# YouTube Posts (Videos) Search Scraper (`outspoken_strategy/youtube-post-search-scraper`) Actor Search YouTube videos by keyword. Multiple keywords, sort by upload date/relevance/views/rating, upload-date and date-range filters, auto-pagination. Returns title, description, channel, views, duration and thumbnails. No login needed. - **URL**: https://apify.com/outspoken\_strategy/youtube-post-search-scraper.md - **Developed by:** [code craker](https://apify.com/outspoken_strategy) (community) - **Categories:** Social media, News, E-commerce - **Stats:** 3 total users, 2 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing from $5.00 / 1,000 results This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event ## What's an Apify Actor? Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases. In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours, and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store. In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server. Actors are written with capital "A". ## How to integrate an Actor? If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects. You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready. The best way to integrate Actors is as follows. In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js.md): ```bash npm install apify-client ``` In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.md): ```bash pip install apify-client ``` In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): ````bash # MacOS / Linux curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash # Windows irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex ```bash In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp.md). If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md). For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below. For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt). # README ## YouTube Posts (Videos) Search Scraper Apify actor that searches YouTube videos by keyword and exports them as structured data — no login, no cookies, no YouTube API quota. It parses the `ytInitialData` JSON embedded in the search results page and paginates through YouTube's own InnerTube `/youtubei/v1/search` continuation API. Requests go over plain HTTP first (fast and cheap); if YouTube blocks that (captcha/"unusual traffic" on flagged IPs), the actor automatically escalates to a real Chrome browser for the rest of the run — continuation requests then run inside the page as same-origin fetches. ### Features - One keyword (`query`) or many (`queries`) — each searched separately, results combined and de-duplicated by video. - Sort by `date` (newest first), `relevance`, `views` or `rating` — encoded into YouTube's `sp` filter parameter, results restricted to videos (no channels, playlists or shorts shelves). - YouTube's own upload-date window (`uploadDate`: hour/today/week/month/year) plus approximate `timeSince` / `timeUntil` bounds enforced actor-side. - Auto-pagination until `numberOfVideos` per keyword is reached or the feed dries up (YouTube stops serving search results after roughly 500-600 per query). - Results are pushed page by page, so an abort or timeout keeps everything collected so far. - Automatic block recovery: fresh proxy IP on each retry, plain HTTP → real Chrome escalation, EU consent interstitial bypassed via cookies. - When a run ends with 0 results, the last page fetched is saved as `DEBUG_HTML` in the run's key-value store. ### Input ```json { "queries": ["econet", "delta corporation"], "sort": "date", "numberOfVideos": 100, "uploadDate": "month", "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"], "apifyProxyCountry": "US" } } ```` `numberOfVideos` applies **per keyword**. ### Output One dataset item per video: ```json { "id": "XXaUd0fGpOs", "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXaUd0fGpOs", "title": "Artificial Intelligence: Complete path to 2030", "description": "Search snippet of the video description...", "channelName": "Future Business Tech", "channelId": "UCGBO6EahCqQSyXIws1MQdDg", "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@FutureBusinessTech", "publishedTimeText": "1 day ago", "created_at": "2026-07-08T09:15:00.000Z", "viewCount": 29547, "viewCountText": "29,547 views", "duration": "2:02:04", "durationSeconds": 7324, "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/XXaUd0fGpOs/hq720.jpg", "isLive": false, "searchQuery": "artificial intelligence", "sort": "date", "uploadDate": "all" } ``` - `created_at` is APPROXIMATE: YouTube search only exposes relative publish times ("3 weeks ago"), which we convert against the scrape time. `publishedTimeText` keeps the raw value. Live/upcoming items have `created_at: null`. - `description` is the search snippet, not the full video description. ### Integration (scraping-tool) Call it like the other `outspoken_strategy/*` search actors: ```js const res = await this.scrapingService.scrape({ url: `https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=${encodeURIComponent(keyword)}`, resultsLimit: requestCount, actor: 'outspoken_strategy/youtube-post-search-scraper', timeout, additionalInput: { query: keyword, numberOfVideos: requestCount, sort: 'date', proxyConfiguration: { useApifyProxy: true, apifyProxyGroups: ['RESIDENTIAL'], apifyProxyCountry: 'US' } }, scrapeType: 'youtube-keyword-search' }); ``` Normalization hints: `url` and `id` are ready to use; index `title + description` for relevance matching; `viewsCount` ← `viewCount`, `createdTime` ← `created_at` (approximate), author fields are `channelName` / `channelId` / `channelUrl`. ### Local development ```bash npm install echo '{ "query": "artificial intelligence", "numberOfVideos": 50, "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": false } }' > storage/key_value_stores/default/INPUT.json npm start ``` Deploy with `apify push`. # Actor input Schema ## `query` (type: `string`): One keyword/phrase to search for. Wrap in double quotes for an exact phrase match, e.g. "econet revenue". You can also paste several keywords, one per line, to search them all. For a clean list use the "queries" field below instead. Leave empty if you use "queries". ## `queries` (type: `array`): Multiple keywords/phrases to search — each is searched separately and results are combined and de-duplicated by video. Takes precedence over/adds to "query". numberOfVideos applies PER keyword. ## `sort` (type: `string`): How YouTube orders the search results: "date" (newest first), "relevance", "views" or "rating". ## `numberOfVideos` (type: `integer`): Maximum number of videos to fetch per keyword. YouTube search stops serving results after roughly 500-600 per query. ## `uploadDate` (type: `string`): YouTube's own upload-date window for the search (the "Upload date" filter dropdown). ## `timeSince` (type: `string`): Only return videos published on or after this date (format: yyyy-mm-dd). APPROXIMATE: search results only expose relative publish times ("3 weeks ago"), so the comparison uses the derived created\_at. Combine with the uploadDate filter for hard cutoffs. ## `timeUntil` (type: `string`): Only return videos published before this date (format: yyyy-mm-dd). APPROXIMATE — see timeSince. ## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`): Proxy to route traffic through. Residential proxies are recommended — YouTube captchas or blocks flagged datacenter IPs. ## `headless` (type: `boolean`): The actor fetches over plain HTTP and only falls back to a Chrome browser when YouTube blocks it. Uncheck to run that fallback browser headed (useful only for local debugging). ## Actor input object example ```json { "query": "artificial intelligence", "queries": [], "sort": "date", "numberOfVideos": 100, "uploadDate": "all", "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": [ "RESIDENTIAL" ], "apifyProxyCountry": "US" }, "headless": true } ``` # API You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup. ## JavaScript example ```javascript import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client'; // Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token // Replace the '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "query": "artificial intelligence", "queries": [], "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": [ "RESIDENTIAL" ], "apifyProxyCountry": "US" } }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("outspoken_strategy/youtube-post-search-scraper").call(input); // Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any) console.log('Results from dataset'); console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`); const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems(); items.forEach((item) => { console.dir(item); }); // 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs ``` ## Python example ```python from apify_client import ApifyClient # Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token # Replace '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = { "query": "artificial intelligence", "queries": [], "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": True, "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"], "apifyProxyCountry": "US", }, } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("outspoken_strategy/youtube-post-search-scraper").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"]) for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items(): print(item) # 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start ``` ## CLI example ```bash echo '{ "query": "artificial intelligence", "queries": [], "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": [ "RESIDENTIAL" ], "apifyProxyCountry": "US" } }' | apify call outspoken_strategy/youtube-post-search-scraper --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=outspoken_strategy/youtube-post-search-scraper", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "YouTube Posts (Videos) Search Scraper", "description": "Search YouTube videos by keyword. Multiple keywords, sort by upload date/relevance/views/rating, upload-date and date-range filters, auto-pagination. Returns title, description, channel, views, duration and thumbnails. No login