📺 YouTube Scraper: Videos, Shorts, Channels, Comments & Search

YouTube scraper, no login or API key: YouTube channel videos, YouTube Shorts, YouTube comments with replies, YouTube channel info (subscribers, views, country), YouTube community posts, related videos and YouTube search. $1 per 1,000 videos, pay only per result.

📋 Table of contents

• What does it do?
• Features
• Pricing
• Input
• Output
• Troubleshooting
• Who uses this YouTube Scraper?
• Use cases
• FAQ
• API, Python, JavaScript and MCP

What does it do?

YouTube Scraper collects public YouTube data and returns clean rows. Give it channel links, @handles, video or Shorts links, or search keywords and it returns videos with views, likes, comment counts, duration and publish date, Shorts, full video details, comment threads with replies, channel info (subscribers, total views, video count, country, join date), community posts, related videos and search results. No Google account, no YouTube Data API key and no quota limits.

Features

🎬 What you can scrape on YouTube

Mode	What you give it	What you get
user_posts	profile link / @username	Channel videos — latest uploads from a channel
channel_shorts	channel link / @handle	Channel Shorts
user_profile	profile link / @username	Channel info — subscribers, views, videos, country
community_posts	channel link / @handle	Community posts of a channel
video_detail	video or post link	Video details — one video per link
video_comments	video or post link	Video comments (+ replies)
related_videos	video link or ID	Related videos
search_videos	keywords	Search videos (keywords)
search_users	keywords	Search channels (keywords)

✨ Smart features

• Any channel input: @handle, /channel/UC…, /c/ and /user/ links
• Video, Shorts, youtu.be and live links all work
• View and subscriber counts converted to real numbers (202M views → 202000000)
• Relative dates (6 days ago) converted to ISO timestamps
• Upload-date filter and country for video search
• Duplicates are removed automatically
• 🔓 No login, no cookies, no proxy setup
• 💸 Pay only for results: hint and error rows are free

🧭 More scrapers from us

• TikTok Scraper
• Instagram Scraper
• Twitter Scraper (X)

Pricing

You pay per result. No compute or proxy charges on top, and hint and error rows are free.

What you get	Price per 1,000
📺 Videos and Shorts from any list (channel, search, related)	$1.00
💬 Comments and replies	$0.50
🔎 Channels from channel search	$1.00
📝 Community posts	$1.00
🔍 Single lookups: video by link or full channel info	$3.00

How much does it cost to scrape YouTube data?

Job	Cost
1,000 YouTube videos	$1.00
10,000 YouTube videos	$10
100,000 YouTube videos	$100
10,000 comments	$5.00

Set Max cost per run in the run options and the actor stops cleanly at that amount.

🆓 Free plan

On the free Apify plan each run returns up to 10 results, so you can check the data before you buy. Comment replies need a paid plan. Any paid Apify plan removes the limit.

⚡ Speed

Channel lists return 30 videos per request, Shorts lists about 48 and comment pages 20, so 1,000 videos usually take about a minute.

Input

Field	What it does
mode	Links, @usernames or IDs: user_posts, channel_shorts, user_profile, community_posts, video_detail, video_comments, related_videos. Keywords: search_videos, search_users.
urls	One per line: channel links (youtube.com/@handle or /channel/UC…), @handles, video or Shorts links, youtu.be links or video IDs.
queries	Keywords for video or channel search, one per line.
uploadDate	Only return search results uploaded in this window.
maxItems	Stop after this many rows per link or keyword (comments include their replies).
includeReplies	In video_comments mode, also fetch the replies under each comment that has 3 or more replies (TikTok, Douyin, Bilibili). Replies are billed as comments. Paid Apify plans only.
region	Two-letter country code for video search results (US, GB, IN, DE, BR…).

🧪 Example inputs

Latest 200 videos from a channel

{"mode": "user_posts", "urls": ["https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast"], "maxItems": 200}

Search videos uploaded this week

{"mode": "search_videos", "queries": ["iphone review"], "uploadDate": "this_week", "maxItems": 100}

Comments with replies

{"mode": "video_comments", "urls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plN7JMbadRg"], "maxItems": 500, "includeReplies": true}

Channel stats for several channels

{"mode": "user_profile", "urls": ["@MrBeast", "@mkbhd", "https://www.youtube.com/@veritasium"]}

All Shorts from a channel

{"mode": "channel_shorts", "urls": ["@MrBeast"], "maxItems": 300}

Output

Every row uses the same fields. Export as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or HTML.

