YouTube Channel Scraper

A powerful Apify actor that extracts detailed information from YouTube channels with support for batch processing via CSV/Excel files.

Features

Core Features

• Channel Information

  • Channel name and subscriber count
  • Total view count and video count
  • Join date and location
  • Channel description
  • Profile image URL
  • Verification status (Verified, Official Artist Channel, or unverified)

• Contact Information

  • Email addresses extracted from channel descriptions
  • Phone numbers from channel descriptions

• Social Media Links

  • Instagram, Twitter/X, Facebook, LinkedIn
  • TikTok, Twitch, Reddit, Pinterest
  • Spotify, SoundCloud, OnlyFans, Discord, Patreon, GitHub
  • Custom website URLs

Batch Processing Features 🆕

• CSV Import: Upload CSV files containing channel URLs
• Excel Import: Upload .xlsx files containing channel URLs
• Progress Tracking: Real-time progress updates for large batches
• Partial Results: Saves results incrementally during processing
• Resume Capability: Continue from where a failed run stopped
• Large Scale Support: Process up to 10,000 channels per run

Input Configuration

Method 1: Direct URLs

{
  "startUrls": [
    { "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast" },
    { "url": "https://www.youtube.com/c/PewDiePie" },
    { "url": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX6OQ3DkcsbYNE6H8uQQuVA" }
  ]
}

Method 2: Keyword Search

{
  "keywords": ["react tutorials", "javascript", "web development"],
  "limit": 10
}

Method 3: CSV/Excel Import

{
  "csvFile": "channels.csv",
  "maxChannelsPerRun": 1000,
  "savePartialResults": true
}

CSV Format Example:

channel_url,channel_name,notes
https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast,MrBeast,Main channel
@PewDiePie,PewDiePie,Gaming channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxxxxx,Channel Name,Using channel ID

Input Parameters

• startUrls (array): Direct YouTube channel URLs to scrape
• keywords (array): Search keywords to find YouTube channels
• limit (number): Maximum results per keyword (default: 5)
• csvFile (string): CSV file key for batch import
• excelFile (string): Excel file key for batch import
• maxChannelsPerRun (number): Maximum channels to process (default: 1000, max: 10000)
• savePartialResults (boolean): Save results after each channel (default: true)
• resumeFromChannel (string): Resume from specific channel URL
• maxRequestsPerCrawl (number): Maximum pages to process
• requestHandlerTimeoutSecs (number): Page processing timeout (default: 30)
• maxRequestRetries (number): Retry attempts for failed requests (default: 3)
• minConcurrency (number): Minimum parallel requests (default: 1)
• maxConcurrency (number): Maximum parallel requests (default: 2)
• proxyConfiguration (object): Proxy settings (recommended)

Output

The actor outputs comprehensive channel data:

{
  "channelURL": "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast",
  "channelName": "MrBeast",
  "channelSubscriberCount": 240000000,
  "channelVideosCount": 788,
  "joinedDate": "Feb 20, 2012",
  "totalViewCount": 45678901234,
  "channelLocation": "United States",
  "channelDescription": "I want to make the world a better place...",
  "channelProfileImageURL": "https://yt3.ggpht.com/...",
  "channelEmail": ["contact@mrbeast.com"],
  "channelPhone": [],
  "instagramUrls": ["https://instagram.com/mrbeast"],
  "twitterUrls": ["https://twitter.com/MrBeast"],
  "facebookUrls": ["https://facebook.com/MrBeast"],
  "linkedinUrls": [],
  "tiktokUrls": ["https://tiktok.com/@mrbeast"],
  "discordUrls": ["https://discord.gg/mrbeast"],
  "websiteUrls": ["https://mrbeast.com", "https://shopmrbeast.com"],
  "verifiedCategory": "Verified",
  "scrapedAt": "2024-01-01T00:00:00.000Z",
  "processingTime": 2345,
  "dataSource": "ytInitialData"
}

Use Cases

• Marketing Research: Analyze competitor channels and their social media presence
• Influencer Outreach: Find contact information for collaboration
• Market Analysis: Track channel growth and engagement metrics
• Lead Generation: Extract business contact information
• Social Media Mapping: Discover cross-platform presence

Known Limitations

• Subscriber/view counts may show as 0 due to YouTube's dynamic loading (fix in progress)
• Some channels may require multiple retries due to rate limiting
• Email/phone extraction depends on channels including this in their description

Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20+
• NPM or Yarn

Installation

$npm install

Running Locally

# With Apify CLI
apify run

# Or directly
npm start

Testing with CSV

Create a test_channels.csv file and run:

$apify run --input-file=INPUT.json

Where INPUT.json contains:

{
  "csvFile": "test_channels.csv"
}

Deployment

Deploy to Apify platform:

# Install Apify CLI
npm i -g apify-cli

# Login to Apify
apify login

# Deploy the actor
apify push

Legal Considerations

Note that personal data is protected by GDPR in the European Union and by other regulations around the world. You should not scrape personal data unless you have a legitimate reason to do so. If you're unsure whether your reason is legitimate, consult your lawyers. We also recommend that you read our blog post: Is web scraping legal?

Support

For issues and feature requests, please create an issue in the repository.

License

MIT

Built with Apify SDK and Crawlee