YouTube Scraper API - Videos, Channels, Playlists & Search

Scrape YouTube videos from search terms, channels, playlists, Shorts URLs, and video URLs without a YouTube API key.

This Actor is built for content research, creator discovery, competitor monitoring, social listening, video SEO, lead generation, and market intelligence.

Features

• YouTube search scraping by keyword
• Channel video scraping from public channel feeds
• Playlist video scraping
• Direct video URL enrichment
• Supports normal YouTube URLs, Shorts URLs, playlist URLs, @handles, channel IDs, and video IDs
• Exports titles, channel names, view counts, durations, publish dates, thumbnails, descriptions, and video links
• No YouTube API key required
• Clean dataset table for CSV, JSON, Excel, Make, Zapier, API, and MCP workflows

Input Example

{
  "searchTerms": ["openai tutorials", "shopify marketing"],
  "channelUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/@OpenAI"],
  "maxResultsPerQuery": 30,
  "maxTotalResults": 100
}

Output Example

{
  "videoId": "PWPsZssgfDo",
  "title": "How to build with Gemini 3.5 Transcribe",
  "channelName": "Google for Developers",
  "views": 12000,
  "durationText": "4 minutes, 50 seconds",
  "publishedText": "2 days ago",
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/...",
  "videoUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWPsZssgfDo",
  "sourceType": "search",
  "query": "ai tutorials"
}

Use Cases

• Track competitor YouTube uploads
• Find trending videos in a niche
• Build creator and influencer lists
• Monitor brand mentions in YouTube search
• Collect playlist videos for research
• Enrich video IDs with title, channel, views, and thumbnails
• Feed video metadata into dashboards, spreadsheets, or AI workflows

Notes

This Actor uses publicly available YouTube surfaces and an unofficial InnerTube client. YouTube can change its internal APIs, so high availability depends on active maintenance. If a channel blocks web access or a handle cannot be resolved, the failed input is saved in the ERRORS key-value record.

Input reference

Field	Purpose
searchTerms	Discover YouTube videos by keyword
channelUrls	Collect recent videos from channels or handles
playlistUrls	Scrape public playlist videos
videoUrls	Enrich specific videos or Shorts
maxResultsPerQuery	Per-source result limit
maxTotalResults	Hard run-wide output cap
includeVideoDetails	Fetch richer metadata for direct videos
language, country	Localize YouTube responses

API example

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/groupoject~youtube-scraper-api/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"searchTerms":["AI tutorials"],"maxTotalResults":100,"country":"US"}'

Combine input sources

Search terms, channels, playlists, and direct video URLs can be used together. When dedupe is enabled, the Actor keeps one output row per video ID even if several sources discover it.

{
  "searchTerms": ["product marketing"],
  "channelUrls": ["@GoogleDevelopers"],
  "playlistUrls": ["PL590L5WQmH8fJ54F369BLDSqIwcs-TCfs"],
  "maxResultsPerQuery": 30,
  "maxTotalResults": 100,
  "dedupe": true
}

FAQ

Is a YouTube Data API key required?

No. The Actor works without Google API credentials or quota configuration.

Can it scrape Shorts?

Yes. Supply Shorts URLs in videoUrls; their video IDs are normalized to standard output URLs.

Can it scrape comments or full channel profiles?

This Actor focuses on video discovery and metadata. Use the dedicated YouTube Comments Scraper or YouTube Channel Scraper for those specialized datasets.

Why do counts sometimes differ from YouTube Studio?

Public values may be rounded, delayed, localized, or hidden. Private Studio analytics are not accessible.

Use public YouTube data responsibly and follow applicable law and platform terms.