Youtube Channel Scraper

Youtube Channel Scraper

The Youtube Channel Scraper is a fast, reliable YouTube channel data extractor that collects channel metadata plus recent videos, Shorts, live streams, and community posts — all in one structured export. It solves the hassle of manual research by automating discovery and analysis with independent sort orders for each content type, resilient proxy handling, and async pagination. Built for marketers, developers, data analysts, and researchers, this YouTube channel scraper tool enables scalable channel intelligence, competitive monitoring, and “export all videos from a YouTube channel” workflows in minutes.

What data / output can you get?

Below are key fields the actor saves to the Apify dataset. Exports are structured for analytics and can be downloaded as JSON, CSV, or Excel.

Data type	Description	Example value
scrapedAt	ISO timestamp of the run	2026-04-12T08:45:31.123Z
totalChannels	Count of channels processed in the run	2
maxResultsPerCategory	Limit applied to each category (videos, shorts, live, posts)	50
[username].about.channelName	Channel display name	MrBeast
[username].about.numberOfSubscribers	Subscriber count text parsed from About	453M
[username].about.channelTotalViews	Total views parsed from About	102823749612
[username].about.channelJoinedDate	Channel “Joined” date text	Jan 1, 2012
[username].about.channelLocation	Country/Location from About	United States
[username].about.channelAvatarUrl	Avatar image URL	https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/...
[username].about.channelBannerUrl	Banner image URL	https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/...
[username].videos[].id	Video ID	8bMh8azh3CY
[username].videos[].title	Video title	100 Pilots Fight For A Private Jet
[username].videos[].duration	Video length text	28:46
[username].videos[].viewCount	Parsed integer views	50075792
[username].videos[].url	Watch URL	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bMh8azh3CY
[username].shorts[].videoId	Short ID	tXl3ABC1234
[username].shorts[].viewsText	Views label from UI	1.2M views
[username].shorts[].likesCount	Enriched like count when available	12450
[username].live[].isLive	Whether stream is live now	true
[username].live[].concurrentViewers	Concurrent viewers text when available	25,431 watching
[username].posts[].type	Post type (text, image, poll, video)	image
[username].posts[].likesCount	Parsed like count	440600
[username].stats.totalVideos	Count of videos returned for this channel	50
summary.totalScrapingTimeSeconds	Total elapsed time for the run	123.45

Notes:

• For shorts and community posts, engagement fields like likes and comments are enriched by visiting individual items when possible.
• All data is extracted from public YouTube pages. You can export as JSON/CSV/Excel directly from the Apify dataset.

Key features

• 🔀 Independent sort orders per content type
  Configure sort orders separately for videos, Shorts, community posts, and live streams to power “YouTube channel video list export” and “YouTube channel video metadata export” workflows.

• 🧠 Intelligent proxy fallback
  Starts with no proxy, falls back to datacenter proxy if blocked, and escalates to residential proxy if needed. Retries with exponential backoff keep your run stable.

• ⚡ Async pagination & enrichment
  Uses asynchronous requests with semaphores for efficient fetching and item-level enrichment (e.g., Shorts and post engagement).

• 📦 Structured JSON output for analytics
  Results are consolidated by channel username with top-level run summary for easy aggregation, dashboards, and BI.

• 🔌 Developer-friendly on Apify
  Run via the Apify platform and programmatically integrate with the Apify API or SDK. Ideal for building a “YouTube channel crawler” or automation pipelines.

• 📤 Flexible exports
  Download from the Apify dataset as JSON, CSV, or Excel and plug into your data stack without custom transforms.

• 🛡️ Production-ready reliability
  Built with robust error handling, retries, and proxy escalation for long, stable runs across large channel lists.

