WeChat Channels Scraper - Search 微信视频号 Videos, Channels & Comments

Scrape WeChat Channels (微信视频号 / Shipinhao) and export videos, channel profiles and comments to JSON, CSV or Excel. Search videos by keyword, pull a single video's full details, get a channel's profile, list the videos a channel has posted, or collect a video's comments - all from one Actor. Each result is one clean, flat row with likes, favorites, shares, comments and channel data.

No WeChat account, no login, no cookies, no proxies and no China IP to configure - data is fetched through a fast, managed pipeline. Just pick an operation, add your input and press Start.

Unofficial notice: This is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to WeChat, Weixin, 微信视频号 or Tencent. "WeChat", "WeChat Channels", "微信" and "视频号" are trademarks of their respective owners, used here only to describe what the Actor scrapes.

What is WeChat Channels?

WeChat Channels (微信视频号, "Shipinhao") is the short-video and live-streaming feed built into WeChat, China's largest messaging app with over a billion monthly users. News outlets, brands, government accounts and independent creators all publish there, and because it lives inside WeChat, its videos spread through chats and Moments rather than a public website. This scraper gives you programmatic access to Channels search, videos, channels and comments so you can track topics, monitor channels and analyze engagement at scale without a WeChat account.

Operations

Pick one Operation and fill in the matching field:

Operation	Input field	What you get
Search videos by keyword	keywords	Videos matching each keyword, with likes, length, publish time and channel name.
Video details	videoIds	The full detail of each video (title, description, likes, favorites, shares, comments, media link, channel username).
Video comments	videoIds	Top-level comments for each video, with likes, time and commenter region.
Channel profile	channelUsernames	A channel's profile: name, bio, IP region, video count, collections, live hours, linked accounts.
Channel's posted videos	channelUsernames	The videos a channel has posted, paginated.

videoIds accept numeric object IDs (e.g. 15011167357568031716), export IDs from search results (export/...) or share links (https://weixin.qq.com/sph/...). channelUsernames take the channel's username in the v2_...@finder form - one per line.

Search results feed the other operations

Search rows carry only a short-lived export_id, the channel name and the like count - WeChat's search does not show favorites, shares, comment counts or the channel username. To get the full picture, copy the export_id values from a search run into videoIds and run Video details (or Video comments). Do this soon after searching: export IDs expire. Video detail rows return the stable object_id and the channel_username, which you can then use for Channel profile and Channel's posted videos.

How to use it (step by step)

1. Choose an Operation.
2. Fill in the matching input:
   • Search videos -> add one or more Search keywords (Chinese, English and brand names all work).
   • Video details / Video comments -> paste Video IDs / links (object ID, export ID or share link).
   • Channel profile / Channel's videos -> paste Channel usernames (v2_...@finder).
3. Set Maximum results per input (default 100, or 0 for all available) for the paginated operations.
4. For search, optionally set Sort order (relevance, newest, most liked), Video length and Published within.
5. Press Start. Export the dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or via the API.

Input

Field	Type	Description
operation	string	Required. search_videos, video_detail, video_comments, channel_profile, or channel_videos.
keywords	array	Search keywords (for search_videos).
videoIds	array	Object IDs, export IDs or share links (for video_detail, video_comments).
channelUsernames	array	Channel usernames, v2_...@finder (for channel_profile, channel_videos).
maxItems	integer	Max results per keyword / channel / video. 0 = all available. Default 100.
searchSort	string	default (relevance), latest, or hot (most liked) - search only.
searchDuration	string	all, short (under 5 min), medium (5-10 min), or long (20 min+) - search only.
searchPublishTime	string	all, day, week, or half_year - search only.

Output

Every row carries a record_type of video, channel or comment. Common video fields:

Field	Description
object_id, export_id	Video identity: stable object ID (detail / channel videos) or short-lived export ID (search).
title, description	Video title and caption.
like_count, favorite_count, share_count, comment_count	Engagement metrics (search rows carry likes only).
channel_username, channel_name, channel_avatar_url	Channel data.
cover_url, media_url, decode_key, duration_seconds, width, height	Thumbnail, video file link and its decryption key, length and dimensions.
create_time, location	Publish time (ISO-8601 UTC) and tagged location, when set.

Channel (channel) rows add username, nickname, signature (bio), avatar_url, region, video_count, collection_count, live_duration_hours and linked_accounts. Comment (comment) rows add video_id, comment_id, content, like_count, create_time, ip_region and the commenter's author_name, author_username and author_avatar_url.

Example video row:

{
  "record_type": "video",
  "operation": "video_detail",
  "input": "15011167357568031716",
  "object_id": "15011167357568031716",
  "title": "…",
  "duration_seconds": 32,
  "create_time": "2026-09-15T11:09:56+00:00",
  "like_count": 2550,
  "favorite_count": 4326,
  "share_count": 25616,
  "comment_count": 1071,
  "channel_username": "v2_…@finder",
  "channel_name": "封面新闻"
}

Common use cases

• Topic and trend tracking - watch what is being posted on WeChat Channels for any keyword, by relevance, newest or most liked.
• Channel monitoring - track a news outlet's, brand's or competitor's uploads and engagement over time.
• Comment and sentiment research - collect audience reactions, with commenter regions, for any video.
• Market and AI research - build datasets of Chinese short-video content and engagement.

Notes on reliability

• WeChat hides follower and total-like counts on channel profiles, so they are not included.
• Only top-level comments are returned; WeChat does not report a per-comment reply count here.
• Export IDs from search, cover links and media links are short-lived; use them promptly.
• The video file at media_url may be encrypted by WeChat; decode_key is the key WeChat supplies for it.
• WeChat occasionally rejects a request for no reason; the Actor retries automatically.
• If a video or channel is private, deleted or unavailable, that input is skipped and the run continues.

FAQ

Do I need a WeChat account, cookies or a proxy? No. Just add your input and press Start.

Where do I find a channel's username? Run Video details on any of the channel's videos - the row's channel_username is what the channel operations need. The public "Channels ID" (sph...) shown in the app is not accepted.

Can I run several keywords, videos or channels at once? Yes - add multiple lines. Duplicate videos across inputs are removed automatically.

Can I try it for free? Yes. Users on the free Apify plan can fetch up to 10 results in total to try the Actor. Upgrade to a paid Apify plan to run it without that limit.

What export formats are supported? JSON, CSV, Excel, XML and HTML, plus the Apify API and integrations such as Google Sheets, Zapier, Make and webhooks.

Pricing

This Actor is pay per result: you are charged for each record it returns (videos, comments and channel profiles), plus standard Apify platform usage. Different record types have different prices; see the Pricing tab for current rates. You are never charged for inputs that return nothing.

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