WeChat Channels Scraper 视频号 — Videos, Creators, Comments & MP4 Download

Scrape WeChat Channels (视频号, Shipinhao): search videos by keyword, list any creator's latest videos, get likes, favorites, shares, comments and location, look up creator followers and verified companies, and download playable MP4 files. Paste a share link, a sph… Channels ID or a creator username. No WeChat login.

Input	Row(s) emitted
Search keyword	~10 videos per page, with sort, date and length filters
Creator (v2_…@finder, sph… ID or a share link to one of their videos)	Their latest 15 videos
includeCollections	Videos from each creator's collections (合集), ~20 per page, hundreds per collection
creatorSearchKeywords	Videos inside a creator matching a keyword, ~20 per page
includeLiveReplays	The creator's live-stream replays as video rows
includeShareLinks	A clickable weixin.qq.com/sph/… link on each video
Video share link (weixin.qq.com/sph/…) or object id	The full video record
includeCreatorProfile / includeVerification	One creator row: followers, video count, region, verified company, license
includeComments / includeReplies	One row per comment and reply
downloadVideos	A decrypted, playable MP4 saved to the run's storage, linked from the row

Why Use This Scraper?

• Playable MP4s. WeChat scrambles the first 128 KB of every Channels video. This actor unscrambles it, so you get a normal MP4 that plays anywhere (verified with ffmpeg: h264 + aac).
• Engagement numbers. Likes, favorites, shares (转发) and comment count per video, e.g. likes: 100002, shares: 396058.
• Creator intelligence. Followers, video count, total likes, live-stream hours, IP region, linked Official Accounts, and the verification panel: verified company, entity type, news license number, verification date.
• Comments with replies. Author, text, likes, reply count, time.
• Search with filters. Relevance, newest or most liked; last 24 hours / 7 days / 6 months; under 5 min / 5-10 min / over 20 min.
• Live-stream replays. A creator's past live streams as video rows, with likes, shares, comments and a media link.
• Shareable links. Optional shareUrl (https://weixin.qq.com/sph/…) on every video, ready to open or send.
• Deeper than the latest 15. Pull a creator's collections (合集), where one collection can hold hundreds of videos, or search inside a creator by keyword to find older videos.
• Only-new monitoring. Watch creators or keywords on a schedule; videos already delivered are skipped and not billed.
• Pay only for what comes back. Every row type is its own event, charged only when the data arrives and never past your spending limit.

Overview

This actor is for brand teams, agencies, researchers and media monitors who need WeChat Channels data without a WeChat account or a phone in the loop.

Rows are told apart by type:

• video: from search (source: "search"), a creator's latest list ("creator"), a collection ("collection", with collectionId and collectionName), a search inside a creator ("creator-search"), a live-stream replay ("live-replay") or a pasted link ("url").
• creator: profile and/or verification for an entry in Creators.
• comment and reply: linked to their video by objectId, replies to their comment by parentCommentId.

Search results carry title, creator name, likes text and duration. Ask for full details, comments or downloads on search results and each one is looked up in full (billed as video-detail).

Supported Inputs

Input	Pattern	Example
Keyword	any topic	美食, 火锅
Creator username	v2_…@finder	from any video row's creatorUsername
Channels ID	sph… (shown on the creator's profile)	sphi9BjV8GK0Zsl (人民日报)
Share link	https://weixin.qq.com/sph/{id}	https://weixin.qq.com/sph/A08McxiQhh
Object id / export id	numeric, or export/… from search	13479598140693940492

Limits to know: a creator's own list is their latest 15 videos (WeChat serves no deeper page); use includeCollections or creatorSearchKeywords to go further back. View counts are hidden by WeChat and come back as 0. Some accounts hide follower and like totals (they show 0). Live streams are not included.

