YouTube Channel Monitor: New Videos & Growth

What does YouTube Channel Monitor do?

YouTube Channel Monitor is built for brands, agencies and creators who watch competitors and other creators. Give it up to 500 channels and every morning it returns the new videos with their first-day views (and, with a free YouTube API key, likes, comments, duration and subscribers), the views per hour since publishing so you see which videos are growing fastest, and one summary row per channel with the average views, the top video and the fastest-growing video. Run it daily in monitor mode and send the new rows to Slack, e-mail, Google Sheets or your BI tool with an Apify integration or webhook. It never downloads videos and needs no proxy.

Per video you get:

• 🎬 channel, title, published date, URL, thumbnail, description start
• 📈 views, and with a key likes, comments, duration, Shorts flag
• 🚀 views per hour since publishing
• 👥 subscribers of the channel (with a key)
• ✨ isNew in monitor mode

How it works

• Discovery uses each channel's public RSS feed (the latest 15 videos, no key). The feed already publishes the view count.
• Numbers (likes, comments, duration, subscribers) come from the official YouTube Data API v3 when you set a free key: videos.list and channels.list, 50 ids per call. A daily run over 100 channels uses about 40 of the 10,000 free daily quota units.
• @handles and channel URLs are resolved with the key (channels.list?forHandle=) or by reading the channel page's canonical link. If YouTube blocks that lookup you get a free row asking for the channel id (UC…).

How to use it

1. Click Try for free: three big public channels given as ids, last 7 days, no key.
2. Add your Channels (ids, @handles or URLs).
3. Optional: paste a YouTube Data API key (or set the secret YOUTUBE_API_KEY) for likes, comments, duration and subscribers.
4. For a daily digest set Mode to monitor, give it a Monitor name, save as a task and schedule it.

Input example

{
    "channels": ["UCX6OQ3DkcsbYNE6H8uQQuVA", "@mkbhd", "https://www.youtube.com/@TED"],
    "sinceDays": 3,
    "mode": "monitor",
    "monitorName": "competitors-daily",
    "includeShorts": true
}

Output example

Real rows from a run on 7 October 2026, without a key (shortened):

[
    {
        "rowType": "video",
        "channel": "MrBeast",
        "title": "Eat Everything In A Grocery Store, Win $1,000,000",
        "publishedAt": "2026-10-03T16:00:01.000Z",
        "views": 160544776,
        "likes": null,
        "viewsPerHour": 1596344,
        "source": "rss",
        "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plN7JMbadRg"
    },
    {
        "rowType": "summary",
        "channel": "MrBeast",
        "videosInWindow": 1,
        "averageViews": 160544776,
        "topVideo": { "title": "Eat Everything In A Grocery Store, Win $1,000,000", "views": 160544776 },
        "note": "No YouTube API key: likes, comments, duration and subscribers are not available (views come from the RSS feed)."
    }
]

That run read 4 channels and returned 20 videos in a few seconds. Summary rows and error rows (invalid-input, channel-not-resolved, feed-failed, rate-limited, api-error) are free.

How much does it cost?

This Actor uses pay per event:

Event	Price
Video returned	$0.0005 per video
Channel summary rows and error rows	free

• 30 channels with about 3 new videos each per day cost about $0.05 a day.
• The YouTube Data API is free within Google's daily quota; the key is yours.
• Apify also charges a tiny standard start fee per run. Maximum cost per run caps spending.

Data sources and terms

• YouTube channel RSS feeds (youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml), public.
• YouTube Data API v3, used with your own key and subject to the YouTube API Services Terms and Google's quota. Keep to those terms when you store or display the data.
• Video titles, thumbnails and descriptions belong to their creators. This Actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by YouTube or Google.

Limitations

• The RSS feed shows only each channel's latest 15 videos; a channel that posts more than 15 videos in your window will be cut off.
• Without a key: no likes, comments, duration, Shorts flag or subscribers; isShort is null.
• Shorts are detected by duration of 60 seconds or less (longer Shorts count as videos).
• Views in the RSS feed can lag the live number by a few minutes to hours.
• Live streams, premieres and private or deleted videos behave as the feed shows them.
• Handle lookup without a key depends on YouTube serving the channel page, which it may block; channel ids always work.

FAQ

Where do I get the channel id?

On the channel page: About > Share channel > Copy channel ID. It starts with UC and has 24 characters.

How do I get an API key?

Create a project in Google Cloud Console, enable "YouTube Data API v3" and create an API key. It is free within the daily quota.

