YouTube Video Scraper (PPE)

YouTube Video Scraper is the fast and easy way to capture detailed metadata for YouTube videos and channels. Simply provide one or more video or channel URLs and set your data limits. Each result includes the video’s detailed metadata and, optionally, that of its associated channel.

🔑 Key Features

• Target individual videos or bulk content from your designated channels
• Get detailed metadata for each video (20 distinct data properties)
• Optionally include channel metadata (another 25+ data properties)
• Fine-grained billing means you pay only for the data elements that you actually need
• Super-simple setup gives you maximum results for minimum effort
  
  

💡 What Can You Do with YouTube Video Data?

Every YouTube video carries a wealth of metadata - views, likes, tags, upload dates, and more. This scraper helps you transform that data into insights and opportunities. Here are three ways you can use it effectively:

Competitive Benchmarking

You are a creator, marketer, or analyst studying what drives success on YouTube.

Scrape metadata from top-performing videos in your niche to analyze performance metrics, publishing frequency, or keyword strategies. Identify what works and apply it to your own content plan.

Market and Trend Analysis

You are a researcher or agency tracking trends or campaigns across YouTube.

Collect structured data for a set of videos related to specific keywords, hashtags, or brands. Analyze growth patterns, view velocity, or engagement ratios to spot trends early or measure campaign impact.

Channel Performance Tracking

You are a brand or creator monitoring progress over time.

Regularly scrape your own videos to track engagement, reach, and audience growth. Combine this data with analytics dashboards or AI tools to forecast performance and fine-tune your publishing strategy.

🚀 How to Scrape YouTube Video and Channel Metadata

YouTube Video Scraper is designed for simplicity and ease of use. To get started, you just need to configure a few basic settings in the Apify Console.

Step 1: Enter Target URLs

Start by providing a list of URLs that define the content you want to scrape.

For beginners, we recommend focusing on individual video URLs, although you can also target YouTube channels to scrape comments in bulk (see table below).

A single scraping run may mix multiple video and channel URLs.

Supported URL Examples

URL Type	Example	How it Works
Video page URL	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID	Scrapes one specific video. Each URL produces a separate scraping result.
Channel home page URL	https://www.youtube.com/@CHANNEL_HANDLE https://www.youtube.com/channel/CHANNEL_ID	Scrapes multiple videos on a channel. The number of videos is controlled by the maxChannelVideos setting.

Step 2: Set a Video Crawl Limit

This step is not necessary if you are only directly targeting YouTube video URLs.

For channel URLs, configure how many videos the scraper should target. For example, setting a limit of 5 will scrape comments from the 5 most recent videos.

Video limits are required when targeting channel URLs. Leaving the value at zero means no videos will be scraped.

Step 3: Optionally Add Channel Metadata

Having specified which YouTube content you're targeting, and how many videos to scrape, you can optionally enrich your results by adding channel metadata.

Step 4: Launch the Scraper

Once your URLs and limits are set, simply launch the run using Apify’s standard interface. The scraper will crawl the designated videos, retrieve metadata according to your settings, and deliver your scraping results via the Apify Console.

💰 Understanding Running Costs

YouTube Video Scraper uses Apify’s Pay per Event (PPE) pricing model. This means you are billed for each individual piece of data that the scraper processes, such as each video or channel metadata that is saved. Instead of paying a flat fee, your costs scale with the amount of data you scrape. You never incur any Apify platform operating costs.

How Costs Work

Each scraping run generates a number of micro-charges based on the operations it performs and the data collected.

All billing calculations are handled automatically by the scraper and charged to your account by Apify; you do not need to calculate anything manually.

The main cost drivers for this scraper are the number of targeted videos and whether channel metadata scraping is enabled.

The complete pricing table for this scraper can be found on the Apify pricing tab.

Note that we also participate in Apify's tiered pricing scheme, which means that you'll benefit from progressive discounts if you are on a higher-tier Apify plan.

Worked Example

Suppose you configure a run as follows:

• 10 videos from a channel
• channel metadata is enabled

The scraper would execute the run, subject to the following maximum charges:

1. Video: 10 videos
2. Channel Metadata: 10 channel metadata sets

Your run cost would then be calculated based on the per-item PPE rates for video and channel metadata.

🧪 Sample Output Data

A successful scraper run yields one or more JSON output files, each containing the metadata for a scraped video.

Each output file contains a single root-level JSON object, representing the video, with an optional nested object that contains the channel metadata.

Video Metadata Sample

The root-level JSON object represents the metadata for a scraped video.

{
    "id": "99bgTARgKD8",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99bgTARgKD8",
    "publishDate": "2025-07-27T19:53:39.000Z",
    "title": "England vs. Spain UEFA Women's Euro 2025 Highlights | FOX Soccer",
    "description": "Check out the highlights from the UEFA Women's Euro 2025 Finals clash between England and Spain.\n\n#FOXSoccer #England #Spain\n\nSUBSCRIBE to get the latest FOX Soccer content: http://foxs.pt/SubscribeFOXSOCCER\n\nThe FOX Sports App, built for the modern sports fan: https://t.co/CRhWt4ryp3\n\nAbout FOX Soccer:\nWith exclusive highlights, original programming, and behind the scenes footage, FOX Soccer’s YouTube channel provides the sports content that fans are hungry for. FOX Soccer presents: MLS, FIFA World Cup, FIFA Women’s World Cup, Copa America, Euros, Gold Cup and many more.\n\nEngland vs. Spain UEFA Women's Euro 2025 Highlights | FOX Soccer\nhttps://www.youtube.com/user/Foxsoccer",
    "category": "Sports",
    "author": "FOX Soccer",
    "ownerChannelName": "FOX Soccer",
    "channelId": "UCooTLkxcpnTNx6vfOovfBFA",
    "allowRatings": true,
    "isPrivate": false,
    "isLiveContent": false,
    "isUnlisted": false,
    "length": 592,
    "viewCount": 441384,
    "likeCount": 4374,
    "captionTracks": [
        {
            "language": "en",
            "kind": "asr"
        }
    ],
    "keywords": [
        "soccer",
        "euros",
        "fox",
        "fox sports",
        "fox sports soccer",
        "fox soccer",
        "FOX Soccer",
        "sports highlights"
    ],
    "thumbnails": [
        {
            "url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/99bgTARgKD8/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEmCKgBEF5IWvKriqkDGQgBFQAAiEIYAdgBAeIBCggYEAIYBjgBQAE=&rs=AOn4CLCgdMqMttmHi1MPfNlDtfRuQBxIdg",
            "width": 168,
            "height": 94
        },
        {
            "url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/99bgTARgKD8/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEmCMQBEG5IWvKriqkDGQgBFQAAiEIYAdgBAeIBCggYEAIYBjgBQAE=&rs=AOn4CLAGGQ4K95vfjAps6J7dML86mxD8kA",
            "width": 196,
            "height": 110
        }
    ],
    "channelMetadata": {
        An optional nested channel metadata object (see below)
    }
}

Channel Metadata Sample

Nested within a video metadata object is an optional channel metadata object, representing the channel that owns the video.

{
    "id": "UCooTLkxcpnTNx6vfOovfBFA",
    "handle": null,
    "title": "FOX Soccer",
    "description": "Welcome to the official FOX Soccer YouTube channel, your ultimate destination for everything soccer! From Major League Soccer to international soccer action, we bring you the best highlights, expert analysis, and exclusive content. Stay ahead of the game with in-depth coverage of the upcoming 2026 Men's World Cup and more. Whether you're following the biggest global tournaments or the exciting moments from the MLS, we’ve got you covered. Subscribe now for non-stop soccer action, news, and top-tier analysis from the world’s most popular sport!",
    "keywords": "fs1 \"fox sports 1\" \"FOX Soccer\" \"UEFA Champions League\" Bundesliga FIFA \"fox sports\"",
    "country": "United States",
    "avatar": {
        "url": "https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/aveASTfRd2GwIdpThrMH4_3KPakK0i7V8LID2hKrg5Xw7qNZecSFvZdJIsDYTRpiC8yfrAQV=s900-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj",
        "width": 900,
        "height": 900
    },
    "joinedDate": "2006-03-30T00:00:00.000Z",
    "channelAgeDays": 6995,
    "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCooTLkxcpnTNx6vfOovfBFA",
    "canonicalUrl": "http://www.youtube.com/@Foxsoccer",
    "rssUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UCooTLkxcpnTNx6vfOovfBFA",
    "videosUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCooTLkxcpnTNx6vfOovfBFA/videos",
    "shortsUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCooTLkxcpnTNx6vfOovfBFA/shorts",
    "liveUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCooTLkxcpnTNx6vfOovfBFA/live",
    "playlistsUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCooTLkxcpnTNx6vfOovfBFA/playlists",
    "aboutUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCooTLkxcpnTNx6vfOovfBFA/about",
    "searchUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCooTLkxcpnTNx6vfOovfBFA/search?query={query}",
    "ownerUrls": [
        "http://www.youtube.com/@Foxsoccer"
    ],
    "links": [
        {
            "title": "More from FOX Soccer",
            "url": "foxsports.com/soccer"
        },
        {
            "title": "FOX Soccer Facebook",
            "url": "facebook.com/foxsoccer"
        },
        {
            "title": "FOX Soccer Twitter",
            "url": "twitter.com/FOXSoccer"
        },
        {
            "title": "FOX Soccer Instagram",
            "url": "instagram.com/foxsoccer"
        }
    ],
    "hasBusinessEmailAddress": true,
    "isFamilySafe": true,
    "subscriberCount": 1450000,
    "viewCount": 843451421,
    "videoCount": 11591,
    "averageViewCount": 72767,
    "availableCountryCodes": [
        "LU",
        "ET",
        "SD",
        "BI",
        "CW",

