YouTube Playlist Scraper (Videos, Views, Durations)

What is YouTube Playlist Scraper?

YouTube Playlist Scraper lists every video of a public YouTube playlist, in playlist order. For each video it returns the title, channel, views and age as YouTube shows them, the duration, the thumbnail and the watch link. One dataset row is one video.

Use it to export playlists for research, to build curated video lists, to check what a channel has put into a playlist, or to feed a content pipeline. It uses the same public YouTube endpoints as the other YouTube Actors in this set. No API key and no login are needed.

What data does YouTube Playlist Scraper extract?

Field	Type	Meaning
playlistId	string	YouTube playlist id (the list= value)
playlistTitle	string or null	Playlist title
position	number	Video position in the playlist (1 = first)
videoId	string	YouTube video id
title	string or null	Video title
channelName	string or null	Channel that uploaded the video
channelId	string or null	Channel id (starts with UC)
viewsText	string or null	Views as YouTube shows them, e.g. "3.4M views"
publishedText	string or null	Age as YouTube shows it, e.g. "8 years ago"
durationText	string or null	Duration as shown, e.g. "3:25"
durationSeconds	number or null	Duration in seconds
url	string	Watch link that includes the playlist
thumbnailUrl	string or null	Largest thumbnail the page lists
scrapedAt	string	ISO timestamp of the scrape

How to use YouTube Playlist Scraper

1. Paste one or more playlist links or ids into "Playlist links or ids", one per line.
2. Set "Max videos per playlist" (default 100). The Actor reads 100 videos per page.
3. Start the run, then download the dataset as JSON, CSV or Excel, or read it through the API.

Example input

{
    "playlists": ["https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL06diOotXAJLAAHBY7kIUm5GQwm2ZinOz"],
    "maxVideos": 150
}

Example output

Real row from a run on 23 Oct 2026 (first video of the playlist, 150-video run):

{
    "playlistId": "PL06diOotXAJLAAHBY7kIUm5GQwm2ZinOz",
    "playlistTitle": "Chill LoFi Hip Hop (Copyright Free) Chillhop Music #NCM",
    "position": 1,
    "videoId": "hQT6WMJ-Fco",
    "title": "[No Copyright Music] Chill Lofi Hip Hop Beat FREE Instrumental (Copyright Free) Chillhop Music",
    "channelName": "Chill - Copyright Free Music",
    "channelId": "UC2iczXFcRRg5nN_IVQOXIaA",
    "viewsText": "3.4M views",
    "publishedText": "8 years ago",
    "durationText": "3:25",
    "durationSeconds": 205,
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQT6WMJ-Fco&list=PL06diOotXAJLAAHBY7kIUm5GQwm2ZinOz",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/hQT6WMJ-Fco/hqdefault.jpg",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-10-23T11:02:08.976Z"
}

Input parameters

Parameter	Default	Description
playlists	one demo playlist	Playlist URLs or ids, one per line
maxVideos	100	Videos per playlist, 1 to 2,000

Pricing

Pay per video: $1.00 per 1,000 videos on the free plan ($0.001 per video). Volume tiers lower the price on paid Apify plans.

Measured on 23 Oct 2026 at 256 MB: a run for 150 videos (two pages of one playlist) finished in 17 seconds and used $0.000 of platform usage; a run for 30 videos from a second playlist used $0.000 in 4 seconds. The CLI prints usage to three decimals, so these are rounded figures.

YouTube Playlist Scraper vs. alternatives

The official YouTube Data API returns playlist items with a quota and a Google Cloud key. This Actor needs no key and returns the same public list the YouTube page shows, but views and ages are the page's own text (e.g. "3.4M views"), not exact counts, and the Actor does not return video descriptions or tags.

Using YouTube Playlist Scraper with AI agents / MCP

An agent sends playlists and maxVideos and reads the rows in order. The position field keeps the playlist order.

FAQ

Is this legal? The Actor reads the public playlist pages YouTube serves to visitors. It does not log in and does not download video files. Respect YouTube's terms and the rights of the uploaders for any reuse of the content.

Why are views given as text, like "3.4M views"? The page shows rounded counts, and the Actor keeps that text as YouTube shows it. Exact counts are not in the page data the Actor reads.

Does it work for private or unlisted playlists? Only public playlists were tested. For a private playlist, expect no videos; the run then logs that playlist as having none.

Can I get more than 200 videos from one playlist? Yes, up to 2,000 per playlist. The Actor reads 100 videos per page and stops at the limit or at the end of the playlist.

Can I call it from n8n, Make or Zapier? Those tools can start any Apify Actor through their Apify integrations. This was not tested for this Actor.

What about errors and limits? A playlist that returns no videos is logged and skipped. The run fails only when no video is collected. Each run stops at the caller's maximum charge.

Related Actors

Other Actors from the same publisher are listed on its Apify profile.

Support

Open an issue on the Actor's Issues tab on Apify. Include the run ID, the playlist link and the log lines.

Limitations

• Public playlists only. Private and unlisted playlists were not tested.
• Views and ages are the page's rounded text.
• Video descriptions, tags, like counts and exact upload dates are not included.
• The page layout can change. The parser was checked on 23 Oct 2026 on two playlists (185 and at least 150 videos).