# YouTube Video Metadata Collector (`skcho/youtube-video-metadata-collector`) Actor

List every long-form and Shorts video on a set of YouTube channels and fetch full metadata per video: description, tags, category, exact view/like counts, chapters and available caption languages.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/skcho/youtube-video-metadata-collector.md
- **Developed by:** [seungkyu cho](https://apify.com/skcho) (community)
- **Categories:** Videos, Social media, For creators
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## YouTube Video Metadata Collector

Give it a channel. Get back every video on it — long-form and Shorts — with the
full metadata record for each one, not the thin summary a listing page shows.

Description, tags, category, exact view and like counts, duration in seconds,
chapters, available caption languages. The fields you'd otherwise open 200 tabs
to collect.

### What a row looks like

```json
{
  "recordType": "videoDetail",
  "channelName": "Marques Brownlee",
  "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd",
  "listedType": "LONG_FORM",
  "videoId": "kYfNvmF0Bqw",
  "videoUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYfNvmF0Bqw",
  "title": "The Best Smartphone Camera 2025",
  "description": "Full blind camera test results...",
  "durationSeconds": 1043,
  "viewCount": 4821904,
  "likeCount": 79605,
  "category": "Science & Technology",
  "keywords": ["smartphone", "camera test", "blind test"],
  "chapters": [{ "title": "Intro", "startSeconds": 0 }],
  "availableCaptionLanguages": ["en", "es", "ko"],
  "isLive": false,
  "isUpcoming": false,
  "isFamilySafe": true,
  "thumbnails": [{ "url": "https://i.ytimg.com/...", "width": 1280 }],
  "scrapedAt": "2026-08-26T04:20:11.882Z"
}
```

Not every field exists on every video — livestreams, Shorts and age-restricted
uploads each expose a different subset. Missing values come back `null`, never as
errors.

### Input

| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `channelUrls` | `@handle`, `/channel/UC…`, `/c/…`, or a bare handle |
| `videoType` | `ALL`, `LONG_FORM`, or `SHORTS` |
| `maxItemsPerChannel` | Per-channel budget — `ALL` splits it across both tabs |
| `minUploadDate` / `maxUploadDate` | `YYYY-MM-DD` window |
| `maxDaysOld` | Rolling window, in days |
| `proxyConfiguration` | Residential by default — see below |

```json
{
  "channelUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd"],
  "videoType": "ALL",
  "maxItemsPerChannel": 200,
  "maxDaysOld": 365
}
```

### Two things this gets right that are easy to get wrong

**Shorts actually come back.** The fast HTTP path doesn't recognise the Shorts
tab layout and parses zero videos from it. Treating that as "this channel has no
Shorts" is the obvious bug, and it's a quiet one — you get a successful run with
nothing in it. Here, a tab that yields zero **always** falls back to a full
browser scroll, and a run that ends up empty fails rather than reporting success.

**Records aren't hollow.** YouTube gives datacenter IPs a stripped response: the
listing still works, but per-video detail comes back nearly empty, so rows land
with an ID and little else — no title, no description, no view count. Requests go
through a residential proxy by default, which is the difference between a 10-field
shell and the 24-field record above.

### Good for

- Channel audits and content inventories
- Competitive tracking across a set of channels
- Building a searchable index of a back catalogue
- Feeding recommendation or trend models with real metadata

### Notes

- `maxItemsPerChannel` is a **per-channel** budget. With `videoType: ALL` the
  long-form and Shorts tabs share it, rather than each taking the full amount.
- Residential proxy traffic is billed by Apify on top of compute.
- Set `proxyUrls` to use your own proxies instead of Apify's.

# Actor input Schema

## `channelUrls` (type: `array`):

YouTube channel URLs, channel IDs (UC...), or @handles. One per line.

## `videoType` (type: `string`):

Which videos to collect.

## `maxItemsPerChannel` (type: `integer`):

Maximum videos to process per channel (per tab). 0 means unlimited.

## `minUploadDate` (type: `string`):

Only include videos uploaded on or after this date (YYYY-MM-DD). Leave empty to disable.

## `maxUploadDate` (type: `string`):

Only include videos uploaded on or before this date (YYYY-MM-DD). Leave empty to disable.

## `maxDaysOld` (type: `integer`):

Stop once videos are older than this many days. 0 disables the check.

## `proxyUrls` (type: `array`):

One proxy URL per line (e.g. http://user:pass@host:port), rotated across requests. Recommended for anything beyond a handful of channels.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

YouTube serves datacenter IP addresses a stripped response, which leaves records without a title, description or view count. Runs on the Apify platform need a residential proxy to get complete metadata. Ignored when "proxyUrls" is set. Residential proxy traffic is billed separately by Apify.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "channelUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd"
  ],
  "videoType": "ALL",
  "maxItemsPerChannel": 20,
  "minUploadDate": "",
  "maxUploadDate": "",
  "maxDaysOld": 0,
  "proxyUrls": [],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

One row per video with full metadata: title, description, tags, category, view and like counts, duration, chapters and caption languages.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "channelUrls": [
        "https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd"
    ],
    "proxyUrls": []
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("skcho/youtube-video-metadata-collector").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "channelUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd"],
    "proxyUrls": [],
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("skcho/youtube-video-metadata-collector").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "channelUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd"
  ],
  "proxyUrls": []
}' |
apify call skcho/youtube-video-metadata-collector --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,skcho/youtube-video-metadata-collector"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/brqdYFIMatrrj3e0F/builds/yh3RxkfKAUsPcXrdi/openapi.json