YouTube Playlist Search: find playlists by keyword, bulk

Find YouTube playlists by keyword, up to 100 per query: one row per playlist with rank, title, playlist id and URL, the channel that owns it, how many videos it holds and its thumbnail. Search playlists for many keywords in one run. Pay per playlist.

Why this scraper

• Only delivered results are charged. Queries that return no playlists come back as a clear error record at no cost.
• YouTube's own ranking, not ours. Results come from the playlist filter YouTube applies when a visitor picks "Playlist" under Filters, so the order is the order a visitor sees.
• Light on the source. One request carries 20 playlists in about 51 KB, so roughly 2.5 KB per delivered playlist (measured 30-09-2026). No browser, no rendering, no page loads.
• Bulk in one run. Up to 100 keywords per run, each with its own cost ceiling.

Who this is for

People who need to find playlists rather than read one they already know: researchers mapping what exists on a topic, teams building course or music catalogues, and anyone feeding a list of playlist URLs into another tool. It pairs with two actors that take over from here: one lists every video inside a playlist, another pulls the transcripts of those videos.

Who this is not for

This finds playlists and describes them; it does not open them. You get the playlist id, its URL, the owning channel and how many videos it holds, but not the videos themselves. For that, run YouTube Playlist Videos on the URLs this actor returns. Private and unlisted playlists are not searchable and will never appear here.

Input fields

Field	Type	Required or default	What it does
queries	list of text	required	One keyword per row, up to 100. Each query returns the playlists YouTube ranks for it, in that order.
maxPlaylistsPerQuery	number	20	Cost ceiling per query, in YouTube's ranking order.
country	text	US	Two-letter country the anonymous viewer is placed in; results differ per country.
language	text	en	Two-letter interface language for titles and counts.

Input example

{
    "queries": [
        "python tutorial",
        "jazz piano",
        "home workout"
    ],
    "maxPlaylistsPerQuery": 20,
    "country": "US",
    "language": "en"
}

Output example

Field	Type	What it holds	Example
query	text	The search keyword this row came from, so a bulk run stays traceable.	python tutorial
position	number	The place of the playlist in YouTube's ranking for that keyword, counting from 1.	1
playlistId	text	The playlist id, the part after list= in a YouTube URL.	PLsyeobzWxl7poL9JTVyndKe62ieoN-MZ3
url	text	The playlist page on YouTube, ready to open or to feed into another actor.	https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsyeobzWxl7poL9JTV...
title	text	The playlist title as its owner wrote it.	Python for Beginners (Full Course) | Programming Tutorial
channelName	text	The channel that owns the playlist.	Telusko
channelId	text	The channel id, stable even when the channel is renamed.	UC59K-uG2A5ogwIrHw4bmlEg
channelUrl	text	The channel page on YouTube.	https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC59K-uG2A5ogwIrHw4bmlEg
videoCount	number	How many videos the playlist holds in total.	124
thumbnailUrl	text	The widest thumbnail YouTube offers for the playlist, as an absolute link.	https://i.ytimg.com/vi/QXeEoD0pB3E/hqdefault.jpg

Error codes: EMPTY_QUERY, NO_PLAYLISTS, BLOCKED.

A real row from the run of 30-09-2026:

{
  "query": "python tutorial",
  "position": 2,
  "playlistId": "PL-osiE80TeTt2d9bfVyTiXJA-UTHn6WwU",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-osiE80TeTt2d9bfVyTiXJA-UTHn6WwU",
  "title": "Python Tutorials",
  "channelName": "Corey Schafer",
  "channelId": "UCCezIgC97PvUuR4_gbFUs5g",
  "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCezIgC97PvUuR4_gbFUs5g",
  "videoCount": 158,
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YYXdXT2l-Gg/hqdefault.jpg"
}

Related actors from steadydata

• youtube-playlist-videos: every video inside the playlists you found
• youtube-playlist-transcripts: the transcript of every video in a playlist
• youtube-channel-playlists: all playlists of one channel instead of a keyword

Pricing

Pay per event: one playlist-listed event per delivered result. No charge for inputs that fail, no separate platform-usage surcharge.

FAQ

How many playlists do I get per keyword? As many as you set in maxPlaylistsPerQuery, up to 100. YouTube returns them 20 at a time and the actor pages through until your ceiling is reached or YouTube runs out. Popular keywords reach 100; narrow ones stop earlier, and you only pay for what arrives.

Are the results the same as what I see in my browser? They are the results an anonymous viewer sees in the country and language you set, which is not always what a logged-in viewer sees. Set country and language to match the audience you care about; both change the ranking.

Can I feed these playlists into another actor? Yes, that is the point. The url field is a normal playlist URL. YouTube Playlist Videos takes those URLs and returns every video inside; YouTube Playlist Transcripts returns the transcripts.

What happens if a keyword returns nothing? You get one free error record with the code NO_PLAYLISTS and that keyword is not charged. The run itself still succeeds, so one dead keyword never costs you the rest of the batch.

Is personal data collected? No. A playlist has a title, an owning channel and a video count; none of that identifies a person. The channel is the publisher of the playlist, the same name the store page shows.

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.