# YouTube Shorts Scraper: Search, Channels, Views & Likes (`wulfcare/youtube-shorts-scraper`) Actor

Scrape YouTube Shorts from search terms and channels: views, likes, comment count, publish date, description, hashtags, plus channel subscribers. No login, no API key. $0.50 per 1,000 Shorts, no start fee.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/wulfcare/youtube-shorts-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Wulfcare Data](https://apify.com/wulfcare) (community)
- **Categories:** Videos, Social media, Marketing
- **Security:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$0.50 / 1,000 shorts

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

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 Shorts Scraper

Scrape **YouTube Shorts** from any search term or channel for **$0.50 per 1,000 Shorts**, with no start fee and no login or API key. Every Short comes with:

- **views, likes, comment count, exact publish time and duration**
- the **full description** with its links, **hashtags**, category and tags
- the **channel's subscribers, total views, video count, country**, joined date, links and avatar

Sources:

- **Search terms**, using YouTube's own *Shorts* search filter, with upload date (last hour, today, this week…) and sort order (relevance, views, date, rating)
- **Channels**: their whole **Shorts tab**, newest, popular or oldest first, stopping at a date if you set one
- **Single Shorts** from any youtube.com/shorts/ link or id

### What people use it for

- **Find viral Shorts** in a niche: search a topic, sort by views, filter to this week
- **Track creators and competitors**: every Short a channel posts, with views and likes, on a schedule
- **Influencer research**: channels posting Shorts on a topic, with subscriber counts
- **Datasets for AI and trend analysis**: titles, hashtags and engagement at scale

### How to use it

1. Add **search terms** (e.g. `cooking hacks`) and/or **channels** (`@MrBeast`, `https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast/shorts`).
2. Set **Maximum Shorts** per search term or channel (default 50).
3. Optionally filter by upload date, sort order, or "only Shorts published on or after" a date (`2026-01-31` or `7 days`).
4. Run it. Export as JSON, CSV or Excel, or call the API.

### What you get: one row per Short

Every row has the same fields, shown here on a sample video (on a Short, `type` is `"shorts"`):

```json
{
  "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Video) (4K Remaster)",
  "id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "type": "video",
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/hqdefault.jpg",
  "viewCount": 1821960823,
  "likes": 19440936,
  "commentsCount": 2457966,
  "date": "2009-10-25T06:57:33Z",
  "dateText": "Oct 24, 2009",
  "duration": "00:03:33",
  "durationSeconds": 213,
  "text": "The official video for “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley. ...",
  "descriptionLinks": [{ "url": "https://linktr.ee/rickastleynever", "text": "https://linktr.ee/rickastleynever" }],
  "hashtags": ["#RickAstley", "#NeverGonnaGiveYouUp", "#OfficialMusicVideo"],
  "location": null,
  "category": "Music",
  "keywords": ["rick astley", "Never Gonna Give You Up", "nggyu", "rick roll"],
  "isLive": false,
  "commentsTurnedOff": false,
  "isMembersOnly": false,
  "isAgeRestricted": false,
  "isUnlisted": false,
  "collaborators": null,
  "channelName": "Rick Astley",
  "channelId": "UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw",
  "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@RickAstleyYT",
  "channelUsername": "RickAstleyYT",
  "numberOfSubscribers": 4550000,
  "isChannelVerified": true,
  "channelAvatarUrl": "https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/...",
  "channelBannerUrl": "https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/...",
  "channelDescription": "Rick Astley’s Swinging Christmas 2026 🎄 ...",
  "channelDescriptionLinks": [{ "text": "Website", "url": "https://www.rickastley.co.uk/" }],
  "channelLocation": "United Kingdom",
  "channelJoinedDate": "2015-02-01",
  "channelTotalVideos": 437,
  "channelTotalViews": 2570271276,
  "input": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "fromYTUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "order": 1,
  "error": null
}
```

### Pricing

**$0.50 per 1,000 Shorts** ($0.0005 each). One flat price: no start fee, no date-filter add-on, and errors or not-found inputs are never charged.

Other popular Shorts scrapers charge $3 to $4 per 1,000, plus add-on fees for date filters. Apify's free plan includes $5 of credit every month: about 10,000 Shorts.

