YouTube Scraper: Video, Channel, Playlist and Search Data (No API Key)

Scrape YouTube video data, channel data, playlists and search results without the official YouTube Data API, no API key and no quota. Give it search queries, video URLs, channel URLs or handles, or playlist URLs and get one clean JSON record per video with title, description, exact view count, exact like count, channel name and subscriber count, duration, publish date, tags, category, thumbnails, hashtags, chapters and Shorts / Live flags. Export to JSON, CSV or Excel.

Here is one real result, with the fields the actor returns for an enriched video:

{
  "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Video) (4K Remaster)",
  "description": "The official video for \"Never Gonna Give You Up\" by Rick Astley ...",
  "channelName": "Rick Astley",
  "channelId": "UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw",
  "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw",
  "channelHandle": "@RickAstleyYT",
  "subscriberText": "4.53M subscribers",
  "subscriberCount": 4540000,
  "viewCount": 1811933605,
  "viewCountText": "1,811,933,605 views",
  "likeCount": 19374320,
  "likeCountText": "19374320",
  "commentCount": null,
  "duration": null,
  "durationSeconds": 213,
  "publishedText": "Oct 24, 2009",
  "publishedAt": "2009-10-24",
  "uploadDate": "2009-10-25",
  "category": "Music",
  "tags": ["rick astley", "Never Gonna Give You Up", "nggyu", "rick roll"],
  "hashtags": ["#RickAstley", "#NeverGonnaGiveYouUp"],
  "chapters": [],
  "isLive": false,
  "isUpcoming": false,
  "isShort": false,
  "isFamilySafe": true,
  "availableCountriesCount": 249,
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/maxresdefault.jpg",
  "thumbnails": [{ "url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/maxresdefault.jpg", "quality": "1280x720" }],
  "source": "video",
  "detailsFetched": true,
  "observedAt": "2026-09-05T12:00:00.000Z",
  "error": null
}

📥 Input · 📤 Output · 💰 Pricing · ▶️ Examples

Table of contents

• What this YouTube scraper does
• Why use it (no API key, no quota)
• Quickstart
• Input reference
• Output reference
• Comparison with other YouTube scrapers
• Common use cases
• Run via API and CLI
• Fetch results
• Billing and limits
• FAQ and troubleshooting

What this YouTube scraper does

This is a YouTube data extractor and video metadata API that reads YouTube's public data layer and returns one normalized record per video. It accepts four kinds of input, in any combination:

• Search queries (searchQueries): keywords to search YouTube for, with optional sort order, upload-date, duration and type filters. This is your no-key YouTube Search API.
• Video URLs (videoUrls): video URLs or IDs to fetch full per-video details for, including the channel's subscriber count, description and chapters.
• Channel URLs or handles (channelUrls): pull a channel's recent videos for channel analytics and monitoring.
• Playlist URLs (playlistUrls): pull every video in a playlist.

Turn on enrichDetails (default) and each video is upgraded with a full detail record: exact like and view counts, tags / keywords, category, duration in seconds, exact publish and upload dates, channel handle, hashtags, and Shorts / Live flags. Missing values are always returned as null so your schema stays stable.

Why use it (no API key, no quota)

• No API key and no OAuth. You do not need a Google Cloud project or the official YouTube Data API. There is no daily quota to run out of.
• Exact numbers. Get the exact like count and exact view count, not rounded "19M" style values.
• Four inputs in one actor. Search, video, channel and playlist scraping in a single run.
• Fast HTTP transport. No headless browser, so runs are quick and cheap.
• Structured, stable output. Every record carries the same fields with honest nulls, ready for JSON, CSV or Excel.

Quickstart

Open the actor, paste this into the input, and press Run. It returns the top 10 videos for a search, sorted by view count.

{
  "searchQueries": ["lofi hip hop"],
  "sortBy": "views",
  "maxVideos": 10,
  "enrichDetails": true,
  "country": "US",
  "language": "en"
}

Provide any combination of searchQueries, videoUrls, channelUrls and playlistUrls.

