YouTube Channel Scraper - Subscribers, Views & Links

Rocketyard’s YouTube Channel Scraper returns the public profile of YouTube channels with their latest uploads and returns one clean record per channel: channel id, handle, name, description, subscriber count, subscriber count text and more. It runs on the Apify platform, so you can start it from the Apify Console, the REST API, an AI agent or a no-code tool.

Run it on Apify

$0.70 per 1,000 channels, no subscription. You run it with your own Apify account, and Apify handles billing.

Who it’s for

Influencer marketing agencies and brands vetting creators
Marketers tracking competitor channels
Developers and analysts building creator databases
Researchers studying YouTube channels

What you can do with it

Turn a list of channels into a spreadsheet of subscribers, views, video counts, countries and links
Track channel growth and new uploads every week
Vet creators before a campaign by their latest videos’ views

How it works

YouTube embeds each channel’s data in the HTML of its public About and Videos pages. The Actor fetches those two pages over plain HTTP, without a browser, login or cookies, honours YouTube’s robots.txt, and reads the embedded data: subscriber, video and total view counts, the join date and country, the description, the links the channel publishes, its avatar and banner, and its latest uploads with views, duration and age. A channel that cannot be read gets an error item that says why, and is not charged.

Example output

A real record from a test run on youtube.com on 2026-11-07. Fields the page didn’t publish are left out here; the Actor returns them as null.

{
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@Google",
  "type": "Channel",
  "channelId": "UCK8sQmJBp8GCxrOtXWBpyEA",
  "handle": "@Google",
  "name": "Google",
  "description": "Here to help. \n\nReimagining how AI can make your life better and help you explore your creativity, connect with the world, and discover new possibilities. Browse our latest product demos, unboxings, developer roundtables, podcasts, tips, tricks and more. Subscribe for the latest product updates,…",
  "subscriberCount": 14700000,
  "subscriberCountText": "14.7M subscribers",
  "videoCount": 2796,
  "viewCount": 6753156352,
  "joinedDate": "2005-09-18",
  "isVerified": true,
  "isFamilySafe": true,
  "avatarUrl": "https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/bAseQlKvNmjdLQrvYWm_q3QDp8C8YKyYI-nYJewgOkPi0JU1_3X9oFgjrEdzkOlXzLGFxFbnsw=s900-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj",
  "bannerUrl": "https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/H9gGqPJUwNvqOwEZBewLZiW_gV2nFdeQOugRyKv1qclCvIH4ucb6E5z5zYUOZJE4Z2E0KcS6=w2560-fcrop64=1,00005a57ffffa5a8-k-c0xffffffff-no-nd-rj",
  "keywords": [
    "Google",
    "Technology",
    "Science",
    "Android",
    "Google app",
    "Google Doodles",
    "Google Gemini",
    "Gemini AI",
    "Google AI",
    "Google Chrome",
    "Google Search",
    "YouTube",
    "Google Play Store",
    "AI",
    "Artificial Intelligence",
    "Tech",
    "Innovation",
    "Machine Learning",
    "Quantum Computing",
    "Google I/O",
    "Made by Google",
    "Google Doodle",
    "Team Google",
    "Explained",
    "How-to",
    

Fields

Field	Description	Filled in latest test
`channelId`	Channel ID (UC…)	100%
`handle`	Handle (@name)	100%
`name`	Channel name	100%
`description`	Full channel description	100%
`subscriberCount`	Subscribers as a number, from the count YouTube displays (rounded for large channels)	100%
`subscriberCountText`	Subscribers as YouTube displays them (“14.7M subscribers”)	100%
`videoCount`	Number of public videos (exact)	100%
`viewCount`	Total channel views (exact)	100%
`joinedDate`	Date the channel was created (YYYY-MM-DD)	100%
`country`	Country the channel set, when public	0%
`isVerified`	`true` when the channel has a verified badge	100%
`isFamilySafe`	YouTube family-safe flag	100%
`avatarUrl`	Largest avatar image	100%
`bannerUrl`	Largest banner image	100%
`keywords`	Channel keywords	100%
`links`	Links the channel publishes (title and URL)	100%
`videos`	Latest uploads: ID, URL, title, views, age and duration	100%
`url`	the page the record came from	100%
`scrapedAt`	ISO timestamp of the extraction	100%

A field is filled when the source publishes it. The Actor never guesses a value: a missing field comes back as null. “Filled in latest test” is the share of records from the latest test run (youtube.com) that had the field; other sources publish more or less.

