Youtube Comments Scraper

Youtube Comments Scraper

The Youtube Comments Scraper is a fast, production‑ready YouTube comment extractor that lets you scrape YouTube comments (including threaded replies), authors, timestamps, likes, and video metadata at scale. Built for marketers, developers, data analysts, and researchers, it solves the pain of collecting structured discussion data for social listening, market research, and moderation workflows — and helps you export YouTube comments to CSV or JSON for downstream analysis. With bulk processing and automatic proxy fallback, you can scrape YouTube comments without API keys reliably and at scale. 🚀

What data / output can you get?

Below are the exact output fields this YouTube comments crawler saves to the dataset on each run:

Data field	Description	Example value
cid	Unique comment ID	Ugzxs4_5UJwAI1xrNF14AaABAg
type	Record type (always “comment”)	comment
publishedTimeText	Relative publish time for the comment	2 years ago
comment	Comment text content	Subscribe to be in one of my upcoming videos (it's going to be huge!)
author	Author handle (prefixed with @)	@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 the comment	true
replyCount	Number of replies to this comment	763
replyToCid	Parent comment ID for replies (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

Note: Results can be downloaded in multiple formats (JSON, CSV, Excel) directly from the Apify dataset. Perfect when you need to export YouTube comments to CSV/Excel for analysis.

Key features

• ⚡️ Automatic proxy fallback & retries Handles blocks and rate limits with a smart fallback chain: no proxy → datacenter → residential, with up to 3 retries. Reliable scraping for strict regions and heavy workloads.

• 📦 Batch scraping & bulk automation Add multiple video URLs or IDs to process in one run. Ideal for bulk YouTube video comments scraper use cases across campaigns or competitor sets.

• 🔀 Sort by top or newest Choose the sort order you need (“top” or “newest”) to prioritize relevance or recency in your datasets.

• 🧵 Threaded replies with parent linkage Captures both top‑level comments and replies, preserving parent‑child relationships via the replyToCid field for accurate thread analysis.

• 📊 Flexible limits per video Control extraction depth with maxComments. Set 0 to scrape all available comments or a specific limit for faster test runs.

• 🧰 Production‑ready reliability Built with robust error handling, retry logic, and detailed logging so you can monitor progress, proxy events, and throughput in real time.

• 💻 Developer‑friendly on Apify Run online via the Apify platform, stream results to a dataset, and integrate into pipelines for “YouTube comment scraper Python” and automation use cases.

How to use Youtube Comments Scraper - step by step

1. Sign in to your Apify account and open the Apify Console.
2. Go to Actors and open “youtube-comments-scraper” by Scraply.
3. In the Input tab, add your YouTube video URLs or IDs to startUrls (string list). You can mix full URLs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID or https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID) and 11‑character IDs.
4. Set maxComments per video. Use 0 for no limit (scrape all available comments) or a number like 50/100/1000 for faster runs.
5. Choose sortOrder: “top” for most liked/relevant, or “newest” for recent comments.
6. (Optional) Configure proxyConfiguration. Leave useApifyProxy: false by default, or enable Apify Proxy if you hit blocks. The scraper auto‑falls back to datacenter then residential if needed.
7. Click Start to run. Watch live logs for progress and any proxy fallback events.
8. When finished, open the Dataset tab to preview results and download as JSON, CSV, or Excel.

Pro tip: Automate runs and route outputs into your analytics stack or CRM. With Apify datasets, it’s easy to export YouTube comments to CSV/Excel and trigger downstream workflows in tools like Make, n8n, or Zapier.

Use cases

Use case	Description
Social listening & brand monitoring	Track what audiences say about your brand or competitors; aggregate comment trends and creator‑hearted insights for campaigns.
Market research on video content	Collect structured feedback from target videos to validate messaging, value props, and product mentions.
Community moderation & QA	Surface high‑engagement threads, replies, and verified authors to inform moderation and support playbooks.
Influencer & creator analysis	Analyze comment patterns and engagement under influencer posts to qualify partners and measure audience fit.
Academic & media research	Build datasets for studies on discourse, sentiment, or platform dynamics from public YouTube comments.
Competitive intelligence	Compare comments across competitor videos to spot objections, differentiation, and emerging topics.
Automation pipelines	Feed scraped comments into NLP, sentiment analysis, or BI dashboards via Apify datasets and scheduled runs.

Why choose Youtube Comments Scraper?

This scraper is built for precision, scale, and automation — a production‑grade YouTube comments scraper online that outperforms manual tools and fragile browser extensions.

