YouTube Scraper

Extract public data from YouTube without an API key and without the quota limits of the official YouTube Data API. Use it for influencer research, competitor tracking, content research, comment analysis and training data.

• Five kinds of data in one Actor. Video search, all uploads of a channel, full video details, comments with replies, and channel profiles.
• Numbers you can sort. Text like "1.2M views" is parsed into a number. The original text is kept in a separate field.
• No API key, no login and no proxy setup. Press Start and get data.
• Low price. $1 per 1,000 results.

What data can you get?

Mode	One result is	Main fields
Search videos	One video	Title, views, duration, publish time, channel, thumbnail
Channel videos	One video	The same fields for every upload of a channel
Video details	One video	Full description, exact views, likes, comment count, exact publish date, keywords, category, channel subscribers
Comments	One comment or reply	Text, likes, reply count, author, pinned and hearted flags
Channel details	One channel	Subscribers, video count, total views, description, country, join date, links

How to use it

1. Click Try for free.
2. Choose a mode in What to scrape.
3. Fill in the matching input: keywords, video URLs or channels.
4. Click Start, then download the results as JSON, CSV or Excel.

Video URLs can be watch links, youtu.be links, Shorts links or plain video ids. Channels can be /channel/ links, /@handle links or plain handles such as @MrBeast.

Input examples

Search videos uploaded this month:

{
    "mode": "search",
    "searchQueries": ["web scraping", "python tutorial"],
    "uploadDate": "month",
    "maxItems": 200
}

All uploads of two channels:

{
    "mode": "channelVideos",
    "channelUrls": ["@GoogleDevelopers", "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast"],
    "maxItemsPerQuery": 500,
    "maxItems": 1000
}

Comments and replies of a video, newest first:

{
    "mode": "comments",
    "videoUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw"],
    "commentSort": "newest",
    "includeReplies": true,
    "maxItems": 5000
}

Output examples

Video details:

{
    "type": "video",
    "videoId": "jNQXAC9IVRw",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw",
    "title": "Me at the zoo",
    "viewCount": 438341989,
    "viewCountText": "438,341,989 views",
    "likeCount": 19960247,
    "commentCount": 10631026,
    "publishedAt": "2005-04-24T03:31:52Z",
    "durationSeconds": 19,
    "keywords": ["me at the zoo", "jawed karim", "first youtube video"],
    "category": "Film & Animation",
    "isLive": false,
    "channelName": "jawed",
    "channelId": "UC4QobU6STFB0P71PMvOGN5A",
    "channelHandle": "@jawed",
    "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4QobU6STFB0P71PMvOGN5A",
    "channelSubscriberCount": 6640000,
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jNQXAC9IVRw/hqdefault.jpg",
    "commentsEnabled": true,
    "scrapedAt": "2026-09-29T21:48:01Z"
}

A comment:

{
    "type": "comment",
    "commentId": "UgzuC3zzpRZkjc5Qzsd4AaABAg",
    "commentUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw&lc=UgzuC3zzpRZkjc5Qzsd4AaABAg",
    "videoId": "jNQXAC9IVRw",
    "videoTitle": "Me at the zoo",
    "isReply": false,
    "parentCommentId": null,
    "text": "We're so honored that the first ever YouTube video was filmed here!",
    "likeCount": 4800000,
    "likeCountText": "4.8M",
    "replyCount": 985,
    "publishedTimeText": "6 years ago",
    "publishedAtEstimated": "2020-09-30T21:48:05Z",
    "isPinned": true,
    "isHeartedByCreator": true,
    "authorName": "@SanDiegoZoo",
    "authorChannelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC5NfQ6Mf0dq_eEwv4P_hWA",
    "authorIsVerified": true
}

A channel:

{
    "type": "channel",
    "channelId": "UC_x5XG1OV2P6uZZ5FSM9Ttw",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_x5XG1OV2P6uZZ5FSM9Ttw",
    "handle": "@GoogleDevelopers",
    "name": "Google for Developers",
    "subscriberCount": 2680000,
    "videoCount": 6099,
    "totalViews": 360437715,
    "country": "United States",
    "joinedDate": "2007-08-23",
    "rssUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UC_x5XG1OV2P6uZZ5FSM9Ttw"
}

How much does it cost?

You pay per saved result: $1.00 per 1,000 results. There is no start fee and no monthly rental. A video, a comment, a reply and a channel each count as one result.

Run	Results	Cost
100 search results	100	$0.10
2,000 uploads of a channel	2,000	$2.00
3,000 comments of a video	3,000	$3.00

Set a maximum charge per run in the run options and the Actor stops when it is reached.

Limits you should know

• Search returns about 500 videos per keyword. This is YouTube's own limit. To get more, use several related keywords or different sort orders.
• Dates in lists are estimates. Search results, channel uploads and comments only show relative times such as "3 years ago". The Actor keeps that text and adds an estimated date in publishedAtEstimated. Video details mode returns the exact publish date.
• Large numbers are rounded by YouTube. Subscriber counts, and like counts on comments, come as "2.68M" or "4.8M", so the numeric value is rounded too. Video details mode returns exact views and likes.
• Transcripts and video downloads are not included.
• Private, deleted and age-restricted videos are skipped with a warning.
• Shorts and live streams of a channel are off by default. Turn them on with the two switches in the input.

Tips

• Get exact numbers for a list. Run channel videos or search first, then feed the url values into video details mode.
• Run it on a schedule. Scrape the same channels every day to track growth over time.

FAQ

Is it legal? The Actor collects only data that YouTube shows publicly to every visitor. Results can contain personal data such as usernames. Make sure you have a legitimate reason to process it, as required by the GDPR and similar laws.

Do I need a proxy? No. If YouTube refuses the address of the server a run started on, the Actor switches to an Apify proxy address by itself.

Something is broken or missing? Open a ticket in the Issues tab. Issues are usually answered within a day.