Youtube Shorts Scraper

Youtube Shorts Scraper

The Youtube Shorts Scraper is a production-ready YouTube Shorts web scraper that discovers and extracts structured data from Shorts videos on any public channel. It solves the tedious problem of collecting YouTube Shorts metadata at scale by automating video discovery and enrichment with channel details, engagement stats, hashtags, and links. Built for marketers, developers, data analysts, and researchers, this YouTube Shorts scraper tool can power content research, influencer discovery, and analytics workflows end to end — without the official API. 🚀

What data / output can you get?

Below are representative fields the actor saves to the Apify dataset for each Shorts video. You can export results to JSON, CSV, or Excel from the dataset.

Data type	Description	Example value
title	Video title	“Giving Trick-or-Treaters Weirder and Weirder Gifts”
id	YouTube video ID (11 chars)	R7MkZL5i3FQ
url	Canonical Shorts URL	https://www.youtube.com/shorts/R7MkZL5i3FQ
thumbnailUrl	Thumbnail image URL (best available)	https://i.ytimg.com/vi/R7MkZL5i3FQ/hqdefault.jpg
viewCount	Parsed views (supports K/M/B)	64493572
date	Publish date (ISO date-time at midnight UTC)	2025-11-07T00:00:00.000Z
likes	Parsed like count (where available)	909841
duration	Duration in HH:MM:SS or 00:MM:SS	00:00:27
commentsCount	Parsed comment count	7171
commentsTurnedOff	Whether comments are disabled	false
channelName	Channel name (where present)	MrBeast
channelUrl	Canonical channel URL	https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast
numberOfSubscribers	Parsed subscriber count	450000000
hashtags	Hashtags extracted from title/description	["shorts","funny","halloween"]
descriptionLinks	URLs extracted from runs/description	["https://example.com","https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abc123xyz00"]

Bonus outputs include channel enrichment (aboutChannelInfo with joined date, location, banners/avatars, totals), monetization flag (isMonetized), detected subtitles tracks, and lightweight streaming formats metadata. This makes it a robust YouTube Shorts metadata scraper and YouTube Shorts tags extractor for analytics workflows.

Key features

• 🧠 Accurate metadata extraction
  Parses titles, views, likes, comments count, publish date, duration, hashtags, and description links from YouTube’s internal responses — a dependable YouTube Shorts data extractor for research.

• 🧩 Channel enrichment built-in
  Fetches channel details via additional browse calls to populate subscriber counts, canonical URLs, avatars/banners, joined date, location, totals, and a compact aboutChannelInfo object.

• 📈 Sorting & date filtering
  Control output ordering with sortOrder (newest, oldest, popular by views) and filter by publishedAfter (absolute date or relative period) for focused analysis.

• ⚡ Batch scraping & concurrency
  Processes multiple inputs in one run using asynchronous HTTP (aiohttp) with concurrency controls — a reliable YouTube Shorts crawler for scale.

• 🧵 Subtitles & formats metadata
  Detects available subtitles tracks and provides lightweight streaming format metadata (quality + truncated URL), ideal for a YouTube Shorts analytics scraper.

• 🌐 Optional Apify Proxy
  Use proxyConfiguration (useApifyProxy) for reliability in restricted regions; direct connection is supported and works in most locations.

• 👨‍💻 Developer-friendly dataset schema
  Stable JSON keys per item and structured aboutChannelInfo for downstream pipelines, APIs, or a YouTube Shorts API scraper alternative.

• 🔗 Workflow-ready exports
  Results land in an Apify dataset for one-click export to JSON, CSV, or Excel and easy integration with BI tools or automation platforms.

How to use Youtube Shorts Scraper - step by step

1. Create or log in to your Apify account.
2. Open the “youtube-shorts-scraper” actor in the Apify Console.
3. In “Channels or keywords (required)”, paste a list of inputs. Supported formats include:
   • Channel handles: @MrBeast
   • Usernames: mrbeast
   • Full URLs: https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast or https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast/shorts
   • Keywords: e.g., funny shorts, cooking tips
4. Set Max Shorts per channel to control how many videos you collect per input (default 10).
5. (Optional) Use Only Shorts published after to filter by date (YYYY-MM-DD) or a relative time like “7 days”, “2 weeks”, “1 month”, or “1 year”.
6. Choose Sort by: newest, popular (views), or oldest to control ordering.
7. (Optional) Toggle Proxy configuration to enable Apify Proxy if you’re in the EU or a restricted region.
8. Click Start. The actor discovers Shorts, enriches each video, and writes items to the dataset in real time.
9. Go to the Dataset tab to preview, then export to JSON, CSV, or Excel.

