🔍 YouTube Channel Finder — Discover channels by keyword or URL

Find YouTube channels by keyword — or paste channel and video URLs directly — and get each channel's full public profile: name, handle, subscriber count, description, country, join date, total views, video count and the external links the creator publishes on their About page.

Search across 17 regions in 11 languages, filter by join date, and let results stream into your dataset as they are found.

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What you get

📺 Channel identity	📊 Scale	🔗 Profile
Channel name	Subscriber count	Full description / About text
Handle (@username)	Total channel views	Country / location
Channel URL	Videos uploaded	Join date
Originating keyword		External links from the About page

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Key features

• Two discovery modes, combinable. Search by keyword to find channels you did not know about, or paste channel/video URLs when you already have targets — use either or both in the same run.
• Video URLs work too. Paste a video URL and the Actor resolves the channel behind it, which is the fastest way to turn a list of videos into a list of creators.
• Region and language targeting. 17 search regions (US, GB, CA, AU, IN, DE, FR, JP, BR, MX, ES, IT, NL, PL, RU, KR, TW) and 11 interface languages, because YouTube search results genuinely differ by market.
• Join-date filtering. fromDate and toDate narrow results to channels created in a window — the cleanest way to find new and emerging creators before they are saturated with sponsorship offers.
• External links extracted. The links creators publish on their About page — websites, socials, shops, Linktrees — come through as structured data, which is usually the real route to contacting them.
• Keyword attribution. Every row starts with the keyword that produced it, so multi-keyword runs stay attributable in one export.
• Never a silent gap. A channel whose About page cannot be resolved still produces a row with its URL, handle and an error field, so your export always accounts for every discovery.
• Automatic proxy fallback. Runs without a proxy by default; if the chosen proxy is blocked, the Actor falls back to residential and continues.
• Live saving — channels appear in the dataset as they are found.

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Use cases

• Influencer discovery — find creators in a niche, ranked by subscribers and view counts.
• Sponsorship prospecting — external links give you the creator's website or business contact route.
• Competitor mapping — see every channel competing for a keyword in your market.
• Emerging-creator scouting — use join-date filters to find channels started this year.
• Market research by region — run the same keyword across regions to compare local creator landscapes.
• Media list building — assemble a list of channels covering your industry.
• Partnership and affiliate recruitment — filter for channels with a website link and a suitable audience size.
• Content-gap analysis — video counts and view totals show which niches are crowded and which are not.

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How it works

1. You supply keywords, URLs, or both.
2. Each keyword is searched on YouTube in your chosen region and language, and matching channels are collected up to your per-keyword cap.
3. Each URL is resolved — channel URLs directly, video URLs via the channel behind them.
4. Every channel's About page is read for description, country, join date, subscriber count, total views, video count and external links.
5. Join-date filters are applied.
6. Rows stream into the dataset, each starting with the keyword that produced it.

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Quick start

1. Open the Actor and add your keywords — e.g. cooking tutorials, tech reviews.
2. Set Max channels per search term (1–50).
3. Choose a Search Region and Language.
4. Click Start, then export the Output tab as CSV, Excel or JSON.

Minimal input

{
  "keywords": ["python"],
  "channelCount": 20,
  "searchRegion": "US",
  "language": "en"
}

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Input configuration

Discovery

Field	Type	Default	Description
keywords	array	—	Search terms to find channels (cooking tutorials, tech reviews). One per line.
urls	array	—	Discover channels from specific YouTube URLs — channel or video URLs.

Search settings

Field	Type	Default	Description
channelCount	integer	10	Maximum channels per search keyword, 1–50.
searchRegion	string	US	Search region: US, GB, CA, AU, IN, DE, FR, JP, BR, MX, ES, IT, NL, PL, RU, KR, TW.
language	string	en	Interface and result language: en, es, de, fr, pt, ja, hi, zh, ko, ar, ru.
fromDate	string	—	Only channels that joined on or after this date (YYYY-MM-DD).
toDate	string	—	Only channels that joined on or before this date (YYYY-MM-DD).

Network

Field	Type	Default	Description
proxyConfiguration	object	no proxy	Optional. Enable Apify Proxy for higher volume or to reduce blocks. If the chosen proxy is blocked, the Actor falls back to residential automatically.

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Output data

One row per channel, with the keyword first.

Field	Type	Description
keyword	string	The search term that produced this row (empty for direct URLs).
channelName	string	Channel display name.
userName	string	Channel handle (@username).
subscriberCount	string	Subscribers as YouTube displays them (e.g. 1.2M subscribers).
description	string	Full About-page description.
location	string	Country, or Not specified.
links	array	External links published on the About page.
joined_date	string	When the channel was created.
channel_views	number	Total channel views, parsed to a number.
videos_uploaded	number	Number of videos, parsed to a number.
url	string	Channel URL.
email	null	Field is present for schema stability but not populated — this Actor does not extract e-mail addresses.
error	string	Present only when the channel's About page could not be resolved.

