Scrape YouTube videos and channels without the API quota (Python)

#python #youtube #webscraping #datascience

The YouTube Data API is free — until you hit the 10,000-unit daily quota. A single search costs 100 units, so you get about 100 searches a day. For research, influencer lists or trend tracking that's not enough.

In this tutorial we'll collect YouTube search results, whole channels and full video stats without an API key or quota, then turn them into a ranked list of channels.

Disclosure: I built the Apify Actor used below (YouTube Scraper). It costs $0.50 per 1,000 results, video details included, and runs on Apify's free plan.

What you get

Search results: videos, Shorts, channels or playlists, with YouTube's filters (upload date, length, sort by views)
Videos: views, likes, comment count, exact publish date, duration, description, tags, category
Channels: subscribers, total views, video count, country, joined date, links, plus their videos, Shorts, live streams and playlists

1. Try it without code

Open YouTube Scraper, click Try for free and run:

{ "searchQueries": ["home workout"], "maxResults": 50, "uploadDate": "week", "sortBy": "views" }

You get the 50 most viewed "home workout" videos of the week. Export to CSV/Excel or JSON.

2. Whole channels

Paste channel URLs (@handle, /channel/ID, /c/name) in startUrls:

{
  "startUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd", "https://www.youtube.com/@veritasium"],
  "channelTabs": ["videos", "shorts"],
  "maxVideosPerChannel": 100,
  "includeChannelInfo": true
}

You get one row per channel (subscribers, total views, country, links…) and its latest videos and Shorts.

3. From Python: find the fastest-growing channels in a niche

pip install "apify-client>=3"

from apify_client import ApifyClient
from collections import defaultdict

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")  # Apify Console → Settings → API & Integrations

run = client.actor("rt-solutions/youtube-scraper").call(run_input={
    "searchQueries": ["ai agents tutorial", "n8n automation", "claude code"],
    "maxResults": 100,
    "resultType": "video",
    "uploadDate": "month",
    "includeVideoDetails": True,   # exact date, likes, comment count, tags
})

views = defaultdict(int); videos = defaultdict(int)
for v in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    if v.get("type") != "video":
        continue
    views[v["channelName"]] += v.get("viewCount") or 0
    videos[v["channelName"]] += 1

top = sorted(views.items(), key=lambda kv: kv[1], reverse=True)[:15]
for name, total in top:
    print(f"{name:35} {videos[name]:3} videos  {total:>12,} views this month")

A video item (shortened):

{
  "type": "video", "id": "2reQut8WNGc",
  "title": "Macbook PROLED XDR Impressions: They Said They Wouldn't!",
  "viewCount": 10027295, "likeCount": 129851, "commentCount": 11000,
  "publishedAt": "2026-10-28T19:50:34-07:00", "duration": "10:54",
  "channelName": "Marques Brownlee", "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd"
}

4. Next steps

Need what is said in the videos? Feed the video URLs to YouTube Transcript.
Need audience reactions? Use YouTube Comments Scraper.
Schedule the run daily in Apify Console to track a niche over time.

Cost

$0.50 per 1,000 results (cheaper on paid plans), full video details included. Missing or private videos are free. The example above (~300 videos) costs about $0.15.

Notes

Comment counts are rounded the way YouTube shows them (e.g. 11K).
Channel business emails are hidden behind a YouTube login and are not collected.

Questions? Open an issue on the Actor page.

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