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

• Only delivered results are charged. Inputs that fail come back as clear error records at no cost.
• 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 error record at no cost.
• Exact concurrent-viewer history. viewerCount is the number on the card at run time, not a time series.

Input example

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

Output fields

• channelId
• channelUrl
• channelName
• position
• videoId
• url
• title
• streamStatus
• viewerCount
• viewCount
• scheduledStartAt
• streamedText
• durationSeconds
• thumbnailUrl

Output example

{
    "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. No charge for inputs that fail, no separate platform-usage surcharge.

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.

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; no chat, no viewers, no commenters.

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, because only delivered results cost anything.