Youtube Scraper

Turn YouTube into clean, analysis-ready data in minutes.

This Apify Actor extracts public data from YouTube videos, channels, playlists, and search results, with optional subtitle capture for deeper content analysis.

Features

• Start fast: scrape by URL (video, channel, playlist, search page) or by search term
• Stay in control: set independent limits for regular videos, Shorts, and live streams
• Refine channel results: filter by date range and sort by Newest, Popular, or Oldest
• Narrow search intent: apply sorting and upload-date filters to target the right content
• Go deeper with subtitles: download tracks as SRT, WEBVTT, XML, or plain text, and optionally persist to key-value store
• Debug with confidence: errors are pushed as explicit dataset items (via the error field), never hidden failures

Input

{
    "startUrls": [
        { "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@LofiGirl" },
        { "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW7gfrTlr0Y" }
    ],
    "searchQueries": ["lofi hip hop"],
    "maxResults": 10,
    "maxResultsShorts": 10,
    "maxResultStreams": 10,
    "sortingOrder": "relevance",
    "dateFilter": "week",
    "oldestPostDate": "2 months",
    "sortVideosBy": "NEWEST",
    "downloadSubtitles": false,
    "saveSubsToKVS": false,
    "subtitlesLanguage": "en",
    "subtitlesFormat": "srt",
    "preferAutoGeneratedSubtitles": false
}

Field	Type	Default	Description
startUrls	array	—	YouTube URLs (video, channel, playlist or search page)
searchQueries	array	—	Search keywords as typed in the YouTube search bar
maxResults	integer	10	Max regular videos per URL/query (0 to exclude)
maxResultsShorts	integer	10	Max Shorts per search term (0 to exclude)
maxResultStreams	integer	10	Max live streams per search term (0 to exclude)
sortingOrder	string	relevance	Search result order: relevance, upload_date, view_count, rating
dateFilter	string	—	Limit search to: hour, today, week, month, year
oldestPostDate	string	—	Channel date range, e.g. 2024-01-31 or 2 weeks
sortVideosBy	string	NEWEST	Channel tab sort: NEWEST, POPULAR, OLDEST
downloadSubtitles	boolean	false	Attach subtitles to each video item
saveSubsToKVS	boolean	false	Also save subtitle files to the key-value store
subtitlesLanguage	string	any	Preferred language code (e.g. en, es, pt)
subtitlesFormat	string	srt	srt, vtt, xml, or plaintext
preferAutoGeneratedSubtitles	boolean	false	Prefer auto-generated over user-created tracks

Output

Video item

{
    "title": "Stromae - Santé (Live From The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon)",
    "id": "CW7gfrTlr0Y",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW7gfrTlr0Y",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/CW7gfrTlr0Y/maxresdefault.jpg",
    "viewCount": 35582192,
    "date": "2021-12-21",
    "likes": 512238,
    "location": null,
    "channelName": "StromaeVEVO",
    "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@StromaeVEVO",
    "numberOfSubscribers": 6930000,
    "duration": "00:03:17",
    "commentsCount": 14,
    "text": "...",
    "descriptionLinks": [],
    "hashtags": [],
    "subtitles": null,
    "comments": null,
    "isMonetized": true,
    "commentsTurnedOff": false
}

Channel item

{
    "id": "HV6OlMPn5sI",
    "title": "Raimu - The Spirit Within 🍃 [lofi hip hop/relaxing beats]",
    "duration": "29:54",
    "channelName": "Lofi Girl",
    "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSJ4gkVC6NrvII8umztf0Ow",
    "date": "10 months ago",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HV6OlMPn5sI",
    "viewCount": 410458,
    "channelDescription": "...",
    "numberOfSubscribers": 13100000,
    "channelTotalVideos": 409,
    "channelTotalViews": "1,710,167,563",
    "channelJoinedDate": "Mar 18, 2015",
    "channelLocation": "France",
    "inputChannelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@LofiGirl/about"
}

Search / playlist item

{
    "id": "CwRMBKk8St0",
    "title": "LET'S ARGUE: Beyoncé Fails the Bechdel Test!",
    "duration": "13:48",
    "channelName": "fantano",
    "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@fantano",
    "date": "5 years ago",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwRMBKk8St0",
    "viewCount": 635379,
    "fromYTUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bechdel+test"
}

Error item

{
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@somechannel",
    "input": "somechannel",
    "error": "CHANNEL_DOES_NOT_EXIST",
    "note": "Channel does not exist"
}

Error codes

Code	Meaning
CHANNEL_DOES_NOT_EXIST	Channel URL points to a channel that does not exist
NOT_FOUND	Page was not found
VIDEO_UNAVAILABLE	Video is not available (deleted, region-blocked, etc.)
AGE_RESTRICTED	Channel is age-restricted and cannot be accessed without login
CHANNEL_HAS_NO_VIDEOS	Channel exists but has no uploaded videos
CHANNEL_HAS_NO_LIVE_VIDEOS	Channel exists but has no live videos
CHANNEL_HAS_NO_SHORTS	Channel exists but has no Shorts
DATE_FILTER_TOO_STRICT	Videos exist but none match the active date filter
NO_VIDEOS	No videos found on the page
NO_RESULTS	No results collected — check that video-type limits are set above 0
NO_VALID_START_URLS	All provided start URLs were invalid or malformed
INVALID_INPUT	Actor failed due to bad configuration
NO_COMMENTS	No comments found for the video