YouTube Public Region Restriction Checker

Compare the playability status returned by public YouTube watch pages for a bounded list of country contexts. The actor requests https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...&hl=en&gl=XX, parses the embedded public player response, and records only countries that returned an observable player status.

Dataset

Each video record contains the submitted reference, video/channel metadata, description, keywords, duration, views, thumbnails, captions and streaming-format counts when the public response exposes them, plus per-country playability observations. It also includes requested/tested/failed country counts, accessible and blocked lists, percentages, baseline status, evidence mode, and source provenance.

Country evidence is labeled explicitly:

• country-matched Apify Proxy IP plus public watch-page gl parameter means an Apify country route was requested for that country.
• Apify Proxy IP plus public watch-page gl parameter; country match not independently verified means a proxy was used without a country-specific route.
• public watch-page gl parameter only; request IP country not controlled means only the public page's locale parameter was varied.

These are point-in-time observations, not proof of permanent global licensing or availability. A mixed result means the tested public responses differed; it does not infer untested countries.

Blocked or failed country requests are summarized in bounded run logs and OUTPUT; diagnostic rows are never written to the dataset. OUTPUT.status reports SUCCEEDED when rows were saved or checks completed without observations, and FAILED only when an actual failure occurs before any row is saved. dataStatus distinguishes COMPLETE, PARTIAL, NO_RESULTS, and FAILED.

Input

Field	Default	Description
videoUrls	required	Public YouTube watch, Shorts, embed, youtu.be URLs, or 11-character IDs.
countryCodes	US, GB, DE, IN, JP	ISO alpha-2 country contexts, 1–20.
maxItems	10	Maximum unique videos, 1–50.
proxyConfiguration	none	Optional account-authorized Apify Proxy. Country-specific routes are used when the configuration requests Apify Proxy.
enableProxyFallback	true	After a direct page failure, try one ordinary Apify Proxy route.
requestDelayMs / requestTimeoutSecs	250 / 60	Pacing and bounded page timeout.

Example

{
  "videoUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"],
  "countryCodes": ["US", "GB", "DE"],
  "maxItems": 1,
  "enableProxyFallback": true,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}

Safety and limits

• Uses a fixed ordinary User-Agent and public watch-page HTML only.
• Does not call youtubei endpoints, rotate client identities, spoof fingerprints, patch browser stealth, bypass CAPTCHA/login, or store cookies, credentials, proxy URLs, or request identity fields in dataset records.
• YouTube may return a generic or blocked response even when a video is public. The actor preserves that limitation in logs and OUTPUT rather than treating missing data as unrestricted or unavailable.
• Proxy usage consumes account resources; a country route is evidence of the requested route, not an independently measured IP assertion.

Local verification

npm test
npx --yes apify validate-schema
$env:APIFY_LOCAL_STORAGE_DIR = 'storage'
npx --yes apify run --purge --input-file INPUT.json
node validate-datasets.js