Input reference

Field	Type	Required	Default	Description
searchQueries	string[]	no	["lofi hip hop"]	Keywords to search YouTube for. Each query returns matching videos.
videoUrls	string[]	no	[]	Video URLs or IDs (watch?v=..., youtu.be/..., /shorts/..., or a bare 11-character ID).
channelUrls	string[]	no	[]	Channel URLs or handles (/@handle, /channel/UC..., /c/name). Returns the channel's recent videos.
playlistUrls	string[]	no	[]	Playlist URLs or playlist IDs (playlist?list=PL..., or a bare PL... id).
maxVideos	integer	no	50	Maximum number of videos to return across all inputs. Free Apify plans are capped at 10 per run.
sortBy	string	no	relevance	Sort search results: relevance, date, views, rating (search only).
uploadDate	string	no	any	Upload-date filter: any, hour, today, week, month, year (search only).
duration	string	no	any	Duration filter: any, short (<4 min), medium (4-20 min), long (>20 min) (search only).
videoType	string	no	any	Result type: any, video, channel, playlist, movie (search only).
enrichDetails	boolean	no	true	Fetch each video's full detail record (see below). Adds a paid details event per enriched video on paying accounts. Turn off for the fastest, cards-only run.
country	string	no	US	Two-letter country code for results (gl).
language	string	no	en	Interface language code (hl).

At least one of searchQueries, videoUrls, channelUrls or playlistUrls must be provided.

Output reference

One dataset item per video. Types are string, integer, boolean, array, or null when the source value is absent.

Field	Type	Description
videoId	string	YouTube 11-character video ID.
url	string	Canonical watch URL.
title	string	Video title.
description	string	Video description (full on detail records, snippet on search cards).
channelName	string	Name of the channel that published the video.
channelId	string	Channel ID (UC...).
channelUrl	string	Canonical channel URL.
channelHandle	string	Channel handle, for example @RickAstleyYT.
subscriberText	string	Channel subscriber count as shown, for example 4.53M subscribers.
subscriberCount	integer	Subscriber count parsed to an integer.
viewCount	integer	Exact view count (from the detail record) or parsed card value.
viewCountText	string	View count as shown.
likeCount	integer	Exact like count from the detail record, or null.
likeCountText	string	Like count as text.
commentCount	integer	Comment count. Returned null (see FAQ).
duration	string	Duration text, for example 1:44:52 (on search / channel / playlist cards).
durationSeconds	integer	Duration in whole seconds (from the detail record).
publishedText	string	Relative or absolute publish text, for example 3 years ago or Oct 24, 2009.
publishedAt	string	Exact publish date normalized to YYYY-MM-DD.
uploadDate	string	Upload date normalized to YYYY-MM-DD.
category	string	YouTube category, for example Music, Gaming, Education.
tags	string[]	Video tags / keywords set by the creator.
hashtags	string[]	Hashtags parsed from the description.
chapters	array	Chapters as { title, startSeconds, startText } when the creator set them (video URLs).
isLive	boolean	true for a live stream.
isUpcoming	boolean	true for a scheduled / premiere video.
isShort	boolean	true for a YouTube Short.
isFamilySafe	boolean	Family-safe flag.
availableCountriesCount	integer	Number of countries the video is available in.
thumbnailUrl	string	URL of the best available thumbnail.
thumbnails	array	All available thumbnails as { url, quality }.
source	string	search, video, channel or playlist.
playlistId / playlistTitle	string	Present on playlist-source records.
detailsFetched	boolean	true when the detail add-on enriched this record.
observedAt	string	ISO 8601 timestamp when the record was collected.
error	string	null on success; populated instead of data when an item could not be fetched (never charged).

Comparison with other YouTube scrapers

Honest comparison against popular Apify YouTube scrapers such as streamers/youtube-scraper and bernardo/youtube-scraper.

