YouTube Channel Live Streams: live now, upcoming and past

Every stream on a YouTube channel's Live tab, up to 100 channels per run: live now with viewers watching, scheduled with the start time, and past streams with views and duration. One row per stream, in YouTube's order. No viewer or chat data. Pay per delivered stream.

Why this scraper

• You pay for what was checked and delivered. Inputs that fail (a channel that does not exist, a blocked request) come back as clear error records at no cost. From 9 November 2026 a channel whose Live tab was read costs a small channel-checked fee, also when it has no streams.
• Measured on a real channel (@NASA, 15 September 2026): 20 streams in one run, one scheduled with its start time, two live with viewers watching, seventeen past with views and duration, for a platform cost of a twentieth of a cent.
• The Live tab only. The other YouTube actors in the Store return uploads or search results; this one reads the channel's Live tab, so you get streams and nothing else, with the state YouTube shows on the card.
• Slim route, no browser. The same lightweight endpoint as our Shorts actor: about 30 streams per page, a few kilobytes each.

Who this is for

Monitoring channels that stream: which broadcasts are live right now and how many are watching, what is scheduled and when, and what past streams drew. Newsrooms, sports and esports analysts, agencies tracking clients' channels, and anyone building a live-stream calendar. Up to 100 channels per run, up to 500 streams each, filterable by state.

Who this is not for

• Chat messages or viewer identities. Not delivered; only counts.
• Channels without a Live tab. They return a NO_STREAMS record. Until 8 November 2026 at no cost; from 9 November 2026 it costs the channel-checked fee, because the Live tab was read.
• Exact concurrent-viewer history. viewerCount is the number on the card at run time, not a time series.

Input fields

Field	Type	Required or default	What it does
channels	list of text	required	One per row, up to 100: an @handle, a channel id (UC...) or a channel URL.
maxStreamsPerChannel	number	30	Cost ceiling per channel; YouTube lists newest first.
statuses	list of text	empty	Any of live, upcoming, past. Empty includes all three.
language	text	en	Two-letter code for labels.
country	text	US	Two-letter code.

Input example

{
    "channels": [
        "@NASA"
    ],
    "maxStreamsPerChannel": 30,
    "statuses": [],
    "language": "en",
    "country": "US"
}

Output example

Field	Type	What it holds	Example
channelId	text	The channel id (UC...), stable where the channel name can change.	UCLA_DiR1FfKNvjuUpBHmylQ
channelUrl	text	The channel page on YouTube.	https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLA_DiR1FfKNvjuUpBHmylQ
channelName	text	The channel that published the video.	NASA
position	number	The place of the row in the list that was read, counting from 1.	1
videoId	text	The eleven-character YouTube id of the video, the key to join other data on.	7ZiUbT1-djA
url	text	The watch page of the video.	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZiUbT1-djA
title	text	The title as the uploader set it.	NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 Launch
viewerCount	number	People watching at this moment, filled only while the stream is live.	3
viewCount	number	Total views of the stream, filled once it has ended.	91000
scheduledStartAt	text	When an upcoming stream is planned to start.	2026-10-01T13:20:00Z
streamedText	text	How long ago YouTube says the stream ran, for example "Streamed 3 days ago".	Streamed 1 day ago
durationSeconds	number	The length of the stream in seconds; empty while it is still running.	3611
thumbnailUrl	text	The largest thumbnail YouTube offers for the video.	https://i.ytimg.com/vi/7ZiUbT1-djA/hq720.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEh...
streamStatus	text	live, upcoming or ended.	upcoming

{
    "channelId": "UCLA_DiR1FfKNvjuUpBHmylQ",
    "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLA_DiR1FfKNvjuUpBHmylQ",
    "channelName": "NASA",
    "position": 2,
    "videoId": "M3HKLzjvKPc",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3HKLzjvKPc",
    "title": "Live Video from the International Space Station (Official NASA Stream)",
    "streamStatus": "live",
    "viewerCount": 173,
    "viewCount": null,
    "scheduledStartAt": null,
    "streamedText": null,
    "durationSeconds": null,
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/M3HKLzjvKPc/hqdefault.jpg",
    "status": "ok"
}

Error codes: INVALID_CHANNEL, CHANNEL_NOT_FOUND, NO_STREAMS (no Live tab, or nothing in the states you asked for), BLOCKED (after retries on fresh exits). None is charged.

Related actors from steadydata

• youtube-channel-videos: the regular uploads of the same channel
• youtube-video-details: full metadata for a stream you found
• youtube-channel-details: the channel profile: subscribers, total views, country

Pricing

Pay per event: one stream-listed event per delivered result. From 9 November 2026 also one channel-checked event ($0.0005) per channel whose Live tab was read, with or without streams: checking a channel takes the same fetch whether anything is live or not. No charge for a channel that does not exist or a request that was blocked, no separate platform-usage surcharge.

Example: you check 100 channels and 2 are live with 3 streams in total. From 9 November you pay 100 x $0.0005 + 3 x $0.001 = $0.053.

Free Apify plan: this actor delivers up to 25 rows per run for accounts on the Apify free plan, and then stops with a message. That limit is set by us, not by Apify. It exists so the actor keeps paying for itself for the people who do pay. Any paid Apify plan runs it at full size, billed per delivered row, with failed rows never charged.

Reviews: if this actor saves you time, a short review on this page is the one thing that helps most. Ratings are what other buyers look at first, and we have no other way to ask.

Use with AI agents

AI assistants such as Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor can run this actor through Apify's own MCP server. Ask for the actor steadydata/youtube-channel-live by its full name, so the assistant does not pick a different one, and start from this minimal input:

{
  "channels": [
    "@NASA"
  ]
}

The assistant can read the price per event from the Pricing section above before the first paid run. Failed input comes back as an error row, as described above.

FAQ

Which fields are filled for which state? viewerCount is set for live (watching) and upcoming (waiting); scheduledStartAt only for upcoming (ISO-8601, UTC); viewCount, durationSeconds and streamedText only for past. The other fields are empty on purpose.

Can I get only what is live now? Set statuses to live; upcoming and past work the same way, and any combination is allowed.

In what order do streams come? YouTube's own order on the Live tab, newest first; position counts from 1 after the filter.

What happens with a handle that does not exist? A CHANNEL_NOT_FOUND error record and no charge.

Is personal data collected? No. Stream titles, states, counts and times only; no chat, no viewers.

What happens when the source changes? Sources change from time to time; that is the nature of this work. The actor is monitored daily and fixed fast, and while it is broken you are not charged: a blocked or failed channel is never billed.

Can I call it from my own code, like an API? Yes. Every run is available through the Apify API: start it with one HTTP request, then read the results as JSON, CSV or Excel from the dataset endpoint, or use the official Python and JavaScript clients. The input is the same JSON as in the input example above, so a scheduled script, a Make or Zapier step or an AI agent can call it without any changes.