YouTube Search Scraper — Video Results & Metadata

What does YouTube Search Scraper do?

YouTube Search Scraper lets you extract video results for any keyword from YouTube — no API quota to manage. Search for any term and get back video titles, URLs, view counts, uploaders, upload dates, thumbnails and durations — all as structured JSON, ready to analyze or pipe into your own tools.

This Actor runs on the Apify platform, which means you can schedule searches, export to CSV or Excel, and integrate results into any workflow via REST API.

Why use YouTube Search Scraper?

• No YouTube API key or quota — avoid YouTube Data API v3's strict 10,000 unit/day limit
• Batch keyword searches — run up to 100 search queries in one Actor run, with one start fee; every row says which query it came from
• Full metadata — view count, duration, upload date, channel, thumbnails, Shorts flag
• Automation-ready — schedule daily searches, connect to Google Sheets via Apify integrations
• Competitor & content research — track which videos rank for any keyword over time

How to use YouTube Search Scraper

1. Go to the Actor page and click Try for free
2. Enter one or more keywords in the queries input field
3. Set the maximum number of results per keyword (default: 20)
4. Click Start and wait a few seconds
5. Download results as JSON, CSV, or Excel from the Output tab

Input

{
  "queries": ["best Python tutorials 2024", "machine learning explained"],
  "max_results": 20
}

Field	Type	Description	Default
queries	array	Search keywords or phrases, each searched separately (up to 100)	required
query	string	Single query (legacy field, still supported; merged with queries)	—
max_results	integer	Max video results per query	10
shorts_only / exclude_shorts	boolean	Keep only Shorts, or drop them	false
min_duration / max_duration	integer	Duration limits in seconds	—
upload_date_filter	string	last_24h, last_week, last_month or last_year	—
sort_by	string	relevance or view_count (YouTube removed date and rating sorting in 2025)	relevance

Output

Results are stored in the Apify dataset. Download in JSON, CSV, HTML, or Excel.

{
  "query": "best Python tutorials 2024",
  "title": "Python Tutorial for Beginners - Full Course",
  "video_id": "example",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=example",
  "uploader": "Programming with Mosh",
  "uploader_id": "@programmingwithmosh",
  "upload_date": "20240115",
  "duration": 22440,
  "view_count": 4200000,
  "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/example/hqdefault.jpg",
  "short": false
}

Output fields

Field	Type	Description
query	string	The search query this row came from
title	string	Video title
video_id	string	YouTube video ID
url	string	Full YouTube URL
uploader / uploader_id	string	Channel name and handle
upload_date	string	Upload date (YYYYMMDD), worked out from YouTube's "3 days ago" text, so older videos are approximate (to the month or year)
duration	number	Duration in seconds
view_count	number	View count
thumbnail	string	Thumbnail image URL
short	boolean	true for Shorts

How many results will I get?

You're charged per result, so the cost follows the number of rows below. Your plan's rates are on the Pricing tab.

Input	Results
1 query, max results = 50	Up to 50 rows
3 queries, max results = 50	Up to 150 rows
Max results = 500	Up to 500 rows

Each video is one row. Use Max results and the duration/date filters to keep runs focused. With Shorts only, YouTube lists Shorts as cards with title, views and thumbnail but no channel, date or length, so those fields are empty on Shorts rows.

Tips

• Set max_results to 50 or higher to get more comprehensive data for each keyword
• Run on a schedule (daily or weekly) to track ranking changes over time
• Combine with the YouTube Video Transcript Extractor Actor to also pull transcripts for found videos
• Use the Apify API to trigger searches programmatically from your own application

FAQ

Does this require a YouTube account or API key? No. The Actor accesses YouTube's public search interface directly.

How many results can I get per keyword? YouTube typically returns up to 200 results per search query. Set max_results accordingly.

Can I search in a specific language or country? Yes — contact support for custom locale configurations.

Is this Actor maintained? Yes. Report bugs or feature requests in the Issues tab.

Need help or have questions? Open an issue in the Issues tab or reach out on Discord: maged03211

---

⭐ Found this Actor useful? A quick review on the Store helps other users find it and keeps it maintained.

Related tools

• YouTube Transcript Scraper – subtitles and captions with timestamps
• YouTube Transcript Search – find clips where any phrase is spoken