YouTube Scraper Pro | Video & Comment Extractor for SEO & Brand Monitoring

The most advanced YouTube Scraper for Apify.

Extract video data, engagement metrics, and comments with powerful filtering and structured JSON output. Perfect for SEO research, brand monitoring, competitor analysis, and content strategy.

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✅ Key Features

• Comprehensive video data → title, URL, views (number), duration, thumbnail, video type (normal/short/live), publish date (ISO format)
• Advanced comment extraction → extract up to comments_max per video + filter by author (comments_user_search)
• Transcript extraction → extract full video transcripts (when available) for content analysis and SEO keyword research
• Optimized performance → resource blocking, incremental dataset pushes, smart scrolling
• Channel search integration → scrape specific topics within a channel using YouTube's native search
• SEO-friendly output → structured JSON with normalized views & dates
• Scalable & reliable → works on large channels with retry & proxy support

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🎯 Use Cases

SEO Research

Analyze titles, descriptions, hashtags, engagement to optimize content strategy.

Brand Monitoring

Detect mentions in comments, track brand reputation, identify issues early.

Competitor Analysis

Monitor competitor video strategy & performance to stay ahead.

Social Media Analytics

Extract engagement metrics for reporting & performance tracking.

Content Strategy

Identify top-performing videos & trending formats for data-driven decisions.

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🚀 Quick Start

Basic Example

{
  "channel": "https://www.youtube.com/@Nike",
  "max_videos": 50
}

Global YouTube Search Example

{
  "search_query": "apple watch review",
  "max_videos": 50,
  "video_details": true,
  "comments_max": 100
}

Channel-Specific Search Example

{
  "channel": "https://www.youtube.com/@Nike",
  "search_query": "air max",
  "max_videos": 50,
  "video_details": true,
  "comments_max": 50
}

SEO Research Example (with Transcripts)

{
  "channel": "https://www.youtube.com/@Nike",
  "search_query": "air max",
  "max_videos": 50,
  "video_details": true,
  "comments_max": 50,
  "extract_transcript": true
}

Brand Monitoring Example

{
  "channel": "https://www.youtube.com/@Nike",
  "max_videos": 100,
  "video_details": true,
  "comments_max": 200,
  "comments_user_search": "nike_fan"
}

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📥 Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
channel	string	optional	YouTube channel URL (e.g., https://www.youtube.com/@Nike). Optional if search_query is provided.
search_query	string	""	Search term. If channel provided: searches within channel. If no channel: searches globally on YouTube.
max_videos	integer	30	Maximum number of videos to scrape
video_details	boolean	false	Extract full video descriptions and comments
comments_max	integer	100	Maximum comments to extract per video
comments_user_search	string	""	Filter comments by author name (case-insensitive)
extract_transcript	boolean	false	Extract video transcript (if available) for SEO and content analysis
timeout	integer	900	Timeout in seconds (900s = 15min recommended for 10-20 videos with comments)
useApifyProxy	boolean	true	Use Apify Proxy for reliable scraping
proxyConfiguration	object	{}	Custom proxy configuration

Note: Mobile YouTube URLs (m.youtube.com) are automatically converted to desktop URLs.

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⚡ Performance Guide

Processing Time

• Without video_details: ~1-2 seconds per video (100 videos = 3-5 minutes)
• With video_details: ~30-60 seconds per video (10 videos = 5-10 minutes)

Configuration Examples

Quick Overview (100 videos, no comments): timeout: 300 Brand Monitoring (20 videos with comments): timeout: 900 Deep Analysis (10 videos, 200 comments each): timeout: 1800

Pro Tip: Use video_details: false first to get all video URLs quickly, then scrape specific videos with video_details: true for detailed analysis.

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📤 Output Format

Example of scraped data: https://i.ibb.co/zVZc86kR/output.jpg

Video Object Structure

{
  "id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "title": "Nike Air Max 2024 - Official Release",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/hqdefault.jpg",
  "views": 1234567,
  "published": "2 days ago",
  "published_date": "2024-05-09",
  "duration": "10:30",
  "type": "video",
  "description": "Full video description...",
  "transcript": "Full video transcript (when extract_transcript is enabled)...",
  "comments": [
    {
      "author": "nike_fan",
      "text": "Amazing product!",
      "likes": "123",
      "time": "2 days ago",
      "time_date": "2024-05-09"
    }
  ]
}

Output Features

• Normalized views: 1.2M → 1200000
• ISO dates: All dates converted to YYYY-MM-DD
• Video types: Automatically detected (video, short, live)
• Structured comments: Author, text, likes, timestamps

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🛡️ Brand Safety & Comment Filtering

Use comments_user_search to monitor specific users or keywords:

• Track engagement: Find all comments from specific users
• Detect brand mentions: Monitor your brand or competitor names
• Identify risks: Find problematic content for moderation
• AI analysis: Export data for sentiment analysis with ChatGPT/Claude

Example: Brand Monitoring

{
  "channel": "https://www.youtube.com/@YourBrand",
  "video_details": true,
  "comments_max": 500,
  "comments_user_search": "competitor_name"
}

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🔧 Technical Details

Performance Optimizations

• Resource blocking (images, stylesheets, fonts) → 3x faster
• Smart scrolling with efficient wait mechanisms
• Incremental dataset pushes
• Configurable timeouts & retry logic

Data Processing

• Automatic mobile URL conversion
• View count parsing (K, M, B formats)
• Relative → absolute date conversion
• Comment pagination via YouTube's API

Proxy Support

• Full Apify Proxy integration
• Custom proxy configuration
• IP rotation to avoid rate limits

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💡 Pro Tips

1. Start small: Test with max_videos: 10 first
2. Use proxies: Enable Apify Proxy for reliable scraping
3. Filter strategically: Use search_query for relevant videos
4. Monitor incrementally: Run regular scrapes to track changes
5. Combine with AI: Export & analyze with ChatGPT/Claude

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🏆 Why Choose YouTube Scraper Pro?

Feature	YouTube Scraper Pro	Generic Scrapers
SEO-optimized output	✅ Normalized data	❌ Raw data
Comment filtering	✅ Author-based	❌ All or nothing
Performance	✅ Resource blocking	❌ Slow
Brand monitoring	✅ Built-in filtering	❌ Manual work
Proxy support	✅ Full support	⚠️ Limited
Video type detection	✅ Auto-detect	❌ Generic only

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⚠️ Responsible Usage

This scraper is designed for legitimate business purposes:

• Market research & competitive analysis
• Brand reputation monitoring
• Content strategy optimization
• Academic research

Please respect YouTube's Terms of Service:

• Do not use for spam or harassment
• Respect privacy regulations (GDPR, CCPA)
• Use proxies to avoid overwhelming servers
• Implement rate limiting for large operations

This tool is provided for research and business intelligence. Users are responsible for ensuring compliance with all applicable laws and platform policies.

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📈 Get Started Today

Deploy YouTube Scraper Pro to Apify and start extracting actionable insights from YouTube data. Perfect for marketers, SEO professionals, brand managers, and data analysts.

Ready to scrape? Use the Quick Start examples above to configure your first run.

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🤝 Need Help?

• Report issues through the Apify Console
• Contact support via Apify's help channels
• Check out our comprehensive documentation

Your feedback helps improve YouTube Scraper Pro for everyone!

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Start scraping YouTube today with the most advanced YouTube scraper on Apify.