YouTube Scraper - Videos, Shorts, Channels & Comments

YouTube Scraper extracts public YouTube data: videos, Shorts, live streams, channels, playlists, hashtags, search results, comments, replies and subtitles. Start from search terms, hashtags or any YouTube URL, and download clean JSON, CSV or Excel. Every video comes with its exact views, likes and comment count, tags, category, chapters, publish date and duration, plus the channel's subscribers. It works as a YouTube API alternative with no API key, no quota and no login, from $0.40 per 1,000 videos.

What does YouTube Scraper do?

YouTube Scraper turns YouTube pages into structured data you can download, schedule or call from your own code:

• 🔎 Search YouTube with YouTube's own filters: result type (videos, Shorts, live, movies or channels), upload date, duration, features (4K, HD, Subtitles/CC, Creative Commons, Live, 360°, VR180, 3D, HDR, Location, Purchased), and relevance or popularity order.
• #️⃣ Scrape YouTube hashtags: give #sourdough or https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/sourdough and get the videos or Shorts under it.
• 📺 Scrape YouTube channels by URL or @handle: videos, Shorts and live streams, each with its own limit, in Latest, Popular or Oldest order, plus the channel's details (subscribers, total views and videos, join date, country, links, avatar, banner).
• 📃 Scrape playlists, single videos and Shorts by URL or ID.
• 💬 Scrape YouTube comments and replies: top comments or newest first, with likes, reply counts, and pinned, edited and creator-heart flags.
• 📝 Download YouTube subtitles and captions with each video: the creator's or automatic ones, in your languages or all of them, as SRT, WebVTT, plain text or XML.
• 📅 Date range: only videos published after or before a date (2026-01-31, 31/01/2026, Jan 31 2026), or within an age such as 30 days, 2w or 6 months, across searches, channels, playlists and hashtags.
• 📊 Exact numbers and hidden data: exact view, like and comment counts, the creator's tags and category (which YouTube's page hides), chapters, and the "Includes paid promotion" flag.
• ♾️ No upper limits: ask for 10 videos or a whole channel; the scraper reads as far as YouTube lists.
• ✅ Each video once per run, even when several inputs find it, and you pay only for results. Set a maximum cost per run and it stops cleanly there.

What data can you extract from YouTube?

Item	Data you get
Video (also Shorts and live streams)	title, description, URL, publish date and time, duration, exact views, likes and comment count, tags, hashtags, category, thumbnail, chapters, video type (video, Short or stream), live status, members-only, age-restricted, unlisted, family-safe, paid promotion, links in the description, subtitles
Channel of each video	channel name, @handle, URL and ID, subscribers, verified badge
Comment and reply	text, author and author channel, likes, reply count, date, edited, pinned, creator heart, written by the creator, parent comment
Channel details	name, @handle, description, subscribers, total videos, total views, country, join date, links, keywords, avatar, banner, verified badge
Where it was found	input type (search, hashtag, channel, playlist or URL), input URL, search term, rank in the list

How to scrape YouTube

1. Open YouTube Scraper on Apify and click Try for free.
2. Enter search terms, hashtags or YouTube URLs: videos, Shorts, channels, channel tabs, playlists, hashtag pages or search pages.
3. Set how many results you want per search term or hashtag, and per channel or playlist. Shorts and live streams of a channel have their own limits.
4. Optionally add filters (upload date, duration, features, result type), a date range, the channel order, comments, subtitles or channel details.
5. Click Start. When the run finishes, download the results as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or HTML, or read them through the API.

How to scrape a YouTube channel

Paste the channel URL or @handle, for example https://www.youtube.com/@NASA. Set Max videos per channel, and Max Shorts per channel or Max live streams per channel if you want those too. Pick Latest, Popular or Oldest to choose which videos come first, and switch on Save channel details for the channel's profile. To scrape only one tab, paste its URL, such as https://www.youtube.com/@NASA/shorts.

