# YouTube Scraper — Videos, Comments & Transcripts for AI (`yasaslive/youtube-channel-comments-transcripts`) Actor
Scrape YouTube channels, playlists, videos and search results: full metadata, top comments and timestamped transcripts in one run. Built for AI, RAG and LLM pipelines. No API key or login needed.
- **URL**: https://apify.com/yasaslive/youtube-channel-comments-transcripts.md
- **Developed by:** [Eonix Pvt Ltd](https://apify.com/yasaslive) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet
## Pricing
from $2.68 / 1,000 videos
This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.
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 Transcript, Comments & Video Scraper for AI and RAG
Turn any YouTube channel, playlist, search or video into clean, AI-ready data: full video details, the top comments, and complete transcripts with timestamps — all in one run, with no API key and no login.
Every video comes back as a single tidy record, so you can drop it straight into ChatGPT, Claude, a vector database or a spreadsheet.
**Headline use case: build a RAG knowledge base from any YouTube channel.** Paste a channel link, press Start, and a few minutes later you have every talk, lecture or tutorial as searchable text with timestamps that link back to the exact second in the video.
### What you get for every video
- **Video details** — title, description, channel, publish date, duration, views, likes, comment count, tags, category, thumbnail, Short / live flags
- **Transcript** — the full captions as timestamped segments *plus* one `fullText` string and a word count, ready for chunking and embeddings
- **Comments** — the top comments with author, likes, reply count, and pinned / creator-hearted flags
- **Clear status fields** — `transcriptStatus` and `commentsStatus` tell you exactly why something is missing (no captions, age-restricted, comments turned off…) instead of silently returning nothing
### Use cases
- **AI agents & RAG** — feed transcripts of an entire channel into a vector store and let your chatbot answer questions with citations to the exact minute of the video.
- **Market research** — read what thousands of viewers actually say about a product, competitor or topic; spot recurring questions and complaints in the comments.
- **Lead generation & creator research** — find the channels and videos that dominate a niche, how often they publish and how engaged their audience is.
- **Content monitoring** — schedule a daily run with “Uploaded after: 1 day” to get every new video (and what people say about it) from the channels you follow.
- **Content repurposing** — turn talks and podcasts into blog posts, newsletters, show notes or training data.
### Sample output
A real record from a test run (trimmed for readability — real records include up to your comment limit and the full transcript):
```json
{
"videoId": "SVTPv4sI_Jc",
"url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVTPv4sI_Jc",
"title": "The CIA's new tech doesn't make sense",
"channelName": "Veritasium",
"publishedAt": "2026-05-03T19:26:56.000Z",
"durationSeconds": 1278,
"viewCount": 3140584,
"likeCount": 81902,
"commentCount": 6008,
"tags": ["veritasium", "science", "physics"],
"isShort": false,
"commentsStatus": "OK",
"transcriptStatus": "OK",
"comments": [
{
"author": "@veritasium",
"text": "Get all sides of every story at https://ground.news/Ve - and read the news with a data-driven approach to spot media bias for yourself. Subscribe through our link for 40% off the unlimited access Vantage Plan.",
"likeCount": 306,
"replyCount": 64,
"isPinned": true
}
],
"transcript": {
"language": "en",
"isAutoGenerated": false,
"segments": [
{
"start": 0.035,
"duration": 2.045,
"text": "- Could the CIA really track your heartbeat"
},
{
"start": 2.08,
"duration": 1.68,
"text": "from kilometers away?"
