YouTube Channel Scraper for Apify (No API Key)

Scrape public YouTube channel data at scale without using the official YouTube Data API.

This Actor is built for teams that need channel stats and metadata for influencer research, competitor tracking, lead generation, channel monitoring, and reporting dashboards.

What This Actor Scrapes

For each channel input, the Actor can return:

• Identity: channel_id, handle, name, description
• Stats: subscriber_count, video_count, view_count, joined_date_text
• Trust and profile: verified, channel_url, avatar_url, banner_url
• Source info: from_instance

Note: YouTube does not expose private creator metrics such as watch time, revenue, or audience retention publicly.

Why Use This Actor

• No API key required
• Accepts channel ID, URL, handle, or channel name
• Uses Invidious/yewtu-compatible sources with YouTube fallback enrichment
• Works with optional Apify Proxy or custom proxies for better reliability
• Outputs clean records to Apify Dataset for JSON/CSV/Excel export

Quick Start

1. Open the Actor on Apify.
2. Add one or more channels to channels.
3. Keep defaults for a fast first run, then click Run.

Input

Main input fields:

• channels (required): list of channel IDs, URLs, handles, or names
• timeoutSec (optional): HTTP timeout per request, default 18
• includeTags (optional): include tags when available, default false
• enrichFromYouTube (optional): enrich missing fields from official YouTube about data, default true
• proxyConfiguration (optional): use Apify Proxy or custom proxy URLs

Example input:

{
  "channels": [
    "UC_x5XG1OV2P6uZZ5FSM9Ttw",
    "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC...",
    "@veritasium",
    "Kurzgesagt - In a Nutshell"
  ],
  "timeoutSec": 18,
  "includeTags": false,
  "enrichFromYouTube": true,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}

Proxy Setup (Recommended for Larger Runs)

You can run this Actor without proxies, but for better stability at scale:

• Enable proxyConfiguration.useApifyProxy: true, or
• Provide custom proxy URLs in proxyConfiguration.

The proxy setting is applied to both Invidious and YouTube requests.

Output

The Actor stores results in two places:

• Dataset: one item per resolved channel
• Key-value store record OUTPUT: run metadata, totals, and warnings

Common dataset fields:

• channel_id, handle, name, description
• subscriber_count, video_count, view_count, joined_date_text
• verified, channel_url, avatar_url, banner_url
• from_instance, scraped_at

Matching and Reliability Notes

• Best accuracy comes from channel IDs (UC... format).
• Handles and channel names are best effort because names can be ambiguous.
• Public stats may vary slightly over time and by source.
• If an Invidious instance fails for a channel, the Actor can still return YouTube-enriched results when available.

Best Use Cases

• YouTube channel subscriber count scraper
• YouTube channel metadata scraper
• Influencer discovery and vetting
• Competitor channel monitoring
• Channel analytics pipelines and BI dashboards
• Sponsorship lead research

Limitations

• Only public data is collected.
• Availability depends on source uptime and public visibility.
• Some channels hide or restrict certain public fields.

Disclaimer

Use responsibly and follow applicable platform terms and local laws.