YouTube Channel Search Scraper

🔎 YouTube channel search scraper for creator discovery

YouTube Channel Search Scraper finds public YouTube channels from search keywords or YouTube search URLs and exports one clean row per discovered channel. Add keywords such as coffee roasting, paste existing /results URLs, or upload a niche list, then get channel IDs, handles, subscriber counts, video counts, descriptions, source-video evidence, and public profile links.

Use this YouTube channel finder when you need to turn manual searching into a repeatable creator list for influencer discovery, competitor mapping, market research, outreach prep, or content planning. You do not need YouTube cookies, a login, or a YouTube API key.

For a representative first run, keep the prefilled keywords and search URL. The Actor searches YouTube results, checks the channel filter when selected, enriches channels from their public About pages, and saves accepted channels to the dataset during the run.

✅ What this Actor does

• Finds YouTube channels from search keywords and YouTube search URLs.
• Accepts typed keywords, pasted keyword lists, uploaded TXT or CSV files, and saved YouTube /results URLs.
• Can discover channels from video search results, YouTube's channel filter, or both.
• Saves one dataset item per discovered channel.
• Adds source evidence, including the video that exposed a channel when it was found through video results.
• Adds public channel details such as channel ID, handle, URL, title, description, subscribers, videos, total views, country, avatar, banner, tabs, RSS URL, and external links when YouTube exposes them.
• Supports optional cleanup filters for minimum subscribers, minimum videos, and verified channels.
• Automatically saves the same channel once when several sources find it.
• Works with Apify exports, API access, schedules, webhooks, and integrations.

📦 Data you can export

Each output row represents one discovered YouTube channel. Depending on what YouTube shows publicly, rows can include:

• channel: ID, handle, title, URL, description, verification, and source-native public flags
• metrics: subscriber, video, and total-view counts with source text and exactness signal
• profile: country, joined text, keywords, tags, RSS URL, tabs, external links, availability, owner URLs, and alternate URLs
• images: thumbnail, avatar, banner, and avatar image variants
• matchedSources: keyword or search URL provenance, discovery surface, rank, source position, and source URL
• sourceVideos: video-result evidence when a video result exposed the channel

You can export the dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, RSS, or HTML, or read it through the Apify API.

👥 Common use cases

• Build niche YouTube creator lists from topics, products, and audience interests.
• Find channels for influencer research before checking fit, quality, or contact details.
• Map competitor channels around a market or content category.
• Collect source-video evidence that explains why a channel matched a keyword.
• Reuse YouTube search result URLs from manual research or saved workflows.
• Prepare repeatable channel discovery runs for scheduled reports or internal tools.

▶️ How to run it

1. Open the Actor and keep the prefilled keywords and search URL for a representative first run.
2. Optionally replace them with your own topics or YouTube search URLs.
3. Choose how many channels to save per source.
4. Keep discovery mode on Video results and channel filter for broad coverage.
5. Optionally add filters such as minimum subscribers or verified channels only.
6. Start the run and export the dataset when it finishes.

For larger batches, paste one keyword per line in Search terms as text or upload a TXT/CSV file. CSV files can use a searchTerm, term, query, keyword, or keywords column. If you already have YouTube search pages open, paste their /results URLs instead of retyping the query.

⚙️ Input options

• Search terms: the main keywords to search on YouTube.
• YouTube search URLs: optional public YouTube /results URLs to reuse.
• Search terms as text: optional pasted list for larger keyword batches.
• Search term files: optional TXT or CSV uploads.
• Channels per source: result limit for each keyword or search URL.
• Total channels: maximum rows across the whole run.
• Discovery mode: video results, channel filter, or both.
• Filters: minimum subscribers, minimum videos, and verified-only mode.
• Page language and country: YouTube locale hints for search result pages.

