Youtube Comments Scraper

Youtube Comments Scraper

The Youtube Comments Scraper is a production-ready Apify actor that extracts YouTube video comments at scale — including replies, likes, author details, timestamps, and creator interactions — without the official API. Built for marketers, developers, data analysts, and researchers, this youtube comments scraper helps you download YouTube comments, export them to CSV/JSON, and power analysis with clean, structured data. Whether you need a youtube comments extractor for content strategy or a youtube comments crawling workflow for social listening, it delivers reliable, automation-ready results at scale. 🚀

What data / output can you get?

Below are the exact JSON fields this YouTube comments extractor saves to the dataset for every comment. You can export to JSON or CSV from the Apify console (CSV opens in Excel for “extract YouTube comments to CSV” workflows):

Data type	Description	Example value
cid	Unique comment ID	Ugzxs4_5UJwAI1xrNF14AaABAg
type	Record type (always “comment”)	comment
publishedTimeText	Relative time the comment was posted	2 years ago
comment	The comment text content	Subscribe to be in one of my upcoming videos (it's going to be huge!)
author	Author username with @ prefix	@MrBeast
avatar	URL to the author’s profile image	https://yt3.ggpht.com/…/s88-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj
authorIsChannelOwner	Whether the author owns the channel	true
isVerified	Whether the author is verified	true
voteCount	Number of likes/upvotes	189000
hasCreatorHeart	Whether the creator hearted this comment	true
replyCount	Number of replies to this comment	763
replyToCid	Parent comment ID (null for top-level)	null
videoId	YouTube video ID	KrLj6nc516A
pageUrl	Full YouTube video URL	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrLj6nc516A
title	Video title	$1 vs $100,000,000 Car!
commentsCount	Total number of comments on the video	155000

Bonus: The scraper preserves reply threading via replyToCid so you can scrape YouTube comment replies and rebuild parent–child relationships in your analysis. You can export YouTube comments to CSV or JSON and open them directly in Excel.

Key features

• 🔁 Bold proxy resilience with automatic fallback
  Handles rate limits and blocks by switching from no proxy → datacenter → residential, with retry logic and clear logging for every switch.

• 📦 Batch scraping & bulk automation
  Process multiple video URLs or IDs in a single run for high-throughput workflows and batch reporting with this youtube comments crawler.

• 🧩 Comprehensive comment metadata
  Extract author names, avatars, likes, published time, creator hearts, reply counts, and full parent–child threading for replies.

• 🧭 Flexible sorting and limits
  Choose between “top” or “newest” comments and cap the number of comments per video with maxComments.

• 🧑‍💻 Developer-friendly & API-ready
  Built in Python on the Apify platform. Easily integrate via the Apify API into pipelines, backend jobs, or “scrape YouTube comments Python” workflows.

• 💾 Easy exports for analysis
  Export YouTube comments to CSV or JSON. Perfect for dashboards and “download YouTube comments” use cases.

• 🛡️ Production-grade reliability
  Detailed logging, retry logic, and sequential processing ensure consistent runs at scale — a robust YouTube comments scraping tool without official API dependencies.

How to use Youtube Comments Scraper - step by step

1. Sign in to Apify
   Go to https://console.apify.com and log in or create an account.

2. Open the actor
   Search for “youtube-comments-scraper” in Actors and open it.

3. Enter input data

   • In startUrls, paste YouTube video URLs (e.g., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID or https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID) or just 11-character video IDs.
   • You can add multiple entries to scrape many videos in one run.

4. Configure settings

   • maxComments: Set the limit per video (use 0 for all available comments).
   • sortOrder: Choose "top" (default) or "newest".
   • proxyConfiguration: Optional. Leave off initially; the actor can fall back to datacenter and then residential if needed.

5. Run the scraper
   Click Start. The run logs will show progress, including any proxy fallback events and per-page extraction counts.

6. Monitor progress
   Watch live logs for comments added per page and total saved. The actor processes each video sequentially.

7. Download results
   Open the OUTPUT tab to export results as JSON or CSV. Open the CSV in Excel to analyze, share, or “export YouTube comments” to BI tools.

Pro Tip: Connect the dataset to your automation via the Apify API to power reporting dashboards, NLP pipelines, or enrichment flows for a “youtube video comments scraper” setup.

Use cases

Use case name	Description
Content analysis for creators	Aggregate and analyze viewer sentiment from top/newest comments to prioritize topics and improve content strategy.
Brand monitoring & social listening	Track brand mentions across competitor videos and scrape YouTube comments for timely campaign insights.
Market research & VoC	Collect feedback on products/services featured in videos to inform messaging and product development.
Influencer & channel research	Evaluate audience quality and engagement by extracting replies, likes, and creator interactions.
Competitive intelligence	Compare engagement patterns across multiple videos using a bulk youtube comments scraper workflow.
Academic & social studies	Build datasets for research on online discourse using structured comment metadata.
Data engineering pipeline	Feed extracted results to a warehouse via the Apify API for downstream analytics and enrichment.

Why choose Youtube Comments Scraper?

Positioned for precision and reliability, this YouTube comments extractor outperforms manual tools and brittle browser extensions.

• 🎯 Accurate, structured output with replies and metadata
• 🌍 Works on public videos without login — a youtube comments scraper without API dependencies
• 📈 Scales to many videos with sequential bulk processing
• 💻 Developer access via the Apify platform and API for automation
• 🛡️ Smart proxy fallback to minimize blocking and maintain uptime
• 💰 Efficient operations with configurable limits and robust retries
• 🔌 Easy exports to JSON/CSV for analytics and “export YouTube comments” workflows

Unlike a typical youtube comments scraper Chrome extension, this Apify-powered solution is scriptable, automatable, and built for repeatable production runs.