Use Cases

Who	What they do with the rows
Brand / comms	Watch keywords daily and catch new Channels videos about the brand
KOL / influencer agencies	Find creators by topic, then pull followers, verification and recent engagement
Competitor intel	Monitor competitor creators; only new videos come back
Media archiving	Download MP4s of videos you have rights to keep
Social listening	Comments with likes for sentiment
LLM / RAG pipelines	Titles, descriptions, hashtags and comments as text

How It Works

1. Keywords are searched on WeChat Channels; creators are resolved to their username and their latest videos listed; share links are opened.
2. Optional: each search result is looked up in full, and creators get a profile and verification row.
3. Optional: comments and replies are paged in.
4. Optional: each video is downloaded, its scrambled head is unscrambled, and the MP4 is saved to the run's key-value store.
5. Monitoring skips videos already delivered before any data is bought for them.

Input Configuration

Field	Type	Notes
keywords	string[]	Video search terms.
creators	string[]	v2_…@finder, sph… Channels IDs, or share links to one of their videos.
includeLatestVideos	boolean	The creator's latest 15 videos. Default on.
includeCollections	boolean	Also the creator's collections (合集) and their videos.
creatorSearchKeywords	string[]	Keywords searched inside each creator's videos.
includeLiveReplays	boolean	The creator's live-stream replays, as video rows.
includeShareLinks	boolean	Add shareUrl to each video with an object id (billed share-link).
videoUrls	string[]	Share links, object ids or export ids.
sort	default | latest | hot	Search order.
publishTime	all | day | week | half_year	Search time window.
duration	all | short | medium | long	Search length filter (<5 min, 5-10 min, >20 min).
maxPages	integer	Pages per search keyword (~10 videos), per in-creator keyword (~20) and per collection (~20). Default 3.
includeVideoDetails	boolean	Full record for search results (billed video-detail).
includeCreatorProfile	boolean	Creator row with followers, video count, region, live hours.
includeVerification	boolean	Verified company, entity type, license, Channels ID, IP location.
includeComments / maxCommentsPerVideo	boolean / integer	Comment rows; 25 per page. Default 25.
includeReplies / maxRepliesPerComment	boolean / integer	Reply rows for comments with 5+ replies. Default 20.
downloadVideos / maxVideoSizeMb	boolean / integer	Save decrypted MP4s; skip files over the size cap. Default 200 MB, maximum 1000 MB. Files are decrypted in memory, so give the run at least twice the cap in memory.
maxItems	integer	Cap on video rows. Default 50; free-tier runs cap at 100.
monitorMode, monitorStateName, emitBaseline, includeUnchanged, resetMonitoringState		Only-new monitoring, as in our other actors.

Example input

Newest food videos from the past week, with full stats and comments:

{
  "keywords": ["美食"],
  "sort": "latest",
  "publishTime": "week",
  "includeVideoDetails": true,
  "includeComments": true,
  "maxCommentsPerVideo": 25,
  "maxItems": 30
}

Daily watch of two creators with profile, verification and MP4 download of new videos:

{
  "creators": ["sphi9BjV8GK0Zsl", "https://weixin.qq.com/sph/A08McxiQhh"],
  "includeCreatorProfile": true,
  "includeVerification": true,
  "downloadVideos": true,
  "monitorMode": true,
  "monitorStateName": "creator-watch",
  "maxItems": 30
}

Everything a news account published about cultural relics, plus its collections:

{
  "creators": ["sphi9BjV8GK0Zsl"],
  "includeLatestVideos": false,
  "includeCollections": true,
  "creatorSearchKeywords": ["文物"],
  "maxPages": 5,
  "maxItems": 200
}

Download one video:

{
  "videoUrls": ["https://weixin.qq.com/sph/A08McxiQhh"],
  "downloadVideos": true
}

Output Overview

One dataset row per video, creator, comment or reply. The dataset has Videos, Creators and Comments tabs. Downloaded MP4s are in the run's key-value store as video-{objectId}.mp4; each video row links to its file in videoFileUrl.