📦 Example output

{
  "platform": "youtube",
  "item_type": "video",
  "item_id": "plN7JMbadRg",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plN7JMbadRg",
  "title": "Eat Everything In A Grocery Store, Win $1,000,000",
  "author_id": "UCX6OQ3DkcsbYNE6H8uQQuVA",
  "author_name": "MrBeast",
  "duration_sec": 3479,
  "cover_url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/plN7JMbadRg/hq720_custom_3.jpg?sqp=CKCipdYG-oaymwEcCNAFEJQDSFXyq4qpAw4IARUAAIhCGAFwAcABBg==&rs=AOn4CLBVfYdsfIs_mSEkUOEBJNn634B9WQ",
  "created_at": "2026-10-03T20:44:15+00:00",
  "play_count": 202000000,
  "mode": "user_posts",
  "source_input": "@MrBeast",
  "scraped_at": "2026-10-09T20:44:15.207181+00:00",
  "raw": {
    "…": "full original record"
  }
}

📤 Main fields

Field	Description
platform, item_type, mode, source_input	Where the row came from and what it is (video, user, comment, hint, error…)
item_id, url	Native ID and a link back to the item
title, description, hashtags, created_at	Text and publish time (ISO 8601)
author_id, author_name, author_username	Creator or account
play_count, like_count, comment_count, share_count, collect_count	Engagement counts
raw	The full original record, every field the platform returned
error_message	Explanation on free hint / error rows

Troubleshooting

Video files or transcripts?

This actor returns metadata, comments and stats, not video files or transcripts.

Getting no results?

Check that the link or username is public and typed correctly. Private accounts, deleted posts and hidden lists return a free hint row that says why. Keyword modes need the Keywords field, link modes need Links.

Getting fewer results than maxItems?

The platform ran out of items for that input (a small profile, a niche keyword), or the run reached its Max cost per run limit. The log says which one.

Some fields are empty?

Platforms don't return every field for every item. Everything the platform did return is kept in raw.

Video or image links stopped working?

Media URLs from these platforms expire after a few hours. Download files right after the run.

The run failed or shows an error row?

Retry once: the platforms sometimes refuse a request for a few minutes. If it keeps failing, open an issue with the run link and we'll fix it fast.

Who uses this YouTube Scraper?

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Influencer and creator agencies

Vet channels: subscribers, views per video and upload frequency.

📣 Brand and marketing teams

Track competitors' uploads, Shorts and community posts.

📊 Market researchers

Read comments at scale for sentiment and product feedback.

🎬 Creators

Study what topics and formats win in your niche.

🤖 AI and data teams

Collect titles, descriptions and comments as training data.

🧑‍💻 Developers and AI agents

Use YouTube data without the Data API's daily quota.

Use cases

Channel benchmarking

Pull channel info and last 50 videos for a list of channels and compare views per video.

Comment sentiment

Collect comments on a launch video and score them.

Topic research

Search a keyword with the upload-date filter and see which videos are rising this week.

Shorts strategy

Pull a channel's Shorts with views and spot the formats that work.

FAQ

Can I scrape YouTube without an API key?

Yes. No Google account, YouTube Data API key or quota.

Why not use the YouTube Data API?

The Data API has a daily quota (10,000 units) and needs a Google Cloud project. This actor has no quota.

Can I scrape YouTube comments and replies?

Yes. Use the comments mode with Include comment replies on (paid plans).

How much does it cost to scrape 10,000 YouTube videos?

About $10, at $1 per 1,000 videos.

Can I get a channel's subscriber count?

Yes, the channel info mode returns subscribers, total views, video count, country and join date.

Can I scrape YouTube Shorts?

Yes, with the channel Shorts mode.

Can I filter search by upload date?

Yes: last hour, today, this week, this month or this year.

Can I download YouTube videos?

No. This actor returns data about videos, not the video files.

Is there a free tier?

Yes. On the free Apify plan each run returns up to 10 results. Comment replies need a paid plan.

Can I use it from Python, JavaScript or an AI agent?

Yes, through the Apify API, the client libraries, or MCP.

API, Python, JavaScript and MCP

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("openclawai/youtube-video-scraper").call(run_input={"mode": "user_posts", "urls": ["https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast"], "maxItems": 200})
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("openclawai/youtube-video-scraper").call({"mode": "user_posts", "urls": ["https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast"], "maxItems": 200});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();

MCP (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other MCP clients): https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=openclawai/youtube-video-scraper

Works with Zapier, Make, n8n, Google Sheets, Slack, webhooks and scheduled runs.

🛡️ Legal

Collects public data only. You are responsible for complying with YouTube's terms and with privacy laws such as GDPR, CCPA and PIPL when you store personal data.

⭐ Support

Something not working? Check the hint / error rows, then open an issue with the run link. We reply fast.