",
  "duration": 213,
  "view_count": 1400000000,
  "like_count": 16000000,
  "comment_count": 3200000,
  "description": "The official video for Never Gonna Give You Up...",
  "categories": ["Music"],
  "tags": ["Rick Astley", "Never Gonna Give You Up", "pop"],
  "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/maxresdefault.jpg",
  "short": false,
  "chapters": [],
  "subtitles": {},
  "comments": []
}

Normalized rows include shapes like:

[
  {
    "entityType": "video",
    "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Music Video)",
    "view_count": 1400000000
  },
  {
    "entityType": "comment",
    "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "video_title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Music Video)",
    "author": "Example user",
    "text": "Example comment",
    "likes": 10
  }
]

Output data fields

Field	Type	Description
entityType	string	Row type for normalized rows, such as video, comment, chapter, category, tag, or subtitle
video_id	string	YouTube video ID
title	string	Video title
uploader	string	Channel name
uploader_id	string	Channel ID
upload_date	string	Upload date (YYYYMMDD)
duration	number	Duration in seconds
view_count	number	Total views
like_count	number	Total likes
comment_count	number	Total comments
categories	array	YouTube categories
tags	array	Video tags
thumbnail	string	Max-resolution thumbnail URL
short	boolean	Whether the video is a YouTube Short
chapters	array	Chapter markers with timestamps
subtitles	object	Available subtitles keyed by language code
comments	array	Top comments (when include_comments is enabled)

Use cases

• Content research — analyze top videos in any niche by views, tags, and categories
• Competitor monitoring — track a competitor's video performance over time
• Subtitle extraction — download transcripts for translation or AI summarization
• Data pipelines — feed video metadata into analytics dashboards or databases
• AI applications — extract structured video context for LLM-based analysis tools

How many results will I get?

You're charged per result, so the cost follows the number of rows below. Your plan's rates are on the Pricing tab.

Each video produces several rows (see Output above):

Row	How many per video
Compact result (all metadata in one row)	1
video row	1
category rows	1 per category (usually 1)
tag rows	1 per tag the uploader set (often 0–15)
chapter rows	1 per chapter (0 if the video has none)
comment rows	1 per comment, only with include_comments (up to max_comments)
subtitle rows	1 per subtitle track, only with include_subtitles

Real examples: a video with 3 tags and 3 chapters gives 9 rows; a video with 4 tags and 9 chapters gives 16 rows. Two such videos in one run give 25 rows. Videos that fail or are skipped by the Shorts filter produce no rows and cost nothing. Comments and subtitles also make runs slower.

FAQ

Does this work with YouTube Shorts? Yes. The Actor detects Shorts automatically via the is_short field. Use shorts_only or exclude_shorts to filter.

Do I need a YouTube API key? No. You don't need a YouTube Data API key or quota.

Can I process multiple videos at once? Yes. Put up to 500 URLs in Video URLs. They're processed in one run; a video that fails or is skipped by the Shorts filter is listed in the run's status message and isn't charged.

Is this Actor maintained? Yes. For bugs or feature requests, open an issue in the Issues tab.

Found this Actor useful?

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For bugs, feature requests, or questions, open an issue in the Issues tab above.

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Related tools

• YouTube Transcript Scraper – subtitles and captions with timestamps
• YouTube Transcript Search – find clips where any phrase is spoken