Youtube Video Scraper By Hashtag

Youtube Video Scraper By Hashtag

The Youtube Video Scraper By Hashtag is a purpose-built Apify actor that finds videos from any YouTube hashtag and extracts structured video data fast. It solves the pain of manually searching and collecting metadata by letting you scrape YouTube videos by hashtag at scale — including titles, URLs, video IDs, view counts, and more. It’s ideal for marketers, developers, data analysts, and researchers who need a reliable YouTube hashtag scraper, YouTube hashtag search tool, or YouTube hashtag extractor for trend tracking and analytics — all exportable to CSV/JSON for downstream use.

What data / output can you get?

Below are the exact JSON fields this YouTube video scraper by hashtag exports to the Apify dataset:

Data field	Description	Example value
thumbnailUrl	URL of the video thumbnail image	https://i.ytimg.com/vi/f2mRAGvKca8/hq720.jpg
title	Title of the video	How To Use ChatGPT in Bengali
id	YouTube video ID	f2mRAGvKca8
url	Full YouTube video URL (watch or shorts)	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2mRAGvKca8
viewCount	Number of views (integer)	1224495
type	Video type: “video” or “shorts”	video
hashtagCategoryData.categoryInfoText	Category info text from YouTube’s hashtag tile	1.9M videos • 577K channels

Notes:

• Results are stored in the Apify dataset and can be exported to JSON or CSV for analytics and reporting.
• When unavailable on the page, viewCount may be 0. Category info may fall back to a generic “Videos found”.

Key features

• 🔢 Bold bulk scraping at scale
  Scrape multiple hashtags, keywords, or usernames in a single run. The actor automatically normalizes inputs (e.g., adds “#” if missing) to collect consistent results.

• 🎯 Shorts-only precision filter
  Toggle a Shorts-only mode to collect just YouTube Shorts. The scraper uses YouTube’s internal filter parameters with smart fallbacks for better recall.

• 🛡️ Smart proxy fallback (no proxy → datacenter → residential)
  Starts with no proxy by default and automatically escalates to datacenter and then residential proxies if requests get blocked. Built-in retries maximize success.

• 🔁 Deep pagination with continuation tokens
  Follows YouTube continuation tokens to keep fetching results until your max limit is reached or results run out.

• 🧭 Duplicate detection
  Prevents duplicate video IDs from being pushed to your dataset, improving data quality.

• 🧰 Developer-friendly and export-ready
  Works seamlessly on Apify with dataset exports to JSON or CSV — perfect for integrating into pipelines as a YouTube hashtag search tool or YouTube video data extractor by hashtag.

• 📜 Detailed logging and robust error handling
  Clear logs for progress tracking and proxy switches, plus resilient retry logic for stable runs.

How to use Youtube Video Scraper By Hashtag - step by step

1. Create or log in to your Apify account.
2. Open the actor named “youtube-video-scraper-by-hashtag” in the Apify Console.
3. Enter input data:
   • Add your hashtags/keywords/usernames to the hashtags array (bulk supported). You can enter “chatgpt” or “#chatgpt”; the actor will handle both.
4. Configure settings:
   • maxResults: limit videos per hashtag (default 50)
   • scrapeShortsOnly: true/false
   • proxyConfiguration: choose proxies or keep the default (no proxy; automatic fallback if blocked)
5. Start the run and watch real-time logs for progress and any proxy fallback events.
6. After completion, open the Dataset tab to see your results.
7. Export your data to JSON or CSV for dashboards, analysis, or reporting.

Pro tip: Use the Apify API to programmatically trigger runs and fetch datasets, enabling automated pipelines to collect YouTube videos by hashtag for analytics.

Use cases

Use case	Description
Marketing analytics by hashtag	Track topic performance and export YouTube videos by hashtag to CSV/JSON for dashboards and reporting.
Content research & ideation	Discover trending videos by tag to inform new content topics and creative angles.
Competitor monitoring	Collect videos around target keywords or creator-aligned tags to benchmark views and content strategies.
Shorts trend tracking	Run the YouTube shorts scraper by hashtag to monitor short-form content momentum in your niche.
SEO & topic analysis	Analyze titles and view counts to evaluate search demand and optimize video SEO.
Academic and market research	Build structured datasets for reproducible studies using a reliable YouTube hashtag crawler.
Developer/API pipelines	Integrate with Apify’s API to automate collections and feed BI tools or internal data lakes.

Why choose Youtube Video Scraper By Hashtag?

Built for precision, scale, and reliability, this YouTube hashtag scraper outperforms fragile, manual approaches.