How to scrape YouTube comments

Add the videos (or a channel, search or playlist), switch on Save comments, and set Max comments per video and Max replies per comment. Each video is saved first, followed by its comments, so they are easy to group.

How to download YouTube subtitles

Switch on Save subtitles, list your languages in order of preference (for example en, es), and pick a format: SRT, WebVTT, plain text or XML. Each video gets the first of your languages it has, with the creator's subtitles preferred over automatic ones, or every language when Every subtitle language is on. For transcripts only, without the other video data, see YouTube Transcript Scraper below.

How much does it cost to scrape YouTube?

YouTube Scraper is pay-per-result: you pay only for what is saved. There is no monthly fee for the Actor, and platform usage and proxies are included.

Result	Price per 1,000	Silver plan	Gold plan
Videos (Shorts and live streams included)	$0.40	$0.36	$0.32
Comments (replies included)	$0.20	$0.18	$0.16
Channel details	$0.30	$0.27	$0.24
Subtitles (per video, only with Save subtitles on)	$0.30	$0.27	$0.24

Examples:

• 1,000 videos from a search or a channel: $0.40.
• 500 videos with 100 comments each (50,000 comments): $0.20 + $10.00 = $10.20.
• 1,000 videos with English subtitles: $0.40 + $0.30 = $0.70.

Apify's free plan comes with $5 of platform credit every month, enough to try YouTube Scraper on about 12,000 videos. Videos, comments and channels that cannot be read are never charged. To cap a run's cost, set Maximum cost per run in the run options: the scraper stops cleanly before the first result that would go over it.

Input example

{
  "searchQueries": ["sourdough bread recipe"],
  "maxResultsPerQuery": 200,
  "searchType": "video",
  "uploadDate": "month",
  "features": ["4k", "subtitles"],
  "sortBy": "popularity",
  "hashtags": ["sourdough"],
  "startUrls": [
    { "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@NASA" },
    { "url": "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAYLIST_ID" },
    { "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" }
  ],
  "maxVideosPerChannel": 100,
  "maxShortsPerChannel": 20,
  "channelSortBy": "popular",
  "publishedAfter": "2026-01-01",
  "includeChannelInfo": true,
  "includeComments": true,
  "maxCommentsPerVideo": 100,
  "maxRepliesPerComment": 5,
  "downloadSubtitles": true,
  "subtitlesLanguages": ["en"],
  "subtitlesFormat": "srt"
}

Supported URLs: videos (/watch?v=, youtu.be/, /live/, /embed/), Shorts (/shorts/), channels (/@handle, /channel/UC…, /c/…, /user/…), channel tabs (/videos, /shorts, /streams), playlists (/playlist?list=), hashtags (/hashtag/…) and search pages (/results?search_query=…, with the filters in the URL). Through the API, startUrls items are objects such as { "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@NASA" }.

Output example

Each result has a dataType: video, comment or channel. A value YouTube does not show is null. The dataset has four views: Videos, Comments, Channels and Subtitles.

A video from NASA's channel:

{
  "dataType": "video",
  "id": "0E0S07VMSYI",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E0S07VMSYI",
  "title": "Hubble: Vision, Hope and Triumph",
  "publishedAt": "2008-12-02T17:14:12.000Z",
  "durationSeconds": 276,
  "duration": "00:04:36",
  "viewCount": 13808,
  "likeCount": 79,
  "commentCount": 16,
  "commentsTurnedOff": false,
  "tags": ["nasa", "hubble", "space", "telescope", "science", "repair", "shuttle", "sts-125"],
  "hashtags": [],
  "category": "Science & Technology",
  "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/0E0S07VMSYI/hqdefault.jpg",
  "videoType": "video",
  "isShort": false,
  "liveStatus": "none",
  "isMembersOnly": false,
  "isAgeRestricted": false,
  "hasPaidPromotion": false,
  "chapters": [],
  "subtitles": null,
  "channelId": "UCLA_DiR1FfKNvjuUpBHmylQ",
  "channelName": "NASA",
  "channelHandle": "@NASA",
  "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@NASA",
  "channelSubscriberCount": 15100000,
  "channelIsVerified": true,
  "sourceType": "channel",
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@NASA",
  "position": 34,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-11-08T10:54:37.409Z"
}

