YouTube Search Scraper

Scrape YouTube search results for any query or list of queries. This YouTube search scraper returns every matching video with title, description, channel name and handle, view count, duration, publish date, thumbnails, and badges — with filters for upload date, duration, result type, and features like HD, 4K, subtitles, and live.

No YouTube API key, no login, and no headless browser. Results land in a structured dataset you can export to JSON, CSV, Excel, or XML, or pull straight from the Apify API.

What is YouTube Search Scraper?

YouTube Search Scraper is an Apify Actor that extracts search results with full video metadata from YouTube and returns them as clean, structured records. It calls YouTube's InnerTube API directly, the same interface the site itself uses, so there is no browser to run, no API quota to exhaust, and no Google Cloud project to configure.

What data can this YouTube search scraper extract?

Every run writes one row per video. The full schema carries 33 fields; the most-used ones are below.

Field	Type	Description
type	string	video, channel, playlist, or warning (emitted when a query legitimately returned zero results).
query	string	Free-text query that produced this row.
resultRank	integer	1-based rank within the search results for this query (post-filter).
videoId	string	11-character YouTube video ID. Present for type=video.
url	string	Canonical https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=... URL.
title	string	Title of the video, channel, or playlist.
titleAccessibility	string	Accessibility label, often combining title and duration.
description	string	Short description preview as shown on the search results page (about 150 characters). Full description requires a...
channelTitle	string	Display name of the uploader's channel.
channelId	string	Canonical UC... channel ID of the uploader (or the channel itself for type=channel).
channelHandle	string	Canonical @handle of the uploader's channel.
channelUrl	string	Full URL of the uploader's channel.
channelIsVerified	boolean	True if the uploader's channel carries a verified badge.
collaboratorChannelIds	array	For collab videos with two or more uploaders, the full list of collaborator UC... channel IDs. channelId points at...
channelBadges	array	All channel-level badges (Verified, Artist, etc.) as plain strings.
channelAvatar	array	Channel avatar image at multiple sizes.
viewCount	integer	Exact integer view count. May be null for live streams and premieres.
viewCountText	string	Raw exact view count text as rendered, for example "6,806,504 views".
shortViewCountText	string	Abbreviated view count, for example "6.8M views".
publishedTimeText	string	Relative timestamp as YouTube renders it, for example "2 years ago".
publishedDateApprox	string	Best-effort absolute date computed from the relative timestamp and the run time. Day-level precision at best.
lengthText	string	Duration as shown, for example "13:51". Absent for live streams.

See the Output tab in Apify Console for all 33 fields.

How to scrape YouTube search results

1. Open YouTube Search Scraper and click Try for free.
2. Add one or more queries to searchQueries.
3. Filter with uploadDate, duration, type, and features.
4. Set sortBy to control ranking, and channelId to scope results to one channel.
5. Set maxResultsPerQuery to bound the run.
6. Click Start and watch rows appear live in the Output tab.
7. Export the dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel, or XML — or fetch it from the Apify API once the run finishes.

YouTube Search Scraper input options

Input	Type	What it does	Default
searchQueries	array	One or more free-text search queries. YouTube search operators work in the query itself, for example "iphone 15"...	yes
maxResultsPerQuery	integer	Hard cap on results returned per query. YouTube itself tops out around 600 to 1000 results per query, so values...	100
sortBy	string	Result order. "relevance" is YouTube's default ranking. "date" returns newest first, "views" returns most viewed...	"relevance"
uploadDate	string	Restrict to videos uploaded within this window. Ignored unless type is "video" or "any".	"any"
duration	string	short = under 4 minutes, medium = 4 to 20 minutes, long = over 20 minutes. Ignored unless type is "video" or "any".	"any"
type	string	Restrict results to a single type. "any" lets YouTube return a mix of videos, channels, and playlists. Note:...	"any"
features	array	Restrict to videos with one or more of these flags. Selecting any flag forces type to "video".
channelId	string	Restrict results to a single channel's uploads. Accepts a channel ID (UC...), a /channel/UC... URL, a /@handle URL,...

Proxy is configured through the standard proxyConfiguration object; the defaults shipped with this Actor are already tuned for the target site.

