YouTube Video Scraper v2

Scrape YouTube search results, channel videos, playlists, and single video pages with a fast, structured, and reliable Apify Actor.

Built for users who need clean YouTube data for automation, research, content tracking, lead generation, channel analysis, trend monitoring, and dataset building.

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What this Actor does

This Actor extracts structured information from YouTube pages and returns it in clean JSON output.

It supports:

• YouTube search results
• YouTube channel video pages
• YouTube playlists
• Single YouTube video pages

The actor is designed to handle YouTube's dynamic rendering more reliably with improved navigation and extraction logic.

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Why use this Actor

YouTube pages are highly dynamic and often change rendering behavior. This Actor is built to handle that reality by using:

• Better wait strategy
• networkidle fallback behavior
• More robust JavaScript extraction
• Separate channel information extraction
• Scroll-based collection for dynamic content
• Support for different YouTube page types in one workflow

This makes it useful for users who want a practical scraper that works across multiple YouTube formats without needing separate tools.

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Main use cases

Use this Actor for:

• YouTube content research
• Channel monitoring
• Video metadata collection
• Competitor analysis
• Trend discovery
• Playlist auditing
• Content archiving
• Dataset creation
• Social media automation
• SEO and keyword research

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Supported page types

1) Search results

Extract video cards from YouTube search result pages.

2) Channel pages

Scrape videos from a channel's video tab and collect channel-level data separately.

3) Playlists

Extract playlist entries with video details.

4) Single video pages

Collect metadata from one video page.

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Output fields

Depending on the page type, the Actor can return the following fields:

• title
• video_url
• video_id
• channel_name
• channel_url
• views
• views_text
• duration
• duration_seconds
• uploaded
• published_date
• subscribers
• thumbnail
• description

Not every field is available for every page type. Some fields depend on what YouTube exposes on that specific page.

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Example output

[
  {
    "title": "How to Grow on YouTube in 2026",
    "video_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXXXXXXXXXX",
    "video_id": "XXXXXXXXXXX",
    "channel_name": "Creator Channel",
    "channel_url": "https://www.youtube.com/@creatorchannel",
    "views_text": "123K views",
    "views": 123000,
    "duration": "12:34",
    "duration_seconds": 754,
    "uploaded": "2 weeks ago",
    "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/XXXXXXXXXXX/hqdefault.jpg",
    "description": "A practical guide for growing your YouTube channel..."
  }
]

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Input options

Required input

You can start the Actor using either:

• url
• query

Input examples

Scrape a search query

{
  "query": "youtube automation tools",
  "max_results": 20
}

Scrape a channel

{
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@channelname",
  "max_results": 30
}

Scrape a playlist

{
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAYLIST_ID",
  "max_results": 50
}

Scrape a single video

{
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"
}

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Input fields

url

A YouTube URL. The Actor will detect whether it is a channel, playlist, video, or search page.

query

A search term used to build a YouTube search URL automatically.

max_results

Maximum number of items to return. Default: 20

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Supported URL types

The Actor can detect these URL patterns:

• youtube.com/results
• watch?v=
• youtu.be/
• /playlist
• list=
• /channel/
• /@
• /c/
• /user/

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How it works

1. The Actor detects the source type.
2. It opens YouTube with a browser context.
3. It waits for the page to render dynamically.
4. It scrolls and collects visible items.
5. It extracts structured data from the DOM.
6. It stores results in the Apify Dataset.
7. It also saves results.json in the Key-Value Store.

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Features

Reliable dynamic page handling

YouTube pages do not always load content immediately. This Actor uses a stronger wait strategy and fallback logic to improve reliability.

Clean structured output

The data is normalized into a consistent JSON format that is easy to use in apps, spreadsheets, databases, or API workflows.

Multiple page types

One Actor covers search, channel, playlist, and single-video scraping.

Batch-friendly design

You can process multiple results and collect data efficiently.

Channel info extraction

Channel name and subscriber information are extracted separately when available.

Thumbnail support

If a thumbnail is missing from the page, a fallback thumbnail URL is generated from the video ID.

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Example use cases by user type

Marketers

Track content trends, competitor channels, and video performance signals.

Researchers

Build datasets from YouTube search results, playlists, or channels.

Creators

Audit your own channel videos and compare metadata patterns.

Agencies

Collect YouTube content data for client reporting and market research.

Automation users

Feed extracted video data into no-code tools, scripts, dashboards, and pipelines.

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Notes on extracted values

Views

The Actor extracts both raw text and parsed numeric views when possible.

Example:

• 64M views → 64000000
• 1.2K views → 1200
• 113,456 views → 113456

Duration

Duration is returned as a string and may also be converted to seconds when possible.

Example:

• 12:34 → 754

Thumbnails

If a page does not expose a thumbnail directly, a fallback image URL is generated from the video_id.

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Limitations

Like most web scrapers, this Actor depends on YouTube's page structure and rendering behavior. Some fields may be missing depending on:

• page type
• region
• language
• YouTube UI changes
• unavailable metadata
• login-only content
• restricted or private videos

For best results, use public pages with stable metadata.

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Best practices

• Use public URLs only
• Keep max_results reasonable for large pages
• Prefer channel /videos tabs for channel scraping
• Use search queries when you want broad discovery
• Review output fields before building automation on top of it
• Monitor YouTube UI changes over time

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Output destination

The Actor writes results to:

• Apify Dataset
• Key-Value Store as results.json

This makes it easy to use the data in:

• dashboards
• scripts
• integrations
• spreadsheets
• downstream automation workflows

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Example workflow

1. Enter a YouTube URL or search query.
2. Run the Actor.
3. Collect the output from the dataset.
4. Export the JSON or connect it to another automation step.
5. Use the data for analysis, tracking, or reporting.

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FAQ

Can this Actor scrape search results?

Yes. It supports YouTube search result pages through the query input or a search URL.

Can this Actor scrape channel videos?

Yes. It supports channel pages and extracts channel-related data separately.

Can this Actor scrape playlists?

Yes. Playlist pages are supported.

Can this Actor scrape a single video?

Yes. Single video pages are supported.

Does it work with dynamic YouTube loading?

The Actor is designed with a stronger wait strategy and scroll collection to handle dynamic rendering more reliably.

What format does it return?

The output is returned as structured JSON.

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Suggested store summary

A reliable YouTube scraper for search results, channel videos, playlists, and single videos. Extract titles, URLs, video IDs, channel info, views, duration, thumbnails, published dates, and descriptions in clean JSON format.

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Keywords

youtube scraper, youtube video scraper, youtube search scraper, youtube channel scraper, youtube playlist scraper, youtube metadata extractor, youtube video data extractor, youtube video details scraper, apify youtube scraper, youtube analytics scraper, youtube content scraper, video metadata scraper

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