🚀 YouTube Intelligence & Transcript Scraper (with AI Insights & Sponsorships)

The all-in-one YouTube scraper that extracts full transcripts, viewer comment sentiment, creator contact emails, commercial sponsorships, video chapters, and AI-powered intelligence — all in a single run.

Stop wasting hours watching lengthy videos or parsing raw transcripts manually. Whether you are conducting competitor research, hunting for influencer marketing leads, tracking brand sentiment, or summarizing podcasts, this Actor turns any YouTube video into structured, actionable intelligence.

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🌟 Why This Actor Beats Traditional YouTube Scrapers

Feature	Standard YouTube Scrapers	This Actor
Full Timed Transcripts	⚠️ Often breaks or blocked	✅ Dual-engine (XML + Playwright DOM fallback)
Videos Without Captions	❌ Fails with error	✅ Zero-Failure Fallback (extracts comments & metadata)
AI Content Intelligence	❌ None	✅ Gemini 3.8 Flash (Summaries, Genre, Tone, Topics)
Target Entity Tracking	❌ None	✅ Track custom people/brands with Yes/No & quotes
Commercial & Ad Deals	❌ None	✅ Detects sponsors, promo codes, URLs & storefronts
Audience Sentiment	❌ None or basic text dump	✅ Weighted sentiment score based on comment likes
Lead Generation	❌ None	✅ Extracts verified emails & social channels
Video Duration & Dates	⚠️ Inconsistent strings	✅ Formatted durations, seconds, & exact ISO dates
Interactive Chapters	❌ Missing	✅ Full markers with start seconds & timestamps
Pricing Model	💰 Flat fee / High compute	💎 Pay-Per-Event ($0.005 scrape / $0.015 AI)

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⚡ Core Features & Capabilities

🎙️ 1. Bulletproof Transcript & Caption Extraction

• Extracts full, timestamped captions in your preferred language code (en, es, fr, de, etc.).
• Returns both structured segment arrays (start, text) and a merged plain-text transcript (transcriptMerged).
• Built with a resilient dual-layer architecture: tries high-speed native player XML first, falling back to dynamic Playwright DOM density heuristics.

🤖 2. Deep AI Video Analysis (Gemini 3.8 Flash)

• Executive Summary: High-impact 2–3 sentence overview of the video's core focus and takeaways.
• Classification & Taxonomy: Automatically identifies primary videoType (Podcast, Interview, Tutorial, Comedy, Sports) and specific genre / sub-genres.
• Emotional Dynamics & Tone: Detects dominant emotional tone, atmosphere, and rates Anger Level (None, Low, Moderate, High).
• Target Audience & Safety: Evaluates viewer demographics, content maturity/safety ratings, and spoken accents/dialects.
• Valuable Insights: Highlights standout quotes, hook strength, viral drivers, and viewer appeal.

🎯 3. Custom Target Entity & Brand Mention Verification

• Pass a list of target entities (e.g. ["Tesla", "Rowan Atkinson", "Notion", "Shopify"]).
• For every entity, the Actor produces:
  • Mention Status: Clear Boolean (Yes / No).
  • Mention Type: Primary Subject, Direct Spoken Reference, Guest / Featured Person, Critical Discussion, Praise / Endorsement, Casual Reference, or Sponsor / Ad.
  • Sentiment & Context: Evaluates how the entity was spoken about (Positive, Negative, Neutral, Mixed).
  • Direct Evidence Quote: Exact line from spoken dialogue, description, or top comments.

💼 4. Commercial & Sponsorship Intelligence

• Paid Sponsorship Detection: Distinguishes between genuine commercial partnerships (host-read ads, sponsor shoutouts) and casual, organic product mentions.
• Sponsor Dossier: Extracts brand name, product/service promoted, sponsorship placement type, promo codes, discount URLs, and host ad-read quotes.
• Native Badges: Detects YouTube's official "Includes paid promotion" indicator.
• Creator Storefronts & Merch: Identifies links to Shopify, Teespring, Patreon, Fourthwall, BuyMeACoffee, and donation pages.

💬 5. Audience Reception & Weighted Comment Sentiment

• Scrapes top comments (up to 100, configurable) along with middle vote/like counts and creator engagement badges (PINNED, CREATOR HEART).
• Calculates a Normalized Audience Sentiment Score (scale -1.0 to +1.0) weighted by comment upvotes.
• Summarizes consensus themes, praise points, critical pushback, and audience mood.

📧 6. Influencer Outreach & Lead Generation

• Automatically scans channel descriptions for verified business inquiry email addresses.
• Categorizes all external social profiles (Twitter/X, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Discord, Spotify, Telegram).

📑 7. Chapters & Timestamp Navigation

• Extracts all video markers and chapters with titles, formatted timestamps (12:45), and exact starting seconds (765).