Example output

{
  "keyword": "python",
  "channelName": "Example Python Academy",
  "userName": "@examplepython",
  "subscriberCount": "412K subscribers",
  "description": "Weekly Python tutorials, project builds and career advice for developers.",
  "location": "United Kingdom",
  "links": [
    { "title": "Website", "url": "https://examplepython.dev" },
    { "title": "GitHub", "url": "https://github.com/examplepython" }
  ],
  "joined_date": "Mar 14, 2019",
  "channel_views": 38400000,
  "videos_uploaded": 412,
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@examplepython",
  "email": null
}

Illustrative values — a live run returns current YouTube data.

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Usage examples

Niche creator discovery

{
  "keywords": ["home barista", "espresso tutorial", "coffee gear review"],
  "channelCount": 50,
  "searchRegion": "US",
  "language": "en"
}

Emerging creators only

{
  "keywords": ["ai tools"],
  "channelCount": 50,
  "fromDate": "2026-01-01"
}

Channels created this year are far less saturated with sponsorship offers.

Regional comparison

Run the same keyword with searchRegion set to DE, FR and ES (with matching language), then compare the exports to see how the creator landscape differs by market.

Turn a video list into a creator list

{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID_1",
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID_2",
    "https://www.youtube.com/@apify"
  ]
}

Build a partnership shortlist

Run a broad keyword set, then filter the export for rows where links is not empty and channel_views is above your threshold — those creators have a business presence and a real audience.

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Run it from your own code

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_APIFY_API_TOKEN>")

run = client.actor("scraperx/youtube-channel-finder").call(run_input={
    "keywords": ["python"],
    "channelCount": 30,
    "searchRegion": "US",
    "language": "en",
})

for c in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(c["channelName"], "|", c["subscriberCount"], "|", c["url"], "|", c.get("links"))

JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '<YOUR_APIFY_API_TOKEN>' });

const run = await client.actor('scraperx/youtube-channel-finder').call({
    keywords: ['python'],
    channelCount: 30,
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/scraperx~youtube-channel-finder/runs?token=<YOUR_APIFY_API_TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"keywords":["python"],"channelCount":30}'

Integrations

Send channels into Google Sheets, Airtable, Slack, Make, Zapier, Google Drive or your CRM via webhooks, and use Schedules to keep a creator database current.

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Pricing

Pricing for this Actor is shown on its Pricing tab on the Actor page, and Apify displays the applicable cost before you run it. Free Apify accounts include monthly platform credit that is enough to trial it.

If a run falls back to Apify Residential proxies, that traffic is billed separately by the platform according to your plan.

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Limits & good to know

• Maximum 50 channels per search keyword. For broader coverage, use more keyword variations rather than a bigger number.
• channelCount is per keyword, so five keywords at 50 each can return up to 250 rows.
• email is always empty. This Actor does not extract e-mail addresses; the field exists only so the output shape stays stable. Use a dedicated YouTube e-mail finder for that.
• Subscriber counts are strings as YouTube displays them (1.2M subscribers) — views and video counts are parsed into real numbers.
• Region and language genuinely change results. Set both to match the market you care about.
• Rows with error mean that channel's About page could not be resolved — the URL and handle are preserved so you can retry.
• Coverage follows YouTube's search, which is finite for any single phrase.
• Default run options are 4 GB memory and a 1-hour timeout — raise the timeout for many keywords at high counts.

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FAQ

Do I need a YouTube or Google account? No. The Actor reads publicly available channel and search data.

Can I paste video URLs? Yes — the channel behind the video is resolved automatically. Channel URLs work too.

Does it return e-mail addresses? No. The email field exists for output stability but is always empty. Creator contact routes usually appear in the links array instead.

How do I find new channels? Set fromDate to the start of the period you care about — for example 2026-01-01 for channels created this year.

Why do results differ between runs in different regions? YouTube personalises search by region and language. That is a feature here: set both deliberately.

How many channels can I get per keyword? Up to 50. Use more keyword variations to go wider.

Do I need a proxy? Not to start. Enable Apify Proxy for higher volume; the Actor falls back to residential if blocked.

Which export formats are supported? JSON, CSV, Excel (XLSX), XML and RSS. CSV works well — only links is nested.

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Legal & responsible use

This Actor collects only publicly available YouTube channel information — the same details any visitor can see on a channel's About page. It does not log in, subscribe, or access private data. Channel names, descriptions and links are published by creators themselves; usernames and locations can still constitute personal data. Ensure your use complies with YouTube's Terms of Service, and with GDPR or comparable regulations if you use the data for outreach.

Support

Need extra fields, deeper channel data, or a custom creator-discovery pipeline? Open an issue on the Issues tab of this Actor.