How does monitor mode work?

Video ids you received are remembered per Monitor name in a named key-value store; the next run returns only videos not seen before. The first run returns everything in the window.

More tools from the same developer

All pay-per-result, no proxy or login needed, built and maintained by the same developer:

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• AI Crawler Access Checker: robots.txt & llms.txt: which AI crawlers a site allows, plus llms.txt.
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• Website Change Monitor: Diffs, Prices & Alerts: get a row only when a page changes, with a clean diff.
• Policy Change Monitor: Privacy & Terms Tracker: privacy policy and terms changes, classified clause by clause.
• SaaS Pricing Monitor: Track Competitor Plans: competitor pricing plans as structured data, with price-change diffs.
• Sitemap Change Monitor: New & Removed URLs: new, removed and changed URLs from a site's sitemaps.
• Site SEO Crawler: Broken Links & On-Page Audit: site-wide crawl for broken links, redirects and on-page SEO issues.
• Website Tech Stack Detector: Bulk Lead Filters: technologies used by websites, with filters for lead lists.
• Domain Availability & Expiry Checker (RDAP): domain availability, registrar and expiry dates from RDAP.
• Status Page SLA Monitor: Uptime & Incidents: SaaS vendor uptime, incidents and a monthly SLA table from public status pages.

Company data and compliance

• Company Contact Finder: Emails, Phones & Socials: contact details published on company websites.
• UK New Companies Feed: Companies House Daily: newly incorporated UK companies with sector filters.
• EU VAT Number Validator: Bulk VIES Checker: bulk VAT checks with name, address and consultation number.
• LEI Corporate Tree: GLEIF Parents & Subsidiaries: LEI lookup with parents, subsidiaries and a KYC summary.
• UK Company Distress Watch: Insolvency Alerts: administrations, liquidations and winding-up petitions from The Gazette.
• IBAN Validator: Bulk Check & Bank Lookup: IBAN format and checksum, plus bank name and BIC where open data exists.
• Sanctions Screening: OFAC, EU, UN & UK Lists: names screened against official sanctions lists, with match scores.
• OSHA & EPA Violation Monitor: Fines by Company: US OSHA and EPA enforcement cases and penalties by company.
• Email List Precheck: Syntax, MX & Disposable Check: cheap email list hygiene before a real verification.
• UK Company Officer Changes: Director & PSC Alerts: director, owner, address and status changes for a watchlist of UK companies.
• FDA Warning Letters Monitor: By Company & Subject: FDA warning letters by company and subject, with cited regulations.
• Supplier Risk Report: Sanctions, VAT & Insolvency: one risk row per supplier from eight official registers, with changes since last run.
• Brand Impersonation Domain Monitor: Look-alikes: look-alike domains and certificates that imitate your brand, with a risk score.

Media and AI

• Audio & Video Transcriber: Podcasts, SRT, Speakers: audio, video, podcasts and social links to text, SRT and VTT.
• Podcast Mention Alerts: Brand Mentions by Second: where your brand is said in new podcast episodes, with the exact second.
• News Brand Mentions Monitor: New Articles Only: new news articles about your brand, people or topics.

Market signals

• US WARN Layoff Notices: 12 States Daily Feed: layoff and plant closure notices from official state sources.
• US Product Recalls Monitor: FDA & CPSC Feed: FDA and CPSC recalls in one feed, with severity.
• EU Tenders Feed: TED Public Procurement Alerts: EU public tenders from TED with CPV, country and value filters.
• Liquor License Openings: New Bars & Stores (US): new US liquor licences from official state open data.
• Clinical Trials Change Monitor: Status & Updates: status, enrollment and results changes on ClinicalTrials.gov studies.
• Career Site Jobs Monitor: ATS Jobs & New Roles: open roles from company career sites, with new and closed roles since the last run.
• App Reviews Monitor: App Store & Google Play: app reviews from both stores, only new ones in monitor mode.
• US Federal Contracts Feed: SAM.gov & USAspending: SAM.gov contract opportunities with the buyer's award history.
• Grants.gov Opportunities: US Federal Grants Feed: US federal grant opportunities by keyword, eligibility and agency.
• Federal Register Monitor: US Rules & Notices Feed: new US rules, proposed rules and notices by agency or topic.
• B2B Sales Trigger Feed: Hiring + Tech Leads: companies hiring for a role and using (or not using) a technology, with contacts.
• Local Business Leads: OpenStreetMap, No Website: local businesses by city and category, including those with no website.
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Feedback

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