YouTube Video Details Scraper

Extract comprehensive metadata from any YouTube video or Short with a single URL. 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 a YouTube video URL and this Actor returns every available metadata field from that video. It uses yt-dlp under the hood, which means it handles age-restricted content, Shorts, live videos, and regional content reliably.

Why use this Actor?

• Single-video deep extraction — get fields most YouTube API endpoints don't expose (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 a YouTube video URL into the video_url field
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_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "include_comments": false,
  "include_subtitles": false,
  "shorts_only": false,
  "exclude_shorts": false
}

Field	Type	Description	Default
video_url	string	YouTube video or Shorts URL	required
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
proxy	object	Apify proxy configuration	—

Output

{
  "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": "2009-10-25",
  "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",
  "is_short": false,
  "chapters": [],
  "subtitles": {},
  "comments": []
}

Output data fields

Field	Type	Description
id	string	YouTube video ID
title	string	Video title
uploader	string	Channel name
uploader_id	string	Channel ID
upload_date	string	Upload date (YYYY-MM-DD)
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
is_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

Cost estimation

Volume	Estimated cost
100 videos	~$1.00–$1.50
1,000 videos	~$10–$15

Enabling include_comments or include_subtitles increases runtime slightly.

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. This Actor uses yt-dlp and does not require a YouTube Data API key or quota.

Can I process multiple videos at once? This Actor processes one video per run. To process many videos in parallel, trigger multiple runs via the Apify API.

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

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