YouTube Channel Scraper - Stats and Video List

YouTube Channel Scraper - Stats and Video List

Scrape YouTube channels by URL, @handle or channel ID. Each channel comes back as one row with its subscriber count, total views, video count, join date, country, description, links and verification badge, plus a list of its latest uploads with title, views, duration and publish date. No login or API key. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel or XML.

The official YouTube Data API needs a Google Cloud project, an API key and a daily quota. This Actor reads the same public channel data that youtube.com shows, so there is nothing to register.

Who uses it	What they get from it
Influencer marketers	Subscriber counts, verification, country and business-email availability for a creator shortlist.
Content strategists	The latest uploads of competitor channels, with views and publish dates, to see what is working now.
Analysts	Total views, video counts and average views per video across many channels, tracked run after run.
Data journalists	Channel metadata and upload history for stories on creators and platform trends.

What it does

• 📊 Channel stats: subscribers (subscribers, plus the text YouTube shows in subscriberCountText), total views, video count, average views per video, join date and country.
• 🪪 Channel profile: name, @handle, channel ID, description, keywords, external links, avatar and banner images, RSS feed URL, verification badge, family-safe flag and whether a business email is available.
• 📹 Latest videos: up to 100 recent uploads per channel in the videos list (30 by default), each with videoId, title, videoUrl, viewCount, viewCountText, publishedTimeText, publishedDate, durationSeconds, durationText and thumbnailUrl.
• 🔗 Any channel format: https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast, @MrBeast, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX6OQ3DkcsbYNE6H8uQQuVA, a bare UCX6OQ3DkcsbYNE6H8uQQuVA, and legacy /c/ and /user/ links. Two inputs that point to the same channel are returned and charged once.

Each row has 30 fields. Channels that fail (for example a handle that does not exist) come back as a row with an error message and are not charged.

Good to know about the numbers

• Subscribers are rounded by YouTube. YouTube shows "518M subscribers" to everyone, so subscribers is 518,000,000. Nobody outside the channel can see the exact figure.
• Total views and video count are exact, as shown on the channel's About panel.
• Video views and dates: the newest uploads (about 15, from the channel RSS feed) get exact view counts and exact publish timestamps (publishedDateIsApproximate: false). Older uploads carry the rounded view count YouTube displays ("4.2 million views") and a date worked out from "3 months ago" (publishedDateIsApproximate: true).
• The video list covers regular uploads (the channel's Videos tab), not Shorts or live streams.

Configure the run

Input	What it does
startUrls	Channel URLs, @handles or channel IDs, one per line.
maxItems	Maximum number of channels in the run (one row per channel).
maxVideosPerChannel	How many of the latest uploads to include per channel, 0 to 100. Default 30. Set 0 for channel stats only.
proxyConfiguration	Apify datacenter proxy by default, which works for YouTube.

Example input:

{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast",
    "@mkbhd",
    "UCsXVk37bltHxD1rDPwtNM8Q"
  ],
  "maxVideosPerChannel": 30
}

Example row (shortened, with one of the 30 videos):

{
  "type": "channel",
  "channelName": "MrBeast",
  "handle": "@MrBeast",
  "channelId": "UCX6OQ3DkcsbYNE6H8uQQuVA",
  "isVerified": true,
  "subscribers": 518000000,
  "subscriberCountText": "518M subscribers",
  "totalViews": 140853133713,
  "videoCount": 1003,
  "avgViewsPerVideo": 140431838,
  "country": "United States",
  "joinedDate": "2012-02-19",
  "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast",
  "videosCollected": 30,
  "videos": [
    {
      "videoId": "v9QtM6qnG50",
      "title": "I Built A City To Save Kids From Illegal Labor",
      "videoUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9QtM6qnG50",
      "viewCount": 65695011,
      "viewCountText": "65 million views",
      "publishedTimeText": "6 days ago",
      "publishedDate": "2026-09-19T16:00:01.000Z",
      "publishedDateIsApproximate": false,
      "durationSeconds": 1143,
      "durationText": "19:03"
    }
  ],
  "error": null
}

Pricing

Pay per channel: one result is one channel row, including its video list. There is no start fee, and failed channels are not charged.

Apify plan	Price per 1,000 channels
Free	$1.30
Bronze	$1.00
Silver	$0.80
Gold and above	$0.50

For example, 100 channels with 30 videos each cost $0.13 on the Free plan. Platform usage is included in the price. New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

Free users

Free-plan runs are capped at 100 channels per run. Upgrade your Apify plan to remove the cap.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the YouTube Channel Scraper.
3. Paste your channels into YouTube channels and click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to YouTube channel data through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor or any MCP client:

$claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/youtube-channel-scraper"

Then ask it in plain language to look up a list of channels.

Next step

Every row carries the channel's handle and the videoUrl and videoId of each video in videos, so the other ParseForge YouTube Actors can take it from here:

• YouTube Scraper - Search, Channels and Playlists: put the channelUrl column in startUrls to collect more than the latest 100 uploads of a channel, or search YouTube by keyword.
• YouTube Comments Scraper - Replies and Likes: put the videoUrl values from videos in startUrls to get the comments on each video.
• YouTube Transcript Scraper - Timestamps, SRT and Metadata: put the videoUrl values from videos in startUrls, or the videoId values in videoIds, to get the captions of each video.
• YouTube Shorts Scraper - 35 Fields Per Short: put the channelUrl column in channels to get the channel's Shorts, which this Actor does not list. Use the @handle links: the Shorts Scraper does not read /channel/UC... links yet, and channelUrl is only a /channel/ link for the rare channel without a handle.

Troubleshooting

A channel came back with "Channel not found or unavailable".

The handle or ID does not exist, or the channel was removed or terminated. Open the link in a browser to check. Handles are the part after @ in the channel URL, which is not always the channel's display name.

videos is empty for a channel.

The channel has no regular uploads (only Shorts or live streams), or maxVideosPerChannel is 0.

Why does a video have publishedDateIsApproximate: true?

YouTube shows older uploads as "3 months ago" on the channel page. The date is worked out from that text. The newest uploads get their exact date from the channel RSS feed.

The run ended as FAILED.

That happens only when every channel in the run failed, so the problem is visible instead of hiding behind a green status. The dataset still holds one row per channel with the error message, and nothing was charged.

FAQ

Question	Answer
Do I need a YouTube API key?	No. The Actor reads public channel data, so no API key or OAuth is needed.
Which channel formats are supported?	@handle, /@handle URLs, /channel/UC... URLs, bare UC... IDs, and legacy /c/ and /user/ URLs.
How many videos per channel?	Up to 100 of the latest uploads, set with maxVideosPerChannel. For a channel's full history use YouTube Scraper.
Is the subscriber count exact?	It is the figure YouTube displays, which YouTube rounds (for example 21.3M).
Do private or unlisted videos appear?	No. Only public uploads on the channel's Videos tab.
Am I charged for channels that fail?	No. Error rows are free, and a duplicate of a channel already in the run is skipped.
Can I export to Google Sheets?	Yes, through Apify's Google Sheets integration, or download a CSV and import it.

Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.

🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by YouTube (Google LLC). It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.