needed.", "version": "0.0", "x-build-id": "NFiHmOyf1dlCwABHA" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/outspoken_strategy~youtube-post-search-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-outspoken_strategy-youtube-post-search-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/outspoken_strategy~youtube-post-search-scraper/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-outspoken_strategy-youtube-post-search-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK", "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/outspoken_strategy~youtube-post-search-scraper/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-outspoken_strategy-youtube-post-search-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } } }, "components": { "schemas": { "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "query": { "title": "Search Query (single keyword)", "type": "string", "description": "One keyword/phrase to search for. Wrap in double quotes for an exact phrase match, e.g. \"econet revenue\". You can also paste several keywords, one per line, to search them all. For a clean list use the \"queries\" field below instead. Leave empty if you use \"queries\"." }, "queries": { "title": "Search Queries (multiple keywords)", "type": "array", "description": "Multiple keywords/phrases to search — each is searched separately and results are combined and de-duplicated by video. Takes precedence over/adds to \"query\". numberOfVideos applies PER keyword.", "items": { "type": "string" } }, "sort": { "title": "Sort by", "enum": [ "date", "relevance", "views", "rating" ], "type": "string", "description": "How YouTube orders the search results: \"date\" (newest first), \"relevance\", \"views\" or \"rating\".", "default": "date" }, "numberOfVideos": { "title": "Number of videos", "minimum": 1, "maximum": 1000, "type": "integer", "description": "Maximum number of videos to fetch per keyword. YouTube search stops serving results after roughly 500-600 per query.", "default": 100 }, "uploadDate": { "title": "Upload date filter", "enum": [ "all", "hour", "today", "week", "month", "year" ], "type": "string", "description": "YouTube's own upload-date window for the search (the \"Upload date\" filter dropdown).", "default": "all" }, "timeSince": { "title": "Since date", "pattern": "^\\d{4}-\\d{2}-\\d{2}$", "type": "string", "description": "Only return videos published on or after this date (format: yyyy-mm-dd). APPROXIMATE: search results only expose relative publish times (\"3 weeks ago\"), so the comparison uses the derived created_at. Combine with the uploadDate filter for hard cutoffs." }, "timeUntil": { "title": "Until date", "pattern": "^\\d{4}-\\d{2}-\\d{2}$", "type": "string", "description": "Only return videos published before this date (format: yyyy-mm-dd). APPROXIMATE — see timeSince." }, "proxyConfiguration": { "title": "Proxy configuration", "type": "object", "description": "Proxy to route traffic through. Residential proxies are recommended — YouTube captchas or blocks flagged datacenter IPs.", "default": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": [ "RESIDENTIAL" ], "apifyProxyCountry": "US" } }, "headless": { "title": "Run browser headless", "type": "boolean", "description": "The actor fetches over plain HTTP and only falls back to a Chrome browser when YouTube blocks it. Uncheck to run that fallback browser headed (useful only for local debugging).", "default": true } } }, "runsResponseSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "data": { "type": "object", "properties": { "id": { "type": "string" }, "actId": { "type": "string" }, "userId": { "type": "string" }, "startedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "finishedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "status": { "type": "string", "example": "READY" }, "meta": { "type": "object", "properties": { "origin": { "type": "string", "example": "API" }, "userAgent": { "type": "string" } } }, "stats": { "type": "object", "properties": { "inputBodyLen": { "type": "integer", "example": 2000 }, "rebootCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "restartCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "resurrectCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "computeUnits": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "options": { "type": "object", "properties": { "build": { "type": "string", "example": "latest" }, "timeoutSecs": { "type": "integer", "example": 300 }, "memoryMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 1024 }, "diskMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 2048 } } }, "buildId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultKeyValueStoreId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultDatasetId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultRequestQueueId": { "type": "string" }, "buildNumber": { "type": "string", "example": "1.0.0" }, "containerUrl": { "type": "string" }, "usage": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 1 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "usageTotalUsd": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "usageUsd": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } } } } } } } } } ```