# YouTube Comments Scraper — Replies, Filters & Insights (`vladased/youtube-comments-fast`) Actor

YouTube comments + replies from videos, Shorts, whole channels & searches. Keyword/question filters, only-new monitoring, privacy mode, hot moments. $0.50/1k.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/vladased/youtube-comments-fast.md
- **Developed by:** [obie](https://apify.com/vladased) (community)
- **Categories:** Videos, Social media, Agents
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.90 / 1,000 comments

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## YouTube Comments Scraper: Replies, Filters & Insights

**Get YouTube comments and replies from any mix of videos, Shorts, whole channels, playlists and searches, filtered to what you
need (keywords, questions, likes, moments mentioned), with a free insight row per video.** Schedule it with *Only new comments*
and each run delivers and bills only comments you haven't seen. **$0.50 per 1,000 comments**, no per-video fee, no compute fee.

### Why this one

| | This Actor | Typical comment scrapers |
|---|---|---|
| Input | Videos, Shorts, **channels (latest N videos), playlists, searches**, mixed | Video URLs |
| Price | **$0.50 / 1,000**, no start or per-video fee | $0.50–$2 / 1,000, often + per-video or start fees |
| Replies | Full threads with `replyToCid`, capped per comment, loaded in parallel | Missing, or priced unclearly |
| Filters | Keywords, exclude words, min likes, questions only, comments citing a moment, creator-engaged | None: download everything, filter later |
| Monitoring | **Only new comments**: a scheduled run stops as soon as it reaches comments it delivered before | Re-delivers and re-bills everything |
| Insights | Free summary per video: questions, creator hearts, **hot moments** viewers cite, top words | — |
| Privacy | Optional **privacy mode**: no names or channel links, keyed author IDs | — |
| Errors | Comments off / removed / blocked → a free row with `reasonCode` | Empty results or failed run |
| Switching | Accepts `startUrls`, `maxComments`/`maxItems`, `sortCommentsBy`/`sort`, `oldestCommentDate`, `includeReplies`; output uses `cid`, `comment`, `author`, `voteCount`, `replyCount`, `hasCreatorHeart`, `authorIsChannelOwner`, `replyToCid`, `pageUrl`, `title` | — |

### What it does

- **Any source:** video IDs or URLs, Shorts, `@handles` and channel URLs (comments from their latest videos), playlists, search URLs and queries.
- **Top or newest:** YouTube's own order. *Only comments newer than* (`7 days`, `2026-10-01`) switches to newest and stops paging at the first older comment, so you pay only for recent ones.
- **Replies:** turn on *Include replies* to get each thread under its comment (`type: "reply"`, `replyToCid`), up to your cap per comment.
- **Filters:** keep comments that mention your words, drop ones with excluded words, require minimum likes, only questions, only comments that cite a moment (e.g. "2:31", with a deep link), or only comments the creator hearted or wrote.
  Filtered-out comments are read but not delivered and cost $0.05 per 1,000.
- **Only new comments:** remembers what it delivered per video. Schedule it hourly or daily for brand monitoring, community management or a support inbox.
- **Every comment row:** text, author, author channel ID, likes, reply count, pinned, creator heart, creator/verified/artist flags, posted text ("3 days ago") with
  `ageDays` and an approximate date, edited flag, question flag, word count, moments mentioned, a link straight to the comment, its rank, plus the video's title, channel, views and publish date.
- **Video summary row (free):** comments read and delivered, YouTube's comment count, questions, creator hearts, **hot moments** (the times viewers cite most, with links) and top words.
- **Privacy mode:** removes names and channel links and adds `authorId`, a keyed hash: one author's comments stay linkable in your data, but can't be looked up.
- **Built to keep working:** YouTube's lightweight app API (no browser), ~7× less data per page than a plain request, cheapest network route first, automatic retries,
  results saved page by page, resume after a server move without re-billing, and a clean stop before the run timeout.

### Pricing

| Event | Price | When |
|---|---|---|
| Comment | $0.0005 | Each delivered comment or reply |
| Comment scanned | $0.00005 | A comment read but dropped by your filters |
| Summary rows, error rows, already-seen comments | free | — |

Lower prices on higher Apify plans. The free plan's $5 monthly credit covers about 10,000 comments. Set *Maximum cost per run* and the Actor stops exactly there.

### Input examples

Top 500 comments with replies:

```json
{ "startUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"], "maxComments": 500, "includeReplies": true, "maxRepliesPerComment": 10 }
```

Audience questions across a channel's last 10 videos:

```json
{ "startUrls": ["@mkbhd"], "maxVideosPerSource": 10, "maxComments": 2000, "onlyQuestions": true }
```

Brand monitor (schedule daily):

```json
{ "searchQueries": ["your brand review"], "maxVideosPerSource": 20, "keywords": ["your brand"], "sort": "newest", "onlyNewComments": true }
```

Last 48 hours of comments:

```json
{ "startUrls": ["https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID"], "commentsNewerThan": "2 days", "maxComments": 10000 }
```

### Output

```json
{
  "type": "comment", "cid": "Ugzge340dBgB75hWBm54AaABAg", "comment": "can confirm: he never gave us up",
  "author": "@YouTube", "authorChannelId": "UCBR8-60-B28hp2BmDPdntcQ", "authorIsVerified": true, "authorIsChannelOwner": false,
  "voteCount": 325000, "replyCount": 962, "hasCreatorHeart": true, "isPinned": true, "publishedTimeText": "1 year ago",
  "ageDays": 365, "publishedApprox": "2025-10-10", "isQuestion": false, "timestamps": [], "rank": 1,
  "commentUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ&lc=Ugzge340dBgB75hWBm54AaABAg",
  "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ", "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Video) (4K Remaster)",
  "channelName": "Rick Astley", "commentsCount": 2400000, "sortedBy": "top"
}
```

Video summary (real run, MKBHD, questions only): `"hotMoments": [{"seconds": 165, "mentions": 9, "url": "…&t=165s"}, {"seconds": 812, "mentions": 9, …}]`.