}
],
"fullText": "- Could the CIA really track your heartbeat from kilometers away? On April 3rd, 2026, Iranian forces shot down an American fighter plane just over Isfahan. Insi…",
"wordCount": 3698
}
}
```
First 3 dataset items from the default-input test run (comments and transcripts trimmed)
```json
[
{
"videoId": "SVTPv4sI_Jc",
"url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVTPv4sI_Jc",
"title": "The CIA's new tech doesn't make sense",
"description": "Is the CIA’s Ghost Murmur technology real? Sponsored by Ground News. Go to https://ground.news/Ve for 40% off the unlimited Vantage plan.…",
"channelId": "UCHnyfMqiRRG1u-2MsSQLbXA",
"channelName": "Veritasium",
"channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHnyfMqiRRG1u-2MsSQLbXA",
"publishedAt": "2026-05-03T19:26:56.000Z",
"durationSeconds": 1278,
"viewCount": 3140584,
"likeCount": 81902,
"commentCount": 6008,
"tags": ["veritasium", "science", "physics", "Veritasium"],
"category": "Education",
"thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/SVTPv4sI_Jc/maxresdefault.webp",
"isShort": false,
"isLive": false,
"isAgeRestricted": false,
"commentsStatus": "OK",
"comments": [
{
"commentId": "UgzT1v2F8ws2ZJwCF8N4AaABAg",
"author": "@veritasium",
"authorChannelId": "UCHnyfMqiRRG1u-2MsSQLbXA",
"isAuthorChannelOwner": true,
"text": "Get all sides of every story at https://ground.news/Ve - and read the news with a data-driven approach to spot media bias for yourself. Subscribe through our link for 40% off the unlimited access Vantage Plan.",
"likeCount": 306,
"publishedAt": "2026-05-30T07:24:18.997Z",
"publishedTimeText": "4 months ago",
"replyCount": 64,
"isPinned": true,
"isHearted": false
}
],
"transcriptStatus": "OK",
"transcript": {
"language": "en",
"languageName": "English",
"isAutoGenerated": false,
"isTranslated": false,
"segments": [
{
"start": 0.035,
"duration": 2.045,
"text": "- Could the CIA really track your heartbeat"
},
{
"start": 2.08,
"duration": 1.68,
"text": "from kilometers away?"
}
],
"fullText": "- Could the CIA really track your heartbeat from kilometers away? On April 3rd, 2026, Iranian forces shot down an American fighter plane just over Isfahan. Inside were a pilot and…",
"wordCount": 3698
},
"sourceType": "channel",
"sourceInput": "https://www.youtube.com/@veritasium",
"scrapedAt": "2026-09-27T07:24:20.430Z"
},
{
"videoId": "JsBZOcqZerk",
"url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsBZOcqZerk",
"title": "The Insane Real Engineering of the Nazi Enigma Machine",
"description": "How was the \"unbreakable\" enigma cracked? Sponsored by Incogni - use code veritasium at https://incogni.com/veritasium to get an exclusive 6…",
"channelId": "UCHnyfMqiRRG1u-2MsSQLbXA",
"channelName": "Veritasium",
"channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHnyfMqiRRG1u-2MsSQLbXA",
"publishedAt": "2026-09-21T17:49:57.000Z",
"durationSeconds": 2861,
"viewCount": 9271837,
"likeCount": 91805,
"commentCount": 5234,
"tags": ["veritasium", "science", "physics", "Veritasium"],
"category": "Education",
"thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/JsBZOcqZerk/maxresdefault.webp",
"isShort": false,
"isLive": false,
"isAgeRestricted": false,
"commentsStatus": "OK",
"comments": [
{
"commentId": "UgyL2NE2HWz4MtoZLIx4AaABAg",
"author": "@veritasium",
"authorChannelId": "UCHnyfMqiRRG1u-2MsSQLbXA",
"isAuthorChannelOwner": true,
"text": "Fight the data brokers, use code veritasium at https://incogni.com/veritasium to get an exclusive 60% off your annual subscription.",
"likeCount": 341,
"publishedAt": "2026-09-22T07:24:19.004Z",
"publishedTimeText": "5 days ago",
"replyCount": 53,
"isPinned": true,
"isHearted": false
}
],
"transcriptStatus": "OK",
"transcript": {
"language": "en",
"languageName": "English",
"isAutoGenerated": false,
"isTranslated": false,
"segments": [
{
"start": 0.166,
"duration": 1.168,
"text": "This is the Enigma,"
},
{
"start": 1.334,
"duration": 3.42,
"text": "the encryption machine used by the Nazis in World War two."