Pricing

You pay $0.70 per 1,000 channels, plus a start fee of $0.00005 per run. Channels that cannot be read produce an error item, which is not charged.

Channels	Cost
1,000	$0.70
10,000	$7.00
100,000	$70.00

Set maxItems or the run’s Maximum cost per run in Apify to cap spending.

API

Call it from any language with the Apify REST API, or with Apify’s JavaScript and Python clients. You need an Apify API token.

curl -s -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/rocketyard~youtube-channel-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -d '{"startUrls":[{"url":"https://www.youtube.com/@Google"}],"channels":["@NASA"],"maxVideosPerChannel":30}'

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';
const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('rocketyard/youtube-channel-scraper').call({"startUrls":[{"url":"https://www.youtube.com/@Google"}],"channels":["@NASA"],"maxVideosPerChannel":30});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();

from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient("<APIFY_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("rocketyard/youtube-channel-scraper").call(run_input={"startUrls":[{"url":"https://www.youtube.com/@Google"}],"channels":["@NASA"],"maxVideosPerChannel":30})
items = client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).list_items().items

The synchronous endpoint returns the records directly. For long crawls, start the run asynchronously and read the dataset when it finishes.

MCP

Apify’s MCP server exposes this Actor as a tool to Claude, Cursor and other MCP clients. Open this Actor’s MCP setup page for setup steps per client, or connect it with this URL:

https://mcp.apify.com?tools=rocketyard/youtube-channel-scraper

Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=rocketyard/youtube-channel-scraper"

Cursor (.cursor/mcp.json) and other clients that read an mcpServers config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": { "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=rocketyard/youtube-channel-scraper" }
  }
}

On first use your browser opens so you can sign in to Apify. Then ask the agent, for example: “Turn a list of channels into a spreadsheet of subscribers, views, video counts, countries and links”. The tool returns JSON records, and the runs are billed to that Apify account at $0.70 per 1,000 channels.

Automation

n8n, Make and Zapier all connect to Apify. Each example below uses Actor rocketyard/youtube-channel-scraper with this input:

{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@Google"
    }
  ],
  "channels": [
    "@NASA"
  ],
  "maxVideosPerChannel": 30
}

n8n

Copy this workflow and paste it onto an n8n canvas. It runs the Actor every morning through an HTTP Request node and returns the records as n8n items.

{
  "name": "YouTube Channel Scraper daily",
  "nodes": [
    {
      "parameters": {
        "rule": {
          "interval": [
            {
              "field": "days",
              "daysInterval": 1,
              "triggerAtHour": 7
            }
          ]
        }
      },
      "id": "c1f6a2d0-4a57-4b5e-9d7a-0a1b2c3d4e01",
      "name": "Every day at 07:00",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.scheduleTrigger",
      "typeVersion": 1.2,
      "position": [
        0,
        0
      ]
    },
    {
      "parameters": {
        "method": "POST",
        "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/rocketyard~youtube-channel-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items",
        "authentication": "genericCredentialType",
        "genericAuthType": "httpBearerAuth",
        "sendBody": true,
        "specifyBody": "json",
        "jsonBody": "{\n  \"startUrls\": [\n    {\n      \"url\": \"https://www.youtube.com/@Google\"\n    }\n  ],\n  \"channels\": [\n    \"@NASA\"\n  ],\n  \"maxVideosPerChannel\": 30\n}",
        "options": {
          "timeout": 300000
        }
      },
      "id": "c1f6a2d0-4a57-4b5e-9d7a-0a1b2c3d4e02",
      "name": "Run YouTube Channel Scraper",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.httpRequest",
      "typeVersion": 4.2,
      "position": [
        260,
        0
      ],
      "credentials": {
        "httpBearerAuth": {
          "name": "Apify API token"
        }
      }
    }
  ],
  "connections": {
    "Every day at 07:00": {
      "main": [
        [
          {
            "node": "Run YouTube Channel Scraper",
            "type": "main",
            "index": 0
          }
        ]
      ]
    }
  },
  "settings": {}
}

