YouTube Scraper API

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.

New to Bright Data? Create a free account and get 5,000 free credits every month, no credit card required. That’s up to 5,000 YouTube records to start scraping. See the free tier.

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_KEY

All requests use a dataset_id to specify the data type (videos, channels, or comments) and return results in JSON, NDJSON, or CSV.

What the response looks like

A single record returned by the Bright Data YouTube Scraper API. Run the request yourself in the quickstart.

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

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.

Request methods

The Bright Data Scraper API supports two request methods. Choose based on your volume and latency needs.

Method	Endpoint	Best for
Synchronous	`/scrape`	Real-time lookups, up to 20 URLs
Asynchronous	`/trigger`	Batch jobs, 20 or more URLs, production pipelines

Learn more in Understanding sync vs. async requests.

Capabilities and limits

Capability	Detail
Output formats	JSON, NDJSON, CSV
Max URLs per sync request	20
Max URLs per async request	Unlimited, up to 1 GB of input per job
Data freshness	Real-time (scraped on demand)
Delivery options	API download, webhook, Amazon S3, Snowflake, Azure, GCS (all options)
Pricing	Pay per successful record (see pricing)

Common questions

Is the data scraped in real time?

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.

What is the difference between URL collection and discovery?

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.

How is this different from scraping using proxies or Web Unlocker?

When scraping using proxies or Web Unlocker, you still need to write and maintain your own parsing logic and update it whenever the target site changes its page structure. The Bright Data Scraper API handles the entire stack: proxy rotation, anti-bot bypassing and parsing. You send a URL or keyword and get clean, structured JSON back, with no scraping infrastructure or parser maintenance on your end.

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.

Get started

Data extraction

Web access

AI training data

Proxy networks

How it works

What the response looks like

Supported data types

Videos

Channels

Comments

Request methods

Capabilities and limits

Common questions

Next steps

Quickstart

Send your first request

API reference

​How it works

​What the response looks like

​Supported data types

Videos

Channels

Comments

​Request methods

​Capabilities and limits

​Common questions

​Next steps

Quickstart

Send your first request

API reference

How it works

What the response looks like

Supported data types

Request methods

Capabilities and limits

Common questions

Next steps