Youtube Video Scraper By Hashtag

Youtube Video Scraper By Hashtag

Youtube Video Scraper By Hashtag is a purpose-built Apify actor that extracts structured lists of YouTube videos from hashtag-driven searches — fast. It solves the manual effort of hunting for content by hashtag by automating a YouTube video search by hashtag across multiple tags at once, with pagination, duplicate detection, and reliable proxy fallback. Built for marketers, developers, data analysts, and researchers, this YouTube hashtag scraper tool enables trend tracking, content research, and automated YouTube hashtag monitoring at scale.

What data / output can you get?

Below are the exact fields this YouTube hashtag extractor returns to the Apify dataset. You can export results to JSON or CSV directly from Apify.

Data type	Description	Example value
thumbnailUrl	URL of the video thumbnail image	https://i.ytimg.com/vi/f2mRAGvKca8/hq720.jpg
title	Video title text	How To Use ChatGPT in Bengali
id	YouTube video ID	f2mRAGvKca8
url	Full YouTube video URL (Shorts or standard)	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2mRAGvKca8
viewCount	Parsed view count as an integer	1224495
type	Content type classified as "video" or "shorts"	video
hashtagCategoryData.categoryInfoText	Category info text shown by YouTube for the hashtag	1.9M videos • 577K channels

Note: All results are pushed to the Apify Dataset, making them easy to export YouTube videos by hashtag to CSV or JSON for downstream analytics and reporting.

Key features

• ⚡️ Bulk hashtag scraping at scale
  Provide a list of hashtags, keywords, or usernames and scrape YouTube videos by hashtag in a single run. The actor paginates with continuation tokens and de-duplicates video IDs automatically.

• 🎯 Shorts-only filtering
  Enable precise YouTube hashtag analytics on short-form content with the scrapeShortsOnly switch to return only YouTube Shorts.

• 🧠 Smart proxy fallback
  A resilient YouTube hashtag crawler that starts with no proxy, then automatically falls back to datacenter and residential proxies if needed, maximizing success on large runs.

• 📜 Detailed, export-ready metadata
  Cleanly structured outputs (ID, title, URL, thumbnail, viewCount, type, and category info text) ready for dashboards, BI tools, or a YouTube hashtag aggregator.

• 🔁 Reliable pagination & retries
  Handles YouTube continuation tokens, implements gentle delays, and retries failed calls to keep your YouTube hashtag search automation stable.

• 🧰 Developer-friendly & automation-ready
  Run in Apify Console or orchestrate via the Apify API for a YouTube hashtag tracker workflow — perfect for integrating with internal pipelines.

• 📈 Production-ready infrastructure
  Designed for stability with informative logs, error handling, and a proxy strategy suited for ongoing YouTube hashtag monitoring tool use cases.

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

1. Create or log in to your Apify account.
2. Open the actor in Apify Console (Actors → youtube-video-scraper-by-hashtag).
3. Add input data:
   • Enter one or more values in “Hashtags, Keywords, or Usernames” (e.g., chatgpt, #ai, creatorname).
   • Set “Maximum Results per Hashtag” to control how many videos to collect for each tag.
   • Toggle “Scrape Shorts Only” if you want only YouTube Shorts.
   • Configure “Proxy Configuration” if you want to start with Apify Proxy (optional).
4. Click Start to run.
5. Monitor logs to see progress, pagination, and any proxy fallback events.
6. When complete, open the OUTPUT tab to view results.
7. Export your data in JSON or CSV for analysis, dashboards, or BI tools.

Pro Tip: Use the Apify API to schedule runs and pipe results into your data warehouse for continuous YouTube hashtag search automation.

Use cases

Use case name	Description
Marketing + Trend tracking	Monitor new videos for branded or niche tags to discover trends and content formats that resonate.
Creator research + Influencer discovery	Identify creators publishing under specific hashtags and analyze performance signals (views, shorts vs. long-form).
Campaign monitoring	Track hashtag-linked campaigns and export YouTube videos by hashtag to CSV for weekly reporting.
Content planning + Topic validation	Aggregate a YouTube video list by hashtag to validate topics before production.
Competitive intelligence	Watch competitor-aligned keywords/hashtags to spot emerging themes and formats.
Data engineering + API pipeline	Orchestrate a YouTube hashtag crawler via the Apify API and feed downstream analytics or enrichment jobs.
Academic + Social research	Collect public video lists for studies on hashtag diffusion, attention, and media patterns.

