YouTube Comments Scraper

YouTube Comments Scraper

Scrape comments and replies from any YouTube video, up to a million per run. Every comment comes with its text, author, likes, timestamp, and computed AI signals. No API key or OAuth. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

YouTube's official API requires an app registration, OAuth, and imposes strict quotas that limit how many comments you can pull. This Actor reads the public comment feeds directly, filtered by video URL, and returns each comment and reply in one fixed schema. Optionally, enable AI enhancement to get sentiment, emotion, toxicity, and language detection for every comment.

Who uses it	What they scrape YouTube for
Content creators	Which topics or phrases spark the most engagement in their video comments.
Market researchers	What audiences are saying about a brand, product, or trend across multiple videos.
Community managers	Flag toxic or highly emotional comments for moderation or response.
Data analysts	Build sentiment and emotion datasets from public YouTube discussions.

What it does

This Actor collects comments and replies from YouTube videos by URL, and returns each one as a flat row with optional AI-powered analysis.

• 🧠 AI-powered analysis: Sentiment (positive/negative/neutral), emotion (joy, anger, sadness, etc.), toxicity score, and language detection per comment.
• 💬 Replies included or excluded: Choose to scrape only top-level comments or include nested replies up to a configurable depth.
• 📦 Bulk extraction: Scrape from multiple video URLs in one run, up to 1,000,000 comments total.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with YouTube data

📈 Track audience sentiment on a product launch.

A brand manager runs the scraper on review and unboxing videos, enables AI analysis, and exports the sentiment breakdown to decide on messaging adjustments.

🔍 Moderate comments at scale.

A community manager scrapes comments from a popular channel, filters by high toxicity scores, and prioritises moderation actions.

📊 Build a training dataset for NLP models.

A data scientist collects millions of YouTube comments with AI-generated labels (sentiment, emotion, language) to train a custom classifier.

💡 Identify trending topics in a niche.

A content creator scrapes comments from competitor videos, groups by common phrases, and plans their next video around what viewers are asking.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
No API limits	Bypass YouTube's quota restrictions and OAuth setup.
AI signals	Get sentiment, emotion, toxicity, and language without extra tools.
Full reply tree	Optionally scrape nested replies with a configurable max per comment.
Flat schema	Every comment and reply is a single row, ready for analysis.

How it compares

Compared to the popular YouTube Scraper, this actor focuses specifically on comments and replies with built-in AI analysis.

Feature	ParseForge	YouTube Scraper
Scrapes comments and replies	Yes	Not listed
AI sentiment analysis	Yes	Not listed
AI emotion detection	Yes	Not listed
AI toxicity scoring	Yes	Not listed
AI language detection	Yes	Not listed
Scrapes video metadata	Not listed	Yes
Scrapes channel info	Not listed	Yes

Configure the run

Drive the Actor from one or more YouTube video URLs (supports youtube.com/watch, youtu.be, and youtube.com/shorts). Filters run as each comment is read so only matches reach your dataset. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
    }
  ],
  "maxItems": 10
}

A larger pull:

{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
    }
  ],
  "maxItems": 200
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.0045 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$0.45
1,000 results	$4.50
10,000 results	$45.00

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the YouTube Comments Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to YouTube through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/youtube-comments-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting no comments?

Check that the video URL is correct and publicly accessible. Some videos have comments disabled or are private. Also verify that maxItems is set high enough.

The AI analysis is not running.

Ensure the 'AI Enhancement' toggle is enabled in the input settings. AI analysis only runs when this option is turned on.

Replies are not being scraped.

Make sure 'Include Replies' is set to true. Also check that maxRepliesPerComment is not set to 0.

The run is taking too long.

Reduce maxItems or maxRepliesPerComment. AI analysis also increases run time; disable it if speed is critical.

I get an error about invalid URL.

Only use URLs in the formats: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=..., https://youtu.be/..., or https://www.youtube.com/shorts/... Remove any extra parameters or playlist IDs.

FAQ

Question	Answer
Do I need a YouTube API key?	No. This scraper reads the public comment feeds directly, so no API key or OAuth is required.
Can I scrape comments from a live stream?	Yes, as long as the video is publicly accessible and has comments enabled. The scraper reads the current comment feed.
What video URL formats are supported?	Standard youtube.com/watch?v=..., youtu.be/..., and youtube.com/shorts/... URLs are all supported.
How many comments can I scrape per run?	Up to 1,000,000 comments per run, configurable via the maxItems field.
Does the AI analysis cost extra?	AI enhancement is an optional feature that uses processing time on the Apify platform. It may increase run duration and cost, but no separate API key is needed.
Can I scrape replies to comments?	Yes. Enable the 'Include Replies' option and set the max replies per comment (default 100, up to 1000).
What fields are returned for each comment?	Each comment row includes the comment text, author name, author channel URL, like count, published date, and if AI is enabled, sentiment, emotion, toxicity score, and detected language.
Can I scrape comments from multiple videos at once?	Yes. Provide multiple video URLs in the startUrls array, and the scraper will process them sequentially in one run.
Is there a limit on the number of videos I can input?	No hard limit, but the total comment count across all videos is capped by the maxItems setting.
What export formats are available?	You can export the dataset as CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML directly from the Apify platform.

Related actors

Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.

🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Google LLC. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.