🎬 YouTube Search API — Videos, Stats & Channels

Search YouTube the way the YouTube Data API does — without an API key, quota limits, or OAuth — and get back rich, structured data for every video and its channel. Enter keywords or full YouTube search URLs (bulk supported) and receive views, likes, comment counts, duration, subscribers, keywords, hashtags, thumbnails and more.

💡 Why Choose Us?

• No API key & no quota — the official Data API caps you at 10,000 units/day; this Actor doesn't.
• Deeper data — we merge the search feed with each video's player, comments, and the channel's About panel + RSS feed, so you get subscriber counts, channel creation date, comment counts and full keyword lists that the bare search endpoint never returns.
• Bulk-friendly — search many keywords/URLs in one run.
• Resilient — automatic direct → datacenter → residential proxy fallback with retries keeps runs alive when YouTube pushes back.
• Live results — records stream into the dataset as they're scraped, with three ready-made table views.

✨ Key Features

• 🔍 Bulk search by keyword or YouTube results URL
• 📹 Full video metadata (title, description, views, likes, duration, keywords, hashtags, thumbnail)
• 💬 Real comment counts + comments-disabled detection
• 📺 Channel enrichment (subscribers, total views, video count, handle, creation date)
• 🎛️ Advanced filters (order, duration, definition, license, event type, date range, region, language, safe search)
• 🌐 Self-healing proxy ladder with clear logs
• 💾 Live saving — partial data survives interruptions

📥 Input

{
  "searchQueries": ["surfing", "https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=longboarding"],
  "maxResults": 100,
  "useFilters": true,
  "order": "viewCount",
  "videoDuration": "medium",
  "publishedAfter": "2024-01-01T00:00:00Z",
  "regionCode": "US",
  "relevanceLanguage": "en",
  "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true }
}

Field	Type	Description
searchQueries	array	Required. Keywords or YouTube results URLs. Each runs as its own search.
q	string	Optional single keyword (alternative to the bulk list).
maxResults	integer	Videos per query, 1–1000 (default 100).
useFilters	boolean	Enable the advanced filters below.
order	string	date, rating, relevance, title, videoCount, viewCount.
videoDuration	string	any, short, medium, long.
videoDefinition	string	any, high, standard.
videoLicense	string	any, creativeCommon, youtube.
eventType	string	completed, live, upcoming.
safeSearch	string	moderate, none, strict.
publishedAfter / publishedBefore	string	RFC 3339 date filters.
regionCode / relevanceLanguage	string	ISO country / language codes.
proxyConfiguration	object	Proxy settings for the fallback ladder.

📤 Output

{
  "title": "SURFING A REMOTE ISLAND IN THE PACIFIC! (RAW POV)",
  "type": "video",
  "channelName": "Surfing With Noz",
  "date": "2026-06-16T09:35:15Z",
  "text": "I flew to a remote island in the Pacific...",
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/j5n5GN3bZ0U/maxresdefault.jpg",
  "order": 0,
  "input": "surfing",
  "hashtags": ["#1", "#2"],
  "channelId": "UCoicMEw3njXscfwHlaAJVcQ",
  "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@surfingwithnoz",
  "channelUsername": "surfingwithnoz",
  "numberOfSubscribers": 230000,
  "channelViewCount": 77184748,
  "channelVideoCount": 592,
  "hiddenSubscriberCount": false,
  "channelCreatedAt": "2012-01-02T06:38:17Z",
  "id": "j5n5GN3bZ0U",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5n5GN3bZ0U",
  "viewCount": 26218,
  "likes": 805,
  "commentsCount": 170,
  "commentsTurnedOff": false,
  "duration": "00:10:37",
  "keywords": ["surfing", "POV surfing", "..."],
  "isMembersOnly": false
}

The dataset ships with three table views: 📹 Videos, 📺 Channels, and 🔥 Engagement, plus a full 🗂️ All Fields view.

🚀 How to Use (Apify Console)

1. Log in at console.apify.com → Actors.
2. Open 🎬 YouTube Search API.
3. Add your keywords/URLs to Search Queries, set Max Results, optionally enable filters.
4. Click Start and watch the live logs.
5. Open the Output tab — switch between the Videos / Channels / Engagement views.
6. Export to JSON / CSV / XLSX.

🤖 Use via API

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/<ACTOR_ID>/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"searchQueries":["surfing"],"maxResults":50}'

🎯 Best Use Cases

• Content & competitor research
• Influencer / channel discovery
• Trend and keyword analysis
• Building YouTube datasets for ML / analytics

💳 Pricing

This Actor uses Pay Per Event. You're charged once per video-scraped event — i.e. per fully enriched video saved to the dataset. Runs stop gracefully when your spend limit is reached.

❓ FAQ

Do I need a YouTube API key? No. The Actor works entirely from public pages.

Why did I get fewer results than maxResults? Date-range and upcoming/completed event filters are applied after fetching video details, so they can reduce the count. YouTube also simply may not have that many matching videos.

Are private/age-restricted videos included? Only publicly available data is collected.

🛟 Support & Feedback

Found a bug or want a new field? Open an issue on the Actor's Issues tab.

Data is collected only from publicly available sources. You are responsible for compliance with YouTube's Terms of Service and applicable laws (GDPR, CCPA, etc.).