YouTube Scraper

Scrape YouTube search results, video details, channel profiles, comments, and trending videos from any country. This is the most complete YouTube data extraction tool on the platform -- five modes covering every type of YouTube data you could need, all returned in clean, structured JSON.

What does YouTube Scraper do?

This actor provides five modes for comprehensive YouTube data collection.

Search mode works like the YouTube search bar. Enter a query and get back a list of videos with titles, channel names, view counts, like counts, durations, upload dates, descriptions, thumbnails, tags, categories, and direct URLs. Sort by relevance, date, views, or rating.

Video mode takes a video ID or URL and returns the full video details -- everything from search mode plus comment count, channel ID, whether it is a live stream or YouTube Short, and all available metadata.

Channel mode takes a channel handle (like @veritasium) and returns the full channel profile: name, handle, subscriber count, video count, total views, description, country, join date, avatar, banner, verification status, and a list of recent videos.

Comments mode pulls comments from a specific video. Each comment includes the author name and avatar, comment text, like count, relative timestamp, pinned status, reply count, and whether the creator hearted it.

Trending mode grabs currently trending videos for a specific country and category (default, music, gaming, or movies). Useful for monitoring what is popular right now in any market.

What data do you get?

• Video ID, title, and full URL
• Channel name, channel ID, and channel URL
• View count, like count, and comment count
• Duration (formatted and in seconds)
• Upload date and relative time ("2 months ago")
• Full video description and thumbnail URL
• Tags and category
• Live stream and YouTube Short flags
• Channel subscribers, video count, total views, and description
• Channel country, join date, avatar, banner, and verification status
• Comments with author, text, likes, timestamp, pinned/hearted flags, and reply count
• Trending videos by country and category

Who is this for?

• Content creators researching trending topics and competitor video performance
• Marketing agencies analyzing YouTube ad placements and channel engagement
• Researchers building datasets of video metadata and comment sentiment
• Brand monitors tracking mentions and sentiment in YouTube comments
• Media buyers evaluating channel metrics before sponsorship deals

How to use it

1. Choose your mode: search, video, channel, comments, or trending.
2. For search, type your query. For video/comments, paste a video ID or URL. For channel, enter the handle.
3. Set your result limit and sort preference.
4. For trending, pick a country code and category.
5. Run and export your data.

Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	search	Mode: search, video, channel, comments, or trending
query	string	-	Search query (required for search mode)
videoId	string	-	Video ID or URL (required for video and comments modes)
channel	string	-	Channel handle, e.g. @veritasium (required for channel mode)
limit	integer	20	Maximum results (1-100)
sort	string	relevance	Sort order: relevance, date, views, rating
country	string	US	Country code for trending results
category	string	default	Trending category: default, music, gaming, movies

Sample output

{
  "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Video)",
  "channel": "Rick Astley",
  "channel_id": "UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw",
  "channel_url": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw",
  "views": 1520000000,
  "likes": 16800000,
  "duration": "3:33",
  "duration_seconds": 213,
  "upload_date": "2009-10-25",
  "published_text": "16 years ago",
  "description": "The official video for Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley...",
  "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/maxresdefault.jpg",
  "tags": ["rick astley", "never gonna give you up", "official video"],
  "category": "Music",
  "is_live": false,
  "is_short": false,
  "comments_count": 3200000,
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
}

How much does it cost?

This actor costs $0.004 per result. 1,000 results cost $4 and 10,000 cost $40.

Every Apify account includes $5 in free monthly credits -- enough for 1,250 results to test things out.

Common questions

Can I get the full comment history for a video? You can pull up to 100 comments per request using the limit parameter. For videos with thousands of comments, run multiple requests or reach out about a custom solution for full comment extraction.

Does it work with YouTube Shorts? Yes. Shorts appear in search results and video mode like any other video. The is_short flag tells you whether a video is a Short.

Can I track a channel's growth over time? Yes. Schedule the actor to run on a regular basis and store the subscriber count, video count, and total views from each run. That gives you a growth timeline.

Contact & Custom Solutions

Need a custom scraper, higher volume, or a specific integration? We're here to help.

If anything isn't working right or you need support, don't hesitate to reach out.

• Telegram: t.me/novashield_dev
• Email: novashield.dev@gmail.com