}
],
"fullText": "This is the Enigma, the encryption machine used by the Nazis in World War two. I see that there is a sigil from the Nazi Party on this one, so it must be the real thing. Yes. This…",
"wordCount": 8340
},
"sourceType": "channel",
"sourceInput": "https://www.youtube.com/@veritasium",
"scrapedAt": "2026-09-27T07:24:20.542Z"
},
{
"videoId": "kS-CGkiPetQ",
"url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS-CGkiPetQ",
"title": "Google Maps is unreasonably fast. Let me explain",
"description": "The math behind Google Maps. Sponsored by boot.dev - Click this link https://boot.dev/?promo=VERITASIUM and use our code VERITASIUM to get 2…",
"channelId": "UCHnyfMqiRRG1u-2MsSQLbXA",
"channelName": "Veritasium",
"channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHnyfMqiRRG1u-2MsSQLbXA",
"publishedAt": "2026-05-30T14:46:43.000Z",
"durationSeconds": 1794,
"viewCount": 8535219,
"likeCount": 167084,
"commentCount": 5279,
"tags": ["veritasium", "science", "physics", "Veritasium"],
"category": "Education",
"thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/kS-CGkiPetQ/maxresdefault.webp",
"isShort": false,
"isLive": false,
"isAgeRestricted": false,
"commentsStatus": "OK",
"comments": [
{
"commentId": "UgygcdKgVcTwwOi8fEF4AaABAg",
"author": "@veritasium",
"authorChannelId": "UCHnyfMqiRRG1u-2MsSQLbXA",
"isAuthorChannelOwner": true,
"text": "Click this link https://boot.dev/?promo=VERITASIUM and use our code VERITASIUM to get 25% off your first payment for boot.dev.",
"likeCount": 429,
"publishedAt": "2026-06-29T07:24:19.256Z",
"publishedTimeText": "3 months ago",
"replyCount": 46,
"isPinned": true,
"isHearted": false
}
],
"transcriptStatus": "OK",
"transcript": {
"language": "en",
"languageName": "English",
"isAutoGenerated": false,
"isTranslated": false,
"segments": [
{
"start": 0.69,
"duration": 0.99,
"text": "- [Derek] Say you wanna drive"
},
{
"start": 1.68,
"duration": 1.92,
"text": "from New York to San Francisco."
}
],
"fullText": "- [Derek] Say you wanna drive from New York to San Francisco. How could you calculate the absolute shortest path? There are over 64 million intersections in the North American road…",
"wordCount": 5366
},
"sourceType": "channel",
"sourceInput": "https://www.youtube.com/@veritasium",
"scrapedAt": "2026-09-27T07:24:20.604Z"
}
]
```
### How much does it cost?
You pay only for what you get — no subscription and no separate compute bill:
| Event | Price | When it's charged |
| ------------------ | ------- | ------------------------------------------------ |
| Actor start | $0.01 | Once per run |
| Video scraped | $0.002 | Each video in your results |
| Comment scraped | $0.0005 | Each comment included |
| Transcript scraped | $0.005 | Each video that comes back **with** a transcript |
**Worked examples**
- **The default run** (20 latest videos, 100 comments each, transcripts): $0.01 + 20 × $0.002 + 2,000 × $0.0005 + 20 × $0.005 = **about $1.15**.
- **100 videos + 100 comments each + transcripts**: $0.01 + $0.20 + $5.00 + $0.50 = **about $5.71**.
- **1,000 videos, transcripts only** (comments off): $0.01 + $2.00 + $5.00 = **about $7.01**.
