YouTube Channel Scraper — Videos, Subs & Analytics

Scrape YouTube channel data, video catalogs, and analytics without the YouTube API. Extract comprehensive channel metadata, subscriber counts, video listings with engagement metrics, and growth analytics. Export structured data to JSON, CSV, or Excel.

Features

• Channel metadata — name, handle, subscribers, total views, video count, join date, description, country, links, verified badge, custom URL
• Video catalog — title, views, likes, comments, duration, publish date, thumbnail, description, tags per video
• Channel search — find channels by keyword and scrape each one automatically
• Engagement analytics — average views, like/view ratio, comment/view ratio, upload frequency
• Multiple parsing strategies — ytInitialData JSON, meta tags, DOM parsing, microformat data
• Smart number parsing — converts "1.2M subscribers" to 1200000, relative dates to ISO format
• Deduplication — prevents duplicate videos across pagination and retries
• No API key — works without YouTube Data API credentials
• Proxy support — optional Apify proxy configuration for large-scale scrapes
• Pay-per-event — charged per channel successfully scraped

Use Cases

Influencer Research

Evaluate YouTube influencers for marketing campaigns. Compare subscriber counts, average view counts, engagement rates, and content focus across multiple channels. Identify authentic creators with strong audience engagement.

Competitor Analysis

Monitor competitor YouTube channels systematically. Track their upload frequency, which videos perform best, content themes, and audience growth. Identify content gaps and opportunities in your niche.

Content Strategy

Analyze successful channels in your industry. Understand what titles get clicks, optimal video lengths, publishing schedules, and topics that generate the most engagement. Data-driven content planning.

Sponsorship Evaluation

Assess potential sponsorship deals with hard data. Compare subscriber-to-view ratios, engagement metrics, posting consistency, and channel growth trends. Make informed decisions about creator partnerships.

Market Research

Track product reviews, tutorials, and industry content on YouTube. Monitor brand mentions, competitor coverage, and audience sentiment through video engagement patterns.

Academic Research

Collect structured data on YouTube channels for media studies, communication research, and social media analytics. Study content creation patterns, audience dynamics, and platform trends.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
channelUrls	String[]	[]	YouTube channel URLs or handles to scrape
searchQuery	String	""	Search for channels by keyword
maxVideos	Integer	50	Maximum videos to extract per channel
maxResults	Integer	100	Maximum total channels to scrape
proxyConfiguration	Object	(none)	Apify proxy settings

Channel URL Formats

The scraper accepts multiple channel URL formats:

• @mkbhd — just the handle
• https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd — full handle URL
• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBcRF18a7Qf58cCRy5xuWwQ — channel ID URL
• UCBcRF18a7Qf58cCRy5xuWwQ — bare channel ID
• https://www.youtube.com/c/MKBHD — custom URL format

Input Examples

Scrape a single channel

{
    "channelUrls": ["@mkbhd"],
    "maxVideos": 100
}

Compare tech reviewers

{
    "channelUrls": [
        "@mkbhd",
        "@LinusTechTips",
        "@UnboxTherapy",
        "@JerryRigEverything",
        "@daveleephotos"
    ],
    "maxVideos": 50
}

Search for channels about web development

{
    "searchQuery": "web development tutorials",
    "maxResults": 20,
    "maxVideos": 30
}

Large-scale influencer database

{
    "searchQuery": "fitness",
    "maxResults": 100,
    "maxVideos": 20,
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true,
        "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
    }
}

Output

Channel Result

Each channel produces a comprehensive metadata record:

{
    "type": "channel",
    "channelName": "MKBHD",
    "handle": "@mkbhd",
    "channelId": "UCBcRF18a7Qf58cCRy5xuWwQ",
    "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd",
    "customUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/c/mkbhd",
    "description": "MKBHD: Quality Tech Videos | YouTuber | Geek | Consumer Electronics...",
    "subscriberCount": 19200000,
    "subscriberCountText": "19.2M subscribers",
    "totalViews": 4500000000,
    "totalViewsText": "4,500,000,000 views",
    "videoCount": 1850,
    "videoCountText": "1,850 videos",
    "joinDate": "Mar 21, 2008",
    "country": "United States",
    "verified": true,
    "avatarUrl": "https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/...",
    "bannerUrl": "https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/...",
    "links": [
        { "title": "Twitter", "url": "https://twitter.com/mkbhd" },
        { "title": "Instagram", "url": "https://instagram.com/mkbhd" }
    ],
    "keywords": "MKBHD tech reviews smartphones",
    "familySafe": true,
    "avgViewsPerVideo": 2432432,
    "engagementRate": 0.034,
    "uploadFrequency": "3.2 videos/week",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-03-02T12:00:00.000Z"
}

Video Result

Each video from the channel includes:

{
    "type": "video",
    "title": "The BEST Smartphones of 2026!",
    "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "videoUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/maxresdefault.jpg",
    "viewCount": 5234567,
    "viewCountText": "5.2M views",
    "likeCount": 178000,
    "commentCount": 12400,
    "duration": "18:42",
    "durationSeconds": 1122,
    "publishDate": "2026-02-15",
    "publishedText": "2 weeks ago",
    "description": "Today we look at the best smartphones of 2026...",
    "tags": ["smartphones", "tech", "2026", "best phones"],
    "channelName": "MKBHD",
    "channelHandle": "@mkbhd",
    "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd",
    "isShort": false,
    "isLive": false,
    "scrapedAt": "2026-03-02T12:00:00.000Z"
}

How It Works

YouTube embeds all page data in JavaScript variables (ytInitialData, ytInitialPlayerResponse) inside the HTML. This scraper uses a multi-strategy approach:

1. Strategy 1: ytInitialData JSON — Extracts the main data blob from <script> tags. Contains channel metadata, video listings, and tab content.
2. Strategy 2: Meta tags — Falls back to <meta> tags for channel name, description, thumbnail, and canonical URL.
3. Strategy 3: DOM parsing — Parses structured elements like subscriber counts and channel headers via Cheerio selectors.
4. Strategy 4: Microformat data — Extracts ytInitialPlayerResponse for individual video metadata including likes, comments, and tags.
5. Pagination — Follows continuation tokens to load more videos beyond the initial page.
6. Deduplication — Tracks seen video IDs to prevent duplicates across pages.

All numeric values (1.2M, 542K) are converted to integers. Relative dates ("2 weeks ago") are converted to ISO date strings.

Performance Tips

1. Start small — test with 1-2 channels and maxVideos: 10 before scaling up.
2. Use proxies — YouTube will serve consent walls after many requests. Apify residential proxies work best.
3. Batch channels — scraping 10 channels in one run is more efficient than 10 separate runs.
4. Set realistic maxVideos — the initial page load returns ~30 videos. Higher values require pagination which increases run time.
5. Channel search — use searchQuery to discover channels, then use channelUrls for targeted deep scrapes.

Limitations

• YouTube's initial page typically loads 30 videos. Pagination attempts to load more but may be rate-limited.
• Shorts, live streams, and premieres may appear with slightly different metadata formats.
• Like and comment counts require visiting individual video pages (enabled automatically for the first maxVideos videos).
• YouTube frequently A/B tests page layouts. The scraper handles multiple known layouts with fallback strategies.
• Consent walls in some regions may block scraping. Use proxies with US/UK locations.

Pricing (Pay Per Event)

This actor uses Apify's pay-per-event model. You are charged $0.005 for each channel successfully scraped (including metadata and video list extraction).

Legal Notice

This actor is provided as a technical tool. Users are responsible for ensuring their use complies with YouTube's Terms of Service and all applicable laws. The actor is designed for personal research and analysis purposes.

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