🧾 Example output

{
  "channel": {
    "id": "UCMb0O2CdPBNi-QqPk5T3gsQ",
    "handle": "@jameshoffmann",
    "title": "James Hoffmann",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@jameshoffmann",
    "description": "Hi! My name is James, and I make videos about coffee...",
    "isVerified": false,
    "isFamilySafe": true,
    "isUnlisted": null,
    "isNoindex": null
  },
  "metrics": {
    "subscribers": 2530000,
    "subscriberText": "2.53M subscribers",
    "subscriberCountIsExact": false,
    "videos": 402,
    "videoText": "402 videos",
    "totalViews": 383152471,
    "totalViewText": "383,152,471 views"
  },
  "profile": {
    "country": "United Kingdom",
    "joinedText": "Joined Dec 8, 2014",
    "keywords": "coffee \"james hoffmann\" jimseven",
    "tags": ["coffee \"james hoffmann\" jimseven"],
    "rssUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UCMb0O2CdPBNi-QqPk5T3gsQ",
    "tabs": [{ "title": "Home", "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@jameshoffmann" }],
    "externalLinks": ["https://www.jameshoffmann.co.uk"],
    "availableCountryCodes": ["US", "GB"],
    "ownerUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/@jameshoffmann"],
    "alternateUrls": ["https://m.youtube.com/@jameshoffmann/about"]
  },
  "images": {
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://yt3.ggpht.com/example=s176",
    "avatarUrl": "https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/example=s900",
    "bannerUrl": null,
    "avatarImages": [{ "url": "https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/example=s900", "width": 900, "height": 900 }]
  },
  "matchedSources": [
    {
      "sourceKind": "keyword",
      "value": "coffee roasting",
      "discoverySurface": "video_results",
      "rank": 1,
      "resultPosition": 1,
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=coffee+roasting&hl=en&gl=US"
    }
  ],
  "sourceVideos": [
    {
      "videoId": "N6BJVM5tvnw",
      "title": "Coffee Roasting Explained",
      "publishedText": "3 years ago",
      "viewText": "2,029,409 views"
    }
  ]
}

💳 Pricing

This Actor uses pay-per-event pricing. You are charged for each public YouTube channel saved to the dataset. Runs that find no channels do not save placeholder rows.

⚠️ Limits and caveats

• The Actor collects public YouTube channel data only.
• It does not collect private analytics, hidden emails, comments, transcripts, or full video datasets.
• Subscriber counts can be approximate when YouTube shows abbreviated values such as 19.7K.
• Some fields are null when YouTube does not expose them for a channel or search result.
• Unsupported, unavailable, or blocked search results are reported in logs instead of saved as fake rows.

❓ FAQ

🔑 Do I need a YouTube API key?

No. The Actor is designed for public YouTube pages and does not ask for a YouTube API key, login, or cookies.

📚 Can it find channels from many keywords?

Yes. Add keywords in the list field, paste them as text, upload TXT/CSV files, or paste YouTube search URLs. Use the total channel limit to keep larger runs bounded.

🔗 Can I paste YouTube search result URLs?

Yes. Paste public YouTube /results URLs into YouTube search URLs. The Actor can use them together with typed keywords, pasted keyword text, and uploaded keyword files in the same run.

🎥 Does it return videos too?

It returns source-video evidence when a video search result exposed the channel. It does not scrape a full video list for each channel. Use YouTube Channel Scraper for known-channel video rows.

📝 Changelog

• 1.0: Added YouTube search URL input, automatic cross-source deduplication, richer grouped channel output, source-video evidence, public profile metadata, and lower tiered per-channel pricing.
• 0.1: Initial release.

🆘 Support

For issues, questions, or feature requests, file a ticket and I'll fix or implement it in less than 24h 🫡

🔗 Other actors

• YouTube Channel Scraper ↗ - Scrape profiles and video rows from known YouTube channels.
• YouTube Channel Statistics Scraper ↗ - Export subscriber, view, and video counts for known channels.
• YouTube Keywords Discovery Tool ↗ - Collect YouTube autocomplete keyword suggestions for content research.
• Influencer Scraper ↗ - Find public influencer profiles across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
• YouTube Trending Videos Scraper ↗ - Export ranked videos from YouTube category and trending pages.

Made with ❤️ by Maxime Dupré