YouTube Scraper — Extract Videos from Channels, Playlists, Search & Direct URLs

Scrape YouTube video data at scale. Extract titles, views, likes, comments, descriptions, thumbnails, channel info, and more from any channel, playlist, search query, or direct video URL — no API key required. Just $0.50 per 1,000 results.

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🎬 What Is the YouTube Scraper?

The YouTube Scraper is a fast, reliable, and affordable Apify Actor that extracts public video data from YouTube using four flexible input methods: channel URLs, playlist URLs, search keywords, and direct video URLs. Whether you need a handful of videos or tens of thousands, this scraper delivers clean, structured results ready for immediate use.

No API key. No login. No quotas. Just enter your input and get your data.

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✅ Why Use This YouTube Scraper?

• 💰 Unbeatable price — only $0.50 per 1,000 results
• 🎯 Four input methods — channels, playlists, search queries, and direct video URLs in a single tool
• ⚡ Fast & reliable — handles large channels and long playlists efficiently
• 🔓 No API key required — bypasses YouTube Data API quotas and restrictions entirely
• 📦 Bulk input support — add multiple channels, playlists, keywords, or URLs in one run
• 📊 Multiple export formats — JSON, CSV, XML, Excel, HTML, JSONL
• 🔌 Easy integrations — works with Make.com, Zapier, n8n, Google Sheets, and more
• 🤖 AI-ready output — plug directly into LLM pipelines, LangChain, or any automation workflow

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📦 What Data Does It Extract?

For every video scraped, you receive:

Field	Description
video_id	Unique YouTube video ID
title	Full video title
views	Total number of views
likes	Total number of likes
comments	Total number of comments
comments_turned_off	Whether comments are disabled on the video
duration	Video duration in HH:MM format
date_posted	Date the video was published
subscribers	Subscriber count of the channel at time of scrape
channel_name	Name of the YouTube channel
channel_id	Unique ID of the channel
channel_url	Direct URL to the channel
video_url	Direct URL to the video
description	Full video description text
thumbnail	URL of the video thumbnail image
source_input	The search term, channel, playlist, or URL used as input

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🚀 How to Use the YouTube Scraper

Getting started takes under a minute:

1. Create a free Apify account — new accounts get $5 in free monthly credits
2. Open the YouTube Scraper in the Apify Store
3. Choose your input type — channel URL, playlist URL, search keyword, or direct video URL
4. Enter your inputs and set the maximum number of results per input
5. Click "Save & Start" and wait for the run to complete
6. Download your data in JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or HTML

You can mix input types in a single run — for example, scrape two channels, a playlist, and a keyword search all at once.

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🎯 Four Ways to Scrape YouTube

📺 By Channel URL

Scrape all videos from any public YouTube channel. Get full video metadata, engagement data, and subscriber counts. Perfect for auditing a channel or tracking a competitor.

Use the channelUrls field:

https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXuqSBlHAE6Xw-yeJA0Tunw

📋 By Playlist URL

Extract every video from any public playlist, in order. Great for research collections, course content, or curated series.

Use the playlistUrls field:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

🔍 By Search Term

Scrape YouTube search results for any keyword or phrase. Returns the top videos ranked by YouTube for that query — ideal for trend research and competitor keyword analysis.

Use the searchTerms field:

best running shoes 2025
how to learn python

🔗 By Direct Video URL

Scrape one or more specific videos by URL. Get complete metadata, engagement stats, and channel info for each video provided.

Use the videoUrls field:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxxxxxxxxxx

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⚙️ Sample Input

{
  "maxVideosPerQuery": 10,
  "searchTerms": [
    "pubg"
  ],
  "searchUrls": [],
  "channelUrls": [],
  "playlistUrls": [],
  "videoUrls": []
}

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📤 Sample Output

{
  "video_id": "dS4VfYZFSjI",
  "title": "PUBG PC : Erangle High Kill Solo Squads WIN Gameplay (No Commentary)",
  "views": 31041,
  "likes": 639,
  "comments": 22,
  "comments_turned_off": false,
  "duration": "24:14",
  "date_posted": "Mar 4, 2026",
  "subscribers": 98600,
  "channel_name": "PUBG BOX",
  "channel_id": "UCibWZzkjMuzaYd0epLLjRpA",
  "channel_url": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCibWZzkjMuzaYd0epLLjRpA",
  "video_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS4VfYZFSjI",
  "description": "17 Kills - P90 & Kar98 Sniper Gameplay - Intense Ending - Erangel 2...",
  "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dS4VfYZFSjI/hqdefault.jpg",
  "source_input": "pubg"
}

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💵 Pricing

This Actor uses pay-per-result (PPR) pricing — you only pay for the data you actually receive.

Volume	Cost
1,000 videos	$0.50
10,000 videos	$5.00
100,000 videos	$50.00
1,000,000 videos	$500.00

💡 New to Apify? Every free account includes $5 in monthly credits. Note: free accounts are limited to 100 results per run on this Actor. Upgrade to a paid plan to unlock full scraping capacity.

