# YouTube Scraper API | Extract Video Metadata & SEO Tags (`andok/youtube-video-metadata`) Actor

Extract hidden SEO tags, view counts, and engagement metrics from any YouTube video instantly. Reverse-engineer viral videos and competitor strategies.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/andok/youtube-video-metadata.md
- **Developed by:** [Andok](https://apify.com/andok) (community)
- **Categories:** Videos, SEO tools, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 12 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.47 / 1,000 video scans

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?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## YouTube Video Metadata Extractor

Audit YouTube video SEO and performance metrics at scale by extracting titles, view counts, likes, tags, and descriptions from any public video. Runs without a headless browser or YouTube API key, so you can scan thousands of videos quickly and cheaply. Ideal for content audits, competitor analysis, and automated reporting.

### Features

- **Full metadata extraction** — title, description, view count, likes, publish date, and tags from every video
- **Channel context** — returns the channel name and ID alongside each video's data
- **Bulk scanning** — process hundreds of video URLs in a single run
- **Parallel execution** — configurable concurrency for high-throughput batch jobs
- **No API key needed** — parses YouTube's public HTML directly, no quota limits
- **SEO-ready tags** — extracts the full keyword tag list for competitive SEO analysis

### Input

| Field | Type | Required | Default | Description |
|-------|------|----------|---------|-------------|
| `urls` | `array` | Yes | — | YouTube video URLs to extract metadata from |
| `timeoutSeconds` | `integer` | No | `15` | Maximum seconds to wait for each video page to respond |
| `concurrency` | `integer` | No | `10` | Number of videos to process in parallel. Increase for large batches, decrease if you see errors. |

#### Input Example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw"
  ],
  "timeoutSeconds": 15,
  "concurrency": 10
}
```

### Output

Each video produces one dataset row containing the full metadata profile: title, view and like counts, publish date, description, tags, and channel info.

Key output fields:

| Field | Type | Description |
|-------|------|-------------|
| `inputUrl` | `string` | The video URL you provided |
| `videoId` | `string` | YouTube video ID |
| `title` | `string` | Video title |
| `channelName` | `string` | Name of the channel that uploaded the video |
| `channelId` | `string` | YouTube channel ID |
| `viewCount` | `string` | Total view count |
| `likeCount` | `string` | Total like count |
| `publishDate` | `string` | Date the video was published (YYYY-MM-DD) |
| `description` | `string` | Full video description text |
| `tags` | `array` | List of keyword tags set by the uploader |

#### Output Example

```json
{
  "inputUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw",
  "videoId": "jNQXAC9IVRw",
  "title": "Introduction to Machine Learning — Full Course",
  "channelName": "Tech Academy",
  "channelId": "UCxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
  "viewCount": "2450000",
  "likeCount": "87000",
  "publishDate": "2024-06-15",
  "description": "A comprehensive introduction to machine learning concepts, covering supervised and unsupervised learning, neural networks, and practical applications...",
  "tags": ["machine learning", "AI", "tutorial", "deep learning", "python"]
}
```

### Pricing

Pay per event on Apify platform.

| Event | Description |
|-------|-------------|
| Video Scan | One video URL processed and metadata extracted |

### Use Cases

- **Video SEO audits** — compare titles, tags, and descriptions across your video library to find optimization gaps
- **Competitor analysis** — track rival channels' top-performing videos by view and like counts
- **Content calendars** — pull publish dates and metadata to map competitors' posting cadence
- **Agency reporting** — automate weekly performance snapshots for client YouTube channels
- **Dataset building** — collect structured video metadata for trend analysis or ML training

### Related Actors

| Actor | What it adds |
|-------|-------------|
| [YouTube Subscriber Counter](https://apify.com/andok/youtube-subscriber-counter) | Track channel-level growth — subscribers and total video counts |
| [YouTube Transcript Scraper](https://apify.com/andok/youtube-transcript-scraper) | Extract full video transcripts to complement your metadata with actual content |
| [Tech Stack Analyzer](https://apify.com/andok/tech-stack-analyzer) | Detect the CMS and frameworks behind any website — pair with video metadata for full competitive intel |

# Actor input Schema

## `urls` (type: `array`):

YouTube video URLs to extract metadata from. Supports standard watch URLs and short youtu.be links.

## `timeoutSeconds` (type: `integer`):

Maximum seconds to wait for each video page to respond. Increase if you see timeout errors on slow connections.

## `concurrency` (type: `integer`):

Number of videos to process in parallel. Higher values speed up large batches but may cause errors if set too high.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw"
  ],
  "timeoutSeconds": 15,
  "concurrency": 10
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

No description

## `resultsCsv` (type: `string`):

No description

## `run` (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 = {
    "urls": [
        "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
        "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("andok/youtube-video-metadata").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 = { "urls": [
        "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
        "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("andok/youtube-video-metadata").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 '{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw"
  ]
}' |
apify call andok/youtube-video-metadata --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

```

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/Qj8iCliKMDVkoXsVJ/builds/cscMFH0Si5X59PY0V/openapi.json