# YouTube Shorts Scraper - Views, Likes, Channels & Hashtags (`pipiagent/youtube-shorts-scraper`) Actor

Scrape YouTube Shorts by keyword or from any channel: title, exact views, likes, comment count, publish date, hashtags and channel. Find viral Shorts in a niche or track a creator. No API key, no login.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/pipiagent/youtube-shorts-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Frank0306](https://apify.com/pipiagent) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media, Videos
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$1.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
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.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## 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.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## YouTube Shorts Scraper

Extract [YouTube Shorts](https://www.youtube.com/shorts) by keyword or from any channel, without an API key and without the quota limits of the official YouTube Data API.

Use it to find the Shorts that went viral in your niche, to track what competitors and creators post, to research hooks and hashtags, or to collect short-video data for analysis.

- **Two ways in.** Search Shorts by keyword, or list all Shorts of a channel.
- **The numbers that matter.** Exact views, likes, comment count, publish date, hashtags and the channel of every Short.
- **No API key, no login and no proxy setup.** Press Start and get data.
- **Low price.** $1 per 1,000 Shorts.

### How to use it

1. Click **Try for free**.
2. Type keywords in **Search keywords**, or paste channels in **Channels**, or both.
3. Click **Start**, then download the results as JSON, CSV or Excel.

### Input examples

Shorts about two topics from this month:

```json
{
    "searchQueries": ["cooking hacks", "air fryer recipes"],
    "uploadDate": "month",
    "maxItems": 200
}
```

The latest Shorts of two creators:

```json
{
    "channelUrls": ["@MrBeast", "https://www.youtube.com/@NicksKitchen"],
    "maxItemsPerQuery": 50
}
```

### Output example

```json
{
    "type": "video",
    "videoId": "hE6xmg9Mmkc",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hE6xmg9Mmkc",
    "title": "Tomato Slicing Hack",
    "viewCount": 82360339,
    "likeCount": 1365156,
    "commentCount": 4189,
    "durationSeconds": 17,
    "publishedAt": "2025-04-16T16:01:44Z",
    "isShort": true,
    "description": "#tomato #chef #shorts",
    "hashtags": ["#tomato", "#shorts", "#chef"],
    "channelName": "Nick's Kitchen",
    "channelId": "UC2HNqPgeKtVr2gZmLeeIk3g",
    "channelHandle": "@NicksKitchen",
    "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2HNqPgeKtVr2gZmLeeIk3g",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/hE6xmg9Mmkc/hqdefault.jpg",
    "searchQuery": "cooking hacks",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-10-24T11:26:35Z"
}
```

### How much does it cost?

You pay per saved result: **$1.00 per 1,000 Shorts**. There is no start fee and no monthly rental. **Add full details** does not change the price.

| Run | Results | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 100 Shorts for one keyword | 100 | $0.10 |
| 500 Shorts of a channel | 500 | $0.50 |

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

### Limits you should know

- **About 100 Shorts per keyword.** YouTube stops the Shorts search list at roughly 100 to 140 results. Changing the sort order or upload date adds only a few more. To get more, use several related keywords.
- **No "most viewed" sort.** YouTube returns nothing for Shorts sorted by views. Sort the downloaded table by `viewCount` instead.
- **Upload date filters shrink the list a lot.** With "This week" YouTube often returns only about a dozen Shorts for a keyword, and once in a while none.
- **Without full details, Shorts have only a title and a view count.** The view count is then rounded by YouTube ("40M"). Keep **Add full details** on for exact numbers and the channel.
- **Full details make runs slower.** The Actor opens every Short, so 100 Shorts take about 2 minutes, compared with about 10 seconds without it.
- **Channel Shorts come newest first.** YouTube does not offer another order for a channel.
- **Duplicates across keywords are kept.** Each result has a `searchQuery` field that says which keyword found it.

### Related Actors

- [YouTube Channel Videos Scraper](https://apify.com/pipiagent/youtube-channel-videos-scraper): every upload of a channel.
- [YouTube Search Scraper](https://apify.com/pipiagent/youtube-search-scraper): videos by keyword, upload date and sort order.
- [YouTube Scraper](https://apify.com/pipiagent/youtube-scraper): video details, comments with replies and channel profiles in one Actor.

### 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.

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

# Actor input Schema

## `searchQueries` (type: `array`):

Finds Shorts that match each keyword, for example "cooking hacks" or "iphone 17". Leave empty if you only want the Shorts of channels.

## `channelUrls` (type: `array`):

Optional. Saves the Shorts of these channels, newest first. Accepts channel URLs (youtube.com/@handle, /channel/UC...) and handles like @MrBeast.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of results to save in this run. You are only charged for saved results.

## `maxItemsPerQuery` (type: `integer`):

Optional. Limits results for each keyword and each channel, so that one source does not use up the whole run.

## `shortsDetails` (type: `boolean`):

YouTube lists Shorts with only a title and a view count. With this on, the Actor opens every Short to add the channel, exact views, likes, comment count, publish date, description and hashtags. Turn it off for faster runs with fewer fields. The price per result stays the same.

## `sortBy` (type: `string`):

Used for keywords. YouTube does not sort Shorts search results by views. With "Recent first" the order is not strictly by date.

## `uploadDate` (type: `string`):

Used for keywords. Keeps only Shorts uploaded in this period.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Optional. The Actor works without a proxy. Turn one on only if runs start failing with blocked requests.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchQueries": [
    "cooking hacks"
  ],
  "maxItems": 50,
  "shortsDetails": true,
  "sortBy": "relevance",
  "uploadDate": "any",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

Shorts saved by the run, one item per Short.

# 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 '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "searchQueries": [
        "cooking hacks"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("pipiagent/youtube-shorts-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 '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "searchQueries": ["cooking hacks"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("pipiagent/youtube-shorts-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "searchQueries": [
    "cooking hacks"
  ]
}' |
apify call pipiagent/youtube-shorts-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,pipiagent/youtube-shorts-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/g99BhKebMKoiRRJdx/builds/678GxE2P3H8paha78/openapi.json