💬 YouTube Comments Scraper — Extract All Comments, Replies & Engagement Data

Pull every comment + reply on a YouTube video at scale — author, timestamp, like count, reply chain, and reply count. Works on any public video URL or video-ID list. Built as a pay-per-result alternative to YouTube Data API v3 (heavily rate-limited), Brand24 ($79-499/mo), BuzzSumo ($99-499/mo), Mention, and manual export tools for sentiment analysis, audience research, and creator analytics.

Why YouTube Comments Scraper Beats YouTube Data API, Brand24, BuzzSumo & Mention

Feature	NexGenData YouTube Comments Scraper	YouTube Data API	Brand24	BuzzSumo	Mention
Cost	$0.001 / comment, pay-per-result	Free but quota-capped at 10K units/day	$79-499 / month	$99-499 / month	$41-149 / month
Comments per video	Unlimited per run	~100/page, quota-burn for deep videos	Plan-gated	Plan-gated	Plan-gated
Replies included	Yes — full reply chain	Yes (extra quota)	Limited	Limited	Limited
Like counts	Yes	Yes	Limited	Yes	Yes
Author handles	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Multi-video batch	Yes — feed a video-ID list	DIY	Plan-gated	Plan-gated	Plan-gated
Bulk export	JSON / CSV / Excel	DIY	Plan-gated	Plan-gated	CSV
Auth required	Apify token	OAuth + API key + quota	Account + plan	Account + plan	Account + plan
Monthly minimum	None	None (quota walls)	$79+	$99+	$41+

Most creator-analytics + brand-monitoring teams pick this actor instead of wiring up the YouTube Data API because the quota cap kills any project past 5-6 deep videos a day. Cheaper than Brand24 + BuzzSumo for the video-comment slice and a drop-in alternative to Mention for YouTube-only monitoring.

What You Get Per Comment

• video_id, video_url, video_title
• comment_id, parent_id (null for top-level)
• author, author_channel_id, author_channel_url
• text, published_at, updated_at
• like_count, reply_count (top-level only)
• is_reply, is_owner_reply (channel owner's response)
• is_hearted (creator-hearted)
• is_pinned

Use Cases

• Creator analytics — pull every comment on a creator's last 50 videos for sentiment + topic analysis
• Brand monitoring — track every mention of your brand across product-review videos
• Audience research — surface frequently-asked questions across a niche for content planning
• Competitor research — see what audiences praise + complain about on competitor videos
• Sentiment / NLP training — bulk-export labeled comment data for model training
• Influencer due diligence — measure real engagement (vs view count) across a creator's catalog

Quick Start (Python)

from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("nexgendata/youtube-comments-scraper").call(run_input={
    "video_urls": [
        "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
    ],
    "max_comments_per_video": 5000,
    "include_replies": True
})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item["author"], item["text"], item["like_count"])

Pricing — Pay Per Comment

• Actor start: $0.005
• Comment: $0.001

A 5,000-comment deep-dive on one video = $5.005. A 50-video weekly creator sweep at 1,000 comments each = $50.005. No monthly minimum.

Related NexGenData Social + Video Actors

Use case	Actor
YouTube transcript scraper (captions)	youtube-transcript-scraper
YouTube AI summarizer (transcripts + GPT)	youtube-ai-summarizer
Reddit scraper (posts + comments)	reddit-scraper
Reddit brand monitor (Brandwatch alt)	reddit-brand-monitor
Reddit subreddit trends	reddit-subreddit-trends
Hacker News scraper (stories + comments)	hacker-news-scraper
Product Hunt daily launches	product-hunt-launches-scraper
Indie Hackers product launches	indie-hackers-products-tracker
Bilibili video search (China)	bilibili-video-search

FAQ

Q: Does it require a YouTube account or API key? A: No — it works on public videos via YouTube's own public endpoints. No OAuth, no Google Cloud project.

Q: Replies fully captured? A: Yes. Set include_replies: true and every reply chain is flattened in the output with parent_id for threading.

Q: How does it differ from the YouTube Data API? A: The official API has a 10K-units/day quota. Each comments.list call costs 1 unit and returns ~100 comments — so a 50K-comment video alone burns ~500 units. This actor has no daily cap; you pay per comment instead.

Q: Maximum comments per video? A: No hard cap. Long-tail videos with 200K+ comments take longer (1-2 hours) but complete in a single run.

Q: Sentiment analysis included? A: Not in this actor — use the reddit-brand-monitor actor (which has built-in sentiment) as a pattern, or pipe these comments into your own NLP.

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How NexGenData Pricing Works

Every NexGenData actor uses pay-per-event pricing — you only pay for results that actually land in your dataset. No monthly minimum, no seat fees, no surprise overage bills.

• Actor Start: a single-event charge each time you spin the actor up (scaled to memory size)
• Result / item: charged per item written to the default dataset
• No charge for retries, internal proxy rotation, or failed sub-requests — those are absorbed by the platform

Apify Platform Bonus

New to Apify? Sign up with the NexGenData referral link — you get free platform credits on signup (enough for several thousand free results) and you help fund the maintenance of this actor fleet.

Integration Surface

Every actor in the NexGenData catalog can be triggered from:

• Apify console — point-and-click run
• Apify API — REST + webhooks
• Apify Python / JS SDKs — programmatic batch
• Zapier, Make.com, n8n — official integrations
• MCP — many actors are exposed as MCP tools for Claude / ChatGPT / Cursor agents
• Schedules — built-in cron for daily / weekly / monthly runs
• Webhooks — POST results to any HTTPS endpoint on dataset write

Support

NexGenData maintains 260+ Apify actors and ships updates regularly. Bug reports via the Apify console issues tab get a response within 24 hours. Roadmap requests are welcome — high-demand features ship in the next version.

Home: thenextgennexus.com Full catalog: apify.com/nexgendata