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🎯 Who Is This For?

📣 Content Creators & YouTubers

Analyse what's working in your niche. Scrape top-performing videos in your category, study their titles, descriptions, tags, and publishing patterns to sharpen your own content strategy.

📊 Data Analysts & Researchers

Build YouTube datasets for trend analysis, NLP research, sentiment modeling, or academic study. Get clean, structured data ready for direct import into Python, R, or any BI tool.

💼 Digital Marketing Agencies & SEO Teams

Track competitor video performance, monitor keyword rankings in YouTube search, benchmark channel growth, and report on engagement metrics — all automated and at scale.

🛠️ Developers & Engineers

Integrate YouTube data into your pipelines via the Apify API or SDK. Schedule daily channel snapshots, trigger runs via webhooks, and push results to any database or storage bucket.

🤖 AI & Automation Builders

Feed YouTube video metadata and descriptions into LLM workflows, recommendation systems, or knowledge bases. The structured output requires zero preprocessing before ingestion.

🎓 Academic & Market Researchers

Study viral content patterns, track platform trends, map influencer networks, or collect evidence for media studies. Scrape at scale without hitting API quotas or rate limits.

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🧩 Use Cases

• Competitor research — analyse the full video catalogue of any competitor channel
• Keyword & SEO research — discover which titles, tags, and topics rank on YouTube search
• Influencer vetting — evaluate a creator's content volume, consistency, and engagement rates
• Trend detection — identify rising topics and viral content before they peak
• Content auditing — export and review an entire channel's catalogue in one run
• Playlist analysis — extract and study curated video collections or course content
• Market research — understand consumer interests by analysing what videos people watch
• Lead generation — find creators and businesses in your niche via channel data
• Brand monitoring — track mentions of your brand or product across YouTube search results
• Academic research — collect large-scale video datasets for media studies and cultural analysis

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🔌 Integrations & Automation

Connect the YouTube Scraper with your favourite tools:

• 🟣 Make.com (Integromat) — automate scheduled YouTube data exports and trigger workflows
• ⚡ Zapier — push video data to Google Sheets, Slack, Notion, Airtable, or your CRM
• 🔁 n8n — build no-code pipelines that process YouTube data automatically
• 📊 Google Sheets — export results directly to spreadsheets for quick analysis and sharing
• 🪝 Webhooks — receive instant notifications when a scraper run finishes

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❓ Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a YouTube API key to use this? No. The YouTube Scraper works independently of the official YouTube Data API. You do not need a Google account, API key, or any credentials.

Can I scrape multiple channels, playlists, or keywords at once? Yes. You can add as many input URLs or search keywords as you need in a single run. Mix channels, playlists, keywords, and direct video URLs all in one go.

Does it scrape YouTube Shorts and live streams? Yes. The scraper extracts all public video types including regular videos, Shorts, and live stream recordings, with content type indicated in the output.

What formats can I export the data in? You can download results as JSON, JSONL, CSV, XML, Excel (.xlsx), or HTML. Data is also accessible programmatically via the Apify API.

How many results can I get per run? There is no hard cap on results — you can scrape as many videos as you need. Simply set your desired limit and the scraper will run until it reaches it or exhausts the available content.

Does this scraper collect private data? No. It only collects publicly available video and channel data. It does not access private videos, user accounts, email addresses, watch histories, or any non-public information.

Is scraping YouTube legal? This scraper collects only publicly available data, consistent with what any regular visitor to YouTube can see. Always ensure your use of scraped data complies with YouTube's Terms of Service, applicable data protection laws (e.g. GDPR, CCPA), and Apify's Terms of Service.

Can I schedule this scraper to run automatically? Yes. You can schedule any Apify Actor to run at custom intervals — hourly, daily, weekly, or on a custom cron schedule — directly from the Apify Console.

What if a channel or playlist is very large? The scraper handles large channels and playlists efficiently. For very large jobs (100,000+ videos), we recommend splitting inputs across multiple runs or using Apify's scheduling feature to run incremental updates.

I found a bug or want to request a feature. What should I do? Please open a ticket in the Issues tab of this Actor on Apify Console. We actively review and respond to all submissions.

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🔗 Related Actors

Looking for more YouTube data tools? Check these out:

• 💬 YouTube Comments Scraper — extract comments, replies, likes, and author data from any video
• 📝 YouTube Transcript Scraper — download full video transcripts and subtitles in any language
• 📊 YouTube Channel Scraper — deep-dive into channel-level statistics and growth metrics
• 🔍 YouTube Search Scraper — scrape search result rankings by keyword with filters and sorting
• 📋 YouTube Playlist Scraper — extract every video from a playlist with full metadata

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🆘 Support

Need help? Here's how to reach us:

• 📋 Open an issue in the Issues tab of this Actor on Apify Console
• 📚 Browse the Apify Documentation for platform guides
• 💬 Join the Apify Discord Community for tips, feedback, and support

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⚡ YouTube Scraper — Extract video data from channels, playlists, search results, and direct URLs. No API key. No quotas. Just results.