• ✅ Accurate, structured output: Clean fields for IDs, authors, timestamps, likes, replies, and video metadata.
• 🌍 Built for reach: Works across any public video with sort options for “top” or “newest”.
• 📈 Scales with you: Bulk input for multi‑video jobs and robust retry logic for long runs.
• 🧩 Developer access: Integrates seamlessly with Apify datasets and your data workflows.
• 🛡️ Safe & ethical: Targets publicly available video pages only; no private or authenticated data.
• 🔄 Resilient infrastructure: Automatic proxy fallback and retries to handle rate limits and blocking.
• 🗂️ Easy exporting: Download in JSON, CSV, or Excel for immediate analysis.

In short: a reliable YouTube comments extractor vs. unstable extensions — designed for repeatable, automated data operations.

Is it legal / ethical to use Youtube Comments Scraper?

Yes — when done responsibly. This actor extracts data from publicly available YouTube video pages only and does not access private or password‑protected content.

Guidelines for compliant use:

• Collect and use only public data, and avoid scraping private or age‑restricted content.
• Review and respect YouTube’s Terms of Service and applicable rate limits.
• Ensure your use complies with data protection laws (e.g., GDPR, CCPA) and internal policies.
• Use the data responsibly (e.g., research, analysis, moderation), not for spam.
• Consult your legal team for edge cases and jurisdiction‑specific requirements.

Input parameters & output format

Example input

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

Parameters (from the input schema):

• startUrls (array, required, editor: stringList)

  • Description: Enter the YouTube videos you want to scrape comments from. Accepts 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. Add multiple to scrape several videos in one run; each video’s comments are saved with the correct title and metadata.
  • Default: none (required)

• maxComments (integer, optional)

  • Description: Set the maximum number of comments to scrape per video. Use 0 for no limit (scrape all available comments). The actor stops once this limit is reached for each video.
  • Default: 50
  • Minimum: 0

• sortOrder (string, optional; enum: top, newest)

  • Description: Choose how comments are ordered when fetching. “top” shows the most liked/relevant comments first. “newest” shows the most recently posted comments first.
  • Default: top

• proxyConfiguration (object, optional; editor: proxy)

  • Description: Configure proxy settings. By default, no proxy is used. If you encounter rate limits, blocks, or geographic restrictions, enable Apify Proxy. The actor will automatically try datacenter proxies first, then residential proxies if needed.
  • Prefill: { "useApifyProxy": false }

Advanced note: The actor also recognizes optional language and region keys when provided programmatically, defaulting to "en-GB" (language) and "US" (region) in the code.

Example 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
}

Fields returned per record:

• cid, type, publishedTimeText, comment, author, avatar, authorIsChannelOwner, isVerified, voteCount, hasCreatorHeart, replyCount, replyToCid, videoId, pageUrl, title, commentsCount

Note: Some fields may be empty when YouTube does not expose the value for a given comment (e.g., missing avatar URLs on certain items).

FAQ

How many comments can I scrape?

Set maxComments to 0 to scrape all available comments, or choose any limit per video like 50, 100, or 1000. The default is 50 comments per video, and the actor stops fetching once the limit is reached.

Does it scrape replies and keep the thread structure?

Yes. The actor extracts both top‑level comments and replies. Parent‑child relationships are preserved via the replyToCid field so you can rebuild threads accurately.

Can I choose “top” or “newest” sorting?

Yes. Use the sortOrder input to select “top” (most liked/relevant) or “newest” (most recent). This helps prioritize social listening or recency‑focused monitoring.

Can I scrape YouTube comments without API keys?

Yes. This tool does not require official YouTube API keys. It operates on publicly available pages and web endpoints to extract structured comment data.

How does it handle rate limits or blocks?

The scraper includes automatic proxy fallback and retry logic. It starts with no proxy, then falls back to datacenter, and finally to residential proxies if needed, with up to 3 retries and clear logging of each event.

Can I export to CSV or Excel?

Yes. After a run, open the dataset in Apify and export your results as JSON, CSV, or Excel. This makes it easy to download YouTube comments and use them in spreadsheets or BI tools.

Can I input just video IDs instead of full URLs?

Yes. You can provide either full YouTube URLs or the 11‑character video ID in startUrls. The actor will normalize IDs to valid watch URLs automatically.

Does it support YouTube live chat scraping?

No. This actor focuses on video comments and threaded replies. It does not scrape live chat messages.

Final thoughts

The Youtube Comments Scraper is built to extract structured YouTube comment threads at scale for research, social listening, and analytics. With bulk processing, sort controls, and resilient proxy fallback, it delivers reliable datasets for marketers, developers, analysts, and researchers. Stream results into your workflows, export YouTube comments to CSV/Excel, or integrate programmatically on the Apify platform. Start extracting smarter audience insights from public YouTube videos today.