With Save subtitles on, subtitles holds one entry per language:

"subtitles": [
  {
    "language": "en",
    "languageName": "English",
    "isAutoGenerated": true,
    "format": "srt",
    "content": "1\n00:00:09,600 --> 00:00:11,360\nGood morning friends. Welcome back to\n\n2\n00:00:11,360 --> 00:00:13,520\nthe bakery..."
  }
]

A comment (a reply has the same fields, with parentId set):

{
  "dataType": "comment",
  "id": "COMMENT_ID",
  "videoId": "VIDEO_ID",
  "videoTitle": "How to bake sourdough bread at home",
  "text": "Made this today and it came out perfect!",
  "author": "@viewer",
  "authorChannelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/AUTHOR_CHANNEL_ID",
  "likeCount": 4100,
  "replyCount": 93,
  "publishedAt": "2025-11-08T00:00:00.000Z",
  "publishedTimeText": "1 year ago",
  "isPinned": false,
  "hasCreatorHeart": true,
  "authorIsChannelOwner": false,
  "parentId": null
}

NASA's channel details:

{
  "dataType": "channel",
  "id": "UCLA_DiR1FfKNvjuUpBHmylQ",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@NASA",
  "name": "NASA",
  "handle": "@NASA",
  "description": "NASA's mission is to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery, and aeronautics research...",
  "subscriberCount": 15100000,
  "videoCount": 6201,
  "viewCount": 1134443909,
  "joinedAt": "2008-06-03",
  "country": null,
  "links": [{ "title": "nasa.gov", "url": "https://www.nasa.gov" }],
  "keywords": ["nasa", "space", "iss", "hubble", "apollo", "Artemis"],
  "isVerified": true
}

Use cases

• Market and competitor research: what a channel or a topic publishes and how each video performs.
• Influencer discovery: find channels in a niche with their subscribers, country and contact links.
• Trend research: the most viewed videos for a term this week, or everything posted under a hashtag since a date.
• Comment and sentiment analysis: collect comments and replies for opinion mining, product feedback and community research.
• YouTube SEO: the titles, tags, descriptions, chapters and hashtags of the videos that rank for a term.
• AI and LLM datasets: subtitles and transcripts with video metadata, ready for training, summaries or retrieval (RAG).
• Brand and content monitoring: schedule a run every day with a date range to catch new videos and comments.

Use YouTube Scraper via API, Python, JavaScript and integrations

Run it and get the results in one call with the Apify API:

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/socialscrapers~youtube-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"searchQueries": ["sourdough bread recipe"], "maxResultsPerQuery": 50}'

Python, with the Apify client:

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_API_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("socialscrapers/youtube-scraper").call(run_input={
    "startUrls": [{"url": "https://www.youtube.com/@NASA"}],
    "maxVideosPerChannel": 100,
})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item["title"], item["viewCount"])

JavaScript, with the Apify client:

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_API_TOKEN' });
const run = await client.actor('socialscrapers/youtube-scraper').call({ hashtags: ['sourdough'], maxResultsPerQuery: 100 });
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();

You can also schedule runs, get a webhook when a run finishes, and connect the results to Make, Zapier, n8n, Google Sheets, Slack and other tools through Apify integrations. AI agents and assistants can run YouTube Scraper through Apify's MCP server.

