YouTube Video Downloader & Metadata Scraper — yt-dlp

YouTube Video Downloader & Metadata is a NexGenData tool on Apify that returns video metadata and direct download or stream links from YouTube and 1,000+ other video sites via yt-dlp.

A YouTube metadata scraper that also works as a YouTube video downloader for links: paste video URLs, get metadata plus direct download/stream URLs.

Paste a YouTube URL (or 1,000 of them), get clean JSON back. Title, channel, view count, likes, duration, upload date, thumbnails and direct stream URLs — 23 fields per video. Also works on 1,000+ other video sites. No API key, no quota, no OAuth.

📊 Sample Output

url	id	uploader	uploaderId	channel	channelUrl
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ	dQw4w9WgXcQ	Rick Astley	@RickAstleyYT	Rick Astley	https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw

Real rows from run KxGi8sUAVlz7VRSGI on build 0.0.88 (2026-09-25), unedited apart from masked emails/phones and shortened long text; fields the source does not publish are empty.

⚙️ Sample inputs

This is the Store example input — the same input Apify's automated check runs — so it is proven to return rows on the current build. Paste it into the input form, or send it through the API, CLI or a schedule:

{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ],
  "format": "metadata",
  "subtitles": false,
  "maxVideos": 50
}

🔧 Input reference

Field	Type	Default	What it does
urls	array of string	["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"]	Video, Shorts, playlist or channel URLs — YouTube, TikTok and other public yt-dlp sites. Instagram and Vimeo require a login and are not supported (skipped, not charged).
format	string (metadata, audio, video)	"metadata"	What to return: metadata-only, audio URL, or video URL

With format set to audio or video, each record also carries direct stream links: videoUrl (a playable file with sound), hdVideoUrl (the highest-resolution stream, picture only, when it is sharper than videoUrl) and audioUrl (the best audio-only stream, with audioBitrateKbps). Stream links are signed by YouTube and expire after a few hours. | subtitles | boolean | false | Include subtitle/caption track info | | maxVideos | integer | 50 | Maximum number of videos to process in one run. |

🧾 JSON sample record

One real record from run KxGi8sUAVlz7VRSGI (emails/phones masked, long text shortened):

{
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Video) (4K Remaster)",
  "uploader": "Rick Astley",
  "uploaderId": "@RickAstleyYT",
  "channel": "Rick Astley",
  "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw",
  "duration": 213,
  "viewCount": 1819659798,
  "likeCount": 19412955,
  "uploadDate": "20091025",
  "description": "The official video for “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley. \n\nNever: The Autobiography 📚 OUT NOW! \nFollow this link to get your copy and listen to Rick’s ‘Never’ playlist ❤️ #RickAstleyNever\nhttps://linktr.ee/rickastleynever\n\n“Never Gonna Give You Up” was a global smash on its release in July 1987, topping the charts in 25 countries including Rick’s native UK and the US Billboard Hot 100.  It also won the Brit Award for Best single in 1988. Stock Aitken and Waterman wrote and produced the track which was the lead-off single and lead track from Rick’s debut LP “Whenever You Need Somebody”.  The album was itself a UK number one and would go on to sell over 15 million copies worldwide.\n\nThe legendary video was directed by Simon West – who later went on to make Hollywood blockbusters such as Con Air, Lara Croft – Tomb Raider and The Expendables 2.  The video passed the 1bn YouTube views milestone on 28 July 2021.\n\nSubscribe to the official Rick Astley YouTube channel: https://RickAstley.lnk.to/YTSubID\n\nFollow Rick Astley:\nFacebook: https://RickAstley.lnk.to/FBFollowID \nTwitter: https://RickAstley.lnk.to/TwitterID \nInstagram: https://RickAstley.lnk.to/InstagramID \nWebsite: https://RickAstley.lnk.to/storeID \nTikTok: https://RickAstley.lnk.to/TikTokID\n\nListen to Rick Astley:\nSpotify: https://RickAstley.lnk.to/SpotifyID \nApple Music: https://RickAstley.lnk.to/AppleMusicID \nAmazon Music: https://RickAstley.lnk.to/AmazonMusicID \nDeezer: https://RickAstley.lnk.to/DeezerID \n\nLyrics:\nWe’re no strangers to love\nYou know the rules and so do I\nA full commitment’s what I’m thinking of\nYou wouldn’t get this from any other guy\n\nI just wanna tell you how I’m feeling\nGotta make you understand\n\nNever gonna give you up\nNever gonna let you down\nNever gonna run around and desert you\nNever gonna make you cry\nNever gonna say goodbye\nNever gonna tell a lie and hurt you\n\nWe’ve known each other for so long\nYour heart’s been aching but you’re too shy to say it\nInside we both know what’s been",
  "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/dQw4w9WgXcQ/maxresdefault.webp",
  "tags": [
    "rick astley",
    "Never Gonna Give You Up",
    "nggyu",
    "never gonna give you up lyrics",
    "rick rolled",
    "Rick Roll",
    "rick astley official",
    "rickrolled",
    "…"
  ],
  "categories": [
    "Music"
  ],
  "platform": "youtube",
  "videoUrl": "https://rr2---sn-....googlevideo.com/videoplayback?...&itag=18&...",
  "videoFormat": "mp4",
  "videoResolution": "640x360",
  "hdVideoUrl": "https://rr2---sn-....googlevideo.com/videoplayback?...",
  "hdVideoResolution": "3840x2160",
  "hdVideoFormat": "webm",
  "audioUrl": "https://rr2---sn-....googlevideo.com/videoplayback?...&itag=140&...",
  "audioFormat": "m4a",
  "audioBitrateKbps": 129.5,
  "subtitles": [
    "en",
    "de-DE",
    "ja",
    "pt-BR",
    "es-419"
  ],
  "automaticCaptions": [
    "ab",
    "aa",
    "af",
    "ak",
    "sq",
    "am",
    "ar",
    "hy",
    "…"
  ]
}