- **1,000 videos + 100 comments each + transcripts**: $0.01 + $2.00 + $50.00 + $5.00 = **about $57.01**.
Comments are the biggest cost driver. If you only need text for AI, switch **Scrape comments** off or lower **Max comments per video**.
You are never charged for a video that has no transcript (`transcriptStatus` other than `OK`), for videos that are skipped, or for anything beyond the **Maximum cost per run** you set in Apify — the scraper stops cleanly when your budget is reached and the run's `STATS` record shows `"budgetReached": true`.
### Input
| Field | What it does | Default |
| -------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------- |
| **Start URLs** (`startUrls`) | Channel (`/@handle`, `/@handle/shorts`, `/@handle/streams`, `/channel/UC…`), playlist, video (`watch?v=`, `youtu.be`, `/shorts/`) or search-results URLs | `https://www.youtube.com/@veritasium` |
| **Search queries** (`searchQueries`) | Search terms, one per line | empty |
| **Max videos per source** (`maxVideos`) | Videos to take from each channel, playlist or search | 20 |
| **Sort videos by** (`sortBy`) | `newest` or `popular` (see FAQ for how this applies to search) | `newest` |
| **Uploaded after** (`uploadedAfter`) | Only videos published on/after a date (`2026-01-31`) or within a period (`30 days`, `2 weeks`) | no filter |
| **Scrape comments** (`scrapeComments`) | Include top comments | on |
| **Max comments per video** (`maxCommentsPerVideo`) | Comment limit per video (0 = none) | 100 |
| **Scrape transcripts** (`scrapeTranscripts`) | Include the transcript | on |
| **Transcript languages** (`transcriptLanguages`) | Preferred languages in order, e.g. `en`, `es`, `pt-BR` | `["en"]` |
| **Proxy configuration** (`proxyConfiguration`) | Apify Proxy settings; switch to RESIDENTIAL if you see blocks | Apify Proxy |
| **Max request retries** (`maxRequestRetries`) | Retries per request, each with a fresh proxy session | 5 |
| **Max concurrency** (`maxConcurrency`) | Videos processed in parallel | 10 |
### Output fields
| Field | Type | Notes |
| ------------------------------------------- | -------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `videoId`, `url`, `title`, `description` | string | |
| `channelId`, `channelName`, `channelUrl` | string | |
| `publishedAt` | ISO-8601 date | exact publish time |
| `durationSeconds`, `viewCount`, `likeCount` | number | |
| `commentCount` | number | exact total when comments are scraped, otherwise YouTube's rounded figure |
| `tags` | string\[] | |
| `category`, `thumbnailUrl` | string | |
| `isShort`, `isLive`, `isAgeRestricted` | boolean | |
| `comments[]` | array | `commentId, author, authorChannelId, isAuthorChannelOwner, text, likeCount, publishedAt, publishedTimeText, replyCount, isPinned, isHearted` |
| `commentsStatus` | string | `OK`, `NOT_REQUESTED`, `DISABLED`, `UNAVAILABLE`, `BUDGET_LIMIT`, `ERROR` |
| `transcript` | object or null | `language, languageName, isAutoGenerated, isTranslated, segments[{start, duration, text}], fullText, wordCount` (times in seconds) |
| `transcriptStatus` | string | `OK`, `NOT_REQUESTED`, `NO_CAPTIONS`, `LANGUAGE_NOT_AVAILABLE`, `AGE_RESTRICTED`, `UNAVAILABLE`, `BUDGET_LIMIT`, `ERROR` |
| `sourceType`, `sourceInput` | string | which of your inputs produced this video |
| `scrapedAt` | ISO-8601 date | |
Missing values are always `null` (never empty strings), numbers are real numbers, and each video appears only once per run even if several of your inputs contain it.
### How to use it from code and no-code tools
Replace `/youtube-channel-comments-transcripts` below with the Actor ID shown on this page, and `APIFY_TOKEN` with your token from **Apify Console → Settings → API & Integrations**.
