Facebook Video & Reels Insights Extractor

What is the Facebook Video & Reels Insights Extractor?

The Facebook Video & Reels Insights Extractor is a Facebook video scraping tool built for structured data extraction from public Facebook videos, Reels, and page/group video posts. Beyond basic metadata, it also recovers the view and reaction counts Facebook embeds in the page title, gives you ready-to-use direct stream links, and can archive a permanent copy of each thumbnail — so you're not left with hotlinked image URLs that expire.

Paste video URLs, run the actor, and get one structured row per video with title, uploader, duration, engagement counts, direct download links, and (optionally) the full technical stream manifest — all without ffmpeg or yt-dlp.

✨ What Makes This Different

🔹 View & Reaction Counts — Facebook silently prefixes some video titles with "X views · Y reactions". Instead of discarding that text, it's parsed into real viewCount / reactionCount fields on every row.

🔹 Concurrent Scraping — Configure how many videos are fetched in parallel (concurrency, 1–10) instead of a fixed one-by-one loop, so bulk runs finish significantly faster.

🔹 Thumbnail Archiving — Enable saveThumbnailImage to download each video's cover image into the run's Key-Value Store, so you keep a permanent copy even after Facebook's signed thumbnail URL expires.

🔹 Ready-to-Use Download Links — Every row includes a compact downloadLinks object (sdUrl, hdUrl, audioOnlyUrl, bestVideoUrl) so you don't have to dig through a raw format list for the common case.

🔹 Configurable Reliability — Tune requestTimeoutSecs, maxRetries, and cap a run with maxVideosPerRun, instead of hardcoded values.

🔹 Lighter Default Output — The full technical stream manifest (every resolution/bitrate, DASH details) is now opt-in via includeFullManifest, keeping the default dataset clean and small.

🛠️ Support and Feedback

• 🐞 Bug reports: Open a ticket in the repository Issues section
• ✨ Custom solutions or feature requests: Reach out via your Apify Console contact channel

What Data Can You Extract?

Field	Description
videoTitle	Video title (cleaned of any engagement prefix)
videoId / canonicalUrl	Video ID and canonical Facebook URL
pageName / pageId	Uploading Page or profile name and ID
description	Post caption / description text
durationSeconds / durationFormatted	Video length
viewCount / reactionCount	Parsed engagement counts
thumbnailUrl / thumbnailStorageKey	Cover image URL, plus archived copy if enabled
downloadLinks	Convenience direct links: sdUrl, hdUrl, audioOnlyUrl, bestVideoUrl
manifest	Full stream manifest (all resolutions/bitrates) — only when includeFullManifest is enabled
scrapeStatus / errorMessage	Per-row success/failure status

Key Features

🔹 Bulk & Concurrent Video Scraping — Process pages, groups, and Reels in parallel with a configurable concurrency limit.

🔹 Proxy & Automatic Fallback — Configure Apify or custom proxies; if a block is detected the actor automatically retries through a residential proxy.

🔹 Multiple Export Formats — Export to JSON, CSV, or Excel directly from the Apify Dataset.

🔹 Cost & Volume Controls — Cap a run with maxVideosPerRun and tune retries/timeouts to match your reliability needs.

How to Use It

1️⃣ Configure Input

Paste Facebook video, Reel, or group post URLs (one per line). Optionally set concurrency, retries, thumbnail archiving, and whether to include the full stream manifest.

2️⃣ Run the Actor

Click Run. The actor fetches each URL (in parallel, per your concurrency setting), extracts metadata, engagement counts, and stream links.

3️⃣ Export the Results

Results save live to the Dataset — export as JSON, CSV, or Excel. A RUN_SUMMARY.json in the Key-Value store reports totals, skipped-due-to-cap counts, and per-URL status.

Example Input

{
  "videoLinks": [
    "https://www.facebook.com/mrbeast/videos/1395487772147320"
  ],
  "concurrency": 5,
  "maxRetries": 3,
  "requestTimeoutSecs": 30,
  "saveThumbnailImage": true,
  "includeFullManifest": false,
  "proxySettings": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}

Example Output (row)

{
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.facebook.com/mrbeast/videos/1395487772147320",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://www.facebook.com/100044548384499/videos/1395487772147320/",
  "videoId": "1395487772147320",
  "videoTitle": "Lamborghini Vs World's Largest Shredder",
  "pageName": "MrBeast",
  "pageId": "100044548384499",
  "description": "Lamborghini Vs World's Largest Shredder",
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://scontent-iad3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/...",
  "thumbnailStorageKey": "thumbnail_1395487772147320",
  "durationSeconds": 79.312,
  "durationFormatted": "1:19",
  "uploadDate": "20250925",
  "viewCount": 1623084,
  "reactionCount": 42000,
  "downloadLinks": {
    "sdUrl": "https://video-iad3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/...",
    "hdUrl": "https://video-iad3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/...",
    "audioOnlyUrl": "https://video-iad3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/...",
    "bestVideoUrl": "https://video-iad3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/...",
    "bestVideoResolution": "1080x1350"
  },
  "fetchDurationMs": 842,
  "retryAttemptsUsed": 1,
  "scrapeStatus": "Success"
}

🎯 Use Cases

• Marketing & competitor analysis — parsed view/reaction counts make engagement benchmarking a one-step job, no manual text-parsing needed.
• Content archiving — archived thumbnails and direct download links support repurposing and long-term reference workflows.
• Bulk research runs — concurrency, retry, and cap controls make large batches faster and more predictable to budget for.
• Downstream automation — the compact downloadLinks object is easy to hand off to a separate download/transcoding step.

Is it Legal to Scrape Facebook Videos?

✅ Publicly Available Data is Generally Allowed

You can scrape public video metadata such as titles, descriptions, and engagement counts from publicly accessible videos, Reels, and posts.

❌ Private or Restricted Data is Not Allowed

Scraping private groups, secret videos, or password-protected content violates Facebook's Terms of Service. Collecting sensitive user data or scraping login-protected content without consent is both unethical and against policy.

⚖️ Respect Facebook's Policies and Laws

Always follow Facebook's scraping policy and local data regulations (e.g., GDPR). Avoid mass scraping of followers or personal details, as this can result in account suspension.

⚙️ Best Practices for Compliance

Use scraping responsibly: limit request volume, respect rate limits, and rely on proxies where appropriate.

FAQ

Q1: What is this actor? A Facebook video scraping tool for structured data extraction from public videos, Reels, and group posts — including titles, engagement counts, durations, and direct stream links.

Q2: How is this different from a basic Facebook video scraper? It parses view/reaction counts into real fields, fetches concurrently, can archive thumbnails permanently, and gives ready-to-use direct download links instead of only a raw format dump.

Q3: Can I limit run size and cost? Yes — set maxVideosPerRun to cap how many URLs are processed in a single run.

Q4: Is scraping Facebook legal? Scraping public data is generally permitted. Collecting private or login-gated data violates platform rules — always review Facebook's official scraping policy.

Q5: Can I get the full raw stream manifest? Yes — enable includeFullManifest in the input to add a manifest field with every available resolution and bitrate.