🔍 YouTube Search Scraper — Live save & smart proxy

🔍 YouTube Search Scraper — Live save & smart proxy

The 🔍 YouTube Search Scraper — Live save & smart proxy is an Apify actor that searches YouTube by keyword or scrapes video & channel URLs to deliver clean, structured results (titles, views, likes, comments, channel info, thumbnails, hashtags, keywords) without manual browsing. Built for marketers, developers, analysts, and researchers, it solves the hassle of endless scrolling by writing results to your dataset in real time—so you can monitor runs, restart anytime, and keep your data pipeline flowing at scale.

What data / output can you get?

Below are the primary fields this actor pushes to the dataset for video results. All names match the actual output schema.

Data type	Description	Example value
title	Video title	“Our Respect For Jim Carrey After Hearing This 📈! #Shorts”
type	Record type (e.g., video, channel, info, error)	“video”
url	Full video or channel URL	“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5ksIepT2mE”
id	YouTube video ID	“f5ksIepT2mE”
date	Publish date in ISO UTC	“2022-12-15T00:00:00Z”
duration	Video length formatted as M:SS or H:MM:SS	“0:52”
thumbnailUrl	Video thumbnail URL	“https://i.ytimg.com/vi/f5ksIepT2mE/hq720.jpg”
viewCount	Total view count (integer)	36334432
likes	Total like count (integer)	2206496
commentsCount	Number of comments (integer)	10000
commentsTurnedOff	Whether comments are disabled	false
channelName	Display name of the uploader/channel	“The Graham Norton Show”
channelUsername	Channel handle (if available)	“@OfficialGrahamNorton”

Bonus fields for richer analysis:

• Channel metadata: channelId, channelUrl, numberOfSubscribers, channelViewCount, channelVideoCount, hiddenSubscriberCount
• Content signals: hashtags (array), keywords (array), text (description snippet)
• Provenance & ordering: input (original query), order (result index)
• Flags: isMembersOnly

You can export results from the Apify dataset in JSON, CSV, or Excel for downstream analytics and automation.

Key features

• 💾 Live save to dataset
  Results are written as they’re scraped. Monitor progress in real time and never lose collected data if a run stops.

• 🧠 Smart proxy with retries
  Built-in smart proxy management with RESIDENTIAL support and automatic retries helps bypass rate limits and bot checks for reliable runs.

• 🔎 Keyword search & URL scraping
  Search by keyword or paste video/channel URLs to collect structured results with titles, metrics, and channel details.

• 🧱 Flat, analytics-ready schema
  Clean, flat JSON with consistent field names (no nested channel blobs) for easy BI ingestion and transformation.

• ⚡ Parallel collection at scale
  Searches run in batches with concurrency and robust retry logic to keep throughput high while handling transient blocks.

• 🧭 Sorting & limits
  Control result volume with maxResults and order results by relevance, date, view count, or rating.

• 🏷️ Hashtags & keywords extraction
  Extract top hashtags from descriptions and concise keyword lists from tags for quick topic analysis.

• 🧑‍💻 Developer-friendly on Apify
  Integrate via Apify datasets and API, automate pipelines, and export to JSON/CSV/Excel without extra tooling.

How to use 🔍 YouTube Search Scraper — Live save & smart proxy - step by step

1. Create or log in to your Apify account.
2. Open the actor and go to the Input tab.
3. Add your search terms or URLs to queries (one per line). Examples: “python programming”, “best cooking channels”, or “https://www.youtube.com/@ChannelName”.
4. Set maxResults to control volume per query (default 10; up to 2000).
5. Choose sortBy to order results by relevance, date, viewCount, or rating.
6. Optionally set uploadDate and duration filters, or select a different result type (video, channel, playlist, movie).
7. (Optional) Configure proxyConfiguration if you want a custom proxy setup.
8. Click Start. The actor searches and writes results to the default dataset as they’re collected.
9. Download your results from the Dataset tab in JSON, CSV, or Excel, or connect via API to your workflow.

Pro Tip: Combine multiple queries in one run (e.g., competitors, topics, and keywords) and use the order field to preserve search ranking per query.

Use cases

Use case name	Description
Market research trend tracking	Identify trending topics and high-performing videos by viewCount, likes, and upload date to inform content and campaign decisions.
Competitor content monitoring	Track competitor channels and extract structured metrics (views, likes, comments) to benchmark performance.
Content discovery for creators	Find niches and topics with strong engagement signals using hashtags, keywords, and recency filters.
Campaign planning & reporting	Build dashboards with flat JSON outputs and export to CSV/Excel for stakeholder-ready summaries.
SEO & keyword intelligence	Leverage keywords and hashtags from top videos to refine titles, tags, and descriptions.
Data pipeline integration (API)	Feed JSON results into ETL/ELT workflows, databases, or notebooks for analytics at scale.
Academic & social research	Collect reproducible, structured datasets to analyze media trends, narrative diffusion, or topic adoption over time.

Why choose 🔍 YouTube Search Scraper — Live save & smart proxy?

This actor is designed for precision, automation, and reliability on production workloads.

• 🎯 Accurate, flat JSON schema ready for analytics and BI.
• ⚡ Fast, parallel collection with robust retry handling for high throughput.
• 🧠 Smart proxy management with RESIDENTIAL support reduces blocks and friction.
• 🧰 Developer-ready: integrates seamlessly with Apify datasets and API.
• 🔒 Safe & predictable: no browser extensions or fragile manual workflows.
• 🔁 Flexible controls: sorting, limits, and optional filters to refine results.
• 📤 Easy export: download JSON/CSV/Excel or stream via API into your stack.

