YouTube Channel Search Scraper (find channels by keyword)

Find YouTube channels by topic, up to 200 keywords per run: channel id, name, handle, subscriber count, video count, verified badge and thumbnail, ranked the way YouTube ranks them. You only pay for channels that are actually delivered.

Why this scraper

• Channels, not videos. Ordinary YouTube search returns videos. This uses YouTube's own "channels only" filter, so a keyword like yoga for beginners returns the channels that publish on it, each with its subscriber count.
• Built for keyword lists. Paste 200 topics and get one flat table with the keyword and the rank on every row, ready to sort by subscribers or to compare niches.
• Built on a lightweight route. YouTube's internal API answers in about 2 KB per channel, which is where the low price comes from.
• Only delivered channels are charged. A keyword without channels comes back as a clear error record at no cost.
• A hard cost ceiling you control. maxResultsPerQuery is the cap: one delivered channel is one charged event.

Who this is for

Niche and competitor research: who publishes on a topic, how big they are, whether they are verified. Useful for sizing a niche before entering it, for finding channels to study, and as the first step before pulling their videos or transcripts with the other actors from the same publisher.

Who this is not for

Read this before you buy. This actor does not return email addresses, business contacts or any other way to reach the channel owner, and it never will. Channel discovery is often sold with emails attached; that turns a channel into a person record. If you are building an outreach list, this is the wrong tool and you should not buy it.

Input fields

Field	Type	Required or default	What it does
queries	list of text	required	Topics to find channels for, e.g. 'tech reviews' or 'yoga for beginners'. Up to 200 per run.
maxResultsPerQuery	number	50	Stop after this many channels per keyword. This is your cost ceiling: one delivered channel is one charged event.
language	text	en	Interface language, e.g. en, nl, de.
country	text	US	ISO country code, e.g. US, NL, DE. Channel rankings differ per region.

Input example

{
    "queries": ["tech reviews", "yoga for beginners", "woodworking"],
    "maxResultsPerQuery": 50,
    "language": "en",
    "country": "US"
}

Output example

Field	Type	What it holds	Example
query	text	The search term this channel was found with.	tech reviews
rank	number	The place of the channel in the search results, counting from 1.	1
channelId	text	The channel id (UC...), stable where the channel name can change.	UCBKhdILeDie8iLkap216g7g
channelUrl	text	The channel page on YouTube.	https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBKhdILeDie8iLkap216g7g
name	text	The channel name as the page shows it.	In Depth Tech Reviews
handle	text	The channel's @handle, the name in its short link.	@IDTR
subscriberCount	number	Subscribers, rounded the way YouTube publishes them.	202000
isVerified	true/false	True when YouTube shows the verification check next to the name.	True
thumbnailUrl	text	The channel's profile picture.	https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/ytc/AIdro_lkDwB9R7r1qQ2...

{
    "query": "tech reviews",
    "rank": 1,
    "channelId": "UCBJycsmduvYEL83R_U4JriQ",
    "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBJycsmduvYEL83R_U4JriQ",
    "name": "Marques Brownlee",
    "handle": "@mkbhd",
    "subscriberCount": 21300000,
    "isVerified": true,
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://yt3.ggpht.com/...",
    "status": "ok"
}

A keyword that returns nothing produces an error record instead, and is not charged:

{
    "input": "qzxwv nonsense 99999",
    "status": "error",
    "errorCode": "NO_RESULTS",
    "error": "No channels found for query 'qzxwv nonsense 99999'"
}

Error codes: INVALID_QUERY, NO_RESULTS, BLOCKED. INPUT_TRUNCATED appears once when your input is longer than this actor accepts.

Related actors from steadydata

• youtube-channel-details: the full profile of the channels you found
• youtube-channel-videos: their videos

Pricing

Pay per event: one channel-listed event per delivered channel. No charge for keywords that fail or return nothing, 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

Why is the subscriber count rounded? Because YouTube rounds it in search results: it says "21.3M subscribers", not the exact figure. The number is converted faithfully from what YouTube shows.

Why is the video count sometimes empty? YouTube does not show it for every channel in search results. The field is left empty rather than filled with a guess.

Do results differ per country? Yes. Set country to the market you care about; channel rankings differ per region.

Is personal data collected? No. Public channel metadata only. No email addresses, no contact details, no owner names beyond the channel's own display name.

What happens when YouTube changes something? Internal routes shift from time to time. The actor is monitored daily and fixed fast, and while it is broken you are not charged, because only delivered channels cost anything.