YouTube Scraper

Search and scrape YouTube videos without using the YouTube Data API. Extract video details, channel information, view counts, and more.

Features

• Search Videos: Search YouTube by keyword with advanced filters
• Channel Videos: Get all videos from any YouTube channel
• No API Key Required: Works without YouTube API key
• No Rate Limits: No YouTube API quota restrictions
• Detailed Information: Extract views, likes, duration, descriptions, tags, and more
• Flexible Filtering: Sort by relevance, date, views, or rating (search mode only)
• Dataset Export: Export data in JSON, CSV, Excel, or other formats

Input Configuration

Option	Search Mode	Channel Mode	Description
searchQuery	✅ Required	❌	Keyword to search for
channelUrl	❌	✅ Required	YouTube channel URL or handle
maxResults	✅	✅	Number of videos (10-1000, default: 50)
sortBy	✅	❌	Sort order for results
uploadDate	✅	❌	Filter by upload time
duration	✅	❌	Filter by video length

Search Mode

Provide a searchQuery to search for videos. All filter options are available:

• Sort By: Sort search results by

  • Relevance (default)
  • Upload Date
  • View Count
  • Rating

• Upload Date Filter: Filter videos by upload time

  • Any Time (default)
  • Last Hour
  • Today
  • This Week
  • This Month
  • This Year

• Video Duration: Filter by video length

  • Any Duration (default)
  • Short (< 4 minutes)
  • Medium (4-20 minutes)
  • Long (> 20 minutes)

Channel Mode

Provide a channelUrl to get videos from a specific channel. Videos are returned in the channel's default order (newest first).

• Channel URL: YouTube channel identifier
  • Can be: @username, UCxxxxx (channel ID), or full channel URL
  • Examples: @ProgrammingWithMosh, UC8butISFwT-Wl7EV0hUK0BQ

Note: Filter options (sortBy, uploadDate, duration) only apply to Search Mode. Channel Mode fetches videos directly from the channel's video list.

Input Examples

Search for Videos

{
  "searchQuery": "python programming",
  "maxResults": 50,
  "sortBy": "view_count",
  "uploadDate": "month",
  "duration": "medium"
}

Get Channel Videos

{
  "channelUrl": "@ProgrammingWithMosh",
  "maxResults": 30
}

Output

The actor stores scraped videos in the Apify Dataset. Each video contains:

{
  "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "title": "Video Title",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/...",
  "duration": 213,
  "view_count": 1000000,
  "like_count": 50000,
  "comment_count": 1200,
  "channel_name": "Channel Name",
  "channel_id": "UCxxxxx",
  "channel_url": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxxxxx",
  "channel_subscriber_count": 100000,
  "description": "Full video description...",
  "upload_date": "2025-01-15T10:00:00.000Z",
  "tags": ["python", "tutorial", "programming"],
  "categories": ["Education"],
  "is_live": false
}

Example Use Cases

1. Research Popular Content

Search for trending videos in your niche:

{
  "searchQuery": "artificial intelligence 2025",
  "maxResults": 100,
  "sortBy": "view_count",
  "uploadDate": "month"
}

2. Monitor Competitor Channels

Track videos from specific channels:

{
  "channelUrl": "@CompetitorChannel",
  "maxResults": 50
}

3. Find Educational Content

Search for tutorials with specific filters:

{
  "searchQuery": "machine learning tutorial",
  "maxResults": 30,
  "sortBy": "rating",
  "duration": "long"
}

Data Export

After the actor run completes, you can export the dataset in various formats:

• JSON: Full data with all fields
• CSV: Tabular format for Excel/spreadsheets
• Excel: .xlsx format
• HTML Table: For viewing in browser
• RSS Feed: For feed readers

Limitations

• Max Results: Limited to 1000 videos per run
• Data Freshness: Data is scraped in real-time, so results reflect current YouTube state

Troubleshooting

No Videos Found

• Verify your search query or channel URL is correct
• Try different search terms
• Check if the channel/videos exist on YouTube

Timeout Errors

• Reduce maxResults to a lower number

Technical Details

• Language: Python 3.11
• Framework: Apify SDK
• HTTP Client: httpx
• Data Storage: Apify Dataset
• Memory: 128-256 MB

Support

For issues, questions, or feature requests, please contact the actor maintainer.