### Good to know

- **Speed**: about **6 Shorts a second** with every detail (341 in under a minute), and much faster with *Open every video* off. *Videos at a time* (default 10, up to 30) sets the pace.
- **Proxy**: Apify Proxy (datacenter) is on by default and is all it needs. YouTube refuses some Apify servers' own IP addresses, so without a proxy the run may stop with a clear message.
- **Search filters** work like YouTube's own: YouTube decides what matches, and it doesn't keep "Upload date" sort order strictly. A search goes about 500-600 results deep, as on YouTube.
- **`oldestPostDate`** takes a date (`2026-01-31`) or an age (`7 days`, `2 weeks`, `3 months`, `1 year`). It works for every source. On a channel listed newest first the run stops at the first older video, and elsewhere older videos are skipped.
- For a few videos (mostly some music videos) YouTube doesn't give out the **category and tags**; those rows have the rest.
- **Public data only**: everything comes from public YouTube pages as a logged-out visitor sees them. No Google account, no login, no emails or other personal contact data.
- **Data accuracy:** results are what the source showed at run time, collected from public pages, and can contain errors or change later. Check anything important before you rely on it.

### Other Actors by Wulfcare Data

- [YouTube Scraper](https://apify.com/wulfcare/youtube-scraper): the same scraper for regular videos, live streams, playlists and hashtags too

- [Google Hotels Prices Scraper](https://apify.com/wulfcare/google-hotels-scraper): every booking site's price for any hotel and dates, and hotel searches

- [YouTube Transcript Scraper](https://apify.com/wulfcare/youtube-transcript-scraper): transcripts of videos, channels, playlists and searches as text, segments or SRT

- [YouTube Comments Scraper](https://apify.com/wulfcare/youtube-comments-scraper): comments and replies of videos, Shorts, channels and searches, with likes, creator hearts and pinned flags

- [Google Trends Scraper](https://apify.com/wulfcare/google-trends-scraper): interest over time, rising queries and Trending Now

- [ChatGPT Search Scraper & AI Brand Visibility Tracker](https://apify.com/wulfcare/chatgpt-search-scraper): what ChatGPT answers and cites for any prompt

- [Google Play Scraper](https://apify.com/wulfcare/google-play-scraper) and [App Store Scraper](https://apify.com/wulfcare/app-store-scraper): reviews, app details and charts

- [Google Jobs Scraper](https://apify.com/wulfcare/google-jobs-scraper) and [AI Training Jobs Scraper](https://apify.com/wulfcare/ai-training-jobs-scraper): job listings

# Actor input Schema

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

What you would type in YouTube's search box. Each term is searched with YouTube's Shorts filter and gets up to "Maximum Shorts" results.

## `maxResultsShorts` (type: `integer`):

Shorts to get from each search term and each channel (its Shorts tab).

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

Channels (@handle, /channel/UC..., /@name/shorts) to get their Shorts tab, or Shorts URLs (youtube.com/shorts/ID) to get those Shorts.

## `sortingOrder` (type: `string`):

How YouTube orders the search results. YouTube doesn't follow "Upload date" strictly.

## `dateFilter` (type: `string`):

Only videos uploaded within this time.

## `oldestPostDate` (type: `string`):

A date (2026-01-31) or an age ("7 days", "2 weeks", "3 months", "1 year"). Works for every source. On a channel listed newest first the run stops at the first older video; elsewhere older videos are skipped.

## `sortVideosBy` (type: `string`):

The order of a channel's videos, Shorts and streams (the channel page's Latest / Popular / Oldest buttons).

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

On: each video's likes, comment count, exact publish time, full description with its links, hashtags, category, tags and more. Off: only what the list shows (title, views, duration, "3 days ago"), several times faster. Video URLs are always opened.

## `includeChannelInfo` (type: `boolean`):

The channel's subscribers, total views, video count, country, joined date, description, links, avatar and banner, on every row (one small request per channel).

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

How many videos are fetched in parallel.

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

Apify Proxy (datacenter) works well and is on by default: YouTube refuses some Apify servers' own IP addresses.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchQueries": [
    "cooking hacks"
  ],
  "maxResultsShorts": 50,
  "startUrls": [],
  "sortVideosBy": "NEWEST",
  "includeVideoDetails": true,
  "includeChannelInfo": true,
  "maxConcurrency": 10,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

No description

## `all` (type: `string`):

No description

# 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 = {
    "searchQueries": [
        "cooking hacks"
    ],
    "maxResultsShorts": 50,
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("wulfcare/youtube-shorts-scraper").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 = {
    "searchQueries": ["cooking hacks"],
    "maxResultsShorts": 50,
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": True },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("wulfcare/youtube-shorts-scraper").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 '{
  "searchQueries": [
    "cooking hacks"
  ],
  "maxResultsShorts": 50,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}' |
apify call wulfcare/youtube-shorts-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

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/GXoFsuzhPdEvdmA2r/builds/qFpWl1gWPVp2tOHpR/openapi.json