YouTube Scraper - Search, Channels & Playlists

YouTube Scraper

Scrape YouTube videos from any search, channel, playlist or video URL, up to a million per run. Every video comes back as a flat row with its title, URL, thumbnail, duration, upload date, view count and channel profile. No API key and no quota. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

YouTube's official Data API requires a Google Cloud project, OAuth setup, and daily quotas that run out fast. This scraper reads public YouTube pages directly, so you get video metadata, channel info, and captions without any registration. Each result is a flat row with all the fields you need for analysis.

Who uses it	What they scrape YouTube for
Content researchers	Track which topics and creators are trending in a niche over time.
SEO analysts	Gather video titles, descriptions, and tags to reverse-engineer ranking strategies.
Market intelligence teams	Monitor competitor channels and their most viewed uploads.
Data scientists	Build training datasets from YouTube metadata at scale.

What it does

This Actor collects YouTube videos by search query, channel, playlist URL or video URL, and returns each one with its metadata and channel profile as a single flat row.

• 🔍 Search queries: Enter any term, video URL, or channel handle (@channelname) and the actor auto-detects the type, then enriches each video with full channel profile.
• 📋 Playlist scraping: Provide one or more playlist URLs and every video in the playlist is collected up to your max limit.
• 📊 Computed signals: Each video includes view count, like count, comment count, duration, upload date, and channel subscriber count.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with YouTube data

📈 Track trending topics.

A content strategist runs daily searches for keywords in their niche and exports the top videos to see what formats and titles are gaining traction.

🔍 Audit competitor channels.

A marketing analyst feeds competitor channel handles into the actor and collects every video's metadata to compare upload frequency, engagement, and topic focus.

🎓 Build a research dataset.

A researcher scrapes every video from a set of educational channels and playlists to study upload cadence, duration and reach across a subject area.

📊 Monitor brand mentions.

A brand manager searches for their product name weekly and collects video titles, descriptions, and comments to gauge public sentiment.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
Video metadata	Title, description, URL, thumbnail, duration, upload date, view count, like count, comment count.
Channel profile	Channel name, URL, subscriber count, total videos, channel description, and avatar.
Playlists and channels	Every upload of a channel, or every video in a playlist, with pagination handled for you.
Search filters	Sort by relevance, upload date, view count, or rating. Filter by upload date, duration, type, and features.

How it compares

Compared to other YouTube scrapers on Apify, this actor enriches every result with the full channel profile, with no extra steps.

Feature	ParseForge	YouTube Scraper
Full video metadata	Yes	Yes
Channel profile (subs, total videos)	Yes	Not listed
Channel uploads with pagination	Yes	Not listed
Playlist scraping	Yes	Not listed
Search filters (date, duration, type)	Yes	Not listed
No API key required	Yes	Yes

Configure the run

Drive the Actor from search queries, playlist URLs, or direct video/channel links, alone or together. Filters for upload date, video duration, video type, and features (HD, subtitles, 4K, live, HDR, VR180) run as each video is read so only matches reach your dataset. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
  "playlistUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOeiKm4sgNOknc9TTnkwVnCH"
  ],
  "searchQueries": [
    "python tutorial",
    "web scraping"
  ],
  "maxItems": 10
}

A larger pull:

{
  "playlistUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOeiKm4sgNOknc9TTnkwVnCH"
  ],
  "searchQueries": [
    "python tutorial",
    "web scraping"
  ],
  "maxItems": 200
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.08 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$8.00
1,000 results	$80.00
10,000 results	$800.00

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the YouTube Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then 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 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-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting no results?

Check that your search query or playlist URL is correct and publicly accessible. Some channels or videos may be private or region-restricted. Also verify that maxItems is set high enough.

A video URL returns nothing.

YouTube answers LOGIN_REQUIRED on the watch page when the request comes from a datacenter address. Switch the proxy to residential for runs that read individual video URLs. Search, channels and playlists work on the default datacenter proxy.

The actor is running slowly.

Large playlists or broad search queries can take time. Reduce maxItems or narrow your search with filters like upload date or video duration to speed things up.

I see an error about rate limiting.

YouTube may temporarily block rapid requests. The actor handles retries automatically, but if you hit limits, try reducing concurrency or spreading runs over time.

FAQ

Question	Answer
Do I need a YouTube API key?	No. This scraper reads public YouTube pages directly, so you don't need any API key or Google Cloud project.
Can I scrape an entire channel?	Yes. Enter the channel's handle (e.g., @channelname) or a channel URL as a search query, and the actor will collect all videos from that channel up to your maxItems limit.
Does it get video transcripts?	No. Transcripts need a signed player session, so they live in a dedicated Actor: YouTube Transcript Scraper.
What is the maximum number of videos I can scrape?	You can set maxItems up to 1,000,000 per input. The actual number depends on your Apify plan and memory limits.
Can I filter by upload date?	Yes. You can filter search results by last hour, today, this week, this month, this year, or any time.
Does it scrape comments?	No. This actor focuses on video metadata and channel profiles. For comments use YouTube Comments Scraper.
Can I scrape playlists?	Yes. Provide one or more playlist URLs and the actor will scrape every video in each playlist up to your maxItems limit.
What export formats are supported?	You can export the dataset as CSV, JSON, Excel, XML, or HTML directly from the Apify platform.

Related actors

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 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.

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