🛡️ 8. Zero-Failure Non-Captioned Video Fallback

• If a video lacks captions (e.g. music videos, silent tutorials, animations, or uncaptioned live streams), the Actor does not fail.
• It extracts all metadata, duration, dates, chapters, channel links, and viewer comments.
• When AI analysis is enabled, Gemini deduces video content, topics, entities, and sentiment directly from the available textual data!

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🎯 Ideal Use Cases

• 🔍 Competitor & Market Intelligence: Track brand mentions, monitor competitor announcements, and analyze viewer sentiment in comments.
• 🤝 Influencer Marketing & Sponsorship Sourcing: Find creator business emails, see which brands are sponsoring channels in your niche, and track promo codes.
• 📢 Brand Reputation & PR Crisis Tracking: Detect audience backlash, evaluate anger levels in comments, and track brand sentiment over time.
• 📚 Research, Education & Content Summarization: Turn 2-hour podcasts, keynote speeches, or tutorials into concise executive briefs and key quotes in seconds.
• 📈 SEO & Trend Identification: Discover high-performing video topics, viral hooks, and viewer questions from YouTube search queries.

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⚙️ Input Configuration

The actor can be configured using simple JSON or the Apify Console UI:

Field	Type	Default	Description
runMode	String	"discover"	Required. Operating mode: "discover" (search YouTube) or "scrape" (scrape specific video IDs).
discoverConfig	Object	{}	Settings for Discover Mode (search queries, filters, limits).
scrapeConfig	Object	{}	Settings for Scrape Mode (list of video IDs).
lang	String	"en"	Preferred language code for transcript extraction (en, es, fr, etc.).
enableAnalysis	Boolean	true	Enable AI video analysis using Gemini 3.8 Flash (OpenRouter).
maxComments	Integer	30	Number of top comments to scrape and analyze (0 to 100). Set to 0 to skip comments.
targetEntities	Array	[]	List of specific people, brands, companies, or topics to verify for mentions.

[!NOTE] No API Key Setup Required: The OpenRouter AI integration is pre-configured in the Apify Actor environment. You do not need to provide your own API key.

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discoverConfig Settings (Discover Mode)

Find videos on YouTube automatically using keyword search and powerful filters:

Field	Type	Default	Description
searchQueries	Array	["rugby highlights"]	Required. List of search terms to find videos. The actor uses the first term.
searchCategory	String	"Sport"	Optional category keyword to append ("Sport", "News", "Music", "Gaming", "Education", or "").
uploadDate	String	""	Filter by upload date: "Hour", "Today", "This week", "This month", "This year".
videoDuration	String	""	Filter by duration: "Short (<4 mins)", "Medium (4–20 mins)", "Long (>20 mins)".
maxResultsPerQuery	Integer	5	Maximum number of videos to discover and scrape.

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scrapeConfig Settings (Scrape Mode)

Scrape an explicit list of YouTube videos directly:

Field	Type	Default	Description
videoIDs	Array	["xZCbAki4puY"]	Required. Array of YouTube video IDs or full URLs (e.g. "xZCbAki4puY" or "https://youtu.be/xZCbAki4puY").

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📋 Input Examples

Example 1: Discover Mode with Duration Filter & Target Entity Tracking

{
  "runMode": "discover",
  "discoverConfig": {
    "searchQueries": ["artificial intelligence podcast"],
    "uploadDate": "This month",
    "videoDuration": "Long (>20 mins)",
    "maxResultsPerQuery": 3
  },
  "enableAnalysis": true,
  "maxComments": 40,
  "targetEntities": ["OpenAI", "Anthropic", "Google", "DeepMind"],
  "lang": "en"
}

Example 2: Scrape Specific Video IDs with Sponsorship & Lead Extraction

{
  "runMode": "scrape",
  "scrapeConfig": {
    "videoIDs": [
      "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkhmdTqSvJw",
      "TTZi27cPRsg"
    ]
  },
  "enableAnalysis": true,
  "maxComments": 50,
  "targetEntities": ["Eric Weinstein", "Pentagon", "David Grusch"]
}

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📊 Target Entity Tracking Output Example

When you pass targetEntities: ["Rowan Atkinson", "Tesla"], the Actor evaluates each entity with surgical precision:

[
  {
    "entity": "Rowan Atkinson",
    "mentioned": true,
    "mentionedStatus": "Yes",
    "mentionType": "Primary Subject",
    "sentiment": "Positive",
    "context": "Main focus of the video celebrating his iconic comedic timing and legendary perfectionism on set.",
    "evidenceOrQuote": "Rowan Atkinson was an absolute perfectionist who crafted every gesture meticulously."
  },
  {
    "entity": "Tesla",
    "mentioned": false,
    "mentionedStatus": "No",
    "mentionType": "Not Mentioned",
    "sentiment": "N/A",
    "context": "Entity was not mentioned in the dialogue, description, chapters, or top viewer comments.",
    "evidenceOrQuote": ""
  }
]

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📦 Output Dataset Structure

Results are stored in the default dataset and viewable directly in the Storage / Output tab as tables, JSON, or CSV:

