YouTube Data API: video stats for videos, channels, playlists

Official YouTube Data API v3 with your own free key: full video records for video links, whole channels, playlists and search terms. Views, likes, comments, duration, tags, category, captions, licence, channel subscribers. No proxies, no blocking, 10,000 free quota units a day. Pay per video.

Why this scraper

• Only delivered results are charged. Inputs that fail come back as clear error records at no cost.
• The official API instead of the site: Google's own numbers, no proxies, no consent screens, nothing that breaks when YouTube changes its pages. You bring a free key from your own Google project; the actor does the batching, paging and joining. Measured on the platform: one video, a channel's 25 latest uploads, 25 search results and a playlist, 53 rows, in 5 seconds for a sixth of a cent.
• One row per video with everything videos.list carries: title, channel, published time, duration in seconds, views, likes, comments, description, tags, category, captions, definition, licensed content, live status, language, privacy status, made-for-kids flag and the largest thumbnail, plus the channel's subscriber and video counts joined in from channels.list.
• Four kinds of input in one list: a video link or id, a channel (@handle, id or link) for its latest uploads, a playlist link, or a search term with its own ranking (relevance, date, views, rating). Each row says which input it came from.
• Quota-aware: videos are fetched 50 per call (1 unit), channels 50 per call, so a run of 500 videos costs about 30 units of your 10,000; a search costs 100 units, which the actor tells you before you run it.

Who this is for

Put links, handles, playlists or search terms in inputs (up to 200 per run), paste your key in apiKey (it is stored as a secret and never appears in the log or the dataset), and set maxVideosPerInput (default 50, up to 500) and searchOrder. Built for creators and agencies tracking their own and competing channels, marketing teams measuring campaign videos, researchers collecting video metadata at scale, and anyone who needs YouTube numbers that come straight from Google and hold up in a report.

Who this is not for

You need a Google Cloud project with the YouTube Data API v3 enabled and an API key; that takes five minutes and costs nothing, but without it the actor returns a free INVALID_KEY row. The default quota of 10,000 units a day allows about 100 searches or several thousand videos; when it is used up, rows come back as free QUOTA_EXCEEDED errors until midnight Pacific time. Comments, transcripts and chapters are not in this actor (see the related actors), and private videos are not returned by the API. Subscriber counts are rounded as YouTube publishes them.

Input fields

Field	Type	Required or default	What it does
inputs	list of text	required	One per row, up to 200: a video link or id, a channel link or @handle (its latest uploads), a playlist link, or a search term.
apiKey	text	required	A key from console.cloud.google.com with YouTube Data API v3 enabled. Free: 10,000 quota units a day (a video costs 1 unit per 50, a search 100).
maxVideosPerInput	number	50	Cost ceiling per input, newest first for channels and playlists. A single video link is always one row.
searchOrder	text (relevance, date, viewCount, rating)	relevance	How search terms are ranked: relevance, date, viewCount or rating.

Input example

{
    "inputs": [
        "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifI_fwg55k8",
        "@mkbhd",
        "retro tech flying cars"
    ],
    "apiKey": "YOUR_GOOGLE_API_KEY",
    "maxVideosPerInput": 50,
    "searchOrder": "relevance"
}

Output example

Field	Type	What it holds
videoId	text	The eleven-character YouTube id, the key to the video.
title	text	The video title as the uploader set it.
channelTitle	text	The channel name that published the video.
channelId	text	The channel id (UC...), stable where the name can change.
publishedAt	text	When the video was published, in UTC.
durationSeconds	number	The length in seconds, converted from the API's ISO 8601 duration.
viewCount	number	Views as YouTube reports them at the time of the run.
likeCount	number	Likes; empty when the uploader hides them.
commentCount	number	Comments; empty when comments are off or hidden.
description	text	The full description text.
tags	list	The uploader's tags; most videos have none or a few.
categoryId	text	YouTube's category number (10 is Music, 28 is Science & Technology).
hasCaptions	true/false	Whether the video has captions (uploaded or automatic).
definition	text	hd or sd, the best resolution class the video was uploaded in.
isLicensedContent	true/false	Whether YouTube marks the content as licensed to a partner.
liveBroadcast	text	Empty for a normal video; live or upcoming for a stream, as YouTube labels it.
defaultLanguage	text	The audio or metadata language the uploader set, when any.
privacyStatus	text	public or unlisted; private videos are not returned by the API.
madeForKids	true/false	Whether the uploader marked the video as made for kids.
thumbnailUrl	text	The largest thumbnail YouTube offers for the video.
channelSubscriberCount	number	The channel's subscribers, rounded as YouTube publishes them; empty when hidden.
channelVideoCount	number	How many public videos the channel has.
url	text	The watch page of the video.
source	text	How the row was found: video, channel, playlist or search.
sourceInput	text	The input row this video came from, so rows from several inputs can be told apart.

Error codes: INVALID_INPUT, INVALID_KEY, QUOTA_EXCEEDED, NOT_FOUND, BLOCKED.

One delivered row looks like this (description shortened):

{
  "videoId": "ifI_fwg55k8",
  "title": "Retro Tech: Flying Cars",
  "channelTitle": "Marques Brownlee",
  "channelId": "UCBJycsmduvYEL83R_U4JriQ",
  "publishedAt": "2021-04-13T13:00:30Z",
  "durationSeconds": 1163,
  "viewCount": 2603371,
  "likeCount": 95511,
  "commentCount": 5152,
  "description": "No matter what year, the idea of flying vehicles helps cement our sense of when the future begins. I'm taking a look at everything flying, from cars to skateboards, and seeing where the tech currently stands.",
  "tags": [],
  "categoryId": "28",
  "hasCaptions": true,
  "definition": "hd",
  "isLicensedContent": true,
  "liveBroadcast": null,
  "defaultLanguage": "en",
  "privacyStatus": "public",
  "madeForKids": false,
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ifI_fwg55k8/maxresdefault.jpg",
  "channelSubscriberCount": 21300000,
  "channelVideoCount": 1853,
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifI_fwg55k8",
  "source": "video",
  "sourceInput": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifI_fwg55k8",
  "status": "ok"
}

Related actors from steadydata

• youtube-video-details: the same video facts without a Google key, over the site itself
• youtube-channel-videos: a channel's uploads without a key
• youtube-video-chapters: the chapter list of a video

Pricing

Pay per event: one video-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

Is personal data collected? No. Rows carry public videos and the channel that published them; comments and the people who wrote them are not read, and your API key is stored as a secret.

How do I get a key? In console.cloud.google.com create a project (or use one you have), open APIs & Services, Library, enable "YouTube Data API v3", then Credentials, Create credentials, API key. Restricting the key to the YouTube Data API is a good idea. Google charges nothing for this API; it only has a daily quota.

How much quota does a run use? About 1 unit per 50 videos for the video lookup, 1 per 50 channels for subscriber counts, 1 per 50 playlist items, and 100 per page of 50 search results. A channel of 500 videos costs around 25 units; 50 searches cost 5,000. The default quota is 10,000 a day.

Does a channel input give every video ever? It gives the latest uploads, newest first, up to maxVideosPerInput (500 at most per run). For a complete archive of a large channel, run again with a higher ceiling or use the channel's uploads playlist over several runs.

Why is likeCount empty on some rows? Because the uploader hid the like count; YouTube then omits it from the API. Comments are empty the same way when they are off.

What does a run cost when an input fails? Nothing. NOT_FOUND, INVALID_INPUT, INVALID_KEY, QUOTA_EXCEEDED and BLOCKED rows are free; only delivered videos are charged.

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.