#### REST API
```bash
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/~youtube-channel-comments-transcripts/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"startUrls":[{"url":"https://www.youtube.com/@veritasium"}],"maxVideos":10,"scrapeComments":false}'
```
#### Python
```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient("APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("/youtube-channel-comments-transcripts").call(run_input={
"startUrls": [{"url": "https://www.youtube.com/@veritasium"}],
"maxVideos": 10,
"maxCommentsPerVideo": 20,
})
for video in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
print(video["title"], video["transcriptStatus"], len(video["comments"]))
```
#### Node.js
```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';
const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('/youtube-channel-comments-transcripts').call({
searchQueries: ['retrieval augmented generation explained'],
maxVideos: 10,
sortBy: 'popular',
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items.map((v) => v.title));
```
#### LangChain (build a RAG index from a channel)
```python
from langchain_apify import ApifyWrapper
from langchain_core.documents import Document
from langchain_text_splitters import RecursiveCharacterTextSplitter
loader = ApifyWrapper().call_actor(
actor_id="/youtube-channel-comments-transcripts",
run_input={"startUrls": [{"url": "https://www.youtube.com/@veritasium"}], "maxVideos": 50, "scrapeComments": False},
dataset_mapping_function=lambda v: Document(
page_content=(v.get("transcript") or {}).get("fullText") or v.get("description") or "",
metadata={"source": v["url"], "title": v["title"], "published": v["publishedAt"]},
),
)
chunks = RecursiveCharacterTextSplitter(chunk_size=1500, chunk_overlap=150).split_documents(loader.load())
## → pass `chunks` to any vector store (Chroma, Pinecone, pgvector…)
```
Tip: to cite the exact moment in a video, chunk on `transcript.segments` instead and store `url + "&t=" + int(segment["start"])` as the source.
#### LlamaIndex
```python
from llama_index.core import Document, VectorStoreIndex
from llama_index.readers.apify import ApifyActor
reader = ApifyActor("APIFY_TOKEN")
documents = reader.load_data(
actor_id="/youtube-channel-comments-transcripts",
run_input={"startUrls": [{"url": "https://www.youtube.com/@veritasium"}], "maxVideos": 50, "scrapeComments": False},
dataset_mapping_function=lambda v: Document(
text=(v.get("transcript") or {}).get("fullText") or "",
metadata={"url": v["url"], "title": v["title"]},
),
)
index = VectorStoreIndex.from_documents(documents)
print(index.as_query_engine().query("What did they say about the Enigma machine?"))
```
#### Make, n8n and Zapier
- **Make**: add the **Apify → Run an Actor** module, pick this Actor, paste your input JSON, then use **Apify → Get Dataset Items** to loop over videos.
- **n8n**: use the official **Apify** node → *Run Actor and get dataset*, select this Actor and map `transcript.fullText` into your next step (e.g. an OpenAI or vector-store node).
- **Zapier**: use the **Apify** app → *Run Actor* action, then *Find Last Run Dataset Items*.
#### MCP (Claude, Cursor, VS Code and other AI agents)
Let your AI assistant call this scraper as a tool through the Apify MCP server. Add this server URL to your MCP client (you sign in with your Apify account):
```
https://mcp.apify.com?tools=actors,docs,/youtube-channel-comments-transcripts
```
Then just ask: *“Get the transcripts of the last 10 videos on @veritasium and summarize the main ideas.”*
### FAQ
**Do I need a YouTube API key or account?** No. The scraper reads the same public data the YouTube website shows to a logged-out visitor.
**Which transcript do I get?** For each language in **Transcript languages** (in order) it takes human-made captions first, then auto-generated ones. If none of your languages exist, it asks YouTube to machine-translate into your first language; if YouTube refuses the translation it returns the original-language transcript, clearly marked by `language` and `isTranslated: false`.