Why choose Youtube Video Scraper By Hashtag?

This tool focuses on precision, automation, and reliability for production-grade hashtag monitoring.

• ✅ Accurate, structured outputs for analytics and BI-ready exports.
• ⚡ Scales to multiple hashtags with pagination and duplicate detection.
• 🧰 Developer access through Apify for automation-first workflows.
• 🔒 No login required — collects only publicly available YouTube data.
• 🌐 Robust proxy fallback strategy for higher success on larger runs.
• 💸 Cost-effective alternative to brittle browser extensions and one-off tools.
• 🔗 Easy export to JSON or CSV for dashboards and reporting.

In short: a stable, production-ready YouTube hashtag scraper tool built for teams that need repeatable results.

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 responsible use:

• Only collect public data and respect YouTube’s Terms of Service.
• Ensure compliance with data protection laws (e.g., GDPR, CCPA) relevant to your jurisdiction.
• Avoid abusive traffic; use proxy settings responsibly and at reasonable rates.
• Consult your legal team for edge cases or jurisdiction-specific questions.

Input parameters & output format

Example JSON input

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

Input fields

Field	Type	Required	Default	Description
hashtags	array (stringList)	Yes	—	List of YouTube hashtags (e.g., #chatgpt), keywords (e.g., chatgpt), or usernames to scrape. Supports bulk input.
maxResults	integer	No	50	Maximum number of videos to scrape per hashtag/keyword. Min: 1, Max: 10000.
scrapeShortsOnly	boolean	No	false	If enabled, only YouTube Shorts will be scraped.
proxyConfiguration	object (proxy)	No	{"useApifyProxy": false}	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.

Example JSON 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"
  }
]

Notes:

• viewCount will be 0 if the view text is unavailable or cannot be parsed.
• Title may be an empty string for rare items where YouTube doesn’t expose a title in the initial payload.
• URL shape reflects type: standard videos use /watch?v=ID, Shorts use /shorts/ID.

FAQ

Do I need a YouTube login or cookies to run this?

No. The actor works on publicly available YouTube results and does not require login or cookies.

Can it scrape only YouTube Shorts?

Yes. Set the input flag scrapeShortsOnly to true to restrict results to Shorts only.

How many videos can I scrape per hashtag?

You control this with maxResults. It accepts values from 1 to 10000 per hashtag and paginates until the limit is reached or results run out.

What happens if my requests get blocked?

The actor automatically applies a smart proxy fallback: it starts with no proxy, then tries a datacenter proxy, and finally a residential proxy (with retries) if needed.

What fields are included in the output?

Each item includes thumbnailUrl, title, id, url, viewCount, type, and hashtagCategoryData.categoryInfoText. These fields are pushed to the Apify dataset for easy export.

Can I use this in an automated pipeline?

Yes. Run it in Apify Console or orchestrate via the Apify API to build a YouTube hashtag search automation workflow for ongoing monitoring.

Can I export results to CSV?

Yes. Open the run’s dataset in Apify and export to JSON or CSV for analysis, dashboards, or reports.

Does it scrape comments, likes, or publish dates?

No. This actor focuses on video-level metadata listed in the Output section. Comments and additional engagement metrics are not included.

Closing CTA / Final thoughts

Youtube Video Scraper By Hashtag is built for fast, structured discovery of videos tied to specific hashtags at scale. With bulk inputs, Shorts filtering, robust pagination, and proxy fallback, it’s ideal for marketers, developers, analysts, and researchers who need dependable YouTube hashtag tracking. Use Apify to automate runs, export results to JSON or CSV, and integrate with your analytics stack via API. Start extracting smarter insights from hashtag-driven content today.