Then open the HTTP Request node and create an HTTP Bearer Auth credential named Apify API token, with your token from Apify Console as the bearer token. The token stays in n8n’s credential store; the workflow only names the credential. Change the input in the node’s JSON body to your own. The node waits up to 300 seconds, which is also the limit of Apify’s synchronous endpoint. An input that yields nothing comes back as an item with an error field, which you can drop with a Filter node. Apify also publishes a community node, @apify/n8n-nodes-apify, with a Run an Actor and get dataset operation.

Make

Add Apify’s Run an Actor module and connect your Apify account.
Choose rocketyard/youtube-channel-scraper, paste the input above and set Run synchronously to Yes. Make limits how long a synchronous run can take, depending on your plan. For longer runs, start the scenario from Watch Actor Runs instead.
Add Get Dataset Items with the run’s default dataset ID.
Send the items wherever you need them, for example with Google Sheets Add a Row, mapping channelId, handle, name and description.

Zapier

Add Apify’s Run Actor action, connect your Apify account, choose rocketyard/youtube-channel-scraper and paste the input above.
Zapier stops synchronous runs after 30 seconds. For anything larger than a small run, let the run continue in the background and start a second Zap from the Finished Actor run trigger.
Add Fetch dataset items with the run’s dataset ID, then map channelId, handle, name and description into your app.
Test with a small input and check that the Zap handles every record before you turn it on.

Limits

The video list holds the latest uploads YouTube shows on the channel’s Videos tab (up to 30). Older uploads load through YouTube’s internal API, which robots.txt disallows.
Subscriber counts are as YouTube displays them, rounded for large channels (14.7M). Video and total view counts are exact.
Contact emails that some channels show only after a sign-in and a CAPTCHA are never collected.

FAQ

How much does it cost?

$0.70 per 1,000 channels plus $0.00005 per run, billed by Apify. 10,000 channels cost $7.00. There is no subscription, and you can cap any run with Maximum cost per run. Your Apify plan sets your discount tier (Platinum and Diamond are enterprise tiers):

Tier	Per 1,000 channels
Free	$0.70
Bronze	$0.70
Silver	$0.56
Gold	$0.46
Platinum	$0.46
Diamond	$0.46

How do I call it from the API?

One request starts a run and returns its results, using your Apify API token:

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/rocketyard~youtube-channel-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items" -H "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"startUrls":[{"url":"https://www.youtube.com/@Google"}],"channels":["@NASA"],"maxVideosPerChannel":30}'

What happens when a URL fails?

The dataset gets one free error item for it, with a code and the reason, and the other inputs in the run carry on. Error codes explains each code, whether a retry helps and what to do.

Which channels does it work on?

Any public YouTube channel: @handle URLs, /channel/UC… IDs, legacy /c/ and /user/ URLs, or just the handle or ID.

What happens when a field is missing?

The field comes back as null. The Actor reports what the source publishes and never fills in guesses.

Is it allowed to scrape this data?

The Actor reads only public pages that YouTube’s robots.txt allows, without logging in, without cookies and without bypassing consent or bot checks. It returns no comment text and no data about commenters or viewers. You are responsible for how you use the data under YouTube’s terms and the law (for example copyright and GDPR).

Can I use it from an AI agent?

Yes. Connect Apify’s MCP server as shown in MCP, and the agent can call the Actor as a tool.

Alternatives

See how it compares with other youtube channel scrapers on price, users and run success, from Apify Store data. Need a field or site behaviour that isn’t covered? Open an issue on the Actor page.

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