**How does “Sort by” work for search queries?** In 2025 YouTube removed the “upload date” sort from search. `popular` prioritizes popular videos; `newest` uses YouTube's standard relevance order. To get *recent* results for a search, combine it with **Uploaded after**.
**Why is `commentCount` sometimes a round number?** When comments are scraped, it's the exact total YouTube shows. When comments are off, YouTube only exposes a rounded figure (e.g. 5.2K → 5200).
**How exact are comment dates?** YouTube only shows relative times for comments (“3 days ago”), so `publishedAt` on comments is an approximation; the original text is kept in `publishedTimeText`. Video `publishedAt` is exact.
**Are replies included?** Not in this version — you get top-level comments with their `replyCount`.
**Why did I get fewer videos than “Max videos”?** The channel/playlist/search simply has fewer (matching) videos, some were unavailable, your **Uploaded after** filter excluded them, or your **Maximum cost per run** was reached (check `STATS` → `budgetReached`).
**The run log shows “blocked” errors.** YouTube occasionally challenges datacenter IPs. The scraper retries with new sessions automatically; if blocks persist, set the proxy group to **RESIDENTIAL**.
### Limitations
- Top-level comments only (no reply threads); comments are in YouTube's “Top comments” order.
- Age-restricted videos return full metadata but no transcript or comments (YouTube requires a signed-in adult account for those).
- Live streams in progress have no transcript, and their live chat is not collected.
- Private, members-only and removed videos are skipped and counted in `STATS.videosUnavailable`.
- Data is returned in English locale (`hl=en`, US region) regardless of the transcript language you choose.
### Is it legal to scrape YouTube?
This Actor only collects **publicly available** data that anyone can see without logging in — it does not bypass logins, paywalls or age gates. That said, you are responsible for how you use the data: comply with YouTube's Terms of Service and with data-protection laws such as the **GDPR** and **CCPA**. Comments contain personal data (usernames and what people wrote); only collect what you need, have a legitimate purpose, don't use it for spam or profiling individuals, and respect copyright when re-publishing transcripts. If in doubt, consult a lawyer. Read more in Apify's guide: [Is web scraping legal?](https://blog.apify.com/is-web-scraping-legal/)
### Support
Found a bug or need a feature (reply threads, more fields, other sort orders)? Open an issue on the Actor's **Issues** tab — we usually reply within one business day.
***
For developers: running and maintaining this Actor
```bash
npm ci
npm run lint && npm run typecheck && npm test
npx apify-cli run -p # runs with storage/key_value_stores/default/INPUT.json
npx apify-cli push # deploys to your Apify account
```
Architecture, operations and security notes: see [RUNBOOK.md](RUNBOOK.md), [SECURITY.md](SECURITY.md) and [CHANGELOG.md](CHANGELOG.md).
# Changelog
This Actor's version history is a separate document: https://apify.com/yasaslive/youtube-channel-comments-transcripts/changelog.md
# Actor input Schema
## `startUrls` (type: `array`):
YouTube URLs to scrape. Supported: channels (https://www.youtube.com/@veritasium, /@handle/shorts, /@handle/streams, /channel/UC…), playlists (/playlist?list=…), single videos (/watch?v=…, youtu.be/…, /shorts/…) and search result pages (/results?search\_query=…).
## `searchQueries` (type: `array`):
Search terms to look up on YouTube, one per line. Each query returns up to "Max videos" results. Leave empty to scrape only the Start URLs.
## `maxVideos` (type: `integer`):
Maximum number of videos to scrape from each channel, playlist or search query. Single video URLs always count as one.
## `sortBy` (type: `string`):
Order in which channel videos are picked. "Newest" = latest uploads first; "Popular" = most viewed first. For search queries, "Popular" prioritizes popularity and "Newest" uses YouTube's relevance order (YouTube no longer offers an upload-date sort for search — combine with "Uploaded after" to get recent results). Playlists keep their own order.
