YouTube Scraper | Extract Video Data & Search Results [v1.0.1]

What does YouTube Scraper do?

The YouTube Scraper is a powerful, automated tool designed to extract video data and search results directly from YouTube. Instead of manually searching and copying data, this scraper automates the process and provides you with structured, clean data.

It can extract comprehensive metadata including the video link, title, full description, views, likes, and comment counts. Built specifically for the Apify platform, it leverages Apify's robust proxy rotation and scheduling integrations to ensure your data extraction runs flawlessly, every time.

Why use YouTube Scraper?

YouTube is the world's largest video platform and the second-largest search engine. Being able to extract and analyze its data programmatically gives you a massive advantage:

• Market Research: Monitor competitor channels and discover what content formats are getting the most engagement.
• SEO & Keyword Tracking: Analyze search results for specific keywords to see which videos rank at the top and track their metrics over time.
• Trend Detection: Quickly pull data on the most popular videos "This Month" or "This Week" to identify rising trends in any niche.
• Lead Generation & Influencer Outreach: Discover creators in your target industry based on their engagement rates.

How to use YouTube Scraper

Using this scraper is incredibly simple and requires zero coding knowledge:

1. Create a free Apify account: If you haven't already, sign up on the Apify platform.
2. Open the Actor: Navigate to the YouTube Scraper actor page.
3. Set your keywords: Enter your desired search terms (e.g., "travel facts" or "tech reviews").
4. Configure your filters (Optional): Use the input options to filter by upload date, popularity, or duration.
5. Run the scraper: Click the "Start" button and wait for the run to complete.
6. Export your data: Once finished, download your data in JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or HTML format.

Input Configuration

The scraper accepts several parameters so you can precisely target the videos you want. Here is a breakdown of the input fields:

Field	Type	Description	Example
Search Keywords	Array	The keywords you want to search for on YouTube.	["travel facts"]
Max Results	Integer	The maximum number of videos to scrape per keyword. The scraper will scroll the page until it meets this limit.	50
Type	String	Filter the search by content type.	Videos, Shorts, Channels, Playlists
Duration	String	Filter videos based on their length.	Under 4 minutes, Over 20 minutes
Upload Date	String	Only extract videos uploaded within a certain timeframe.	This week, This month, This year
Features	String	Filter by features like Live, 4K, Subtitles, etc.	4K, HD
Prioritize (Sort by)	String	Choose how YouTube sorts the results.	Popularity, Upload date, Rating

Sample Input JSON

{
  "searchQueries": ["travel facts"],
  "maxResults": 10,
  "uploadDateFilter": "This month",
  "prioritizeFilter": "Popularity"
}

Output Data

The scraper extracts the details of each matching video and saves it to a dataset. You can download this dataset in various formats such as JSON, HTML, CSV, or Excel.

Sample Output JSON

{
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14nwl_wV-Uo&pp=ygUMdHJhdmVsIGZhY3Rz",
  "keyword": "travel facts",
  "type": "Video",
  "title": "Time Travel Happened To Victor 1935 | Top 10 Unknown Facts | Ep94",
  "description": "Historical account of the alleged time traveler...more",
  "viewsText": "1.2M views  4 years ago",
  "likesText": "125K",
  "commentsCountText": "4,781 Comments"
}

Data Table

Here is a quick overview of the data fields extracted:

Field	Description
url	The direct link to the scraped YouTube Video or Short.
keyword	The search term that yielded this result.
type	Specifies whether the result is a standard Video or a Short.
title	The full title of the video.
description	The text description provided by the creator.
viewsText	How many views the video has alongside its age (e.g. "1.2M views 4 years ago").
likesText	Total number of likes the video has received.
commentsCountText	Total amount of comments on the video.

Tips for Optimizing Runs

• Be specific with filters: Using filters like Upload Date: This Week and Sort by: Popularity severely cuts down on scrapable noise, helping your runs finish faster and cost less.
• Experiment with Max Results: Set a realistic maxResults limit. Scraping thousands of videos in a single run may trigger YouTube rate-limits. If you need massive bulk data, consider splitting your task across multiple runs with different keywords.

FAQ & Disclaimers

Is it legal to scrape YouTube? Scraping publicly available data is generally legal, provided you comply with copyright laws and do not extract personal, sensitive information. You are fully responsible for how you use the data. Please respect YouTube's Terms of Service where applicable.

Why did some fields return empty? Occasionally, YouTube disables comments or hides the like count for specific videos. When this happens, the scraper will simply return these fields as null and proceed.

Need a custom solution or found a bug? If the structure of YouTube changes or you need custom data points extracted, feel free to report it in the Issues tab of the actor!