# YouTube Engagement Rate Calculator - Real Views? (`reapx/youtube-channel-check`) Actor

Is anyone actually watching? Real views per subscriber, whether the last 15 uploads are landing harder or softer than the ones before them, and how fast this channel is really moving.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/reapx/youtube-channel-check.md
- **Developed by:** [Tarek Etman](https://apify.com/reapx) (community)
- **Categories:** Videos, Social media, For creators
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $70.00 / 1,000 channel check item collecteds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

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

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

![reapX - the record of what changed](https://reapx.dev/reapx.gif)

## YouTube Channel Check & Engagement Scorer API

> *"Half a million subscribers and 2,000 views a video. What am I actually buying here?"*

Subscriber counts alone do not tell you whether a creator's audience is active or engaged. A channel with massive historic subscriber numbers may have stagnant views and declining video output.

The YouTube Channel Check API audits channel profiles directly, extracting verified subscriber counts, video volume, recent upload cadence, and calculated engagement rates. Every audit record emits a permanent `channelId` identifier for cross-time tracking and database entity linking.

Maintained by reapx. Citation guaranteed across entity records.

***

### ⬇️ Input

Give it a channel however you have it - the @handle, the channel URL, or the channel ID.

| Field | Type | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| `channel` | String | Yes | YouTube channel handle (e.g. `@mkbhd`), full URL, or channel ID (`UC...`). | `"@mkbhd"` |
| `sampleVideoCount` | Integer | Yes | Number of recent videos to sample for engagement calculations (1 to 20). | `5` |

#### Input Example

```json
{
  "channel": "@mkbhd",
  "sampleVideoCount": 5
}
```

***

### ⬆️ Output

Audit results are pushed to the default dataset with computed engagement metrics and permanent channel identifiers.

| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `channelId` | String | Permanent YouTube channel identifier (e.g. `"UCWv7vMbMWH4-V0ZXbxDUkFA"`). Stable per-row key. |
| `channelHandle` | String | YouTube handle (e.g. `"@mkbhd"`). |
| `channelTitle` | String | Display title of the channel. |
| `subscribersText` | String | Formatted subscriber count (e.g. `"21.1M subscribers"`). |
| `subscriberCount` | Integer | Estimated numeric subscriber count. |
| `videoCountText` | String | Formatted video count string (e.g. `"1.8K videos"`). |
| `videoCount` | Integer | Total numeric video count. |
| `avatarUrl` | String | Profile avatar image link. |
| `description` | String | Channel description biography text. |
| `engagementRate` | Number | Calculated average engagement rate percentage across sampled recent videos. |
| `engagementRateVsPeers` | Number | Engagement ratio compared to size-band peer median. |
| `postingCadence` | String | Estimated average upload cadence interval. |
| `followerGrowth30d` | Number | 30-day subscriber growth. Returns null on first run until historical series accrues. |
| `reason` | String | Explanatory note when a historical metric returns null. |
| `url` | String | Canonical YouTube channel URL (`https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd`). |
| `scrapedAt` | String | ISO 8601 timestamp of data collection. |

#### Sample Output Item

```json
{
  "channelId": "UCWv7vMbMWH4-V0ZXbxDUkFA",
  "channelHandle": "@mkbhd",
  "channelTitle": "Marques Brownlee",
  "subscribersText": "21.1M subscribers",
  "subscriberCount": 21100000,
  "videoCountText": "1.8K videos",
  "videoCount": 1814,
  "avatarUrl": "https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/ytc/AIdro_k...",
  "description": "Quality tech videos | YouTuber | Geek | Consumer Electronics",
  "engagementRate": 3.42,
  "engagementRateVsPeers": 1.85,
  "postingCadence": "3.5 days between uploads",
  "followerGrowth30d": null,
  "reason": "First run: historical growth tracking starts today.",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-08-05T10:30:00.000Z"
}
```

***

### How it works

1. **Profile Data Extraction:** Fetches the channel homepage and parses native `ytInitialData` components to extract subscriber totals, video counts, and channel metadata.
2. **Recent Content Sampling:** Fetches recent video statistics via direct data requests to sample recent view numbers and upload timestamps.
3. **Compute Layer Processing:** Calculates average engagement rates, upload cadence intervals, and peer benchmark ratios.
4. **Historical Series Tracking:** Emits explicit audit records with permanent `channelId` keys. Multi-run tracking accrues 30-day subscriber growth curves over time.

***

### ❓ FAQ

##### Does this actor require residential proxies?

No. Channel profile data and video player metrics return over standard HTTP connections on plain datacenter IPs without residential proxy costs.

##### How is the engagement rate computed?

Engagement rate is computed as average view engagement per video relative to total subscriber count across the requested sample window.

##### Why does `followerGrowth30d` return null on the first run?

Historical subscriber growth requires repeated observation over time. On the initial run, `followerGrowth30d` returns `null` alongside an explicit `reason` note explaining that tracking begins on run 1.

***

### 💬 Your feedback

For custom audit metrics, bulk channel integrations, or dataset inquiries, contact reapx at reapxdev@proton.me.

***

*Unofficial - not affiliated with YouTube or Google. Collects structured channel metadata. Contact reapxdev@proton.me.*

# Actor input Schema

## `channel` (type: `string`):

YouTube channel handle (e.g. @mkbhd), channel URL (https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd), or channel ID (UC...). The higher the sample count, the longer the run takes and the more events are charged.

## `sampleVideoCount` (type: `integer`):

Number of recent channel videos to sample for engagement rate and cadence calculations (1 to 20). The higher the number, the longer the run takes.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "channel": "@mkbhd",
  "sampleVideoCount": 5
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `items` (type: `string`):

No description

# 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 = {
    "channel": "@mkbhd"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("reapx/youtube-channel-check").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 = { "channel": "@mkbhd" }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("reapx/youtube-channel-check").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 '{
  "channel": "@mkbhd"
}' |
apify call reapx/youtube-channel-check --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

```

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/Rzae9Xg6Pv5pwscv4/builds/uYUZhA4XfeOLq0ad1/openapi.json