YouTube Shorts Scraper: views, likes, channels and search

Scrape YouTube Shorts from keyword searches and channel Shorts tabs without an API key or quota. Every row has the Short's link, title, views, channel and thumbnail. Channel rows also carry the subscriber count. Turn on full details to add likes, comment count, exact publish date, length, category, description and hashtags.

You only pay for Shorts delivered. Channels without Shorts, channels that don't exist, invalid links and rate-limited requests are reported as clear error rows and never charged.

Why this Shorts scraper

• Real Shorts only. Searches use YouTube's own Shorts filter, so you get Shorts, not regular videos that happen to be short. In our tests 25 of 25 search results were Shorts.
• No browser, no API key. It reads the same JSON the YouTube app loads, so a 50-Short search takes a few seconds.
• Every Short from a channel. Channel Shorts tabs are paged to the end (or to your limit), newest first.
• Retries with backoff and a fresh IP on rate limits. Residential IPs are used only as a capped fallback.
• Clear errors: NOT_FOUND, NO_DATA (for example, a channel with no Shorts), INVALID_INPUT, BLOCKED.

What you get

Field	Description
videoId, url, title	The Short (a /shorts/ link)
channelName, channelHandle, channelId, channelUrl	Who published it
channelSubscribers	Channel sources
viewCount, viewCountText	Views as a number and as shown
isShort, thumbnailUrl, position, sourceType, searchQuery	Format and where it was found
likeCount, commentCount, publishDate, durationSeconds, category, description, keywords	Full details mode

E-mail addresses in descriptions are replaced with [email removed]: we don't collect personal data.

How to scrape YouTube Shorts

1. Add search keywords (for example espresso), channels (@handle, channel URL or ID) and/or single Shorts links.
2. Set Max Shorts per search or channel (default 50).
3. Optional: sort searches, filter by upload date, choose language and country, or turn on Full details for likes and exact dates.
4. Click Start and download JSON, CSV or Excel, or use the API.

Input example

{
  "searchQueries": ["espresso", "latte art"],
  "channels": ["@mkbhd"],
  "maxResultsPerSource": 100,
  "scrapeVideoDetails": true
}

Output example (full details)

{
  "status": "ok",
  "sourceType": "search",
  "searchQuery": "espresso",
  "videoId": "74J0uiZk29k",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/74J0uiZk29k",
  "title": "…",
  "channelName": "…",
  "viewCount": 1250000,
  "likeCount": 48000,
  "commentCount": 310,
  "publishDate": "2026-10-02T09:00:12-07:00",
  "durationSeconds": 38,
  "isShort": true
}

Pricing

Pay per event, no start fee:

Event	Free	Starter (Bronze)	Scale (Silver)	Business (Gold)
video: Short from a search or channel	$0.0015	$0.001	$0.0008	$0.0006
video-details: Short with likes, comments and exact date	$0.003	$0.002	$0.0016	$0.0012

1,000 Shorts with full details cost $2.00 on the Starter plan. Errors and duplicates are free. Set a maximum cost per run and the Actor stops cleanly at that budget.

Use cases

• Trend and hook research: which Shorts win for a keyword, and how many views they get.
• Creator and influencer discovery: Shorts channels in a niche, with subscriber counts.
• Competitor tracking: every Short a brand posts, with views and likes, on a schedule.
• Datasets for AI: titles, hashtags and engagement. Pair with the ScrapeMole YouTube Transcript Scraper for the spoken text.

API, Python and AI agents

from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient("<APIFY_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("scrapemole/youtube-shorts-scraper").call(run_input={"searchQueries": ["espresso"], "maxResultsPerSource": 50})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item["url"], item.get("viewCount"))

Works with schedules, webhooks, Make, Zapier, n8n and Apify's MCP server for AI agents.

FAQ

Do I need a YouTube API key? No key and no quota.

Can I get regular videos too? Use the ScrapeMole YouTube Scraper (search, channels, playlists) or the YouTube Channel Scraper. This Actor returns Shorts only.

Why is publishedText empty in list mode? YouTube doesn't show upload times for Shorts in lists. Turn on full details for the exact publish date.

Is this legal? The Actor collects publicly available video data and no personal data. You are responsible for how you use the data; check YouTube's terms and the laws that apply to you.

More from ScrapeMole

ScrapeMole builds focused, reliable scrapers for public data: pay per result, no start fees, clear error rows that are never charged, and a RUN_SUMMARY on every run.

• YouTube Transcript & Subtitles Scraper
• Google Trends Scraper
• YouTube Scraper
• YouTube Comments Scraper
• Telegram Channel Scraper
• Amazon Product & Search Scraper
• Google Jobs Scraper
• YouTube Channel Scraper
• ATS Jobs Scraper: Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, Workable

Building an AI agent with its own wallet? The YouTube and Google Trends data is also sold per call over x402 (USDC on Base, no account): see scrapemole.pages.dev. Questions or a missing field? Open an issue on this Actor. ScrapeMole is the maker of this Actor.