Is it legal / ethical to use Youtube Comments Scraper?

Yes — when used responsibly. This actor collects data only from publicly available YouTube pages and does not access private or authenticated content.

Guidelines for compliant use:

• Collect only public data and respect platform policies
• Avoid scraping private or age-restricted content
• Ensure your use complies with applicable regulations (e.g., GDPR, CCPA)
• Use scraped data responsibly and avoid spam
• Consult your legal team for edge cases or jurisdiction-specific requirements

Input parameters & output format

Example JSON input

{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrLj6nc516A",
    "dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ],
  "maxComments": 50,
  "sortOrder": "top",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}

Parameter reference:

Field	Type	Required	Default	Description
startUrls	array	Yes	—	Enter YouTube videos to scrape comments from. Use full URLs (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID or https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID) or just the 11-character video ID. Supports multiple entries; videos are processed sequentially.
maxComments	integer	No	50	Maximum number of comments to scrape per video. Use 0 for no limit (scrape all available comments).
sortOrder	string	No	top	Comment order: “top” (most liked/relevant first) or “newest” (most recently posted first).
proxyConfiguration	object	No	{ "useApifyProxy": false }	Proxy settings. By default, no proxy is used. If blocked, you can enable Apify Proxy; the actor can fall back to datacenter and then residential proxies if needed.

Notes:

• The actor accepts full URLs or just video IDs in startUrls.
• Language and region are handled internally with sensible defaults to ensure reliable scraping.
• Once proxy fallback succeeds, the run continues with the working proxy.

Example JSON output

{
  "cid": "Ugzxs4_5UJwAI1xrNF14AaABAg",
  "type": "comment",
  "publishedTimeText": "2 years ago",
  "comment": "Subscribe to be in one of my upcoming videos (it's going to be huge!)",
  "author": "@MrBeast",
  "avatar": "https://yt3.ggpht.com/nxYrc_1_2f77DoBadyxMTmv7ZpRZapHR5jbuYe7PlPd5cIRJxtNNEYyOC0ZsxaDyJJzXrnJiuDE=s88-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj",
  "authorIsChannelOwner": true,
  "isVerified": true,
  "voteCount": 189000,
  "hasCreatorHeart": true,
  "replyCount": 763,
  "replyToCid": null,
  "videoId": "KrLj6nc516A",
  "pageUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrLj6nc516A",
  "title": "$1 vs $100,000,000 Car!",
  "commentsCount": 155000
}

Field behavior notes:

• replyToCid is null on top-level comments and set to the parent comment’s cid for replies.
• title may be “Unknown Title” if YouTube does not expose it in page data.
• author may appear as “@Unknown” when author data isn’t available from the page.
• avatar can be empty if the profile image URL isn’t present.

FAQ

Is there a free way to try this YouTube comment scraper?

Yes. You can start with Apify’s free trial minutes and test your configuration before subscribing. This provides time to validate the youtube comment scraper tool for your workflow.

Do I need the official YouTube API or cookies to scrape?

No. This is a youtube comments scraper without API dependencies and does not require login. It accesses publicly available pages and uses internal endpoints to load comments.

Can I export YouTube comments to CSV or Excel?

Yes. You can export results from the OUTPUT tab as CSV or JSON. CSV files open directly in Excel — perfect when you want to extract YouTube comments to CSV.

Does it extract replies and maintain threading?

Yes. The actor extracts both top-level comments and replies. It preserves threads through the replyToCid field so you can rebuild discussions end-to-end.

How many comments can I scrape per video?

As many as are publicly available. Set maxComments to 0 to scrape all, or choose a specific number (e.g., 50, 100, 1000) per video.

How does it handle rate limits and blocks?

It includes intelligent retries and smart proxy fallback. If a request is blocked, it can switch from no proxy to datacenter, then to residential proxies, with clear logging at each step.

Can I run it on multiple videos at once?

Yes. Add multiple URLs or IDs to startUrls for a bulk youtube comments scraper run. The actor processes videos sequentially and writes results to a single dataset.

Is this a Chrome extension?

No. Unlike a youtube comments scraper Chrome extension, this is an Apify actor built for reliability, automation, and server-side scalability — better for repeatable, large-scale jobs.

Closing CTA / Final thoughts

The Youtube Comments Scraper is built to reliably extract structured YouTube comment data at scale. With bulk processing, reply threading, robust proxy fallback, and clean exports, it’s ideal for marketers, developers, analysts, and researchers who need a dependable youtube comments scraping tool.

Run it on Apify, export to JSON/CSV for dashboards and analysis, and integrate via the Apify API for automation or “scrape YouTube comments Python” pipelines. Start extracting smarter YouTube insights today and turn comment streams into actionable intelligence.

🔗 What are other Youtube scraping tools?

If you want to scrape specific Youtube data, you can use any of the dedicated scrapers below for faster and more targeted results.

🔗 Scraper Name	🔗 Scraper Name
📧 YouTube Channel Email Scraper	📝 YouTube Transcript Scraper
📞 YouTube Channel Phone Number Scraper	📈 YouTube Trending Scraper
💬 YouTube Comments Scraper	🧠 YouTube Video Summarizer
📺 YouTube Channel Scraper	🎥 YouTube Video Scraper by Hashtag
🗂️ YouTube Metadata Scraper	🔍 YouTube Channel Finder
▶️ YouTube Playlist Scraper	🔎 YouTube Search Scraper
🧰 YouTube Scraper	📝 YouTube Community Posts Scraper
🎥 YouTube Shorts Scraper	🎥 YouTube Video Details Scraper