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Send a YouTube URL, get structured JSON back. The Bright Data YouTube Scraper API handles proxies, CAPTCHAs, and parsing so you can focus on your data pipeline.
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How it works

You send one or more YouTube URLs to the Bright Data YouTube Scraper API. Bright Data handles the scraping infrastructure and returns clean, structured JSON. 
Your app  -->  Bright Data API  -->  Structured JSON
           POST /datasets/v3/scrape
           Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN
All requests use a dataset_id to specify the data type (videos, channels, or comments) and return results in JSON, NDJSON, or CSV.

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What the response looks like

curl -X POST "https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/scrape?dataset_id=gd_lk538t2k2p1k3oos71&format=json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '[{"url": "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast"}]'

{
  "channel_name": "MrBeast",
  "channel_url": "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast",
  "subscribers": 358000000,
  "total_videos": 850,
  "total_views": 50000000000,
  "description": "...",
  "is_verified": true
}

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Supported data types

Videos

Titles, views, likes, descriptions, durations, and thumbnails. Discover videos by keyword, hashtag, or explore.

Channels

Subscriber counts, video counts, descriptions, and verification status. Discover channels by keyword.

Comments

Comment text, likes, replies, commenter details for any video.

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Request methods

The Bright Data YouTube Scraper API supports two request methods. Choose based on your volume and latency needs.
MethodEndpointBest for
Synchronous/scrapeReal-time lookups, up to 20 URLs
Asynchronous/triggerBatch jobs, 20+ URLs, production pipelines
Learn more in Understanding sync vs. async requests.

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Capabilities and limits

CapabilityDetail
Output formatsJSON, NDJSON, CSV
Max URLs per sync request20
Max URLs per async request5,000
Data freshnessReal-time (scraped on demand)
Delivery optionsAPI download, Webhook, Amazon S3, Snowflake, Azure, GCS (all options)
PricingPay per successful record (see pricing)

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Common questions

Yes. Each request triggers a live scrape. There is no cached or stale data. Response times vary by endpoint: channels typically return in 10-30 seconds (sync), while discovery requests may take longer depending on result volume.
URL collection scrapes a specific YouTube page you provide (e.g., a channel URL). Discovery finds YouTube content matching search criteria (e.g., videos by keyword or hashtag) and scrapes the results. Discovery is only available via async requests.
When scraping using proxies or Web Unlocker, you still need to write and maintain your own parsing logic and update it whenever YouTube changes its page structure. The YouTube Scraper API handles the entire stack: proxy rotation, anti-bot bypassing and parsing. You simply send a YouTube URL and get clean, structured JSON back with no scraping infrastructure or parser maintenance required on your end.

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Next steps

Quickstart

Scrape your first YouTube channel in 5 minutes.

Send your first request

Full code examples in cURL, Python, and Node.js.

API reference

Endpoint specs, parameters, and response schemas.