YouTube Video Downloader & Metadata Scraper — 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)	$5e-05	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.

🔗 Related Actors

More from the NexGenData Social, video & reviews family:

• WCAG 2.2 Accessibility Auditor — Bulk axe-core
• YouTube Comments Scraper — Video Comment API
• YouTube Transcript Scraper — Captions & Text

9 more in this family on the NexGenData Store page.

📊 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 $5e-05 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.

🔗 Related tools — Video tools

Universal Video Extractor · Video Link Extractor · YouTube Transcripts

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A NexGenData utility actor.