YouTube Metadata Scraper
Pricing
$19.99/month + usage
YouTube Metadata Scraper
Scrape YouTube metadata, transcripts, and comments with proxy fallback and rich logging.
Pricing
$19.99/month + usage
Rating
0.0
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Developer
ScraperX
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Bookmarked
2
Total users
1
Monthly active users
2 days ago
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YouTube Metadata Scraper
YouTube Metadata Scraper is a fast, reliable YouTube video metadata extractor that collects structured details from public videos — titles, descriptions, tags, channel info, view/like/comment counts, transcripts, and more. It solves the challenge of gathering complete, analytics-ready video data without the official API, making it a practical YouTube metadata API alternative for marketers, developers, data analysts, and researchers who need to extract YouTube video details at scale. Run it to build trustworthy datasets for SEO, analytics, and automation workflows.
What data / output can you get?
The actor saves each processed video as a structured item with rich fields for analysis and automation.
| Data field | Description | Example value |
|---|---|---|
| id | YouTube video ID | dQw4w9WgXcQ |
| url | Video URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ |
| title | Video title | Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Video) (4K Remaster) |
| description | Video description | The official video for “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley... |
| lengthInSeconds | Video length in seconds | 213 |
| uploadDatetime | Upload date/time | 2009-10-24T23:57:33-07:00 |
| publish_date_since | Relative publish date | 16 years ago |
| category | Video category | Music |
| tags | Video tags | ["rick astley", "Never Gonna Give You Up"] |
| thumbnail | Thumbnail URL | https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/hqdefault.jpg |
| thumbnails_urls | All discovered thumbnail variants | ["https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/hqdefault.jpg", "https://i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/dQw4w9WgXcQ/maxresdefault.webp"] |
| channelID | Channel ID | UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw |
| channelURL | Channel URL | https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw |
| channelUsername | Channel username (handle-like) | rickastley |
| channelDisplayName | Channel display name | Rick Astley |
| channelSubscribers | Subscriber count | 4.44M |
| author_avatar_url | Channel avatar image URL | https://yt3.ggpht.com/xxx=s176-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj |
| is_verified | Channel verification badge | true |
| viewCount | View count | 1726805028 |
| likeCount | Like count | 18702878 |
| commentCount | Comment count | 2400000 |
| is_live_now | Whether video is live | false |
| description_links | Unwrapped URLs from the description | ["https://linktr.ee/rickastleynever", "https://RickAstley.lnk.to/YTSubID"] |
| is_comments_off | Whether comments are disabled | false |
| is_members_only | Whether video is members-only | false |
| is_paid_content | Whether video is paid content | false |
| transcripts | Transcripts/captions (plain text or timestamped segments) | [{ "language": "EN", "content": "We're no strangers to love ..." }] |
| comments | Top-level comments with metadata | [{ "id": "Ugzge340dBgB75hWBm54AaABAg", "text": "can confirm: he never gave us up", "author": "@YouTube", "likeCount": 153000, "publishedTime": "8 months ago", "replyCount": 960 }] |
Bonus: You can export results from Apify in JSON, CSV, or Excel for dashboards, SEO audits, and ML pipelines.
Key features
-
🔄 Robust proxy fallback & resiliency
Automatically escalates connection mode during blocks (none → datacenter → residential) with retries to keep runs stable. -
🔎 Keyword search with sorting & paging
Resolve videos from keywords and sort by relevance, upload_date, view_count, or rating. Control breadth with max_results_per_keyword. -
🗣️ Transcript & subtitle capture
Toggle transcript download and choose the format: plain text or timestamps. Include auto-generated English captions and/or non-English tracks. -
💬 Comment extraction with limits
Fetch top-level comments using YouTube’s continuation API with a configurable max_comments per video. -
📊 Comprehensive video & channel metadata
Collect titles, descriptions, categories, tags, counts (views/likes/comments), channel fields (ID, URL, display name, subscribers), and status flags (live, comments off, members-only, paid content). -
⚙️ Parallel processing & per-video saves
Videos are processed concurrently and each result is saved to the dataset as it’s ready, with rich logs for real-time visibility. -
🧑💻 Developer-friendly & automation-ready
Built on the Apify platform (Python). Trigger via API, integrate with your Python or Node.js pipelines, and export to JSON/CSV/Excel for downstream analytics. -
🔗 Description link extraction
Unwrap and extract all outgoing links from the video description for off-YouTube analysis. -
🛡️ Production-ready logging
Structured logs summarize every collected row (views, channel, transcripts, comments). The actor also sets key-value store records OUTPUT (results) and SUMMARY (processed/failed counts).
How to use YouTube Metadata Scraper - step by step
-
🔐 Sign in to Apify
Create a free Apify account or log in. -
🔍 Open the actor
Search for “YouTube Metadata Scraper” in the Apify Store and click Try for free. -
📥 Provide inputs
- Paste YouTube video URLs or IDs under urls, and/or enter keywords under keywords.
- Sorting for keyword searches can be set via sort_order.
-
⚙️ Configure options
- Set max_results_per_keyword (1–100).
- Choose include_transcripts and transcript_format ("text" or "timestamps").
- Toggle include_english_auto and include_non_english for captions.
- Set max_comments (0–5000).
- Leave proxyConfiguration as default to let the actor manage proxy fallback automatically.
-
▶️ Start the run
Click Start. The actor resolves video IDs from URLs and/or keywords, processes them concurrently, and pushes each result to the dataset as it completes. -
🔎 Monitor progress
Follow logs for per-video summaries (views, channel, transcripts count, comments). OUTPUT and SUMMARY records are written to the key-value store for quick review. -
💾 Export your data
Download results from the dataset in JSON, CSV, or Excel for SEO audits, enrichment, or analytics stacks.