YouTube Data API vs YouTube Scraper

	Official YouTube Data API	YouTube Scraper
Setup	Google Cloud project and API key	None: give a search term, hashtag or URL
Limits	10,000 quota units a day by default; one search costs 100 units	No quota: as many results as YouTube lists
Search	Keyword search with some filters	YouTube's search filters (type, upload date, duration, features, order), hashtags, date range
Subtitles	Only for videos you are allowed to edit	Any public video, in SRT, WebVTT, text or XML
Price	Free within the quota	From $0.40 per 1,000 videos

Limits

• Public content only. The scraper never signs in. Private and deleted videos are skipped and listed in the log. Comments of age-restricted videos need a signed-in account, so those videos are saved without comments.
• YouTube lists a few hundred results per search term (about 300 for a typical term), and the same goes for a hashtag's search. For more, add more terms, use filters, or split by date range. Channels and playlists are read in full.
• Hashtag pages show logged-out visitors only a few videos; the rest come from YouTube's search for the hashtag.
• Search order is relevance or popularity: YouTube no longer offers sorting search results by upload date or rating. Use the date range for recent videos.
• Subscriber counts and comment likes are as precise as YouTube shows them ("6.71M" becomes 6710000). Comment dates are estimated from YouTube's "2 weeks ago" text, to the day.
• Not included: dislike counts (not public), live chat, monetization status and video files.
• Datacenter proxy choices fall back to residential. If you pick Apify Proxy without the RESIDENTIAL group, the first session YouTube refuses moves the run to RESIDENTIAL, in the same country; custom proxy URLs are used exactly as given.
• Share links work as they are: youtu.be/… links, links with the app's ?si=… share parameter, m.youtube.com, music.youtube.com, /shorts/…, /live/… and /embed/… links all name the same video, channel or playlist.
• A run with 0 results still succeeds when your input was fine. When a video is private or deleted, a channel does not exist or a search finds nothing, the run ends as Succeeded with a status message naming each input and why, and nothing is charged. A run fails only when no input is usable at all, or when YouTube refuses every one of 3 or more inputs.

FAQ

Is it legal to scrape YouTube? YouTube Scraper collects only data that anyone can see on YouTube without signing in. Comments and channel profiles can contain personal data, which laws such as the GDPR protect, so collect only what you need and have a legitimate reason for it. You are responsible for how you use the data and for following YouTube's terms and the laws that apply to you.

Do I need a YouTube account, an API key or a quota? No. Give search terms, hashtags or URLs and start the run.

How many results can I get? The scraper sets no upper limit. Channels and playlists are read in full if you ask for it; YouTube itself lists a few hundred results per search term.

Why did I get fewer results than I asked for? YouTube had no more results for that search, hashtag, channel or date range, or the run reached its maximum cost. The run log says which, for each input.

How do I get only new videos? Set Published on or after (for example 7 days) and schedule the run daily or weekly. Channels in Latest order stop reading as soon as they pass the date.

Can I download YouTube subtitles as SRT? Yes. Switch on Save subtitles and pick SRT, WebVTT, plain text or XML.

Can I scrape YouTube Shorts? Yes: Shorts searches (result type Shorts), a channel's Shorts tab (Max Shorts per channel), a hashtag's Shorts, and Shorts URLs.

Does it download the video files? No. YouTube Scraper collects data about videos, not the videos themselves.

How fast is it? In test runs, 200 videos took under a minute, and 500 comments under half a minute.

Other scrapers by Social Scrapers

Scraper	What it gets
YouTube Transcript Scraper	Transcripts and subtitles of YouTube videos and channels
Instagram Profile Scraper	Instagram profiles with their latest posts
Instagram Post Scraper	Instagram posts and reels with comments
Facebook Groups Scraper	Posts from public Facebook groups
Facebook Profile Scraper	Public Facebook profile and Page details
Facebook Profile Posts Scraper	Posts from Facebook profiles and Pages
Facebook Ads Library Scraper	Ads from Meta's Ad Library
X (Twitter) Profile Scraper	X (Twitter) profiles
Threads Scraper	Threads profiles, posts and replies
Reddit Scraper	Reddit posts, comments, users and search
Quora Scraper	Quora questions, answers and profiles
LinkedIn Jobs Scraper	Job listings from LinkedIn