YouTube Scraper API for AI-Ready Data
Find relevant videos, channels, and playlists
Retrieve YouTube video and audio data
Get transcripts in 156 languages
Enrich results with metadata
*This scraper is a part of Web Scraper API. To get a free trial, please contact sales.
Powerful Youtube Scraper solution
Find, validate, collect, and enrich enterprise-grade multimodal YouTube data at scale
YouTube Search
Relevant videos, channels & playlists
Up to 700 results per query
Real-time & batch processing
YouTube Downloader
Video & audio in high-quality formats
Results delivered straight to your cloud storage
Fully-automated batch downloads
YouTube Transcript
Transcriptions in 156 languages
Clean, structured output format (TXT, JSON)
AI-compatible outputs
YouTube Metadata
Titles, views, tags, and engagement metrics
Structured, AI-ready data
Real-time, large-scale data
Make the most of YouTube with our data collection guide
Follow the YouTube scraping guide for building AI applications
Access YouTube data instantly
Search in YouTube
Provide a search query with youtube_search source for standard results (up to 20 results) or youtube_search_max for more comprehensive results (up to 700 results). Apply filters if needed, and get structured search results in JSON format.
Check the output code sample on the right for response format.
{
"results": [
{
"content":[
{
"videoId": "jqSLxWHhI_Y",
"thumbnail": {
"thumbnails": [
{
"url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jqSLxWHhI_Y/hq720.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEcCOgCEMoBSFXyq4qpAw4IARUAAIhCGAFwAcABBg==&rs=AOn4CLAc44Y_w0O3Hz0FD-38sUjzgGAGwg",
"width": 360,
"height": 202
}
]
},
"title": {
"runs": [
{
"text": "Why Adidas Samba lasted 74 years and sold 35,000,000 pairs"
}
]
},
"longBylineText": {
"runs": [
{
"text": "Rose Anvil"
}
]
},
"publishedTimeText": {
"simpleText": "1 year ago"
},
"lengthText": {
"simpleText": "12:59"
},
"viewCountText": {
"simpleText": "677,213 views"
}
}
],
"created_at": "2025-03-05 09:32:43",
"updated_at": "2025-03-05 09:32:44",
"page": 1,
"url": "https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=adidas&ucbcb=1&sp=EgIQAQ%3D%3D",
"job_id": "7302984396917729281",
"is_render_forced": false,
"status_code": 200
}
],
"job": {
"query": "adidas",
"source": "youtube_search",
"callback_url": "https://realtime.oxylabs.io:443/api/done",
"id": "7302984396917729281",
"status": "done",
"created_at": "2025-03-05 09:32:43",
"updated_at": "2025-03-05 09:32:44",
"_links": [
{
"rel": "self",
"href": "http://data.oxylabs.io/v1/queries/7302984396917729281",
"method": "GET"
},
{
"rel": "results",
"href": "http://data.oxylabs.io/v1/queries/7302984396917729281/results",
"method": "GET"
}
]
}
}Verify AI training rights for videos
Submit YouTube video IDs using the youtube_video_trainability source to instantly check if it's eligible for AI training. The API returns clear permission levels, making this a fast, automated solution for verifying content use.
Check the output code sample on the right.
{
"videoId": "rFNDylrjn_w",
"kind": "youtube#videoTrainability",
"etag": "oXToFpOwrHWvoiN1YbOa0tkzOn0",
"permitted": ["None"]
}Download video & audio data
Provide a list of YouTube video IDs, specify the cloud storage destination, and we'll return download job status and confirmation. It's a fully automated, minimal setup requiring solution.
YouTube Downloader delivers mp4 files into preferred cloud storage destination.
Get transcripts
Provide a YouTube video ID and a language code to the youtube_transcript source to retrieve video transcripts. Choose between uploader_provided or auto_generated transcripts. Get structured transcript data in JSON format.
Check the output code sample on the right.
{
"results": [{
"content": [
{
"transcriptSectionHeaderRenderer": {
"startMs": "0",
"endMs": "47000",
"sectionHeader": {
"sectionHeaderViewModel": {
"headline": {"content": "Intro"}
}
}
}
},
{
"transcriptSegmentRenderer": {
"startMs": "0",
"endMs": "1979",
"snippet": {"runs": [{"text": "this is one of the most popular Adidas"}]},
"startTimeText": {"simpleText": "0:00"}
}
}
],
"status_code": 200
}],
"job": {
"id": "7302985416804672513",
"status": "done",
"source": "youtube_transcript"
}
}Retrieve video metadata
Provide a YouTube video ID to the youtube_metadata source to extract detailed video metadata. Ensure the parse parameter is set to true for proper data processing. Get structured video metadata in JSON format.
Check the output code sample on the right.
