YouTube Search Scraper API — Videos, Channel, Exact Views, $0.50/1K

Search YouTube for any keyword and get the matching videos (up to 1,000 per search) as clean data: title, channel, exact view count, duration, publish date and link, plus Shorts and live streams on request, YouTube's own filters (upload date, length, HD, 4K, subtitles, Creative Commons...), view-count order, and optional likes, comment count, exact date and channel subscribers. Read straight from YouTube, no API key, no login.

Price: $0.50 per 1,000 videos ($0.0005 per video). The first 10 results of every run are free.

Measured, not promised

Test of 18 October 2026 on Apify: "pixel art" and "home workout", 100 videos each, with video details on.

	YouTube Search Scraper (om_kh)	apidojo/youtube-scraper (same price)
Videos returned	200 of 200 in 156 s	not tested
Exact views, likes, comments, channel subscribers	200, 197, 193, 200	not tested
Runs that fail, last 30 days (Store figure)	0	30,803 of 191,137 (16%)
Rating (Store)	new	3.3 stars (21 reviews)
Price per 1,000 videos	$0.50	$0.50

What you get

Each video contains: title, url, videoId, type (video, short or live), searchRank, author (channel name), channelId and channelUrl, viewCount (exact), duration and durationSeconds, published_at (ISO date) and publishedTimeText, text (description snippet), thumbnailUrl, searchQuery, scrapedAt and query_id (your search). With includeVideoDetails: likeCount, commentCount, channelSubscribers, channelHandle, channelThumbnail and the exact publication date. Up to 1,000 videos, 500 Shorts and 500 live streams per search term.

How much does it cost?

$0.0005 per video — $0.50 per 1,000. You pay only for results actually delivered.

Videos	Cost
1,000	$0.50
10,000	$5.00
100,000	$50.00

• No per-run fee and no check fee.
• Failed inputs are never charged, and maxTotalChargeUsd can cap any run.
• The first 10 results of every run are free (never more than half of a run).
• Larger Apify plans pay less per result automatically.

Example input

{
  "searchTerms": ["ai agents tutorial"],
  "uploadDate": "week",
  "videoDuration": "long"
}

Field	What it does
searchTerms	One or more YouTube searches.
startUrls	YouTube search links (youtube.com/results?...): the words and filters of each link are used as they are.
maxResults	Videos per search, 0 to 1,000. Default 50.
maxShorts / maxLiveStreams	Also return Shorts, or streams live now, for the same words (0 to 500 each).
sortBy	relevance (default), views (YouTube's own order) or newest (the results read, newest first).
uploadDate	hour, today, week, month or year — YouTube's own upload-date filter. Empty = any time.
videoDuration	short (< 4 min), medium (4-20 min) or long (> 20 min). Empty = any length.
videoType	video (default) or movie.
features	hd, 4k, hdr, subtitles, creative_commons, live, 360, vr180, 3d, location, purchased.
publishedAfter	Keep videos published on or after a date (YYYY-MM-DD).
includeVideoDetails	Likes, comment count, exact date, channel subscribers and handle. Same price.

Turn on monitorEnabled and schedule the Actor to receive only results that are new since the last run.

Use cases

• Content research — what is being published on a topic right now.
• SEO and keyword ideas — titles and channels ranking for a query.
• Creator discovery — channels active in your niche.
• Trend watching — schedule it and see new uploads every day.

Why this one

• First-party data. It reads YouTube's own public endpoints directly, with no resold scraper in between: fast, fresh and cheap.
• Clean, normalized rows plus a RUN_SUMMARY.json with counts and signals.
• YouTube's own filters: upload date (last hour to last year) and video length, applied by YouTube itself.
• Hard cost cap with maxTotalChargeUsd.

Related tools

• Already know the channel? Watch it directly instead of searching. → YouTube Channel Videos Scraper - Exact Views, $0.50/1K

How to use it in 3 steps

1. Click Try for free and fill in YouTube search terms (searchTerms).
2. Optional: adjust the other fields; every one has a description and a sensible default.
3. Click Start and download the results as JSON, CSV or Excel, or read them from the API.

Use it from code (API)

Every Apify Actor is an API. Start a run and read the results with one call.

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("om_kh/vigia-youtube-search-monitor").call(run_input={"searchTerms": ["your brand", "competitor name"]})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>' });
const run = await client.actor('om_kh/vigia-youtube-search-monitor').call({
    "searchTerms": [
        "your brand",
        "competitor name"
    ]
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

One HTTP call (cURL) — runs the Actor and returns the dataset in the same response:

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/om_kh~vigia-youtube-search-monitor/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"searchTerms": ["your brand", "competitor name"]}'

Integrations: n8n, Make, Zapier, Google Sheets

• n8n — the official Apify node, operation Run Actor and get dataset, Actor om_kh/vigia-youtube-search-monitor.
• Make — Apify › Run an Actor, then Apify › Get Dataset Items.
• Zapier — Apify › Run Actor; map the dataset items into your next step.
• Google Sheets, webhooks, Slack — add an integration from the Integrations tab of this Actor.
• Schedules — run it every hour or day from Schedules in Apify Console.

Use it from an AI agent (MCP and x402)

Connect Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code or any MCP client to Apify's MCP server at https://mcp.apify.com and add this Actor, om_kh/vigia-youtube-search-monitor, as a tool — the agent passes the same JSON as the run input and gets the dataset back.

AI agents that pay with x402 can run it too, without an Apify account: the Actor charges only per result delivered, so an agent pays exactly for what it gets.

Limits to know

• YouTube stops a single search after a few hundred results: in our test, "python tutorial" gave 300 videos in 66 seconds. For more, split the search (by upload date, length or wording).
• YouTube no longer sorts a search by upload date or by rating. views is YouTube's own order; newest reorders what the run read.
• Search dates are labels like "3 weeks ago". Turn on includeVideoDetails for the exact date. In our test it filled likes for 14 of 16 videos; a video YouTube serves without its counters keeps empty fields.
• Shorts combined with a short upload-date filter can return nothing: YouTube applies both filters together.

FAQ

Can I get only recent videos, or only long ones? Yes. uploadDate: "today" (or hour, week, month, year) and videoDuration: "long" (or short, medium) use YouTube's own search filters, so results match exactly what the YouTube filter menu shows.

Is it legal to scrape YouTube? This Actor collects only publicly available YouTube data and never logs in. You are responsible for how you use it; check YouTube's terms and your local law (GDPR, CCPA) if you store personal data, and ask a lawyer if unsure.

Do I need an account, cookies or an API key? No. You only need an Apify account to run it.

What data do I get? Videos with title, channel, views and publish date. Download it as JSON, CSV, Excel, HTML or XML, or read it from the API.

Am I charged when something fails? No. An input that fails is listed with its reason in the run summary and is never charged.

Can I run it on a schedule? Yes. Create a schedule in Apify Console (hourly, daily, weekly) and connect webhooks, Google Sheets, Slack, n8n, Make or Zapier.

Can I use it from Python, JavaScript or an AI agent? Yes: see the code samples above, or connect AI agents through MCP with the youtube_search_new_videos tool.

Your feedback

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