Compared to brittle browser plugins or manual copy-paste, this production-grade actor delivers consistent output, dependable infrastructure, and automation-friendly operations.

Is it legal / ethical to use this actor?

Yes—when done responsibly. This tool collects publicly available information and does not access private or gated content. You are responsible for how you use the data.

Guidelines for compliant use:

• ✅ Scrape only public pages and assets.
• ✅ Respect platform terms and applicable laws (e.g., GDPR/CCPA).
• ✅ Avoid automated access to private or restricted content.
• ✅ Use results for legitimate business, research, or analytical purposes.
• ✅ Consult your legal team for edge cases or jurisdiction-specific concerns.

Input parameters & output format

Example JSON input

{
  "queries": [
    "fastapi tutorial",
    "python programming"
  ],
  "maxResults": 20,
  "sortBy": "relevance",
  "uploadDate": "",
  "duration": "",
  "type": "video",
  "debug": false
}

Input parameter details

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
queries	array of strings	No	["python programming"]	One search query or URL per line. Examples: « python programming », « best cooking channels », or a full URL like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=... or https://www.youtube.com/@ChannelName. Mix keywords and URLs in the same run.
maxResults	integer	No	10	Maximum number of results to fetch for each query (1–2000). Higher values mean more data but longer runs.
sortBy	string	No	"relevance"	How YouTube results are ordered: by relevance, upload date, view count, or rating.
uploadDate	string (enum)	No	""	Restrict results to videos uploaded in this time window: last hour, today, this week, month, or year. Leave “None” for no date filter.
duration	string (enum)	No	""	Only include videos in this length range: Short (<4 min), Medium (4–20 min), or Long (>20 min). Leave “None” to allow any duration.
type	string (enum)	No	"video"	Type of results to return: video, channel, playlist, or movie.
proxyConfiguration	object	No	—	No proxy by default. You can optionally set a custom proxy (e.g., Apify proxy).
debug	boolean	No	false	Turn on for extra log output (requests, retries, proxy switches). Useful for troubleshooting.

Output format (JSON)

The actor writes multiple record types to the dataset:

1. Video record (type = "video")

{
  "title": "How to build a FastAPI app",
  "type": "video",
  "channelName": "CodeCrafters",
  "date": "2025-03-10T00:00:00Z",
  "text": "In this tutorial, we build a production FastAPI app...",
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/abc123/hqdefault.jpg",
  "order": 0,
  "input": "fastapi tutorial",
  "hashtags": ["#python", "#fastapi"],
  "channelId": "UC1234567890",
  "channelUrl": "http://www.youtube.com/@codecrafters",
  "channelUsername": "@codecrafters",
  "numberOfSubscribers": 125000,
  "channelViewCount": 40234567,
  "channelVideoCount": 210,
  "hiddenSubscriberCount": false,
  "id": "abc123",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abc123",
  "viewCount": 987654,
  "likes": 25000,
  "commentsCount": 1200,
  "commentsTurnedOff": false,
  "duration": "12:34",
  "keywords": ["fastapi", "python api", "uvicorn"],
  "isMembersOnly": false
}

2. Channel record (type = "channel") — when a channel URL is processed

{
  "type": "channel",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@codecrafters",
  "description": "We teach modern backend development...",
  "joined": "Jan 1, 2020",
  "country": "United States",
  "subscribers": "125K subscribers",
  "views": "40,234,567 views",
  "videos": "210 videos",
  "canonicalChannelUrl": "http://www.youtube.com/@codecrafters",
  "channelUsername": "@codecrafters",
  "channelId": "UC1234567890",
  "links": [],
  "inputUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@codecrafters",
  "aboutUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@codecrafters/about"
}

3. Info and error records (for edge cases)

{ "type": "info", "input": "fastapi tutorial", "message": "No results" }

{ "type": "error", "error": "No queries or URLs provided." }

Note: Some fields may be empty or “Unknown” when not available on the source page (e.g., hiddenSubscriberCount).

FAQ

Do I have to wait until the run finishes to see results?

No. Results are saved live to the dataset as they’re scraped. You can watch data appear in real time and export anytime.

Can I control how many results I get per query?

Yes. Use maxResults (1–2000) to set the number of results per query. The default is 10 for quick tests.

How can I change the order of results?

Set sortBy to one of: relevance, date, viewCount, or rating. The actor applies this to your search.

Does it extract hashtags and keywords?

Yes. The actor extracts top hashtags from descriptions and compact keywords from tags to support topic and SEO analysis.

What record types should I expect in the dataset?

You’ll primarily see video items (type = "video"). When a channel URL is processed, you may also see a channel record (type = "channel"). Info and error records can appear for empty searches or issues.

How does the proxy work?

The actor features smart proxy handling with RESIDENTIAL support and automatic retries to improve reliability and throughput on large runs.

Can I integrate this with my analytics stack?

Yes. Export datasets in JSON/CSV/Excel or access them via the Apify API to pipe results into databases, BI tools, or notebooks.

What should I do if I see “No results” for a query?

This can happen for highly specific or malformed queries. Check your query string, try different sortBy or filters, and increase maxResults if needed.

Closing thoughts

The 🔍 YouTube Search Scraper — Live save & smart proxy is built to collect structured YouTube data quickly and reliably. With live dataset saves, a flat analytics-ready schema, and smart proxy handling, it’s ideal for marketers, developers, analysts, and researchers who need dependable pipelines. Export to JSON/CSV/Excel or connect via API to automate workflows—then start extracting smarter insights from YouTube at scale.