# YouTube Channel Monitor: Track Channels and Views (`precious_bathmat/youtube-channel-monitor`) Actor

Track any list of YouTube channels: what they published recently, how many views each video got, how often they post and whether they are speeding up or slowing down. Reads the public channel feed, so no API key, no quota and no login.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/precious\_bathmat/youtube-channel-monitor.md
- **Developed by:** [Mariam Ahmed](https://apify.com/precious_bathmat) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media, Marketing
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per event

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 Channel Monitor: Track Channels and Views

**Watch a list of YouTube channels and see who is actually winning.** For every channel: what it published recently, how many views each video got, how often it posts, and whether it is speeding up or slowing down against its own baseline.

No API key, no quota, no login, no proxy.

### What does this do?

The YouTube Data API gives you 10,000 quota units a day and a Google Cloud project to set up first. This Actor reads the channel's public feed instead, which needs none of that, and turns fifteen recent videos into a scorecard you can sort.

```mermaid
flowchart LR
    A[Handles, URLs<br/>or channel ids] --> B[Resolve to the<br/>real channel]
    B --> C[Public channel feed:<br/>15 recent videos + views]
    C --> D[Pace, views, momentum,<br/>best and worst video]
```

### Read this before you buy

YouTube's public feed carries the **15 most recent videos** of a channel, and nothing older. That is a hard limit of the source, not a setting.

So this Actor is built for **monitoring and benchmarking many channels**: track 200 competitors every week for cents, see who is accelerating, catch new uploads. It is **not** a full channel archive, and it cannot fetch a channel's back catalogue. If you need every video a channel ever made, you need a different tool.

What you get instead is speed and reliability: the feed answered 12 out of 12 times in testing with no bot checks, no CAPTCHAs and no proxy bill.

### Who is it for?

| You are | You use it to |
|---|---|
| **Creators** | Benchmark your output and views against rivals in your niche, week by week |
| **Brand and sponsorship teams** | Vet channels before paying for a placement: are they still posting, are views holding up |
| **Agencies** | Report client channel performance next to competitors, on a schedule |
| **Media analysts** | Track publishing pace and audience response across hundreds of channels |
| **Anyone tracking a topic** | Get a weekly digest of what a set of channels just published |

### What data do you get?

One row per channel:

| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `channelTitle`, `channelId`, `channelUrl`, `channelCreatedAt` | The channel, and when it started |
| `videosInWindow`, `videosInFeed` | How many recent videos fell inside your window |
| `uploadsPerWeek` | Real publishing pace, measured across those videos |
| `averageViews`, `medianViews`, `totalViews` | How those videos performed |
| `averageLikes`, `totalLikes` | Audience response |
| `trend`, `momentumPercent` | Newer half of the videos against the older half: **accelerating**, **steady** or **slowing** |
| `recentAverageViews`, `earlierAverageViews` | The two numbers behind that verdict |
| `mostViewedVideo`, `leastViewedVideo` | Best and worst recent video, with links |
| `latestVideoAt`, `daysSinceLastUpload`, `isActive` | Whether the channel is still alive |

Turn on **Also return each video as a row** for a second table: title, views, likes, date and link.

### Example

Five channels, 90 day window, September 2026:

| Channel | Videos | Uploads / week | Average views | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MrBeast | 14 | 1.2 | 88,560,974 | slowing (−22%) |
| Marques Brownlee | 15 | 1.7 | 6,662,533 | **accelerating (+77%)** |
| Veritasium | 15 | 1.7 | 4,141,153 | slowing (−55%) |
| Linus Tech Tips | 15 | 8.9 | 1,771,758 | slowing (−45%) |
| Fireship | 15 | 2.0 | 1,596,360 | **accelerating (+158%)** |

Linus Tech Tips posts nearly nine videos a week, seven times MrBeast's pace, and gets about 2% of the views per video. Fireship's recent videos are pulling more than twice its own baseline.

### How to use it

1. Add your **channels**: `@mkbhd`, a channel URL, or a `UC…` id. Handles are resolved for you.
2. Pick the **window**. A narrow window measures only the last few weeks; "all 15" uses everything the feed gives.
3. Run it, then export to CSV, Excel or JSON.

Run it on a schedule with the same channels to watch momentum change over time.