        ... trimmed for brevity ... 

        "PL",
        "ZA",
        "SI",
        "CG",
        "JM"
    ]
}

🆘 Support & Feedback

We want you to enjoy the best possible experience while using YouTube Video Scraper, so we're laser focused on providing the support you need, when you need it.

If you run into an obstacle, while configuring or using the scraper, please raise an issue, and we'll give it our rapid attention. We treat bugs and breakages as an absolute priority, but we're also keen to help out with advice and guidance that will make your scraping task easier and more effective.

If you have any feedback that would help us to improve the product, we'd also love to hear from you.

And, if you find the YouTube Video Scraper useful, we'd really appreciate it if you would leave us a quick rating/review (accessible via the Reviews tab in Apify Console). It really helps us to boost our Store visibility and keeps us motivated to continue working on new features. Thank you.

7️⃣ Meet the Magnificent Seven

Whatever your YouTube scraping needs, we’ve got you covered. Our expanding range includes both quick-start, task-specific scrapers and our all-encompassing YouTube Ultimate Scraper, which provides maximum flexibility for advanced users and complex use cases. We also have 3 exciting new additions coming soon.

	YouTube Video Scraper The fast and easy way to capture detailed metadata for YouTube videos and channels. Simply provide one or more video or channel URLs and set your data limits. Each result includes the video’s detailed metadata and, optionally, that of its associated channel.
	YouTube Comments Scraper Quickly extract the full conversation around any YouTube video. Enter video or channel URLs and define the amount of data you need. Each result contains viewer comments (and their replies, if required), helping you analyze audience engagement and sentiment for your own channels or those of your competitors.
	YouTube Transcript Scraper Retrieve complete transcripts for any YouTube video in seconds. Provide video or channel URLs, set your data limits, and choose your preferred format: timeline-based (segmented) or continuous text. Each result delivers the full transcript for a selected video.
	YouTube Ultimate Scraper The flagship of our YouTube scraping suite, YouTube Ultimate Scraper combines the functionality of all or our individual scrapers and more. It's ideal for users who need multiple data types (e.g., comments, transcripts, and metadata) in a single dataset, or greater control over targeting, filtering, and formatting. Our free onboarding service helps you to get started, even if your scraping needs are complex.
	YouTube Channel Insights (coming soon) Gain a deep understanding of any YouTube channel’s commercial goals and strategies. This tool aggregates and analyzes channel metadata and external references to uncover insights such as linked social media profiles, owned domains, monetization models, content strategy, and key performance metrics (videos, views, subscribers, publishing tactics, engagement, and growth).
	YouTube Channel Finder (coming soon) Discover YouTube channels that match your specific criteria. This tool locates channels by keywords or hashtags, then filters them using advanced inference techniques (powered by YouTube Channel Insights), helping you find creators, brands, or niches aligned with your interests or campaigns.
	YouTube Monitor (coming soon) A scheduled, stateful monitoring tool that tracks specified YouTube metrics over time, generates trend-based insights and reports, and raises alerts when user-defined thresholds or anomalies are detected — ideal for proactive channel health and competitor tracking.

All of our YouTube tools use Apify’s innovative Pay per Event (PPE) pricing model, so you only pay for the data you choose to collect. When multiple scrapers offer overlapping features, pricing remains consistent across tools, ensuring you always get the best value. Users on premium Apify plans also benefit from progressive discounts through Apify’s tiered pricing scheme.