How to use Youtube Channel Scraper - step by step

1. Create or log in to your Apify account.
2. Open the “youtube-channel-scraper” actor.
3. Paste your inputs into startUrls. Accepted formats include:
   • Full URL: https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast
   • Handle: @MrBeast
   • Plain username: MrBeast
4. Set maxResults to control how many items to return per category (videos, shorts, live streams, posts). The schema allows up to 1000.
5. Choose sortOrderVideos, sortOrderShorts, sortOrderPosts, and sortOrderLiveStreams independently to tailor the output for your analysis.
6. Toggle scrapeChannelInfo, scrapeVideos, scrapeShorts, scrapePosts, and scrapeLiveStreams to include only the categories you need.
7. Configure proxyConfiguration if desired. By default, the actor starts with no proxy and will automatically fall back on block.
8. Click Start. Watch logs for progress and proxy status; the actor normalizes inputs and processes channels sequentially for stability.
9. When complete, open the Dataset tab to download your results in JSON, CSV, or Excel.

Pro Tip: Use the Apify API or SDK to trigger runs and pull datasets into your data warehouse or apps — perfect for recurring channel monitoring and influencer shortlist updates.

Use cases

Use case name	Description
Competitor benchmarking for marketers	Track publishing cadence and top content by sorting videos or Shorts to compare channels side-by-side.
Influencer outreach & vetting	Export channel metadata, subscriber counts, and recent uploads to qualify creators for campaigns.
Topic & content research	Scrape YouTube channel videos and posts to discover formats and topics that consistently perform.
Audience trend analysis	Aggregate view counts and engagement for multi-channel reports in analytics dashboards.
Automation pipeline (API)	Run the actor via API and sync structured JSON into your CRM, warehouse, or internal tools.
Academic & media research	Collect channel metadata and public posts systematically as part of reproducible studies.
Monitoring live activations	Capture live stream schedules and status for campaign tracking and broadcast calendars.
Bulk “video list export” for archives	Export all videos from a YouTube channel up to your configured limit for cataloging and backups.

Why choose Youtube Channel Scraper?

Positioned for precision, automation, and reliability, this YouTube channel metadata scraper delivers structured results ready for analysis.

• ✅ Accurate, structured fields extracted from public channel pages and feeds
• 🌍 Works across any public channel without custom cookies or login flows
• 📈 Scales to large batches, processing channels sequentially with async internals
• 💻 Developer-ready: run on Apify, call via API/SDK, and integrate into pipelines
• 🛡️ Robust proxy strategy with automatic fallback and detailed logging
• 💰 Cost-effective and operationally simple versus unstable browser extensions
• 🔗 Easy exports to JSON/CSV/Excel for BI tools, CRMs, and spreadsheets

In short: a production-grade YouTube channel scraping software alternative to browser add-ons — built for data teams and growth workflows.

Is it legal / ethical to use Youtube Channel Scraper?

Yes — when used responsibly. The actor scrapes only publicly available YouTube data and does not access private or authenticated content.

Guidelines:

• Collect public channel information and content only.
• Follow YouTube’s Terms of Service and your organization’s compliance policies.
• Respect applicable data protection laws (e.g., GDPR, CCPA).
• Use results for lawful purposes and avoid spam or misuse.

For edge cases or specific jurisdictions, verify your use with legal counsel.

Input parameters & output format

Example JSON input

{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast",
    "@PewDiePie",
    "veritasium"
  ],
  "maxResults": 50,
  "sortOrderVideos": "viewCount",
  "sortOrderShorts": "date",
  "sortOrderPosts": "date",
  "sortOrderLiveStreams": "date",
  "scrapeChannelInfo": true,
  "scrapeVideos": true,
  "scrapeShorts": true,
  "scrapePosts": true,
  "scrapeLiveStreams": true,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}

All input fields (from the schema):

• startUrls (array, required)
  Description: List of YouTube channel URLs (e.g., https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast), usernames (e.g., @MrBeast), or keywords to search for channels.
  Default: none

• maxResults (integer, optional)
  Description: Maximum number of results to scrape per category (videos, shorts, live streams, posts).
  Default: 10 (min: 1, max: 1000)

• sortOrderVideos (string, optional)
  Description: Sort order for videos (date, rating, relevance, title, viewCount).
  Default: "date"

• sortOrderShorts (string, optional)
  Description: Sort order for shorts (date, rating, relevance, viewCount).
  Default: "date"