Field	Type	Description
videoId	String	Unique YouTube video identifier (e.g. IkhmdTqSvJw).
title	String	Full title of the YouTube video.
channel	String	Channel name.
subscribers	String	Channel subscriber count (e.g. "2.4M subscribers").
views	String	Total view count (e.g. "6,480,565 views").
likes	String	Total like count (e.g. "31K").
videoDuration	String	Formatted duration (e.g. "1:02:05" or "3:33").
videoDurationSeconds	Integer	Total duration in integer seconds (e.g. 3725).
uploadDate	String	Video upload timestamp (exact ISO timestamp or formatted date).
commentsCount	String	Total count of comments reported on YouTube.
scrapedCommentsCount	Integer	Number of top comments scraped and analyzed for this video.
commentSentimentOverall	String	Audience consensus sentiment (e.g. "Overwhelmingly Positive", "Critical / Divided").
commentSentimentScore	String	Normalized audience score (e.g. "+0.85", scale -1.0 to +1.0).
commentSentimentSummary	String	2–3 sentence executive summary of viewer discussion and consensus.
commentsSentiment	String	Detailed JSON object with % breakdown, key liked themes, and representative quotes.
description	String	Full, clean YouTube video description.
hasSpeech	Boolean	Whether spoken dialogue/speech was detected in the video or transcript.
hasPaidSponsorship	Boolean	Whether commercial sponsorships or paid ads were detected.
paidPromotionBadge	Boolean	Whether YouTube's native "Includes paid promotion" overlay is active.
sponsors	String	JSON array of sponsors (brand, product, placement type, promo code, URL, quotes).
contactEmails	String	Verified creator contact email addresses extracted from description.
socialLinks	String	JSON object of categorized social profiles (Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Discord).
shopAndMerch	String	JSON object of storefront and donation links (Shopify, Teespring, Patreon, etc.).
commercialIntelligence	String	Full commercial dossier detailing sponsorships, organic mentions, and monetization.
hasChapters	Boolean	Whether the video contains chapter timestamps.
chaptersCount	Integer	Total number of chapters detected.
chapters	String	JSON array of video chapters (title, time, startSeconds).
videoType	String	AI Classification (e.g. "Podcast", "Documentary", "Comedy Compilation").
genre	String	AI Genre and sub-genres.
sentiment	String	Overall narrative sentiment.
emotionalTone	String	Dominant verbal and emotional tone (e.g. "Analytical debate", "Lighthearted").
angerLevel	String	Hostility / anger rating ("None", "Low", "Moderate", "High").
positiveMentions	String	JSON array of people, products, or things praised or spoken about favorably.
negativeMentions	String	JSON array of people, products, or things criticized or spoken about unfavorably.
entitySentimentAnalysis	String	Granular breakdown of each entity: sentiment, manner of discussion, and quotes.
targetEntitiesSummary	String	Quick summary of target entity check (`"Rowan Atkinson: Yes
targetEntityMatches	String	Complete JSON array evaluating every target entity with full verification details.
summary	String	AI Executive Summary of the video content.
people	String	JSON array of featured people (name, role, category, context).
entities	String	Categorized entities (people, companies, products, places, institutions).
keyTopics	String	JSON array of key topics and core themes discussed.
targetAudience	String	Intended audience demographic and interest profile.
contentSafety	String	Content safety rating and maturity observations.
languageAndDialect	String	Primary spoken language and dialect/accent.
valuableInsights	String	Standout highlights, quotes, hook strength, and virality factors.
analysis	String	Complete structured Gemini AI analysis in JSON format.
transcriptMerged	String	Full merged transcript text block.
comments	String	JSON array of scraped comment objects (author, text, likes, likeCount, pinned, hearted).
_chargeStatus	String	Transparent status of Pay-Per-Event charges for this video.
error	String	Error message if scraping failed (or empty if successful).

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💰 Transparent Pay-Per-Event (PPE) Pricing

This Actor utilizes Apify's Pay-Per-Event (PPE) pricing model. You never pay high flat fees or waste credits on failed runs. You pay only for what you successfully retrieve:

Event Name	Event Title	Price	Description
video-data-retrieved	Video Data Retrieved	$0.005 / video	Charged per video when metadata, duration, dates, captions/transcript (if available), chapters, and comments (if requested) are successfully scraped.
ai-video-analysis	AI Video Analysis	$0.015 / video	Charged per video when AI analysis is enabled (enableAnalysis: true) and successfully extracts deep intelligence (summary, sentiment, entities, sponsorships, audience reaction).

[!TIP] Budget Control: If you only need raw transcripts and metadata without AI, set enableAnalysis: false. You will only be billed $0.005 per video!

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❓ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

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🤝 Support & Feedback

If you have feature requests, notice any issues, or want custom integrations, please reach out via the Issues tab on Apify Console. We actively maintain and enhance this Actor!