{
"results": [{
"content": {
"results": {
"title": "I Just Need A Programmer | Prime Reacts",
"tags": ["programming", "software engineer"],
"formats": [{
"ext": "mp4",
"resolution": "640x360",
"format_note": "360p"
}],
"duration": 1106,
"uploader": "ThePrimeTime",
"video_id": "tIgIF5lve8U",
"view_count": 182848
},
"parse_status_code": 12000
},
"status_code": 200,
"parser_type": "youtube_metadata"
}],
"job": {
"id": "7296056852205282305",
"query": "tIgIF5lve8U",
"source": "youtube_metadata",
"status": "done"
}
}
Benefit from a maintenance-free scraping infrastructure
Our AI-powered web data collection infrastructure is ready-to-use straight away.
No need to develop or maintain scrapers and browsers
Bypass anti-scraping systems
Allocate your resources towards analyzing data
Leverage advanced features
Use the power of Web Scraper API for scalable YouTube data extraction
Proxy management
ML-driven proxy selection and rotation using our premium proxy pool from 195 countries.
AI-driven fingerprinting
Unique HTTP headers, JavaScript, and browser fingerprints ensure resilience to dynamic content.
CAPTCHA bypass
Automatic retries and CAPTCHA bypassing for uninterrupted data retrieval.
Scheduler
Automate recurring scraping jobs with desired frequency and receive data to AWS S3 or GCS.
Bulk data extraction
Extract data from several pages at the same time with up to 5,000 URLs per batch.
Automate API call code generation with OxyCopilot
OxyCopilot, an integral feature of Web Scraper API, is an AI-powered assistant designed to auto-generate codes for scraping requests and parsing instructions, eliminating manual coding:
Use Scraper API Playground
Input your prompt
Receive ready-to-use code
Get AI-ready outputs
We deliver structured, AI-compatible data, making YouTube videos, transcripts, metadata, and search results ready for seamless integration into LLMs, AI models, and analytics workflows.
Optimized for AI & ML
Seamless LLM integration
Scalable & automated
Use compliant & secure data
As an ISO/IEC 27001:2017 certified provider, we maintain the highest quality services data security and reliability standards, please see more here.
Using Oxylabs' products, including YouTube Downloader, does not grant any rights to the described gathered data, videos, or images, which may be protected by copyright or other intellectual property laws.
For YouTube Downloader pricing, please contact sales
Available scrapers
Frequently asked questions
Is it legal to extract data from Youtube?
The legality of scraping YouTube largely depends on the specific data you're extracting and the manner in which you intend to use it. It's essential to adhere to all relevant laws and regulations, including copyright laws. Before engaging in any web scraping activities with Oxylabs YouTube scraper, consult legal advisors and review the respective website’s terms of service or obtain a web scraping license.
How do you retrieve YouTube search results?
You can scrape YouTube search results by developing your data extraction tool or using a ready-to-use solution like Oxylabs’ YouTube Downloader, a part of the Web Scraper API. This enterprise-grade YouTube data extractor allows you to seamlessly collect structured YouTube search results, video & audio content, transcripts, and metadata, including titles, views, tags, and engagement metrics.
Can I scrape dislikes from YouTube videos?
No, because YouTube removed public dislike counts in 2021. However, you can estimate dislikes using third-party browser extensions or unofficial APIs, but these rely on community data and aren't always accurate.
Can I scrape subtitles from YouTube videos?
Yes, you can scrape subtitles from YouTube videos. Depending on the scale and your use case, you can use an official built-in feature, such as YouTube Video Manager, or third-party solutions like Oxylabs' YouTube Scraper. Also, keep in mind that only videos with captions (manual or auto-generated) will have subtitles.
Should I use a proxy when scraping YouTube?
Yes, using proxies helps avoid blocks, rate limits, and access geo-restricted content. However, if you choose advanced solutions like Oxylabs' YouTube Data Scraper, you won't need to worry about such issues because our tool is already powered by high-quality proxies. Also, before engaging in any scraping activities, we suggest consulting with legal advisors and reviewing the respective website's terms of service.
What data can you extract from YouTube?
You can extract various data from YouTube, such as video title or video description, views, likes, upload dates, channel info, and comments. Specifically, you can:
Scrape YouTube ad results: Gather data on ad videos, including ad type, duration, advertiser info, and targeting.
Scrape YouTube search engine results: Extract video listings based on keywords, including metadata like title, thumbnail, channel, views, and publish date.
In addition, you can also scrape public video and audio data. But before you decide to scrape YouTube data with our YouTube Scraper API, consult with legal advisors and review the respective website's terms of service.
Can I scrape YouTube comments?
Yes, with our YouTube Scraping API, you can scrape YouTube video comments, including the comment text, author name, timestamp, and number of likes. However, it must comply with YouTube's terms of service.
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