Capability	This actor	streamers / bernardo
Search query scraping	Yes	Yes
Sort order (relevance / date / views / rating)	Yes	Yes
Upload-date, duration and type filters	Yes	Yes
Video URL scraping	Yes	Yes
Channel URL / handle scraping	Yes	Yes
Playlist URL scraping	Yes	Yes
Exact like count	Yes	Partial
Exact view count	Yes	Yes
Tags / keywords	Yes	Yes
Category, family-safe, availability	Yes	Partial
Channel handle + subscriber count	Yes	Yes
Shorts / Live / Upcoming flags	Yes	Yes
Hashtags and chapters	Yes	Partial
No API key required	Yes	Yes
Full comment scraping	No	Yes
Subtitles / transcript download	No	Yes
Headless browser	No (HTTP only, faster)	Yes

Where the browser-based leaders reach further: streamers/youtube-scraper can download full comment threads and subtitles / transcripts, which this HTTP-only actor does not. If you need comments or transcripts, use a browser-based actor for those two fields. For everything else, including exact like counts, tags, category and availability, this actor returns a strict superset with faster, cheaper runs. Need transcripts specifically? See our YouTube Video Summarizer.

Common use cases

• YouTube search API without a key: pull ranked results for any keyword with sort and date filters.
• Channel analytics and monitoring: track a channel's latest videos, view counts and publish dates.
• Competitor and trend research: collect tags, categories and view counts across many videos.
• Content and playlist audits: export an entire playlist to CSV or Excel.
• Video metadata enrichment: resolve a list of video URLs or IDs into full records for a dataset or dashboard.

Run via API and CLI

Start a run and read the dataset. Replace <TOKEN> with your Apify API token.

Run synchronously and get dataset items in one call:

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/scrapers_lat~youtube-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"searchQueries":["lofi hip hop"],"sortBy":"views","maxVideos":25}'

Start a run asynchronously:

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/scrapers_lat~youtube-scraper/runs?token=<TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"channelUrls":["https://www.youtube.com/@RickAstleyYT"],"maxVideos":50}'

Apify CLI:

apify call scrapers_lat/youtube-scraper \
  --input '{"videoUrls":["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"]}'

Fetch results

Every run writes to a dataset. Fetch items as JSON, CSV or Excel by changing format:

# JSON
curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/<DATASET_ID>/items?token=<TOKEN>&clean=true&format=json"

# CSV
curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/<DATASET_ID>/items?token=<TOKEN>&clean=true&format=csv"

# Paginate large datasets
curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/<DATASET_ID>/items?token=<TOKEN>&offset=1000&limit=1000"

<DATASET_ID> is returned as defaultDatasetId in the run object.

Billing and limits

• Pay per result. You are charged per video record returned (result event). See the pricing tab for the current per-result price.
• Optional details add-on. When enrichDetails is on, each enriched video also charges a small details event for the full detail record (exact counts, tags, category, dates and flags). Enrichment and its charge apply to paying accounts only. Turn enrichDetails off to pay the base result price only.
• No charge on failure. Items that cannot be fetched are written with a populated error field and are not charged. Empty runs cost nothing.
• Spend cap respected. Set maxTotalChargeUsd on the run; once reached, the actor stops emitting and charging further billable results.
• Free Apify plans are capped at 10 records per run. Upgrade for higher maxVideos.

FAQ and troubleshooting

Do I need a YouTube API key? No. This actor reads YouTube's public data layer directly. There is no API key, no OAuth and no daily quota.

A run returned 0 records. Why? No input was provided, or the search matched nothing. Provide at least one of searchQueries, videoUrls, channelUrls or playlistUrls. Zero-result runs are not charged.

Why is likeCount or tags null on some records? Exact like counts, tags, category and duration in seconds come from the detail add-on. Keep enrichDetails on so search, channel and playlist cards are upgraded. On free Apify accounts the detail add-on does not run, so those fields stay null.

Why is commentCount null? Comment counts are not exposed on the public video data layer without an extra paginated request, so this field is returned as null for honesty rather than guessed.

Can I get comments or subtitles / transcripts? Not from this actor. Full comment threads and subtitles require a browser-based scraper. See the comparison table above.

Can I mix search, video, channel and playlist inputs? Yes. Provide any combination; results from all sources are merged and deduplicated by video ID up to maxVideos.

Is this an official YouTube tool? No. This actor is independent and has no affiliation with YouTube or Google. It reads only data that is publicly available.

Related scrapers

• YouTube Video Summarizer: AI summaries of YouTube videos from their transcript.
• Yellow Pages Canada Business Leads Scraper: Canadian business leads.

More scrapers at scrapers.lat

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Independent tool, not affiliated with YouTube or Google. Accesses only publicly available data.