Video Download Link Crawler

🎥 What it does

The Video Download Link Crawler is a powerful web scraping tool that automatically discovers and extracts video download links from websites. Simply provide a starting URL, and the actor will intelligently crawl through pages to find downloadable videos in popular formats like MP4, AVI, MOV, MKV, WebM, and more.

⚡ Key Features

• Smart Video Detection: Finds video links in multiple ways - direct file links, embedded videos, download buttons, and video elements
• Customizable Crawling: Control which links to follow using regular expressions
• Multiple Export Formats: Get results in JSON, CSV, HTML, or XML format
• Depth Control: Set maximum crawling depth to avoid infinite loops
• Real-time Usage Tracking: Monitor events and costs as they happen
• Transparent Billing: See exactly what you're paying for with event-by-event tracking
• Error Handling: Robust error handling ensures reliable results even when some pages fail
• Metadata Extraction: Captures video titles, formats, source URLs, and discovery timestamps

🎯 Perfect for

• Content Creators: Find video samples and resources for projects
• Researchers: Gather video data for academic or market research
• Media Companies: Discover video content across competitor websites
• Digital Marketers: Analyze video content strategies
• Developers: Integrate video discovery into applications via API

🚀 How it works

1. Start URL: Enter the website where you want to begin crawling
2. Configure Patterns: Set regex patterns to control which links to follow and which videos to find
3. Set Limits: Choose maximum pages and crawling depth
4. Export Format: Select your preferred output format
5. Run & Export: Get comprehensive results with all discovered video links

📊 What you get

Each discovered video includes:

• Direct download URL
• Source page where it was found
• Video title and format
• Discovery timestamp
• Crawling depth level
• Event number for billing transparency

💰 Usage & Billing

How Events Are Counted

• Each page processed = 1 billable event
• Failed page requests are NOT counted as events
• Set maxPages to control your maximum usage and costs

Real-time Monitoring

• Watch event counters in the run logs
• Get progress updates every 10 events
• Receive warnings at 80% of your usage limit
• See comprehensive usage summary at the end

Cost Control

Control your costs by setting the maxPages parameter:

{
  "startUrl": "https://example.com",
  "maxPages": 100,
  "videoRegex": "\\.(mp4|webm|mov)$"
}

Usage Summary Includes

• Total events processed vs. your limit
• Videos found and efficiency metrics
• Failed requests (not billed)
• Duration and performance statistics
• Cost breakdown and savings

📋 Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
startUrl	string	Yes	-	The URL where crawling begins
videoRegex	string	No	\\.(mp4|avi|mov|mkv|webm|m4v)$	Pattern to identify video files
linkRegex	string	No	.*	Pattern to match URLs to follow
maxPages	integer	No	100	Maximum pages to crawl (= max events)
maxCrawlDepth	integer	No	3	Maximum depth of crawling
outputFormat	string	No	JSON	Export format (JSON, CSV, HTML, XML)

💡 Use Cases

• Video Content Aggregation: Build databases of video content from multiple sources
• Competitive Analysis: Monitor competitor video strategies and content
• Research Projects: Gather video data for academic or business research
• Content Discovery: Find inspiration and resources for creative projects
• Media Monitoring: Track video content across industry websites
• Archive Building: Create comprehensive video link collections

🔧 Technical Specifications

• Supported Formats: MP4, AVI, MOV, MKV, WebM, M4V, FLV, HEVC, MPG, M2TS, OGV, and more
• Export Options: JSON, CSV, HTML, XML with usage metadata
• Rate Limiting: Built-in respectful crawling with configurable limits
• Error Recovery: Automatic retries and graceful failure handling
• Memory Efficient: Optimized for large-scale crawling operations
• Real-time Tracking: Live usage monitoring and cost control

📈 Pricing

Our transparent pay-per-event pricing ensures you only pay for what you use:

• Free Tier: $0.00001 per event (effectively free for small usage)
• Basic Plan: $9.99 per event tier
• Pro Plan: $29.99 per event tier
• Enterprise: $99.90 per event tier

Example Costs

• 100 pages = 100 events = Free tier usage
• 1,000 pages = 1,000 events = Basic tier
• 10,000 pages = 10,000 events = Pro tier

🛡️ Responsible Usage

This actor is designed for legitimate use cases such as research, content discovery, and competitive analysis. Users are responsible for:

• Complying with website terms of service
• Respecting robots.txt files
• Following applicable copyright laws
• Using reasonable rate limits

🎯 Why Choose This Actor?

• Battle-tested: Built with modern Crawlee framework for reliability
• Transparent: Real-time usage tracking and clear billing
• Flexible: Highly customizable regex patterns and crawling rules
• User-friendly: Simple input configuration with powerful results
• Professional: Enterprise-grade error handling and performance
• Cost-effective: Pay only for pages actually processed
• Support: Active maintenance and customer support

🚀 Quick Start Examples

Basic Video Search

{
  "startUrl": "https://sample-videos.com/",
  "maxPages": 50,
  "videoRegex": "\\.(mp4|webm|mov)$"
}

Focused Crawling

{
  "startUrl": "https://example.com/videos",
  "linkRegex": "example\\.com.*video",
  "maxCrawlDepth": 2,
  "maxPages": 100
}

CSV Export

{
  "startUrl": "https://media-site.com",
  "outputFormat": "CSV",
  "maxPages": 200
}

📝 Output Examples

JSON Output

[
  {
    "eventNumber": 1,
    "videoUrl": "https://example.com/video.mp4",
    "sourceUrl": "https://example.com/page1",
    "title": "Sample Video",
    "format": "mp4",
    "foundAt": "2025-07-16T19:30:00.000Z",
    "depth": 0
  }
]

Usage Summary

{
  "totalEvents": 47,
  "totalVideos": 23,
  "videosFound": 23,
  "exportedAt": "2025-07-16T19:35:00.000Z",
  "format": "JSON"
}

🔍 Monitoring Your Usage

During execution, you'll see:

=== USAGE TRACKING ===
Maximum pages to crawl: 100
Each page = 1 billable event
Estimated maximum cost: 100 events
=====================

Event #1: Processing https://example.com (depth: 0)
Found 2 video links on https://example.com
📊 PROGRESS: 10/100 events processed
⚠️  WARNING: Approaching usage limit (80/100 events)

🔍 === FINAL USAGE SUMMARY ===
📊 Total Events Processed: 95 / 100
🎥 Videos Found: 45
💰 Billable Events: 95
💡 You used 5 fewer events than your limit

🆘 Support

Need help? We're here for you:

• Check the examples above
• Review the input parameters table
• Monitor your usage with real-time tracking
• Contact support through Apify platform

Start discovering video content today with the most reliable and transparent video link crawler on Apify!