### Popular comparisons

Ready to run examples, each one a real set of channels:

- [Tech Review Channels: Views and Upload Pace](https://apify.com/precious_bathmat/youtube-channel-monitor/examples/tech-review-channels)
- [Programming Channels: Views and Upload Pace](https://apify.com/precious_bathmat/youtube-channel-monitor/examples/programming-channels)
- [Science Channels: Views and Upload Pace](https://apify.com/precious_bathmat/youtube-channel-monitor/examples/science-channels)
- [Personal Finance Channels: Views and Upload Pace](https://apify.com/precious_bathmat/youtube-channel-monitor/examples/personal-finance-channels)
- [News Channels on YouTube: Views and Output](https://apify.com/precious_bathmat/youtube-channel-monitor/examples/news-channels)
- [Startup and VC Channels: Views and Upload Pace](https://apify.com/precious_bathmat/youtube-channel-monitor/examples/startup-and-vc-channels)
- [Gaming Channels: Views and Upload Pace](https://apify.com/precious_bathmat/youtube-channel-monitor/examples/gaming-channels)
- [Fitness Channels: Views and Upload Pace](https://apify.com/precious_bathmat/youtube-channel-monitor/examples/fitness-channels)
- [AI Channels: Views and Upload Pace](https://apify.com/precious_bathmat/youtube-channel-monitor/examples/ai-channels)
- [Marketing Channels: Views and Upload Pace](https://apify.com/precious_bathmat/youtube-channel-monitor/examples/marketing-channels)
- [Design Channels: Views and Upload Pace](https://apify.com/precious_bathmat/youtube-channel-monitor/examples/design-channels)
- [Podcast Channels: Views and Upload Pace](https://apify.com/precious_bathmat/youtube-channel-monitor/examples/podcast-channels)
- [Top Creator Channels: Views and Upload Pace](https://apify.com/precious_bathmat/youtube-channel-monitor/examples/top-creator-channels)

### Pricing

Pay per result: **$0.01 per channel scorecard**, plus **$0.0005 per video row** only if you ask for the video table. Monitoring 100 channels costs about a dollar.

### Where the data comes from

The public YouTube channel feed at `youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml`, which every podcast app and RSS reader uses. Handles are resolved through the channel page.

### FAQ

**Are subscriber counts included?**
No. They cannot be read reliably from the public page — the patterns that look right return figures that are plainly wrong, so nothing here reports them rather than printing a number you cannot trust.

**Why is the star rating missing?**
YouTube reports 5.00 out of 5 for every video since dislikes were removed, so it tells you nothing. The like count is kept, which does.

**What does "momentum" actually compare?**
The average views of the newer half of the videos in your window against the older half. Above +15% is accelerating, below −15% is slowing. It needs at least six videos, and says "not enough videos" rather than guessing.

**Recent videos have had less time to gather views. Does that skew it?**
Yes, and it is worth knowing: a video posted yesterday has not finished accumulating views. Momentum is most meaningful on channels that post steadily, and over a window wide enough that the newest video is not most of the sample.

**Can it find channels by topic?**
No. It reads channels you name. There is no public search in this feed.

# Actor input Schema

## `channels` (type: `array`):

Handles such as @mkbhd, channel URLs, or channel ids starting with UC. One per line.

## `windowDays` (type: `string`):

Videos older than this are left out of the numbers. YouTube gives the 15 most recent videos, so a wide window simply keeps all 15.

## `minVideosInWindow` (type: `integer`):

Drops quiet channels from the results. Leave at 0 to keep every channel, including dormant ones.

## `includeVideos` (type: `boolean`):

Adds a second table with one row per video: title, views, rating, date and link.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "channels": [
    "@veritasium",
    "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast"
  ],
  "windowDays": "90",
  "minVideosInWindow": 0,
  "includeVideos": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `channels` (type: `string`):

Publishing pace, views, momentum and latest activity per channel.

## `videos` (type: `string`):

Every recent video with its view count, when that option is on.

## `summary` (type: `string`):

Which channels were read and which could not be.

# 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 = {
    "channels": [
        "@mkbhd",
        "@LinusTechTips",
        "@Fireship"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("precious_bathmat/youtube-channel-monitor").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 = { "channels": [
        "@mkbhd",
        "@LinusTechTips",
        "@Fireship",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("precious_bathmat/youtube-channel-monitor").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 '{
  "channels": [
    "@mkbhd",
    "@LinusTechTips",
    "@Fireship"
  ]
}' |
apify call precious_bathmat/youtube-channel-monitor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

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/WWCdBsit2wkACh0w8/builds/zPnZWlU6EcCpBRFk2/openapi.json