Views: **Comments** and **Video summaries** tables. Export JSON, CSV, Excel, or connect Google Sheets, Make, n8n, Zapier, or an AI agent via the Apify MCP server.

### Good to know

- YouTube shows comment dates only as "3 days ago": `ageDays` is a lower bound and `publishedApprox` an approximate date. Likes and comment counts are rounded by YouTube (e.g. 325K).
- Replies count on top of *Max comments per video*, which counts top-level comments.
- With *Newest first*, YouTube keeps the pinned comment at the top; date filters skip it rather than stop on it.
- Public comments only: no logins, no emails, no members-only content. Respect privacy laws when you store or use names; privacy mode helps.

### Use cases

Audience research and content ideas (questions, hot moments) · brand and competitor monitoring · community management · product feedback and reviews ·
sentiment and topic analysis · datasets for AI agents and dashboards. Pair it with our **YouTube Scraper** (video and channel data) and
**YouTube Transcript Scraper** (what was said).

### Support

Open an issue on the Actor page with the run ID; we reply within a day.

# Changelog

This Actor's version history is a separate document: https://apify.com/vladased/youtube-comments-fast/changelog.md

# Actor input Schema

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

Videos, Shorts, channels (@handle or URL: their latest videos), playlists and search-results URLs, in any mix (max 200). Also accepts {url} objects and 'videoUrls'/'urls' from other comment actors.

## `searchQueries` (type: `array`):

Get comments from the top video results of each YouTube search.

## `maxComments` (type: `integer`):

Top-level comments per video (1–100,000). Replies come on top of this (see below). Also accepts 'maxItems'.

## `maxVideosPerSource` (type: `integer`):

How many of the latest videos (channels), first videos (playlists) or top results (searches) to read comments from.

## `sort` (type: `string`):

YouTube's own comment order. A date filter switches to newest automatically.

## `includeReplies` (type: `boolean`):

Add reply threads under each comment (each reply is billed as a comment).

## `maxRepliesPerComment` (type: `integer`):

Cap per thread when replies are on.

## `commentsNewerThan` (type: `string`):

YYYY-MM-DD or relative ('2 days', '1 week'). Paging stops at the first older comment, so you pay only for recent ones. Also accepts 'oldestCommentDate'.

## `keywords` (type: `array`):

Keep comments that mention any of these words (case-insensitive). Filtered-out comments cost $0.05 per 1,000 read.

## `excludeKeywords` (type: `array`):

Drop comments that mention any of these words.

## `minLikes` (type: `integer`):

Only comments with at least this many likes.

## `onlyQuestions` (type: `boolean`):

Comments with a question mark: audience questions, FAQ and content ideas.

## `onlyWithTimestamps` (type: `boolean`):

Comments that cite a time in the video (e.g. 2:31), with deep links.

## `onlyCreatorEngaged` (type: `boolean`):

Comments the creator hearted or wrote.

## `onlyNewComments` (type: `boolean`):

Remember delivered comments and skip them later: schedule it and pay only for new comments. Works best with 'Newest first'.

## `stateKey` (type: `string`):

Optional: share one 'only new' memory across inputs. Also keys privacy-mode author IDs.

## `pseudonymizeAuthors` (type: `boolean`):

Drops names and channel links; adds a keyed authorId so one author's comments stay linkable inside your data only. For GDPR-minded research.

## `includeVideoDetails` (type: `boolean`):

Title, channel, views and publish date on every comment (one small request per video, free).

## `includeVideoSummary` (type: `boolean`):

Free row: comments read/delivered, questions, creator hearts, most-mentioned moments (hot moments), top words.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Leave as is: direct first, then datacenter, then residential only if YouTube pushes back.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ],
  "searchQueries": [
    "iphone 17 review"
  ],
  "maxComments": 100,
  "maxVideosPerSource": 5,
  "sort": "top",
  "includeReplies": false,
  "maxRepliesPerComment": 20,
  "commentsNewerThan": "7 days",
  "minLikes": 0,
  "onlyQuestions": false,
  "onlyWithTimestamps": false,
  "onlyCreatorEngaged": false,
  "onlyNewComments": false,
  "pseudonymizeAuthors": false,
  "includeVideoDetails": true,
  "includeVideoSummary": true,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `overview` (type: `string`):

One row per comment or reply.

## `results` (type: `string`):

Comments, video summary rows and error rows with every field.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "startUrls": [
        "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("vladased/youtube-comments-fast").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "startUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("vladased/youtube-comments-fast").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ]
}' |
apify call vladased/youtube-comments-fast --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,vladased/youtube-comments-fast"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/vjIBvxw4T3n7mPAuF/builds/ZcQsu47XPKc4mTuSG/openapi.json