## `uploadedAfter` (type: `string`):
Only return videos published on or after this date. Use an absolute date (2026-01-31) or a relative one ("30 days", "2 weeks", "1 year"). Leave empty for no date filter.
## `scrapeComments` (type: `boolean`):
Include the top comments of each video (YouTube's "Top comments" order). Each comment is billed as a comment-scraped event.
## `maxCommentsPerVideo` (type: `integer`):
Maximum number of top-level comments to collect for each video. Replies are not included (their count is in replyCount).
## `scrapeTranscripts` (type: `boolean`):
Include the full transcript (captions) with timestamps for each video, plus a fullText field ready for AI/RAG. Each transcript is billed as a transcript-scraped event.
## `transcriptLanguages` (type: `array`):
Preferred transcript languages as ISO codes, in order of preference (e.g. en, es, pt-BR). Human-made captions are preferred over auto-generated ones. If none of the languages exist, YouTube's machine translation into the first language is used when available.
## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):
Proxies used to reach YouTube. Apify Proxy works for most runs; if you see many "blocked" errors in the log, switch to the RESIDENTIAL group.
## `maxRequestRetries` (type: `integer`):
How many times a failed or blocked request is retried (with a new proxy session and exponential backoff) before giving up.
## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):
Maximum number of videos processed in parallel. Lower it if you see many rate-limit errors.
## Actor input object example
```json
{
"startUrls": [
{
"url": "https://www.youtube.com/@veritasium"
}
],
"searchQueries": [],
"maxVideos": 20,
"sortBy": "newest",
"uploadedAfter": "",
"scrapeComments": true,
"maxCommentsPerVideo": 100,
"scrapeTranscripts": true,
"transcriptLanguages": [
"en"
],
"proxyConfiguration": {
"useApifyProxy": true
},
"maxRequestRetries": 5,
"maxConcurrency": 10
}
```
# Actor output Schema
## `videos` (type: `string`):
No description
## `overview` (type: `string`):
No description
## `stats` (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 '' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
token: '',
});
// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
"startUrls": [
{
"url": "https://www.youtube.com/@veritasium"
}
],
"searchQueries": [],
"maxVideos": 20,
"sortBy": "newest",
"uploadedAfter": "",
"scrapeComments": true,
"maxCommentsPerVideo": 100,
"scrapeTranscripts": true,
"transcriptLanguages": [
"en"
],
"proxyConfiguration": {
"useApifyProxy": true
},
"maxRequestRetries": 5,
"maxConcurrency": 10
};
// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("yasaslive/youtube-channel-comments-transcripts").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 '' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("")
# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
"startUrls": [{ "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@veritasium" }],
"searchQueries": [],
"maxVideos": 20,
"sortBy": "newest",
"uploadedAfter": "",
"scrapeComments": True,
"maxCommentsPerVideo": 100,
"scrapeTranscripts": True,
"transcriptLanguages": ["en"],
"proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": True },
"maxRequestRetries": 5,
"maxConcurrency": 10,
}
# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("yasaslive/youtube-channel-comments-transcripts").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 '{
"startUrls": [
{
"url": "https://www.youtube.com/@veritasium"
}
],
"searchQueries": [],
"maxVideos": 20,
"sortBy": "newest",
"uploadedAfter": "",
"scrapeComments": true,
"maxCommentsPerVideo": 100,
"scrapeTranscripts": true,
"transcriptLanguages": [
"en"
],
"proxyConfiguration": {
"useApifyProxy": true
},
"maxRequestRetries": 5,
"maxConcurrency": 10
}' |
apify call yasaslive/youtube-channel-comments-transcripts --silent --output-dataset
```
## MCP server setup
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"apify": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,yasaslive/youtube-channel-comments-transcripts"
}
}
}
```
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 ` 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/cE0aUGVymGQA8AdD3/builds/LGvrg5irL7eYXDfKD/openapi.json