YouTube Shorts Scraper

YouTube Shorts Scraper

Scrape YouTube Shorts from any channel, up to a million per run. Every Short comes with its view count, like count, publish date, and full metadata. No API key or quota. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

YouTube's official API needs OAuth, quotas, and a project setup. This reads the public Shorts feeds directly from channel handles or URLs, sorted by newest, popular, or oldest, and returns each match in one fixed schema.

Who uses it	What they scrape YouTube Shorts for
Content strategists	Which Shorts formats a competitor channel is publishing this month
Social media analysts	How Shorts view counts trend across a niche over time
Influencer marketing teams	Which creators in a niche get the most Shorts engagement
Market researchers	What topics brands in an industry cover in Shorts
Data journalists	The volume and reach of Shorts on a breaking news topic

What it does

This Actor collects YouTube Shorts from one or multiple channels and returns each Short as a flat row with its metadata.

• 📥 Channel handles or URLs: feed it @nasa, a full channel URL, or a bare handle, one per line.
• 🔢 Result cap: set max Shorts per channel from 1 up to 1,000,000, or leave empty for all.
• ↕️ Sort order: newest first, most popular first, or oldest first.
• 📅 Date cutoff: stop at an oldest post date when sorting by newest, so you only get fresh Shorts.

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

What you can do with YouTube Shorts data

📈 Track competitor Shorts output.

A content strategist runs the Actor weekly on three competitor channels with sort newest and a date cutoff, then compares publish frequency and view counts to adjust their own Shorts calendar.

🔍 Find top Shorts in a niche.

A market researcher scrapes Shorts from ten channels in the fitness niche sorted by popular, then filters the dataset for Shorts above 100k views to identify winning formats.

📊 Monitor a brand campaign.

An agency pulls all Shorts from a client's channel and its main competitor for the last 30 days, then reports on view and like trends to show campaign lift.

🧪 Build a Shorts dataset for analysis.

A data scientist collects 50,000 Shorts across 20 channels, exports to JSON, and trains a model to predict view counts from title length and publish time.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
No API key	Scrape public Shorts feeds without OAuth or quota limits
One fixed schema	Every Short returns the same flat row, ready for analysis
Bulk by design	One run can pull up to a million Shorts per channel
Sort and filter	Newest, popular, or oldest, with an optional date cutoff

How it compares

This Actor is built specifically for YouTube Shorts, while the competitors below are general YouTube scrapers that may or may not cover Shorts.

Feature	ParseForge	YouTube Scraper	Fast YouTube Channel Scraper	YouTube Comments Scraper
Scrapes Shorts specifically	Yes	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed
Sort Shorts by newest, popular, or oldest	Yes	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed
Date cutoff filter	Yes	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed
Up to 1,000,000 results per channel	Yes	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed
No API key or quota	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Channel handle input	Yes	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed

Configure the run

Drive the Actor from channel handles or URLs, and filters run as each Short is read so only matches reach your dataset. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
  "channels": [
    "@nasa"
  ],
  "maxResultsShorts": 10
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.01599 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$1.60
1,000 results	$15.99
10,000 results	$159.90

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 Shorts 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 Shorts 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-shorts-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 the channel handle or URL is correct and that the channel has Shorts. Also, if you set an oldest post date, make sure it is not in the future or before the channel's first Short.

Why did the run stop early?

If you set max Shorts per channel, the Actor stops after reaching that number. Free users are limited to 100 per channel. Remove the limit or upgrade to get more.

Why is the oldest post date filter not working?

The oldest post date filter only works when sort is set to newest first. If you sort by popular or oldest, the filter is ignored.

Why are some Shorts missing?

YouTube may hide some Shorts from public feeds, or the channel may have deleted them. The Actor can only return what is publicly visible.

Can I get the video file itself?

No, this Actor returns metadata only. To download video files, use a dedicated downloader or the YouTube Scraper actor.

FAQ

Question	Answer
Do I need a YouTube API key?	No. This Actor reads the public Shorts feeds directly, so there is no API key, OAuth, or quota to manage.
What channel formats does it accept?	You can use @handle format like @nasa, a full channel URL like https://www.youtube.com/@nasa, or a bare handle like nasa.
How many Shorts can I scrape?	Free users are limited to 100 Shorts per channel. Paid users can set max Shorts per channel up to 1,000,000, or leave it empty to get all Shorts.
Can I sort the results?	Yes. Choose newest first, most popular first, or oldest first. The oldest post date filter only works with newest first.
What data does each Short include?	Each row includes the Short's title, view count, like count, publish date, channel name, and other metadata. The exact fields are listed in the dataset preview.
Can I scrape multiple channels in one run?	Yes. Add as many channel handles or URLs as you need, one per line. The Actor processes them all in a single run.
What export formats are supported?	You can export the results to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML from the Apify dataset.
Does it scrape regular YouTube videos too?	No, this Actor is built for Shorts only. For regular videos, use a general YouTube scraper like YouTube Scraper or Fast YouTube Channel Scraper.
Is there a limit on how far back I can scrape?	You can set an oldest post date to stop scraping when a Short is older than that date. Leave it empty to get all Shorts.
Can I run this on a schedule?	Yes. Use Apify's scheduler to run the Actor daily, weekly, or at any interval, and get fresh Shorts automatically.

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 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.