Example output

{
  "type": "...",
  "query": "...",
  "resultRank": 42,
  "videoId": "a1b2c3d4",
  "url": "https://example.com/item/12345",
  "title": "Example title",
  "titleAccessibility": "Example title",
  "description": "Example text ...",
  "channelTitle": "Example title",
  "channelId": "a1b2c3d4",
  "channelHandle": "...",
  "channelUrl": "https://example.com/item/12345",
  "channelIsVerified": true,
  "collaboratorChannelIds": [
    "..."
  ],
  "channelBadges": [
    "..."
  ],
  "channelAvatar": [
    "..."
  ],
  "viewCount": 1483,
  "viewCountText": "Example text ..."
}

How much does it cost to scrape YouTube?

This Actor bills through Apify platform usage (compute units and proxy traffic) rather than a per-result fee. Runs are HTTP-based and lightweight, which keeps compute low. Every Apify account includes free monthly usage credit to trial it.

What can you build with YouTube data?

Research what ranks for a keyword

Result rank alongside view count and publish date shows what YouTube's algorithm currently rewards for a term — the foundation of any video SEO strategy.

Track competitor video performance

Run the queries your audience searches and watch which channels own those results over time.

Find creators for influencer outreach

Channel handles, subscriber counts, and verification badges let you build a shortlist filtered by real reach.

Monitor brand mentions on YouTube

Schedule searches for your brand and get alerted to new videos as they are published.

Build video datasets for research or ML

Titles, descriptions, durations, and view counts across thousands of videos form a clean corpus, with no API quota ceiling to work around.

YouTube scraping tips and limits

• The official YouTube Data API charges quota units per call and cuts you off daily. This Actor has no such quota, which is the main reason to use it for volume work.
• uploadDate is the cheapest filter for recurring runs — restrict to the last day and you only pay for new videos.
• View counts on recently published videos move fast. Timestamp your rows if you are building a time series.
• channelId scoping turns a keyword search into a within-channel search, which is useful for auditing a competitor's coverage of a topic.

Integrations and automation

Run YouTube Search Scraper on a schedule to keep a YouTube dataset fresh, or trigger it from your own stack through the Apify API and the official JavaScript and Python clients. Native integrations push results into Google Sheets, Slack, Airtable, Zapier, Make, GitHub, or any webhook endpoint. The Actor also works as an MCP tool, so an AI agent can call it directly.

Related scrapers

Actor	What it does
YouTube Channel Scraper	Channel profile plus the complete video list.
YouTube Comments Scraper	Every comment and reply thread on any video.
Google Trends Scraper	Search demand behind the topics you are targeting.
Twitch Search & Streams Scraper	The same audience research on Twitch.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a YouTube API key?

No. This Actor uses YouTube's internal InnerTube interface, so there is no API key, no Google Cloud project, and no daily quota to manage.

How many results can I get per query?

Set maxResultsPerQuery to whatever you need. YouTube's own search pagination eventually stops returning new results, so very deep pulls are better split across several related queries.

Do I need a YouTube API key?

No. YouTube Search Scraper reads publicly available YouTube pages and endpoints directly, so there is no key to obtain, no OAuth app to register, and no account to connect.

Can I export YouTube data to CSV, Excel, or Google Sheets?

Yes. Every run stores results in an Apify dataset that exports to JSON, JSONL, CSV, Excel, XML, or HTML with one click, and the Google Sheets integration writes rows straight into a spreadsheet.

Can I run YouTube Search Scraper on a schedule?

Yes. Apify schedules run the Actor hourly, daily, weekly, or on any cron expression, and webhooks can notify your systems the moment a run finishes.

Is it legal to scrape YouTube?

Scraping publicly available data is broadly lawful in the US and EU, but the answer depends on what you collect and how you use it. This Actor is built to gather public video metadata YouTube publishes publicly, including channel names. Personal data carries extra obligations under GDPR and CCPA. Read Apify's guide on whether web scraping is legal and take your own legal advice for your use case.

Support and feedback

Found a bug, a missing field, or a YouTube page shape this Actor does not handle yet? Open an issue from the Issues tab on the Actor page. Feature requests and custom-scraper enquiries are welcome there too.