YouTube Video Comments Scraper

Pull top-level comments from any public YouTube video in bulk — author name, channel ID, comment text, like count, reply count, publish time, and creator-hearted flag — as a clean structured JSON dataset.

Why use this actor

• No account / no login required — just give it a YouTube video ID or URL.
• No API key needed — no YouTube Data API quota, no OAuth, no project setup.
• Bulk + paginated — fetches hundreds or thousands of top-level comments per video in a single run, all the way until the comment list is exhausted or your limit is hit.
• Flexible input — accepts raw video IDs (dQw4w9WgXcQ) or any URL form (watch?v=, youtu.be/, shorts/, embed/).
• Rich detail per comment — author display name, channel ID, verified and creator badges, text content, publish time, like count, reply count, and the creator-hearted flag.
• Status-aware — comments-disabled videos, removed videos, and bad inputs return a structured _error row instead of a silent empty output, so you can triage failures.
• Stable JSON output suitable for pipelines, spreadsheets, and databases — every row carries _input, _videoId, _source, _scrapedAt envelope fields so you can join results back to your input list.

How it works

1. You provide a list of YouTube video IDs (e.g. dQw4w9WgXcQ) or full URLs.
2. The actor fetches the video page, locates the comments section, then walks through every page of comments the same way YouTube's web app does.
3. Each comment is flattened into a structured row and streamed into your dataset, ready to download as JSON, CSV, or Excel.

You do not need to manage scrapers, browsers, or rotating IPs — all handled internally.

Input

{
  "videos": [
    "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0"
  ],
  "maxComments": 50,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["DATACENTER"]
  }
}

Field	Type	Description
videos	array	YouTube video IDs (e.g. dQw4w9WgXcQ) or URLs in any form (watch, youtu.be, shorts, embed). Required.
maxComments	integer	Max top-level comments to return per video. Default 50. Set to 0 for unlimited.
proxyConfiguration	object	Apify Proxy settings. Datacenter works for most runs; switch to residential for very large jobs.

Output

Input: dQw4w9WgXcQ, maxComments: 5

{
  "commentId": "Ugzge340dBgB75hWBm54AaABAg",
  "author": "@YouTube",
  "authorChannelId": "UCBR8-60-B28hp2BmDPdntcQ",
  "authorIsVerified": true,
  "authorIsCreator": false,
  "content": "can confirm: he never gave us up",
  "publishedTime": "1 year ago",
  "likeCount": "241K",
  "replyCount": "960",
  "isHearted": true,
  "_input": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "_videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "_source": "S1-primary",
  "_scrapedAt": "2026-05-18T10:42:48.845856+00:00"
}
{
  "commentId": "UgyEnXfdC-umwvTt8JF4AaABAg",
  "author": "@Oatman69",
  "authorChannelId": "UCWf34D_s8K_m2vwBISIDWtg",
  "authorIsVerified": false,
  "authorIsCreator": false,
  "content": "Gonna flag this for nudity so I can rick roll the YouTube staff",
  "publishedTime": "6 years ago",
  "likeCount": "551K",
  "replyCount": "589",
  "isHearted": true,
  "_input": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "_videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "_source": "S1-primary",
  "_scrapedAt": "2026-05-18T10:42:48.845856+00:00"
}
{
  "commentId": "UgxIOV-sXAchpKX94cB4AaABAg",
  "author": "@ochkalov",
  "authorChannelId": "UCtbyFPryy7J4DR4xh5CRCvA",
  "authorIsVerified": false,
  "authorIsCreator": false,
  "content": "1987 : normal song\r\n2026 : national anthem of the universe",
  "publishedTime": "6 years ago (edited)",
  "likeCount": "128K",
  "replyCount": "933",
  "isHearted": true,
  "_input": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "_videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "_source": "S1-primary",
  "_scrapedAt": "2026-05-18T10:42:48.845856+00:00"
}
// ... 2 more

Field	Type	Description
commentId	string	YouTube's stable identifier for the comment. Use this to deduplicate across runs or build deep links.
author	string	Author's display handle (e.g. @YouTube).
authorChannelId	string	Author's channel ID (begins with UC). Stable across handle changes.
authorIsVerified	boolean	true if the author's channel carries YouTube's verified checkmark.
authorIsCreator	boolean	true if the author is the creator of the video being commented on.
content	string	Comment text as displayed, with original line breaks preserved.
publishedTime	string	Relative timestamp as YouTube shows it (e.g. 1 year ago, 6 years ago (edited)).
likeCount	string	Like count as YouTube formats it (e.g. 241K, 1.2M, 403).
replyCount	string	Number of replies under this top-level comment, as a string.
isHearted	boolean	true if the channel creator hearted the comment.
_input	string	The video ID or URL exactly as you supplied it. Use this to join results back to your input list.
_videoId	string	Normalized 11-character YouTube video ID extracted from your input.
_source	string	Internal tag for the path used to fetch the record. S1-primary is the fastest, richest path.
_scrapedAt	string	ISO-8601 UTC timestamp when the record was scraped.

Error envelope

Videos with comments disabled, removed videos, or invalid IDs return a structured error row instead of crashing the run:

{
  "_input": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=disabled-example",
  "_videoId": "disabled-exa",
  "_error": "comments_disabled_or_not_found",
  "_source": "S1-primary",
  "_scrapedAt": "2026-05-18T10:43:11.001234+00:00"
}

Possible _error values:

Value	Meaning
invalid_input	The input string could not be parsed as a YouTube video ID or URL.
fetch_failed	The video page could not be fetched (network / blocked / removed). See _errorDetail.
comments_disabled_or_not_found	The video exists but has no comments section (disabled by creator, or age-restricted).

Filter on _error to triage failed rows.

Pricing

This actor is billed per result: $3.50 per 1,000 comments (Tier 3). Each comment row in the dataset counts as one result — so the unit is 1,000 comments, not 1,000 videos. Error envelope rows are not billed.

Other Sosmed Actors

Platform	Actor	Best for
YouTube	YouTube Video Detail Scraper	Title, description, views, likes, channel for any video
YouTube	YouTube Channel Scraper	Channel profile + uploaded video listing
Reddit	Reddit Post Detail Scraper	Post body + comment thread for any subreddit post
Bluesky	Bluesky Post Detail Scraper	Post text + reply chain on atproto
Instagram	Instagram Post Detail Scraper	Caption, media, like and comment counters for any post
Facebook	Facebook Post Detail Scraper	Post body + reactions + top comments

Browse the full catalog at apify.com/xtracto.

Notes

• Top-level comments only. Replies to comments are not expanded into separate rows — use the replyCount field to gauge thread depth. A dedicated replies actor is on the roadmap.
• replyCount is the count, not the comments. A row with replyCount: 960 means 960 replies exist under that comment; those replies are not included in the dataset.
• Comments-disabled videos return a single {"_error": "comments_disabled_or_not_found"} row. This also covers age-restricted videos that hide their comments without a sign-in.
• maxComments: 0 means unlimited — be mindful for viral videos with millions of comments, as billing is per result.
• Counts are formatted strings ("241K", "1.2M") because that is how YouTube exposes them in the comments view. Convert in your downstream pipeline if you need integers.
• Default ordering is YouTube's "Top comments" ranking (relevance). Chronological / newest-first sorting is on the roadmap.
• Live-stream chats are NOT covered — live chat replays use a different data feed.