YouTube Channel Analytics API | Channel Metadata, Uploads & Shorts

Evaluate YouTube creators and automate your influencer marketing research with this robust channel analytics scraper. Marketers and agencies use this tool to gather public channel intelligence at scale, bypassing the need for complex API keys or OAuth permissions. By tracking multiple profiles simultaneously, you can compile a comprehensive dataset of industry leaders or potential brand ambassadors.

Instead of manually clicking through websites or YouTube profiles to verify subscriber counts, you can schedule this tool to run weekly or daily. It monitors a list of channel URLs and tracks essential metrics like public subscriber counts, overall views, canonical URLs, and rich about-page descriptions. Additionally, the scraper fetches recent long-form uploads and Shorts, allowing you to gauge a creator's publishing cadence, content velocity, and audience engagement strategies.

Whether you are building a database of leads, vetting potential sponsorships, or analyzing competitor channels, this tool provides the structured data you need. Extract contact details embedded in channel bios or track how often a creator posts sponsored content. The scraped results provide deep insights into YouTube pages, giving you the exact metrics needed to make data-driven decisions for your next influencer outreach campaign or market research initiative.

Store Quickstart

• Start with 1–3 channel URLs or @handles and keep videoLimit at 8 or below for the first run.
• Leave includeShorts on if you care about creator cadence; turn it off when long-form uploads are enough.
• Use dataset delivery first so you can inspect channel-level warnings and resolved content counts.
• After the first useful run, move to the recurring cadence-watch template, then use the webhook handoff template for new-upload alerts.

What it does

• Accepts YouTube channel URLs (@handle, /channel/, /user/, /c/) and bare @handles
• Normalizes channel metadata: channel ID, title, canonical URL, subscriber text/count when public, avatar/banner, description/about fields, links, and total public views when exposed
• Resolves recent uploads from the public videos tab and optional Shorts from the public shorts tab
• Enriches recent items from watch pages with view text, duration, thumbnail, publish/upload dates, and tags/keywords when public
• Produces channel-level rollups such as total resolved items, cadence hints from recent public labels, and explicit availability warnings

What it cannot do

Because this actor uses public pages only, it cannot provide private YouTube Studio analytics such as watch time, revenue, CTR, impressions, audience demographics, traffic sources, or hidden subscriber counts.

Use Cases

Who	Why
Creator teams	Benchmark publishing cadence, upload mix, and Shorts usage
Brand marketers	Vet partner channels and content fit without API quota setup
Analysts	Track recent uploads, tags, and view text at scale
Ecommerce teams	Pair channel activity with Shopify or app-store signals

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
channelUrls	string[]	required	YouTube channel URLs or bare @handles
videoLimit	integer	8	Max recent uploads and, when enabled, Shorts to resolve per channel
includeShorts	boolean	true	Also collect the public Shorts tab
timeoutMs	integer	20000	HTTP timeout per public page request
delivery	string	"dataset"	dataset or webhook
webhookUrl	string	—	Optional webhook target when delivery=webhook
dryRun	boolean	false	Skip dataset/webhook delivery

Output shape

{
  "meta": {
    "generatedAt": "2025-01-01T00:00:00.000Z",
    "implementationStatus": "live",
    "totalSources": 1,
    "totals": {
      "totalResolvedChannels": 1,
      "totalResolvedUploads": 8,
      "totalResolvedShorts": 4,
      "totalResolvedContent": 12,
      "warningCount": 1
    },
    "limits": {
      "recentItemsPerSection": 8,
      "includeShorts": true,
      "timeoutMs": 20000
    },
    "notes": ["..."]
  },
  "channels": [
    {
      "inputUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@Google",
      "status": "ok",
      "channel": {
        "channelId": "UC...",
        "title": "Google",
        "handle": "@Google",
        "canonicalUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@Google",
        "subscriberCountText": "14.1M subscribers",
        "totalViewCountText": "6,332,598,834 views"
      },
      "recentUploads": [{ "videoId": "...", "title": "...", "viewCountText": "...", "durationText": "...", "keywords": ["..."] }],
      "recentShorts": [{ "videoId": "...", "isShort": true }],
      "rollups": {
        "totalResolvedVideos": 12,
        "recentPostingCadenceHint": "Roughly weekly posting inferred from recent public labels."
      },
      "availability": {
        "videosTab": "ok",
        "shortsTab": "ok",
        "aboutTab": "ok"
      },
      "warnings": []
    }
  ]
}

Status values

• ok: all requested public surfaces resolved cleanly
• partial: some requested surfaces or item enrichments were unavailable, but useful data was collected
• missing: YouTube returned a missing page
• blocked: YouTube returned a challenge or block page
• invalid: the input was not a supported channel URL or handle
• error: no usable public data could be resolved

Local run

npm start
npm test

Use input.json for local runs.

Related Actors

Pair this actor with other flagship intelligence APIs in the same portfolio:

• Google Play Intelligence API — connect app-market performance and review signals to channel activity.
• Apple App Store Intelligence API — mirror the same workflow for iOS apps and public review feeds.
• Shopify Store Intelligence API — pair content cadence with public storefront and catalog changes.
• Trustpilot Review Intelligence API — add brand-reputation context alongside channel output.

Pricing & Cost Control

Apify Store pricing is usage-based, so total cost mainly follows how many channelUrls you analyze and how many recent items you resolve. Check the Store pricing card for the current per-event rates.

• Start with a short channelUrls list.
• Keep videoLimit low while testing downstream workflows.
• Disable includeShorts when you only need long-form uploads.
• Use dryRun: true before larger channel batches or webhook delivery.

⭐ Was this helpful?

If this actor saved you time, please leave a ★ rating on Apify Store. It takes 10 seconds, helps other developers discover it, and keeps updates free.

Bug report or feature request? Open an issue on the Issues tab of this actor.