Pro Tip: Automate end-to-end by triggering this YouTube Shorts web scraper via the Apify API and connecting the dataset to your analytics stack or CRM. It’s a clean alternative to a YouTube Shorts scraper Python script when you need hosted scale.

Use cases

Use case name	Description
Content research for marketing	Aggregate Shorts performance (views, likes, comments) across channels to identify high-performing formats and topics.
Influencer discovery & benchmarking	Compare creators by channel metrics and engagement to prioritize outreach and partnerships.
Competitive monitoring	Track competitor channels’ newest or most popular Shorts with date filters and ordering for snapshots or longitudinal analysis.
Hashtag & metadata analysis	Extract hashtags, description URLs, and subtitles presence to enrich topic models and SEO keyword clusters.
Social dashboards & ETL pipelines	Run via API on a schedule, export the dataset, and feed BI dashboards or warehouses for continuous reporting.
Academic & media research	Collect public YouTube Shorts metadata for research on media trends, geography, or platform dynamics.

Why choose Youtube Shorts Scraper?

A precise, automation-ready YouTube Shorts metadata scraper that emphasizes structure, scale, and reliability.

• 🎯 Accurate field parsing from internal responses for clean analytics
• 🌍 Optional proxy support for global reliability without browser automation
• 📦 Bulk-capable with async concurrency — fast across many inputs
• 🧠 Developer access via stable JSON schema and easy data exports
• 🔒 Public-data focused and designed for ethical use
• 💸 Cost-effective alternative to brittle extensions and one-off scripts
• 🔌 Integrates smoothly into API pipelines and data tools

In short, it’s a robust YouTube Shorts data extractor for teams who need repeatable, structured datasets — not a fragile, ad‑hoc scraper.

Is it legal / ethical to use Youtube Shorts Scraper?

Yes — when used responsibly. This actor collects data from publicly available YouTube pages and does not access private or authenticated content.

Guidelines for compliant use:

• Only collect public data and avoid personal or private content.
• Respect platform terms and applicable laws (e.g., GDPR, CCPA).
• Use proxies responsibly and avoid abusive request patterns.
• Consult your legal team for edge cases and jurisdiction-specific requirements.

Input parameters & output format

Example JSON input

{
  "startUrls": [
    "@YouTube",
    "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast/shorts",
    "funny shorts"
  ],
  "maxResults": 25,
  "publishedAfter": "1 month",
  "sortOrder": "popular",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}

Parameters

Field	Type	Required	Default	Description
startUrls	array	Yes	["@YouTube"]	Where to scrape Shorts from. Add channel handles (@MrBeast), usernames (mrbeast), full URLs (https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast), or search keywords (e.g. funny shorts).
maxResults	integer	No	10	Maximum number of Shorts to scrape per channel or keyword. Range 1–10,000.
publishedAfter	string	No	—	Filter by publish date. Use YYYY-MM-DD or a relative time like 7 days, 2 weeks, 1 month, 1 year. Leave empty to include all Shorts.
sortOrder	string	No	newest	Order of results: newest, popular, or oldest.
proxyConfiguration	object	No	{"useApifyProxy": false}	Turn on Apify Proxy for more reliable scraping in restricted regions; off = direct connection.

Example JSON output (single item)

