# Fast YouTube Scraper — Full Transcripts & Engagement (`majdijm/youtube-channel-scraper`) Actor Scrape any YouTube channel in ~15 seconds. Full transcripts (17k–45k chars), likes, comments, views & thumbnails. Smart date filter — only fetches videos in your date range, not the whole channel. No API key. No browser. Built for AI pipelines, content research and competitor analysis. - **URL**: https://apify.com/majdijm/youtube-channel-scraper.md - **Developed by:** [majdi El-Jazmawi](https://apify.com/majdijm) (community) - **Categories:** AI, Social media, Automation - **Stats:** 4 total users, 2 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, NaN bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing from $3.50 / 1,000 video scrapeds This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events. Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event ## What's an Apify Actor? Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases. In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours, and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store. In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server. Actors are written with capital "A". ## How to integrate an Actor? If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects. You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready. The best way to integrate Actors is as follows. In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js.md): ```bash npm install apify-client ``` In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.md): ```bash pip install apify-client ``` In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): ````bash # MacOS / Linux curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash # Windows irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex ```bash In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp.md). If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md). For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below. For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt). # README ## YouTube Channel Scraper — AI-Ready Transcripts & Stats > **The fastest YouTube channel scraper on the store.** Full transcripts, likes, comments, views, descriptions and thumbnails — in ~15 seconds per channel. No API key. No browser. No headless Chrome. --- ### How it compares to the alternatives | | **This actor** | Premium transcript scrapers | Standard channel scrapers | Budget scrapers | |---|---|---|---|---| | ⏱️ Speed (7 videos) | **~15 seconds** | ~16–30 seconds | 60–120 seconds | 2–5 minutes | | 💰 Price per 1,000 videos | **$5.00** | $8.00–$15.00 | $2.40 | $0.50 | | 📝 Full transcript | ✅ 17k–45k chars | ✅ | ⚠️ often broken | ❌ URL only | | 👍 Like count | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | | 💬 Comment count | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | | 📅 Smart date filter | ✅ stops early | ❌ scans all | ❌ scans all | ❌ scans all | | 🔑 YouTube API key | ✅ None needed | ✅ None | ✅ None | ✅ None | | 🩳 Shorts filter | ✅ Built-in | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | | 🌐 Multi-language transcript | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | **The only actor in this price range that gives you transcripts AND comment counts AND smart date filtering in the same run.** **The key advantage:** Smart date filtering. Most scrapers scan the entire channel history every run. This actor stops the moment it reaches your cutoff date — so scraping a 500-video channel for the last 7 days costs the same as scraping a 10-video channel. --- ### What you get per video ```json { "youtube_id": "jqoFP9QapXI", "channel_id": "UC2ojq-nuP8ceeHqiroeKhBA", "title": "32 Tricks to Level Up Claude Code in 16 Mins", "video_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqoFP9QapXI", "thumbnail_url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/jqoFP9QapXI/maxresdefault.webp", "description": "Full video description with links and timestamps...", "transcript": "Hey what's up everyone welcome back. So today we're going to cover 32 tricks...", "upload_date": "2026-04-27", "view_count": 42625, "like_count": 1873, "comment_count": 137, "length_seconds": 975, "type": "video" } ```` Every field is live, real data — not estimates, not placeholders. *** ### Input #### Required | Field | Description | Example | |-------|-------------|---------| | **Channel URLs** | One or more YouTube channel URLs | `https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd` | | **Oldest Post Date** | Only return videos on or after this date (YYYY-MM-DD) | `2025-01-01` | #### Optional | Field | Default | Description | |-------|---------|-------------| | Video Type | `long` | `long` = full videos only (no Shorts) · `short` = Shorts only · `all` = everything | | Include Transcript | `true` | Set `false` to skip transcripts — even faster and cheaper | | Transcript Language | `en` | Language code (`en`, `fr`, `de`, `es`, `pt`…). Falls back to English auto-captions | | Sort By | `newest` | `newest` · `oldest` · `popular` (by view count) | | Max Videos | `0` (unlimited) | Hard cap per channel — useful for testing | #### Supported URL formats All of these work: ``` https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBcRF18a7Qf58cCRy5xuWwQ https://www.youtube.com/c/MarquesBrownlee https://www.youtube.com/user/marquesbrownlee ``` *** ### Real benchmark **Channel:** `@nateherk` · **Filter:** last 9 days · **Videos found:** 7 · **Transcripts:** all 7 ``` Pass 1 (channel listing): 2.5 seconds — no proxy Pass 2 (video metadata): 4.5 seconds — parallel, no proxy Transcripts (all 7): 0.6 seconds — parallel CDN download ───────────────────────────────────────── Total: ~12 seconds Cost: $0.03 ``` Transcript sizes ranged from 17,000 to 44,780 characters (full spoken content, not summaries). *** ### Use cases **Content intelligence** Track what competitors publish, analyze transcripts for keywords, topics, and talking points. Run daily on a set of channels and feed the results into your AI pipeline. **AI / LLM training data** High-quality spoken-word transcripts at scale. Each transcript is 10,000–50,000 chars of clean, real human speech. **SEO & keyword research** Extract descriptions, titles, and transcripts to find the exact language creators use in your niche. **Newsletter & digest automation** Pull the week's latest videos from 10–20 channels in a single run. Schedule it and pipe the results anywhere. **Market research & trend detection** Track engagement velocity — which videos are getting likes and comments fast — to spot emerging trends before they peak. **Podcast / content monitoring** Get alerted when a creator publishes on a specific topic. Filter by date + transcript keywords downstream. *** ### Running multiple channels ```json { "channelUrls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd", "https://www.youtube.com/@LinusTechTips", "https://www.youtube.com/@veritasium" ], "oldestPostDate": "2025-04-01", "videoType": "long", "includeTranscript": true, "transcriptLanguage": "en" } ``` Each channel is processed in sequence. All results land in one dataset, sorted newest-first per channel. *** ### Transcript quality Transcripts are fetched directly from YouTube's caption CDN — the same source YouTube uses for its own subtitle display. Three-layer fallback ensures maximum coverage: 1. **Innertube caption URLs** (fastest — direct CDN, no proxy) 2. **youtube-transcript-api** (fallback for edge cases) 3. **yt-dlp subtitle extraction** (last resort) Result: transcripts succeed on every video that has captions enabled, in 0.5–1 second per video. *** ### FAQ **Does this need a YouTube API key?** No. The actor uses YouTube's internal Innertube API — no quota limits, no key setup, no 403 errors after 10,000 daily requests. **How does date filtering work exactly?** Videos on YouTube channels are listed newest-first. The actor fetches in batches of 10 and stops the moment any video in a batch is older than your `oldestPostDate`. For a channel with 500 videos, a 7-day filter typically fetches 10–20 videos and stops — you never pay for the other 480. **What about private or age-restricted videos?** They're skipped silently — they don't show up in results and don't cost you anything. **Can I skip transcripts to go faster?** Yes — set `includeTranscript: false`. Pass 2 alone (metadata + all stats) completes in under 8 seconds. **What counts as "long" vs "short"?** Shorts are videos under 60 seconds. `long` filters them out. `all` keeps everything including Shorts and live stream replays. **Does it work on huge channels (1,000+ videos)?** Yes. A tight date filter (7–30 days) on any size channel will only fetch the videos in that window. `maxVideos` gives you a hard cap if you need one. **What's the output format?** JSON by default. Apify automatically converts it to CSV, Excel, XML or HTML from the dataset view. # Actor input Schema ## `channelUrls` (type: `array`): One or more YouTube channel URLs. Accepts @handle, /channel/UC..., /c/name, /user/name formats. ## `oldestPostDate` (type: `string`): ISO date YYYY-MM-DD. Only return videos published on or after this date. ## `sortBy` (type: `string`): Sort order for output videos. ## `maxVideos` (type: `integer`): Maximum number of videos to return per channel. 0 = unlimited. ## `videoType` (type: `string`): Filter by video type. 'long' excludes Shorts (under 60s). ## `includeTranscript` (type: `boolean`): Fetch auto-generated or manual captions as plain text. ## `transcriptLanguage` (type: `string`): Preferred transcript language code (e.g. en, fr, de). Falls back to auto-generated English if unavailable. ## Actor input object example ```json { "channelUrls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd" ], "oldestPostDate": "2025-01-01", "sortBy": "newest", "maxVideos": 0, "videoType": "long", "includeTranscript": true, "transcriptLanguage": "en" } ``` # API You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup. ## JavaScript example ```javascript import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client'; // Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token // Replace the '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "channelUrls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd" ], "oldestPostDate": "2025-01-01" }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("majdijm/youtube-channel-scraper").call(input); // Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any) console.log('Results from dataset'); console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`); const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems(); items.forEach((item) => { console.dir(item); }); // 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs ``` ## Python example ```python from apify_client import ApifyClient # Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token # Replace '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = { "channelUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd"], "oldestPostDate": "2025-01-01", } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("majdijm/youtube-channel-scraper").