Output Samples

Video from a share link, with download (live run):

{
  "type": "video",
  "source": "url",
  "objectId": "13479598140693940492",
  "title": "这个蘑菇最好吃，#美食#美食教程@微信时刻",
  "hashtags": ["美食", "美食教程"],
  "creatorUsername": "v2_060000231003b20faec8c6e48b11c5d7cf03e532b07791c9fdb843817ec2a431f166b7e5addf@finder",
  "creatorName": "阿龙美食教学",
  "publishedAt": "2020-12-02T07:15:17.000Z",
  "likes": 100002,
  "favorites": 100002,
  "shares": 396058,
  "comments": 12102,
  "durationSeconds": 59,
  "width": 1072,
  "height": 1248,
  "fileSizeBytes": 27359263,
  "location": { "city": "呼和浩特市", "placeName": "金川国际", "latitude": 40.79, "longitude": 111.54 },
  "videoFileUrl": "https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/<storeId>/records/video-13479598140693940492.mp4",
  "videoFileBytes": 27359263
}

Search result without details:

{
  "type": "video",
  "source": "search",
  "keyword": "美食",
  "title": "#皮蛋#溏心皮蛋",
  "hashtags": ["皮蛋", "溏心皮蛋"],
  "creatorName": "静静爱美食123",
  "durationSeconds": 31,
  "publishedAt": "2026-10-09T15:14:02.000Z",
  "publishedAgo": "3分钟前",
  "exportId": "export/UzFfBgAAxMKrCH9RS32tk8zT4DCKKinFsczkmCJbqzkUDb6G7Q",
  "coverUrl": "https://findermp.video.qq.com/…"
}

Creator with profile and verification:

{
  "type": "creator",
  "username": "v2_060000231003b20faec8c6e48b11c5d7cf03e532b07791c9fdb843817ec2a431f166b7e5addf@finder",
  "nickname": "阿龙美食教学",
  "region": "Inner Mongolia",
  "followers": 0,
  "videoCount": 1571,
  "liveHours": 1629,
  "channelId": "sphpJxaRRJqk4Qn",
  "ipLocation": "Inner Mongolia",
  "entityType": "个人"
}

Verification block of an organisation (人民日报): verifiedEntity: "人民日报社", entityType: "互联网新闻信息服务单位", newsLicenseNumber: "10120180018".

Comment:

{
  "type": "comment",
  "objectId": "13479598140693940492",
  "commentId": "13490628930619709444",
  "author": "longman",
  "text": "蘑菇够甜了，不必加鸡精[哇]",
  "likes": 384,
  "postedAt": "2020-12-17T12:31:30.000Z"
}

Key Output Fields

Group	Fields
Identity	type, source, objectId, exportId, keyword, input, collectionId, collectionName
Video	title, description, hashtags, publishedAt, durationSeconds, width, height, fileSizeBytes, coverUrl
Engagement	likes, favorites, shares, comments (search rows: likes from WeChat's rounded text, e.g. 10万+)
Creator on a video	creatorUsername, creatorName
Location	location.city, location.placeName, location.latitude, location.longitude
File	videoFileUrl, videoFileKey, videoFileBytes, downloadError; raw mediaUrl + decodeKey for your own downloader
Link	shareUrl (with includeShareLinks)
Creator row	nickname, bio, followers, videoCount, likes, region, liveHours, linkedAccounts, channelId, verifiedEntity, entityType, newsLicenseNumber, verifiedAt
Comment / reply	commentId, parentCommentId, author, text, likes, replyCount, postedAt
Monitor	changeType, scrapedAt

FAQ

Do I need a WeChat login? No.

Are the MP4s really playable? Yes. WeChat scrambles the first 128 KB of each file; the actor unscrambles it and checks the result is a valid MP4 before saving. Files that fail the check are not saved and not billed (downloadError explains why).

How long are the files kept? They live in the run's default key-value store, which Apify keeps for your plan's storage retention period. Download them or copy them elsewhere if you need them longer.

