YouTube Comments Scraper

Get comments and replies from any public YouTube video, Short or live replay, with no login and no API key. Every run also tells you, per video, whether you got everything and, if not, why.

Why this YouTube comment scraper

Most comment scrapers hand you a file. If it has 40 comments and the video shows 3,680, you're left guessing whether it's a bug, a limit or YouTube.

This actor gives each video a plain answer in the run's RUN_SUMMARY, and in the status message when you run one video:

• "100 of the 12,513 YouTube shows: stopped at your limit of 100 per video."
• "55 of the 63 YouTube shows: YouTube served no more. YouTube's count also includes comments it no longer shows, such as deleted ones or ones held for review."
• "Comments are turned off for this video."

If the platform restarts a run partway, it carries on from the last saved page instead of starting over.

What you get

One row per comment or reply:

Field	What it is
videoId	The video the comment is on
commentId, parentCommentId, isReply	IDs, so you can rebuild reply threads
text	The comment text
publishedTimeText	What YouTube shows, for example "2 months ago"
publishedAtApprox	That time as an approximate date (YouTube only gives relative times)
likeCount, replyCount	Likes and replies
isPinned, isHeartedByCreator, authorIsChannelOwner	Flags
authorName, authorChannelId, authorHandle	The author. Turn off Include author fields to leave these out

How to export YouTube comments to CSV, Excel or JSON

1. Paste video URLs or 11-character IDs into Videos.
2. Set Max comments per video (replies count toward it).
3. Pick Sort: top comments or newest first.
4. Click Start, then download the results as JSON, CSV or Excel, or read them through the API.

Input example

{
  "videos": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ", "4z8Hi_uQOkE"],
  "maxCommentsPerVideo": 500,
  "sort": "newest",
  "includeReplies": true,
  "oldestCommentDate": "7 days"
}

Output example

An illustrative row with author fields off:

{
  "videoId": "8WtD3zfsCDI",
  "commentId": "UgwiinymaSb31PP2McJ4AaABAg",
  "parentCommentId": null,
  "isReply": false,
  "text": "Great explanation, thanks!",
  "publishedTimeText": "2 months ago",
  "publishedAtApprox": "2026-08-30T10:38:05.671Z",
  "likeCount": 4,
  "replyCount": 0,
  "isPinned": false,
  "isHeartedByCreator": false,
  "authorIsChannelOwner": false
}

And the matching entry in RUN_SUMMARY (in the run's key-value store):

{
  "videoId": "IvtAd2g7aac",
  "status": "complete",
  "items": 55,
  "youtubeCount": 63,
  "endedBy": "all_fetched",
  "explanation": "55 of the 63 YouTube shows: YouTube served no more. ..."
}

endedBy is one of all_fetched, max_comments, date_cutoff, already_seen, scan_limit, charge_limit or error.

Filters

• Comments from / until: a date (2026-01-31) or an age (7 days, 2 weeks). Needs sort set to newest. The run stops at the first comment older than your range, so you don't pay for the rest.
• Minimum likes, Only comments hearted by the creator, Keywords: you're charged only for comments that match.
• Max comments to scan per video limits how far a filter looks when matches are rare (up to 20,000).

Watching videos on a schedule

Turn on Only new comments since the last run (with sort set to newest) and give the schedule a Monitor name. Each run remembers the newest comments it saw and stops when it reaches them, so a daily schedule delivers only what's new. Use one monitor name per schedule.

What people use YouTube comment data for

• Audience research on your own videos or a competitor's: what viewers ask for and complain about.
• Daily monitoring of new comments on launch or sponsored videos.
• Sentiment analysis or training data, with reply structure kept, for an LLM or a spreadsheet.
• Vetting a creator by how engaged their comment sections look.

Pricing

$1.00 per 1,000 comments, plus $0.002 per video whose comments load. Apify's platform usage is included. Bad IDs, unavailable videos and videos with comments turned off cost nothing.

Job	Cost
1,000 comments from one video	$1.00
100 comments each from 10 videos	$1.02
A daily check of 20 videos that finds 50 new comments	$0.09 per day

To control spend, set Max comments per video, use the date range, and set a maximum charge per run in the run options.

Why do I get fewer comments than YouTube shows?

Check the video's explanation in RUN_SUMMARY. The usual reasons:

• You hit Max comments per video, or your date range or filters ended the run.
• Include replies is off. YouTube's count includes replies.
• YouTube counts comments it no longer shows: deleted ones, ones held for review, and ones filtered as spam. No scraper can fetch those.
• On the Top sort, YouTube can stop serving early on very large videos. Newest-first can go further back.

FAQ

How do I download all comments from a YouTube video?

Paste the video URL, set Max comments per video high enough, keep Include replies on, and run it. The video's explanation in RUN_SUMMARY tells you whether you got everything YouTube serves.

Is this an alternative to the YouTube Data API?

Yes, for comments. You don't need a Google Cloud project, an API key or a daily quota.

Do I need a YouTube account or API key?

No. The actor reads public comments without logging in.

Do I need proxies?

No setup needed. It uses Apify's proxy by default.

Can I use it through the API, Make, Zapier or n8n?

Yes, like any Apify actor. Call it with your API token and read the dataset when the run finishes.

Does it work on Shorts and live replays?

Yes. Live chat is not included, only comments.

Is scraping YouTube comments legal?

The actor collects only public comments, logged out. The comments are personal data in many places (for example under the GDPR), and their authors own them. You are responsible for how you collect, store and use them. If you're unsure, ask a lawyer, and turn off Include author fields when you don't need them.

Don't use the data for spam, harassment, impersonation or any other unlawful purpose.

This actor is independent and not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by YouTube or Google. YouTube is a trademark of Google LLC.

Support

Open an issue on the Issues tab and include your run link.