Pro tip: Trigger runs via the Apify API from Python or Node.js to keep your YouTube metadata datasets fresh on a schedule.
Use cases
| Use case | Description |
|---|---|
| SEO teams – tag & keyword analysis | Analyze titles, descriptions, tags, and engagement to optimize metadata and content strategy. |
| Competitor benchmarking | Track view/like/comment trends and channel subscriber counts over time. |
| Research & analytics | Build datasets for trend analysis or academic studies with transcripts and top-level comments. |
| Data enrichment pipelines | Feed structured YouTube video data into ETL jobs, then export to CSV/Excel for BI dashboards. |
| Content strategy | Study categories, topics, and audience engagement to inform production. |
| Link & funnel mapping | Extract thumbnail URLs and all description links to map off-site journeys (landing pages, stores). |
| Automation via API | Integrate with Python/Node.js via the Apify API to refresh datasets programmatically. |
Why choose YouTube Metadata Scraper?
This YouTube metadata scraper tool is built for precision, scale, and automation — without fragile browser hacks.
- ✅ Accurate, structured outputs: Real fields for videos, channels, transcripts, and comments.
- 🌍 Multilingual transcripts: Include manual and auto-generated captions (English and non-English).
- 📈 Scales with your needs: Parallel processing and per-video saving with robust retry logic.
- 🧑💻 Developer access: Integrates easily with Python or Node.js via Apify’s API and exports in JSON/CSV/Excel.
- 🔒 Ethical by design: Extracts only public metadata from video pages; no login or cookies required.
- 🧱 More reliable than extensions: Proxy fallback and retries keep jobs stable and production-ready.
In short, it’s a production-grade YouTube video metadata extractor that outperforms brittle alternatives while staying simple to automate.
Is it legal / ethical to use YouTube Metadata Scraper?
Yes — when used responsibly. This actor extracts publicly available data from YouTube video pages and does not access private or authenticated content. Follow these guidelines:
- Scrape only public metadata and respect YouTube’s Terms of Service.
- Avoid private or copyrighted materials.
- Ensure your use complies with local data protection laws (e.g., GDPR/CCPA) and your organization’s policies.
Note: YouTube may modify or remove metadata. Always use this tool responsibly.
Input parameters & output format
Example JSON input
Parameters
| Field | Type | Required | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| urls | array of strings | No (provide at least one of urls or keywords) | — | Provide YouTube video URLs or IDs. You can mix URLs and plain keywords; each entry is one target. |
| keywords | array of strings | No (provide at least one of urls or keywords) | — | Search YouTube by keyword(s). Results can be sorted and paged. |
| sort_order | string ("relevance","upload_date","view_count","rating") | No | relevance | Sort keyword search results: relevance, upload date, view count, or rating. |
| max_results_per_keyword | integer (1–100) | No | 20 | Maximum number of videos to fetch per keyword (with paging). |
| max_comments | integer (0–5000) | No | 20 | Maximum number of top-level comments to retrieve per video. |
| include_transcripts | boolean | No | true | Toggle to download closed captions and transcripts when available. |
| transcript_format | string ("text","timestamps") | No | text | Choose whether transcripts are returned as plain text or with timestamps. |
| include_english_auto | boolean | No | false | Enable to include YouTube's auto-generated English captions. |
| include_non_english | boolean | No | false | Enable to include transcripts in non-English languages. |
| proxyConfiguration | object | No | {"useApifyProxy": false} | Configure Apify proxies. Leave as default to start without a proxy and allow automatic fallback management. |
Note: While none of the fields are strictly required by schema, the run will fail if both urls and keywords are empty.
Example JSON output
Fields like channelSubscribers may return "Unknown" when the value isn’t publicly available at the time of extraction.
FAQ
Is there a free tier and how is pricing handled?
Yes. You can start on Apify’s free plan to test the YouTube Metadata Scraper and then upgrade as needed. The actor runs in Apify’s cloud with pay‑as‑you‑go resources or a monthly plan.
Do I need to log in or provide API keys?
No. This tool works with publicly available pages and does not require credentials or the official API.
Can it capture transcripts and subtitles?
Yes. Enable include_transcripts and choose transcript_format as "text" or "timestamps". You can also include auto‑generated English captions and non‑English tracks.
Can I scrape by keyword instead of URLs?
Yes. Provide keywords and set sort_order plus max_results_per_keyword to collect videos from YouTube search automatically.
How many comments can it extract per video?
You control this via max_comments. Set any value from 0 to 5000 to limit top‑level comment retrieval.
What does the output include for comments?
Each comment item includes id, text, author, authorChannelId, likeCount, publishedTime, and replyCount.
Does it handle live videos or members‑only content?
Yes. The output includes is_live_now, is_members_only, and is_paid_content to flag live and gated content.
Can I automate this from Python or Node.js?
Yes. Use the Apify API to trigger runs and export data to JSON/CSV/Excel for integration into your pipelines.
Final thoughts
YouTube Metadata Scraper is built to extract, analyze, and export comprehensive video insights at scale — from titles, tags, and channel fields to transcripts and comments. It’s ideal for marketers, developers, data analysts, and researchers who need a dependable YouTube video info scraper without relying on the official API. Integrate via the Apify API (Python/Node.js), export to JSON/CSV/Excel, and start extracting smarter YouTube intelligence today.
🔗 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.