Why only 15 videos per creator? That is all WeChat serves for a creator's own video list outside the app. Turn on includeCollections (collections often hold hundreds of videos) or use creatorSearchKeywords to reach older videos, and use monitoring on a schedule to collect new ones as they appear.

Can I download live-stream replays? Yes, but replays are usually 1-3 GB, above the default 200 MB cap and the 1000 MB maximum. You still get the replay's stats, comments and mediaUrl + decodeKey for your own downloader.

Why are view counts 0? WeChat does not expose play counts for Channels videos. Likes, favorites, shares and comments are real.

Some videos have no details or fail. WeChat occasionally rejects a lookup; the actor retries once. Rows that never come back are not billed.

Does monitoring charge for videos I already have? No. Already-delivered videos are skipped before any data is fetched for them.

Pricing

Event	When	Price
Actor start	Once per run (per GB of memory)	$0.005
Video	Each video from search, a creator's list, a collection or a search inside a creator	$0.0035
Video detail	Each video looked up in full (links, or search results with details, comments or download)	$0.02
Comment	Each comment or reply	$0.0025
Creator profile	Each creator profile	$0.02
Creator verification	Each verification panel	$0.02
Video download	Each MP4 saved	$0.03
Share link	Each shareUrl added (includeShareLinks)	$0.02

Nothing is charged for rows that do not come back, and the run stops at your maximum charge.

Support

Found a bug or need a field? Open a ticket on the Issues tab.

Additional Services

Need this data delivered somewhere specific, or another China platform covered? Get in touch through the Apify Console.

Explore More Scrapers

China social in this family: WeChat Official Accounts, Douyin, RedNote / Xiaohongshu, Weibo, Zhihu. Full list at apify.com/memo23.

🤖 For AI Agents & LLM Apps

Compact reference for agents calling this actor via the Apify MCP server or the Apify API (actor: memo23/wechat-channels-scraper).

Purpose: WeChat Channels (视频号) videos by keyword, creator or share link; creator profiles and verification; comments; decrypted MP4 downloads.

Minimal inputs:

{ "keywords": ["美食"], "maxItems": 10, "maxPages": 1 }

{ "creators": ["sphi9BjV8GK0Zsl"], "includeCreatorProfile": true, "maxItems": 15 }

{ "videoUrls": ["https://weixin.qq.com/sph/A08McxiQhh"], "downloadVideos": true }

Output: rows with type = video | creator | comment | reply. Downloaded files: videoFileUrl on the video row.

Behaviors an agent should know:

• Always set maxItems (video rows). Comments and replies have their own caps.
• A creator's own list is their latest 15 videos; includeCollections and creatorSearchKeywords go further back.
• Search rows are light; comments or downloads on search results trigger a full lookup billed as video-detail.
• monitorMode skips videos already delivered, unbilled.
• includeLiveReplays adds live-stream replays as video rows; includeShareLinks adds shareUrl (billed share-link).
• Billing: $0.005 start + $0.0035 per video (or $0.02 per full lookup) + $0.0025 per comment + $0.02 per creator profile or verification + $0.03 per MP4 + $0.02 per share link.

⚠️ Disclaimer

This Actor is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Tencent Holdings Limited (WeChat / Weixin / 微信 / 视频号) or any of its subsidiaries. All trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

Data comes from a third-party WeChat data API and from WeChat's public video CDN. Downloaded videos remain the property of their creators: download only content you have the right to keep, and use it within copyright law. Users are responsible for complying with WeChat's terms of service, applicable data-protection law (GDPR, CCPA, and PRC personal-information rules), and their own organization's obligations.

SEO Keywords

wechat channels scraper, 视频号 scraper, 视频号下载, shipinhao scraper, weixin channels, wechat video scraper, wechat channels downloader, wechat video download, 微信视频号, channels video api, wechat creator scraper, wechat kol research, wechat channels comments, wechat channels analytics, china video scraper, wechat channels monitoring, 视频号合集, wechat channels collections, sph id, wechat finder, wechat short video scraper, 视频号数据