# YouTube Channel & Video Scraper (`technicaldost/youtube-channel-video-scraper`) Actor

Given YouTube channels, return their recent videos with title, views, likes, publish date, thumbnails and description. For creator research and competitive analysis.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/technicaldost/youtube-channel-video-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Technical Dost Solutions](https://apify.com/technicaldost) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 1 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $3.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

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 Channel & Video Scraper

Export recent videos from public YouTube channels as clean, analysis-ready records. This Actor is designed for marketing research, creator monitoring, competitive intelligence, and content discovery. It uses public YouTube channel pages and RSS feeds, so no API key or paid proxy is required.

### What it does

- Accepts YouTube channel URLs, `/channel/UC...` URLs, raw channel IDs, and `@handles`.
- Resolves handles to canonical YouTube channel IDs.
- Fetches each channel's recent public RSS entries.
- Returns titles, descriptions, publish times, thumbnails, views, and available rating-count hints.
- Continues processing when one channel or feed fails.

### Input

```json
{
  "channelUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast",
    "https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd"
  ],
  "maxVideosPerChannel": 15
}
```

| Field | Type | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `channelUrls` | array of strings | Yes | YouTube channel URLs, `@handles`, or `/channel/UC...` URLs. |
| `maxVideosPerChannel` | integer | No | Recent videos per channel, from 1 to 50. Defaults to 15. |

YouTube RSS feeds expose a limited window of recent uploads. Asking for more videos does not guarantee that every channel's feed contains that many entries.

### Output

Each dataset item represents one video:

```json
{
  "videoId": "exampleId",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exampleId",
  "title": "Example video title",
  "channelName": "Example Channel",
  "channelId": "UCexample",
  "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCexample",
  "publishedAt": "2026-01-01T12:00:00.000Z",
  "description": "Video description",
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/exampleId/hqdefault.jpg",
  "viewCount": 123456,
  "likesHint": 7890
}
```

`viewCount` is `null` when the feed does not provide statistics. `likesHint` is the RSS star-rating count when present; it is not guaranteed to be available and may be `null`.

### Cost and data source

The Actor uses only public YouTube pages and the free channel RSS endpoint. It needs no YouTube Data API key and no paid third-party service. Results are charged using the `result` pay-per-event event when that event is configured on Apify.

# Actor input Schema

## `channelUrls` (type: `array`):

YouTube channel URLs, @handles, or /channel/UC... URLs.

## `maxVideosPerChannel` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of recent RSS feed videos to return for each channel.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "channelUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast",
    "https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd"
  ],
  "maxVideosPerChannel": 15
}
```

# 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 = {
    "channelUrls": [
        "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast",
        "https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("technicaldost/youtube-channel-video-scraper").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 = { "channelUrls": [
        "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast",
        "https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("technicaldost/youtube-channel-video-scraper").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 '{
  "channelUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast",
    "https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd"
  ]
}' |
apify call technicaldost/youtube-channel-video-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

```

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/Yu9RqMlTCE0mHUhkQ/builds/1C0ObNSUstcFEND1n/openapi.json