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"]) for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items(): print(item) # 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start ``` ## CLI example ```bash echo '{ "channelUrls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd" ], "oldestPostDate": "2025-01-01" }' | apify call majdijm/youtube-channel-scraper --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=majdijm/youtube-channel-scraper", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "Fast YouTube Scraper — Full Transcripts & Engagement", "description": "Scrape any YouTube channel in ~15 seconds. Full transcripts (17k–45k chars), likes, comments, views & thumbnails. Smart date filter — only fetches videos in your date range, not the whole channel. No API key. No browser. Built for AI pipelines, content research and competitor analysis.", "version": "0.0", "x-build-id": "rnwUqGUCSsSZ8iajA" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/majdijm~youtube-channel-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-majdijm-youtube-channel-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/majdijm~youtube-channel-scraper/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-majdijm-youtube-channel-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK", "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/majdijm~youtube-channel-scraper/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-majdijm-youtube-channel-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } } }, "components": { "schemas": { "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "required": [ "channelUrls", "oldestPostDate" ], "properties": { "channelUrls": { "title": "Channel URLs", "type": "array", "description": "One or more YouTube channel URLs. Accepts @handle, /channel/UC..., /c/name, /user/name formats.", "items": { "type": "string" } }, "oldestPostDate": { "title": "Oldest Post Date", "type": "string", "description": "ISO date YYYY-MM-DD. Only return videos published on or after this date." }, "sortBy": { "title": "Sort By", "enum": [ "newest", "oldest", "popular" ], "type": "string", "description": "Sort order for output videos.", "default": "newest" }, "maxVideos": { "title": "Max Videos per Channel", "minimum": 0, "type": "integer", "description": "Maximum number of videos to return per channel. 0 = unlimited.", "default": 0 }, "videoType": { "title": "Video Type", "enum": [ "long", "short", "all" ], "type": "string", "description": "Filter by video type. 'long' excludes Shorts (under 60s).", "default": "long" }, "includeTranscript": { "title": "Include Transcript", "type": "boolean", "description": "Fetch auto-generated or manual captions as plain text.", "default": true }, "transcriptLanguage": { "title": "Transcript Language", "type": "string", "description": "Preferred transcript language code (e.g. en, fr, de). Falls back to auto-generated English if unavailable.", "default": "en" } } }, "runsResponseSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "data": { "type": "object", "properties": { "id": { "type": "string" }, "actId": { "type": "string" }, "userId": { "type": "string" }, "startedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "finishedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "status": { "type": "string", "example": "READY" }, "meta": { "type": "object", "properties": { "origin": { "type": "string", "example": "API" }, "userAgent": { "type": "string" } } }, "stats": { "type": "object", "properties": { "inputBodyLen": { "type": "integer", "example": 2000 }, "rebootCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "restartCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "resurrectCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "computeUnits": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "options": { "type": "object", "properties": { "build": { "type": "string", "example": "latest" }, "timeoutSecs": { "type": "integer", "example": 300 }, "memoryMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 1024 }, "diskMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 2048 } } }, "buildId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultKeyValueStoreId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultDatasetId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultRequestQueueId": { "type": "string" }, "buildNumber": { "type": "string", "example": "1.0.0" }, "containerUrl": { "type": "string" }, "usage": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 1 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "usageTotalUsd": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "usageUsd": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } } } } } } } } } ```