YouTube Scraper

Scrape YouTube search results, channel videos, and video details — titles, view counts, durations, channel info, thumbnails, and more. No API key.

What you get

Structured YouTube data across three modes in one actor. Search by keyword, pull a channel's video feed, or fetch details for specific video URLs. Every row includes title, view count, duration, channel, publish time, and thumbnail. No API key or quota to manage.

Output fields

Field	Description
videoId	YouTube video ID
title	Video title
url	Video URL
channelName	Channel name
channelUrl	Channel URL
description	Video description
viewCount	Number of views
duration	Duration in seconds
durationText	Human-readable duration (e.g., 4:31:04)
publishedTimeText	Relative publish time (e.g., 5 years ago)
thumbnailUrl	Thumbnail image URL
isLive	Currently-live flag
isShort	YouTube Short flag

Example output

{
    "videoId": "rfscVS0vtbw",
    "title": "Learn Python - Full Course for Beginners",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfscVS0vtbw",
    "channelName": "freeCodeCamp.org",
    "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8butISFwT-Wl7EV0hUK0BQ",
    "description": "This course will give you a full introduction into all of the core concepts in python...",
    "viewCount": 45000000,
    "duration": 16264,
    "durationText": "4:31:04",
    "publishedTimeText": "5 years ago",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/rfscVS0vtbw/hqdefault.jpg",
    "isLive": false,
    "isShort": false
}

Input parameters

Parameter	Required	Description
queries	Yes	List of search terms, channel URLs (@handle or /channel/ID), or video URLs. Input type is auto-detected.
maxResults	No	Max total results across all queries. Default 25, max 500.
maxResultsPerQuery	No	Max results per individual query. Default 50.
searchType	No	videos, channels, or playlists. Default videos.
sort	No	Sort order: relevance, date, viewCount, or rating. Default relevance.

Use cases

• Content researchers: Analyze what's trending in a topic or category.
• Marketers: Research competitor channels — upload cadence, top videos, and view patterns.
• Data analysts: Build view-count and duration datasets across niches.
• Media teams: Monitor videos about your brand, product, or industry.
• Educators and curators: Find and track educational content across channels.

Use cases & recipes

Step-by-step guides on thirdwatch.dev/blog:

• Build a YouTube Content Trend Pipeline (2026 Guide)
• Research YouTube Keyword Competition (2026 Guide)
• Scrape YouTube Search and Channel Data at Scale (2026)
• Track YouTube Channel Growth and Views at Scale (2026)

-end

Pricing

Pay-per-result pricing. Tiered discounts apply automatically based on usage volume.

Tier	Price per result
FREE	$0.0015
BRONZE	$0.00125
SILVER	$0.001
GOLD	$0.00085

Limitations

• Search pages cap at ~20 videos each — maxResults drives how many pages are fetched.
• Exact like counts are only populated when a video URL is provided directly (not from search pages).
• Very heavy runs can hit rate limits on YouTube's public pages — split large jobs across queries.
• YouTube Shorts are returned in search results with isShort: true.

Compared to alternatives

• vs. streamers/youtube-scraper (per-month licensing): This actor is pay-per-result, so test runs cost cents. One schema covers search, channel feeds, and video details rather than separate endpoints.

Pairs well with TikTok Scraper and Instagram Scraper for cross-platform video research.

FAQ

Can I scrape a channel's full video list? Yes. Pass the channel handle (@freecodecamp) or /channel/UC... URL. maxResultsPerQuery caps how many of their videos come back.

Do I need a YouTube Data API key? No. Quotas and keys are not required.

How accurate are view counts? Counts are pulled live and match what YouTube shows publicly on the video. Drift from real-time counts is possible on fast-moving videos.

Can I filter to Shorts only? Not directly. All videos are returned with isShort flags — filter downstream.

Last verified: 2026-04

More scrapers at thirdwatch.dev.