# YouTube Channel Scraper (`calm_builder/youtube-channel-scraper`) Actor

Scrape YouTube channel profiles: subscribers, total views, video count, country, join date, description and every social / website link. Optionally each channel's videos, Shorts, live streams, community posts and playlists. Fast and low cost.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/calm_builder/youtube-channel-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Coder](https://apify.com/calm_builder) (community)
- **Categories:** Videos, Developer tools, Social media
- **Features:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 16 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.00 / 1,000 channels

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
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.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## 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.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## YouTube Channel Scraper

Scrape **YouTube channel profiles** with **every social and website link**, subscribers, **total views**, video count, country and join date - and, if you want, each channel's **videos, Shorts, live streams, community posts and playlists**. Paste handles, channel URLs or channel IDs. No YouTube account, no login and no API key needed.

Use it for **influencer discovery and outreach**, **competitor and market research**, **lead generation**, **creator databases and CRMs**, and **channel analytics**.

### What you get

#### Channel profile (always)

Name, handle, description, **all social and website links** (Instagram, X/Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, Discord, websites ...), country, join date, subscribers, **total views**, video count, verified and artist badges, whether a business email is listed, avatar, banner, keywords and the channel's tabs.

#### Channel content (optional, each in its own table)

- **Videos, Shorts and live streams** - full details: title, description, exact views, likes and comment count, publish date, duration, tags, hashtags and more. Newest, most popular or oldest first, with an optional "published after" date.
- **Community posts** - text, images, polls, likes and comment count.
- **Playlists** - title, description, video count, views and thumbnail.

Channel profiles are always in the main (default) table, so integrations, exports and the API get them straight away. The run log ends with one line per table and a link to it.

### Input

| Field | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| **Channels** | `@handle`, channel URL (`youtube.com/@name`, `/channel/UC...`, `/c/name`) or channel ID, one per row. Add `/videos`, `/shorts`, `/streams`, `/posts` or `/playlists` to a URL to collect only that tab |
| **Videos / Shorts / live streams per channel** | How many of each to collect per channel. 0 = profile only |
| **Order** | Latest, popular or oldest first |
| **Published after** | Only content published after a date (`2026-09-01`) or within a period (`30 days`) |
| **Community posts / playlists per channel** | Collect the channel's posts and playlists |

#### Example input

```json
{
    "startUrls": ["@mkbhd", "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast"],
    "maxVideos": 10,
    "maxShorts": 5,
    "channelSortBy": "latest"
}
```

### Example output

#### Channel

```json
{
    "type": "channel",
    "id": "UCBJycsmduvYEL83R_U4JriQ",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd",
    "name": "Marques Brownlee",
    "handle": "@mkbhd",
    "links": [
        { "title": "Twitter", "url": "http://twitter.com/MKBHD" },
        { "title": "Instagram", "url": "http://instagram.com/MKBHD" },
        { "title": "Reddit", "url": "http://reddit.com/r/MKBHD" },
        { "title": "Discord", "url": "http://discord.gg/MKBHD" }
    ],
    "country": "United States",
    "joinedAt": "2008-03-21",
    "subscriberCount": 21300000,
    "viewCount": 5701982926,
    "videoCount": 1853,
    "isVerified": true,
    "hasBusinessEmail": true,
    "avatarUrl": "https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/...",
    "bannerUrl": "https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/...",
    "keywords": ["MKBHD", "MarquesBrownlee", "Marques", "Brownlee"],
    "tabs": ["Home", "Videos", "Shorts", "Live", "Shows", "Playlists", "Posts", "Store"]
}
```

***

### Pricing

You pay only for results you receive - never for retries, or channels and videos that turned out to be private, removed or terminated.

| Result | Price per 1,000 |
| --- | --- |
| Channel (full profile with social links) | **$2.00** |
| Video, Short or stream (full details) | **$1.50** |
| Community post | **$1.00** |
| Playlist details | **$1.00** |

Prices are for the Apify Free plan; paid Apify plans get lower prices automatically. **Sorting and date filters are free.** You can set a maximum cost per run in the run options - the Actor stops cleanly when it is reached.

### Free plan

On Apify's free plan a run uses up to 5 channels and up to 5 videos, Shorts, streams, posts and playlists per channel. Every feature works, so you can try all of them before upgrading.

### Good to know

- **Emails** are behind YouTube's sign-in and captcha. The channel row tells you whether a business email is listed (`hasBusinessEmail`).
- **Subscriber counts** are what YouTube shows publicly - rounded for large channels (e.g. 21.3M).
- **Community post dates** are estimated from YouTube's "3 weeks ago" (`estimatedPublishedAt`); YouTube shows no exact post time.
- Want search results, comments or transcripts too? Use our **YouTube Scraper**.

### FAQ

**Do I need a YouTube account or API key?** No. Everything is public data, collected without logging in.

**Can I scrape a whole channel?** Yes - set Videos (and Shorts / live streams) per channel high enough. Use "Published after" for only recent uploads.

**How do I get only a channel's Shorts?** Set Shorts per channel and leave Videos at 0, or paste the channel link with `/shorts` at the end.

# Actor input Schema

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

One channel per row: @handle, channel URL (youtube.com/@name, /channel/UC..., /c/name) or channel ID. Add /videos, /shorts, /streams, /posts or /playlists to a URL to collect only that tab.

## `maxVideos` (type: `integer`):

Regular videos to collect from each channel's Videos tab (full details: views, likes, comments, date, duration, tags).

## `maxShorts` (type: `integer`):

Shorts to collect from each channel's Shorts tab.

## `maxStreams` (type: `integer`):

Live, upcoming and past streams from each channel's Live tab.

## `channelSortBy` (type: `string`):

Order of a channel's videos, Shorts and streams.

## `publishedAfter` (type: `string`):

Only videos, Shorts and streams published after this date (exact date or e.g. '30 days'). Uses the newest-first order.

## `maxPosts` (type: `integer`):

Text, image, poll and video posts from each channel's Posts tab.

## `maxPlaylists` (type: `integer`):

Playlists from each channel's Playlists tab (playlist details).

## `country` (type: `string`):

YouTube shows content availability for this country.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    "@mkbhd",
    "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast"
  ],
  "maxVideos": 0,
  "maxShorts": 0,
  "maxStreams": 0,
  "channelSortBy": "latest",
  "maxPosts": 0,
  "maxPlaylists": 0,
  "country": "US"
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `channels` (type: `string`):

No description

## `videos` (type: `string`):

No description

## `posts` (type: `string`):

No description

## `playlists` (type: `string`):

No description

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

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

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

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,calm_builder/youtube-channel-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/XM4WSb13CUhyZijAb/builds/MwafHAiDM4botXJyi/openapi.json