{
  "title": "Giving Trick-or-Treaters Weirder and Weirder Gifts",
  "translatedTitle": null,
  "type": "shorts",
  "id": "R7MkZL5i3FQ",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/R7MkZL5i3FQ",
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/R7MkZL5i3FQ/hqdefault.jpg",
  "viewCount": 64493572,
  "date": "2025-11-07T00:00:00.000Z",
  "likes": 909841,
  "location": null,
  "channelName": "MrBeast",
  "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast",
  "channelUsername": "MrBeast",
  "collaborators": null,
  "channelId": "UCX6OQ3DkcsbYNE6H8uQQuVA",
  "channelDescription": "Videos that make you go wow!",
  "channelJoinedDate": "2012-02-20",
  "channelDescriptionLinks": [
    "https://shop.mrbeast.com"
  ],
  "channelLocation": "United States",
  "channelAvatarUrl": "https://yt3.ggpht.com/.../avatar.png",
  "channelBannerUrl": "https://yt3.ggpht.com/.../banner.jpg",
  "channelTotalVideos": 512,
  "channelTotalViews": 38300000000,
  "numberOfSubscribers": 450000000,
  "isChannelVerified": true,
  "inputChannelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast",
  "isAgeRestricted": false,
  "aboutChannelInfo": {
    "channelDescription": "Videos that make you go wow!",
    "channelJoinedDate": "2012-02-20",
    "channelDescriptionLinks": [
      "https://shop.mrbeast.com"
    ],
    "channelLocation": "United States",
    "channelUsername": "MrBeast",
    "channelAvatarUrl": "https://yt3.ggpht.com/.../avatar.png",
    "channelBannerUrl": "https://yt3.ggpht.com/.../banner.jpg",
    "channelTotalVideos": 512,
    "channelTotalViews": 38300000000,
    "numberOfSubscribers": 450000000,
    "isChannelVerified": true,
    "channelName": "MrBeast",
    "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast",
    "channelId": "UCX6OQ3DkcsbYNE6H8uQQuVA",
    "inputChannelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast",
    "isAgeRestricted": false
  },
  "duration": "00:00:27",
  "commentsCount": 7171,
  "text": "We gave out the weirdest candy ever...",
  "translatedText": null,
  "descriptionLinks": [
    "https://example.com",
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abc123xyz00"
  ],
  "subtitles": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/api/timedtext?v=R7MkZL5i3FQ&lang=en",
      "languageCode": "en",
      "name": "English"
    }
  ],
  "order": 1,
  "commentsTurnedOff": false,
  "fromYTUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast/shorts",
  "isMonetized": true,
  "hashtags": [
    "shorts",
    "funny",
    "halloween"
  ],
  "formats": [
    {
      "quality": "720p",
      "url": "https://rr1---sn...truncated..."
    },
    {
      "quality": "360p",
      "url": "https://rr1---sn...truncated..."
    }
  ],
  "isMembersOnly": false,
  "input": "@MrBeast",
  "fromChannelListPage": "shorts",
  "isPaidContent": false
}

Notes:

• Many fields may be null if YouTube does not expose them for a given video or channel (e.g., translatedTitle, collaborators, channelId, subtitles).
• The actor stores items as it discovers them; ordering can be guided via the sortOrder setting and is also reflected in the order field.

FAQ

Do I need a YouTube API key to use this?

No. This YouTube Shorts API scraper alternative works without the official YouTube Data API or cookies. It uses public endpoints and saves structured results to an Apify dataset.

Can it scrape comments?

It collects the commentsCount and whether comments are turned off (commentsTurnedOff). It does not download full comment threads.

Can I scrape YouTube Shorts without login?

Yes. The actor does not require login and targets publicly available YouTube Shorts pages only.

How many results can I get per input?

You control this with maxResults. It accepts values from 1 to 10,000 per channel or keyword input, with 10 as the default.

Does it support channels, handles, and full URLs?

Yes. You can input channel handles (e.g., @YouTube), usernames (e.g., mrbeast), and full channel URLs (e.g., https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast or /shorts). The actor also accepts keywords as described in the input form.

What about hashtags and tags?

The actor extracts hashtags from titles and descriptions and returns them in the hashtags array. This makes it useful as a YouTube Shorts hashtag scraper and metadata extractor.

Does it work with proxies and in restricted regions?

Yes. Enable proxyConfiguration.useApifyProxy when running from locations where YouTube is restricted or rate-limited. Direct connections work in most regions and for Apify QA.

Can I integrate this with Python or automate via API?

Yes. You can trigger the actor with the Apify API from any language (including Python) and export results to JSON, CSV, or Excel for downstream pipelines and dashboards.

Closing CTA / Final thoughts

The Youtube Shorts Scraper is built to extract structured, analytics-ready Shorts data at scale. With channel enrichment, engagement metrics, hashtags, subtitles detection, and optional proxy support, it’s ideal for marketers, developers, researchers, and analysts alike. Run it from the Apify Console or automate via API to power dashboards, enrichment jobs, or trend analyses — and start extracting smarter with a reliable YouTube Shorts web scraper today.