• sortOrderPosts (string, optional)
  Description: Sort order for community posts (date, relevance).
  Default: "date"

• sortOrderLiveStreams (string, optional)
  Description: Sort order for live streams (date, relevance, viewCount).
  Default: "date"

• scrapeChannelInfo (boolean, optional)
  Description: Enable to scrape channel about information (description, subscribers, join date, etc.).
  Default: true

• scrapeVideos (boolean, optional)
  Description: Enable to scrape channel videos.
  Default: true

• scrapeShorts (boolean, optional)
  Description: Enable to scrape YouTube Shorts.
  Default: true

• scrapePosts (boolean, optional)
  Description: Enable to scrape community posts.
  Default: true

• scrapeLiveStreams (boolean, optional)
  Description: Enable to scrape live streams.
  Default: true

• proxyConfiguration (object, optional)
  Description: Choose which proxies to use. The actor will start with no proxy, fallback to datacenter proxy if blocked, then to residential proxy if datacenter fails.
  Default prefill: {"useApifyProxy": false}

Example JSON output

{
  "scrapedAt": "2026-04-12T08:45:31.123Z",
  "totalChannels": 2,
  "maxResultsPerCategory": 50,
  "MrBeast": {
    "about": {
      "channelDescription": "We make the best videos possible!",
      "channelJoinedDate": "Feb 19, 2012",
      "channelDescriptionLinks": [
        { "text": "Twitter", "url": "https://twitter.com/MrBeast" }
      ],
      "channelLocation": "United States",
      "channelUsername": "MrBeast",
      "channelAvatarUrl": "https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/...",
      "channelBannerUrl": "https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/...",
      "channelTotalVideos": 929,
      "channelTotalViews": 102823749612,
      "numberOfSubscribers": "453M",
      "isChannelVerified": true,
      "channelName": "MrBeast",
      "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX6OQ3DkcsbYNE6H8uQQuVA",
      "channelId": "UCX6OQ3DkcsbYNE6H8uQQuVA",
      "inputChannelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast",
      "isAgeRestricted": false
    },
    "videos": [
      {
        "id": "8bMh8azh3CY",
        "title": "100 Pilots Fight For A Private Jet",
        "duration": "28:46",
        "channelName": "MrBeast",
        "channelUsername": "MrBeast",
        "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX6OQ3DkcsbYNE6H8uQQuVA",
        "date": "1 day ago",
        "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bMh8azh3CY",
        "viewCount": 50075792,
        "fromYTUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast/videos",
        "type": "video",
        "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/8bMh8azh3CY/hqdefault.jpg",
        "input": "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast",
        "order": 0
      }
    ],
    "shorts": [
      {
        "videoType": "shorts",
        "videoId": "tXl3ABC1234",
        "title": "I tried something insane",
        "videoUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/tXl3ABC1234",
        "viewsText": "1.2M views",
        "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/tXl3ABC1234/hqdefault.jpg",
        "accessibilityText": "I tried something insane, 1.2M views - Short play",
        "channelUsername": "MrBeast",
        "fromYTUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast/shorts",
        "input": "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast",
        "order": 0,
        "commentsCount": 2300,
        "commentsCountText": "2,300 comments",
        "commentsTurnedOff": false,
        "likesCount": 12450,
        "likesCountText": "12K likes",
        "viewCount": 1200000,
        "channelName": "MrBeast",
        "channelId": "UCX6OQ3DkcsbYNE6H8uQQuVA",
        "channelHandle": "@MrBeast",
        "publishDate": "Mar 3, 2026",
        "description": "Behind the scenes of ...",
        "captionsAvailable": true,
        "timestampText": "3 days ago"
      }
    ],
    "live": [
      {
        "videoId": "LIVE123",
        "title": "Live challenge right now",
        "description": "Join the stream!",
        "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/LIVE123/hqdefault.jpg",
        "videoUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIVE123",
        "channelName": "MrBeast",
        "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast",
        "publishedAt": "Streamed 2 hours ago",
        "duration": "LIVE",
        "viewsCount": 25431,
        "viewsCountText": "25,431 watching",
        "isLive": true,
        "isUpcoming": false,
        "scheduledStartTime": "",
        "order": 0,
        "actualStartTime": "Apr 12, 2026",
        "liveChatId": "CiRCak1DQUFBQ...",
        "concurrentViewers": "25,431 watching",
        "isLiveNow": true
      }
    ],
    "posts": [
      {
        "postId": "UgkxxABCDEF",
        "type": "image",
        "textContent": "Which one should we film next?",
        "imageUrls": ["https://i.ytimg.com/vi/IMAGE1.jpg"],
        "pollOptions": [],
        "likesCount": 440600,
        "likesCountText": "440,600",
        "commentsCount": 12000,
        "commentsCountText": "12K",
        "publishedAt": "2 days ago",
        "postUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxxABCDEF",
        "channelName": "MrBeast",
        "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast",
        "order": 0
      }
    ],
    "stats": {
      "totalVideos": 50,
      "totalShorts": 50,
      "totalLiveStreams": 10,
      "totalPosts": 50,
      "scrapingTimeSeconds": 42.38
    }
  },
  "summary": {
    "totalVideos": 100,
    "totalShorts": 80,
    "totalLiveStreams": 15,
    "totalPosts": 96,
    "totalScrapingTimeSeconds": 120.77
    }
}