• ✅ Accurate, structured outputs: Clean fields for titles, IDs, URLs, view counts, and types.
• 📈 Scales to bulk workflows: Scrape multiple tags/keywords in one run with continuation-based pagination.
• 🎬 Shorts support: Filter exclusively for Shorts when you need short-form insights.
• 🧑‍💻 Developer-ready: Seamlessly export datasets to JSON/CSV and integrate via Apify’s platform APIs.
• 🛡️ Resilient proxy strategy: Automatic fallback from no proxy to datacenter to residential to minimize blocks.
• 🔒 Safe & compliant use: Designed for public data collection only.
• 💪 Production reliability: Built with retries, duplicate detection, and detailed logging.

In short, it’s a robust YouTube video scraper by hashtag for teams who need consistent, automation-friendly results — not a brittle browser extension.

Is it legal / ethical to use Youtube Video Scraper By Hashtag?

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 publicly visible information.
• Respect YouTube’s Terms of Service and platform rate limits.
• Do not collect or process personal data in violation of applicable laws (e.g., GDPR, CCPA).
• Use proxies responsibly and avoid abusive request patterns.
• Consult your legal team for edge cases or jurisdiction-specific requirements.

Input parameters & output format

Example input

{
  "hashtags": ["chatgpt", "Bangladesh"],
  "maxResults": 100,
  "scrapeShortsOnly": false,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}

Input fields

• hashtags (array, required)
  Description: List of YouTube hashtags (e.g., #chatgpt), keywords (e.g., chatgpt), or usernames to scrape. Supports bulk input.
  Default: none (required)

• maxResults (integer, optional)
  Description: Maximum number of videos to scrape per hashtag/keyword.
  Default: 50
  Min: 1, Max: 10000

• scrapeShortsOnly (boolean, optional)
  Description: If enabled, only YouTube Shorts will be scraped.
  Default: false

• proxyConfiguration (object, optional)
  Description: Choose which proxies to use. By default, no proxy is used. If YouTube blocks the request, it will automatically fallback to datacenter proxy, then residential proxy.
  Default: { "useApifyProxy": false }

Example output

[
  {
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/f2mRAGvKca8/hq720.jpg",
    "title": "How To Use ChatGPT in Bengali",
    "id": "f2mRAGvKca8",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2mRAGvKca8",
    "viewCount": 1224495,
    "type": "video",
    "hashtagCategoryData.categoryInfoText": "1.9M videos • 577K channels"
  }
]

Fields returned:

• thumbnailUrl (string)
• title (string)
• id (string)
• url (string)
• viewCount (integer; may be 0 if unavailable)
• type (string: “video” or “shorts”)
• hashtagCategoryData.categoryInfoText (string; may fall back to “Videos found” if exact category info is not available)

FAQ

Does this work for hashtags only, or also keywords and usernames?

It works for hashtags, keywords, or usernames. Provide any of these in the hashtags array. If you enter a keyword without “#”, the actor will handle it and still search effectively.

Can I scrape YouTube Shorts only?

Yes. Set scrapeShortsOnly to true to restrict results to Shorts. The actor uses YouTube’s internal filter parameters and retries with alternatives to improve recall for Shorts.

How many videos can I scrape per hashtag?

You can set maxResults from 1 to 10000 per hashtag. The actor paginates using continuation tokens until the limit is reached or results are exhausted.

Can I export the results to CSV?

Yes. All results are saved to the Apify dataset. From there, you can export to JSON or CSV for analysis and reporting.

Does this scrape comments or channel details?

No. This actor focuses on video-level metadata from search results: thumbnailUrl, title, id, url, viewCount, type, and hashtagCategoryData.categoryInfoText.

What happens if YouTube blocks my requests?

The actor starts with no proxy by default. If requests are blocked, it automatically falls back to datacenter proxy and then to residential proxy with retries, aiming to recover the run.

Does this use the official YouTube API?

No. It scrapes publicly available YouTube search result pages and processes structured data to extract results. You can still use the Apify API to run the actor and fetch datasets programmatically.

Do I need to include the “#” symbol in hashtags?

No. If you provide a term like “chatgpt”, the actor will handle normalization (e.g., add “#” for searches) to collect results consistently.

Closing thoughts

Youtube Video Scraper By Hashtag is built to collect structured YouTube video data from hashtag-driven searches at scale. With bulk inputs, Shorts-only filtering, robust proxy fallback, and clean CSV/JSON exports, it’s ideal for marketers, developers, analysts, and researchers who need a reliable YouTube hashtag analytics tool and YouTube video scraper by tag. Use it via the Apify Console or integrate with the Apify API to automate your YouTube hashtag crawler pipeline — and start extracting smarter insights from public YouTube data today.