YouTube Channel & Video Scraper – Search, Playlists & Stats

Scrape YouTube channels, videos, Shorts, playlists and search results into flat, spreadsheet-ready rows: title, views, likes, duration, upload date, subscribers, channel stats, description links and hashtags. No YouTube Data API key, no daily quota, no browser to run. Paste search terms or YouTube URLs, press Start, export JSON or CSV.

Built for YouTube SEO research, competitor tracking, creator lead generation and n8n / Make automations. From $1 per 1,000 results.

What you get

One row per video. Channel and playlist metadata is repeated on every row so the export works in Google Sheets and BI tools without joins.

Field	Description
id, url, title	Video id, canonical watch URL and title
description, descriptionLinks	Description text and the links found in it
viewCount, likes, commentsCount	Engagement counters as integers
duration, date	Length (12:34) and upload date
isShort, isLive, category	Content type flags and category
hashtags	Hashtags from the description
thumbnailUrl	Highest-resolution thumbnail
channelName, channelUrl, channelId	Publishing channel
numberOfSubscribers, channelTotalVideos	Channel-level stats
searchTerm, fromYTUrl, inputChannelUrl	Which input produced the row
playlistTitle, playlistIndex, playlistVideoCount	Playlist position when scraping a playlist

Fields YouTube does not show for a given page are returned as null.

Input

Search terms – works like the YouTube search bar, combined with the filters below.

{
  "searchTerms": ["ai for finance", "fp&a automation"],
  "maxVideosPerSearch": 50,
  "maxShortsPerSearch": 10,
  "sortingOrder": "views",
  "dateFilter": "month"
}

Direct URLs – channel (@handle, /channel/), playlist, single video or a search-results URL.

{
  "directUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast",
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ],
  "maxVideosPerSearch": 200,
  "channelSortBy": "popular"
}

Options:

• Maximum videos / Shorts / streams per search – separate caps per content type. Channels and playlists are paged automatically up to your cap.
• Search filters – upload date, content type, duration, sort order, and feature filters: HD, 4K, HDR, 360°, VR180, 3D, live, Creative Commons, has subtitles/CC.
• Channel options – sort channel videos by latest or popular.
• Proxy – Apify residential proxy is on by default because YouTube throttles datacenter IPs on large runs.

Fill nothing in and the actor runs a small demo search so you can see the output shape.

Use cases

• YouTube SEO & content research – the top videos for a keyword with views, dates and hashtags. Pair with our Keyword Research Scraper for YouTube autocomplete ideas.
• Competitor and channel tracking – scrape a channel weekly and chart views per upload and upload cadence.
• Creator lead generation – subscriber counts and channel links for outreach lists by niche.
• Trend research – filter by upload date and sort by views.
• AI agents and RAG – flat rows feed straight into LLM pipelines. For the spoken words use our YouTube Transcript Scraper; for comments use the YouTube Comments Scraper.

Pricing

From $1.00 per 1,000 results, pay per result. No subscription and no minimum. A run that finds nothing fails with an explanation instead of billing you.

Integrations

Works with n8n, Make, Zapier, Google Sheets, Airtable, Slack and webhooks, the Apify API, and Apify's MCP server for AI agents.

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("nourishing_courier/youtube-scraper").call(run_input={
    "searchTerms": ["ai for finance"], "maxVideosPerSearch": 50, "dateFilter": "month"})
for row in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(row["title"], row["viewCount"])

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/nourishing_courier~youtube-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"searchTerms":["ai for finance"],"maxVideosPerSearch":20}'

Limits and fair use

• YouTube search returns a few hundred results per query; use several specific terms instead of one broad one.
• This actor does not download transcripts, subtitles or video files.
• Only public data is collected – no login, no private or age-gated content. You are responsible for complying with YouTube's terms and applicable law.

FAQ

Can I scrape a YouTube channel without an API key?

Yes. Paste the channel URL into Direct URLs. No Google Cloud project or quota is needed.

How many videos per run?

Set maxVideosPerSearch per search term or channel; there is no limit on the number of terms or URLs.

Does it scrape Shorts and live streams?

Yes, via maxShortsPerSearch and maxStreamsPerSearch.

Can I get transcripts or subtitles?

Not with this actor – use the YouTube Transcript Scraper.

Can I export to Google Sheets or CSV?

Yes – download CSV, Excel or JSON, or use the Apify Google Sheets integration.

Does it work with n8n, Make or Zapier?

Yes, all three have Apify integrations.