Output notes:

• The top-level object includes run metadata and a key for each channel username containing that channel’s sections: about, videos, shorts, live, posts, and stats.
• Engagement fields for Shorts and posts may be null if enrichment is not available for an item.

FAQ

Does the Youtube Channel Scraper require login or API keys?

No. It collects public data directly from YouTube pages and endpoints without requiring a login or API keys. It works well as a YouTube channel scraper without API for public channels.

How many items can I export per category?

You can set maxResults up to 1000 per category (videos, Shorts, live streams, posts) via the input schema. The actor paginates until it reaches your limit or runs out of items.

Can it scrape playlists or comments on videos?

Playlists and video comments are not included. The actor focuses on channel About data, recent videos, Shorts, live streams, and community posts. For posts and some Shorts, it enriches likes/comments counts when available.

What sort options are supported?

You can independently set sortOrderVideos (date, rating, relevance, title, viewCount), sortOrderShorts (date, rating, relevance, viewCount), sortOrderPosts (date, relevance), and sortOrderLiveStreams (date, relevance, viewCount) to tailor your exports.

How are proxies handled if requests are blocked?

The actor starts with no proxy, falls back to a datacenter proxy on block (e.g., 403/429/503), and then to a residential proxy if needed. It retries requests with exponential backoff, and once it escalates to residential, it keeps using it for the run.

Can I use this with Python or via API?

Yes. Run the actor programmatically with the Apify API/SDK and pull dataset results into your pipeline. This makes it ideal for “YouTube channel scraper Python” integrations and automation.

Is there a free trial?

Yes. The listing includes 120 trial minutes so you can evaluate the scraper before subscribing. The current plan is a flat monthly price of $19.99.

What formats can I export?

Results are stored in an Apify dataset. You can download as JSON, CSV, or Excel and connect to tools like Sheets, BI dashboards, and CRMs.

Does it work for YouTube channel subscriber count scraping?

Yes. The About section parsing includes numberOfSubscribers (text), along with channelTotalViews, channelTotalVideos, channelJoinedDate, location, and verification status.

Is this a Chrome extension?

No. It’s a cloud-based Apify actor — more stable and scalable than a YouTube channel scraper Chrome extension, with robust proxy management and automation support.

Closing CTA / Final thoughts

The Youtube Channel Scraper is built for accurate, scalable extraction of YouTube channel metadata and recent content. With independent sort orders, proxy fallback, async pagination, and structured JSON output, it’s ideal for marketers, developers, analysts, and researchers who need dependable “YouTube channel video list export” and analytics-ready data. Run it on Apify, export to JSON/CSV/Excel, or automate via API/SDK to keep your channel intelligence fresh. Start extracting smarter YouTube insights at scale today.