💰 Pricing

Event	Price (USD)	When it is charged
Actor Start (apify-actor-start)	$0.00005	Charged when the Actor starts running. Number of events charged depends on Actor memory (one event per GB, minimum one event).
Video record (apify-default-dataset-item)	$0.04	Single result in the default dataset.

Pay-per-event: you pay only for what the run delivers. A run that delivers nothing bills no result events (only the actor-start event, when the actor defines one). Example: a run that delivers 100 results costs 100 × $0.04 = $4.00 plus the start fee.

📊 What you get

Clean JSON output (23 fields):

• url — Url
• id — Id
• title — Title
• uploader — Uploader
• uploaderId — Uploader Id
• channel — Channel
• channelUrl — Channel Url
• duration — Duration

Pricing: $0.04 per video (Pay-Per-Event) — about 25 per $1. Actor start fee $0.00005 per run. Live prices are in the Pricing table below.

🤖 Use with AI agents

Point Claude, the OpenAI Agents SDK, an n8n flow or any MCP-aware client at it.

Sample agent prompt:

Run YouTube Scraper on my input and return the structured results.

Agentic payments (x402): Supports agentic payment via x402 — call this actor with USDC, no API key required.

Run it on a schedule

View and like counts change constantly, so a daily or weekly run on the same video URLs builds a simple stats history. If you pass playlist or channel URLs, each run also picks up newly added videos, up to your maxVideos limit. The actor has no new-only mode, so the same videos come back on each run with updated numbers; use the video id to line runs up. Stream links from YouTube expire after a few hours, so schedule audio or video runs close to when you will use the links. Send each run's results onward with a webhook, Google Sheets, Zapier, Make or the Apify API.

Video guides from Apify: Schedule your Actor · Integrations

FAQ

Why use this instead of the official YouTube Data API?

The YouTube Data API needs a key, has a quota and can require OAuth. This actor needs none of those: paste video, Shorts, playlist or channel URLs and get clean JSON back. It uses yt-dlp, so it also works on many other public video sites, such as TikTok.

What does a typical run cost?

You pay per result, not for run time: $0.04 for each row in the results, plus $0.00005 per run start (charged per GB of run memory, minimum one). A run that returns one row, like the Store example, costs about $0.04. Live prices are always shown in the Pricing tab.

Can it download YouTube videos?

It returns direct links rather than files. Set format to audio or video and each record carries videoUrl (a playable file with sound), hdVideoUrl (the sharpest picture-only stream, when sharper) and audioUrl (the best audio-only stream). These links are signed by YouTube and expire after a few hours.

What metadata do I get for each video?

Title, channel and channel URL, uploader, duration, view count, like count, upload date, description, thumbnail, tags and categories. Set subtitles to true to also get the list of subtitle and automatic-caption languages available.

Does it work on Instagram or Vimeo?

No. Instagram and Vimeo require a login, so those URLs are skipped and not charged.

Related actors

• YouTube Transcript & Captions Scraper — Subtitles to Text — get the caption text, not just the list of languages
• YouTube Comments Scraper — YouTube Comments API Alternative — pull the comments on the same videos
• Video URL Extractor — Video Downloader Links from Any Page — find video links embedded in any web page
• YouTube Channel Email Scraper — Creator Contact Finder — find contact details for the channels you track
• YouTube & Media MCP — Transcripts & IMDb for AI Agents — YouTube data for AI agents

Related actors from NexGenData

If this actor is useful, these related ones from the same publisher may cover your next step:

• YouTube Transcript & Captions Scraper — Subtitles to Text — Full YouTube transcripts and captions in many languages.
• YouTube Comments Scraper — YouTube Comments API Alternative — Every comment and reply on YouTube videos.
• YouTube Channel Email Scraper — Creator Contact Finder — Public business emails and metrics for YouTube channels.
• YouTube & Media MCP — Transcripts & IMDb for AI Agents — YouTube transcripts, IMDb and podcast search as tools for AI agents.