YouTube Channel Scraper

What does YouTube Channel Scraper do?

YouTube Channel Scraper returns one clean record per YouTube channel with the numbers and profile details shown on the channel page and in its About panel. Give it channel URLs in any format (@handle, /channel/UC..., /c/name or /user/name), or give it keywords and it finds matching channels through YouTube search with the channel filter. For each channel you get the channel ID, handle, title, full description, subscriber count, exact video count, exact total views, country, joined date, avatar, banner, verified status, channel keywords and every external link from the About panel, with YouTube's redirect wrapper removed so you get the real website and social profile URLs. Turn on latest videos to add the newest uploads with views, published time and duration. It needs no YouTube API key, no login and no cookies. You are only charged for channels that come back complete with an ID and a title.

What data can I extract from a YouTube channel?

Field	Example	Notes
channelId	UCBJycsmduvYEL83R_U4JriQ	Always present
channelUrl	https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd	Handle URL when the channel has one
handle	@mkbhd
title	Marques Brownlee	Always present
description	Full About text
subscriberCount	21400000	Number. YouTube rounds this itself (21.4M)
videoCount	1859	Exact number from the About panel
viewCount	5782176119	Exact total channel views
country	United States	null when the channel does not show one
joinedDate	2008-03-21	ISO date
avatar, banner	Image URLs	Largest size offered
isVerified	true	Verified badge next to the channel name
keywords	["MKBHD", "Marques"]	Only present when the channel set keywords
links	[{ "title": "Twitter", "url": "http://twitter.com/MKBHD" }]	Websites and socials, unwrapped
latestVideos	See below	Only when Include latest videos is on
input	The URL or keyword that found the channel

How do I use YouTube Channel Scraper?

1. Paste channel URLs, or type search keywords, or both.
2. Optionally turn on Include latest videos.
3. Click Start and download the results as JSON, CSV, Excel or through the API.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
channelUrls	array of strings		Channel URLs: @handle, /channel/UC..., /c/name or /user/name
searchKeywords	array of strings		Keywords to find channels with YouTube search
maxChannelsPerKeyword	integer	10	Channels to scrape per keyword (1 to 500)
includeLatestVideos	boolean	false	Add the newest videos from the Videos tab
maxLatestVideos	integer	10	Latest videos per channel (1 to 30)
maxConcurrency	integer	5	Channels processed at the same time
maxRequestRetries	integer	5	Attempts per channel, each on a new proxy IP
proxy	object	Apify residential	Proxy settings

{
    "channelUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/@NASA", "https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd"],
    "searchKeywords": ["astronomy"],
    "maxChannelsPerKeyword": 5,
    "includeLatestVideos": true,
    "maxLatestVideos": 5,
    "proxy": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"] }
}

Output example

A real record from a test run (October 2026):

{
    "channelId": "UCBJycsmduvYEL83R_U4JriQ",
    "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd",
    "handle": "@mkbhd",
    "title": "Marques Brownlee",
    "description": "MKBHD: Quality Tech Videos | YouTuber | Geek | Consumer Electronics | Tech Head | Internet Personality!\n\nbusiness@MKBHD.com\n\nNYC",
    "subscriberCount": 21400000,
    "videoCount": 1859,
    "viewCount": 5782176119,
    "country": "United States",
    "joinedDate": "2008-03-21",
    "avatar": "https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/qu4TmIaYUlS41-dJ9gZ7DUR3nilvmB5_11i6OKSdvNnBNiyOusZP1bMN6ICnuxtjFBb6ioKgRQ=s900-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj",
    "banner": "https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/zi_48HwHU4s0Hnb6tZuvRzTfCPHrLEnrtIMDLzMauDEyDmURh9JZ4wrNd3lKr7m9uVnT4YjYKw=w2560-fcrop64=1,00005a57ffffa5a8-k-c0xffffffff-no-nd-rj",
    "isVerified": true,
    "links": [
        { "title": "Twitter", "url": "http://twitter.com/MKBHD" },
        { "title": "Instagram", "url": "http://instagram.com/MKBHD" },
        { "title": "The Studio", "url": "http://youtube.com/c/TheStudio" },
        { "title": "Reddit", "url": "http://reddit.com/r/MKBHD" },
        { "title": "Discord", "url": "http://discord.gg/MKBHD" }
    ],
    "input": "https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd",
    "keywords": ["MKBHD", "MarquesBrownlee", "Marques", "Brownlee"]
}

With Include latest videos on, each record also gets a latestVideos list. A real entry from the same test runs:

"latestVideos": [
    {
        "id": "q_ADBlrIRsM",
        "title": "ISS through my Telescope (Compilation)",
        "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_ADBlrIRsM",
        "viewCount": 4300000,
        "publishedText": "6 years ago",
        "duration": 543
    }
]

FAQ

Do I need a YouTube API key or an account?

No. The scraper reads the same public data YouTube shows to a logged-out visitor. There is no quota to manage and nothing to log in to.

Which channel URL formats work?

youtube.com/@handle, youtube.com/channel/UC..., youtube.com/c/name and youtube.com/user/name. Extra path parts such as /videos or /about are fine. URLs on other hosts are refused and listed in FAILED_ITEMS.

Why is the subscriber count rounded?

YouTube only publishes a rounded subscriber figure (for example 21.4M) to everyone except the channel owner. The scraper turns it into a number (21400000). Video count and total views are exact.

Does it return the channel's business email?

No. YouTube hides the business email behind a sign-in and a captcha. Emails written in the description text are returned as part of description.

What happens when a channel cannot be scraped?

It is retried on a fresh proxy IP up to Max request retries times. Channels that do not exist, URLs that are not channels and channels that still fail are skipped, not charged, and listed with the reason in the FAILED_ITEMS record of the run's key-value store.

How do I scrape videos, comments or transcripts from a channel?

Use the sibling actors below. This actor focuses on channel information.

Known limits

• Subscriber counts are YouTube's rounded figures.
• latestVideos comes from the first page of the Videos tab, so at most 30 videos. Shorts and live streams are not included.
• viewCount and duration in latestVideos are YouTube's rounded display values (4.3M views).
• Keyword search returns channels in YouTube's order and stops when YouTube has no more channel results.
• Channels without an About panel (some auto-generated Topic channels) are skipped.
• Labels such as country are returned in English. The description stays in the channel's own language.

Related YouTube scrapers

• YouTube Scraper: full video details from searches, channels and video URLs.
• YouTube Transcript Scraper: timestamped transcripts in any language.
• YouTube Comments Scraper: comments and replies from any video.