The Best YouTube Scrapers in 2025
YouTube is a powerhouse of video content, offering millions of videos on every topic you can imagine. So, web scraping YouTube can open many doors. Researchers, developers, and marketers gather large-scale data for various purposes, such as trend analysis, content recommendations, and market research. The platform is also a popular source for AI training.
Even though the platform offers an official API that allows you to retrieve videos, playlists, comments, and other information, the method has some limitations. The API gives access only to the predefined data, and you won’t be able to send as many requests as you want – the default limit is 10,000 units per day.
So, if you find these limitations ruining your day, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, you’ll find the best YouTube web scraping tools. We analyzed each scraper based on its features, performance, and pricing.
The Best YouTube Scapers of 2025:
1. Bright Data – the most robust YouTube scrapers.
2. Smartproxy – affordable and performant YouTube scrapers.
3. Oxylabs – premium YouTube scrapers.
4. Nimbleway– AI-based YouTube scraper.
5. Zyte API – YouTube scraper at a relatively cheap price.
Is it Legal to Scrape YouTube?
It’s no secret that websites aren’t fond of web scrapers. There are numerous good reasons for that – they overload the servers, collect personal data and other valuable information.
In a nutshell, web scraping YouTube is legal. The same rules for automated data collection apply to any other website. You can scrape data that’s not behind a login and not a subject of intellectual property rights. There are more guidelines to consider, so it’s best to discuss a specific use case with a lawyer just to be sure you comply with them all.
How Does YouTube Identify Scrapers?
YouTube uses several methods to identify users and detect potential bots:
- IP address monitoring: YouTube tracks the number of requests coming from a single IP address. If you exceed the allowed number, you’ll encounter YouTube Error 429, which can disrupt your scraper. Persistent requests can lead to your IP address being banned. To avoid this, assign a new IP address to each request so YouTube sees them as coming from different users. Also, poor IP quality can result in slower performance, higher rates of CAPTCHA challenges, or outright blocks, so it’s important to use high-quality proxies
- User-Agent string analysis: The user-agent string, which is part of your browser fingerprint, is another way YouTube checks for bots. Scrapers often use outdated or generic user-agent strings, which can be easily flagged.
- Behavior patterns. YouTube uses machine learning algorithms to analyze user behavior patterns, distinguishing between human and bot activity. For example, human browsing is more chaotic, while bots tend to follow more predictable patterns.
- JavaScript execution: YouTube also monitors whether the browser executes JavaScript before loading the page. Automated scripts often bypass this step, signaling to the platform that the user may not be real.
Other factors that can reveal your identity include cookies and inconsistencies in browser parameters.
Types of YouTube Scrapers
YouTube is a popular web scraping target, so you won’t lack tools to choose from. The type of scraper you get depends on different factors such as price, difficulty setting up and using, or the scope of your project. Usually, they’re divided into:
- No-code tools. If you don’t have web scraping skills, you can either use pre-made templates that work by simply clicking on elements or buy pre-scraped and maintained YouTube datasets. Usually, dedicated YouTube scrapers are ideal for smaller tasks, but they are less customizable.
- Web scraping API or proxy APIs are third-party tools that take care of most of the web scraping process. You simply send a request to the API with a few lines of code, and while it opens and extracts information, it also handles proxies and unblocking mechanisms. Most providers offer different pricing plans, so you can easily scale up or down when needed. The major difference between web scraping API and proxy API is that the latter integrates as a proxy server.
- Custom-built scrapers. This is the most advanced way to go about YouTube web scraping. You can build a scraper using web scraping libraries, but you will have to handle each web scraping aspect on your own – crawling, getting and managing website blocks and proxies, as well as cleaning the data.
The Best YouTube Scrapers in 2025
1. Bright Data
The most robust YouTube scrapers.
Available tools:
specialized YouTube scraper API & YouTube datasets
Locations:
global with city & country targeting
- Pricing model: based on successful requests
- Pricing structure: PAYG, subscription
- Support: 24/7 support via chat or email
- Free trial: 7-day trial for companies
- Pricing:
– YouTube datasets: $500 for 200K records ($2.5/1K)
– Web Scraper API: $1/1K records
Bright Data has one of the strongest web scraping infrastructures. The provider offers two tools that work well with YouTube. You can get its pre-scraped YouTube datasets, and a Web Scraper API with dedicated endpoints for YouTube. Let’s look at how each tool differs to find the best fit for you.
If you’re looking for a no-code solution, go with Bright Data’s YouTube datasets. The provider allows you to choose between two options: buying a pre-made YouTube dataset or customizing one using different filters. You can retrieve data in your preferred format (CSV, JSON, Excel) and storage (AWS, Google Drive, Google Cloud Storage).
Bright Data also offers several Web Scraper APIs dedicated to YouTube with endpoints for profiles, comments, and video posts. The tools integrate as an API and you can get structured data.
A major concern about Bright Data is steep subscription price – $500 . Additionally, the APIs are technically challenging, so newbies should stick to YouTube datasets.
For more information and performance tests, read our Bright Data review.
2. Smartproxy
Affordable and performant YouTube scrapers.
Available tools:
general purpose scraper & proxy-based API
Locations:
195 with country-level targeting
- Pricing model: based on successful requests
- Pricing structure: subscription
- Support: 24/7 support via chat or email
- Free trial: 14-day money-back option or 7-day trial
- Pricing:
– Site Unblocker: $34 for 15K requests ($2.25/1K requests) or $28 for 2GB ($14/1GB)
– Web Scraping API: Core subscription starts from $29 for 100K requests ($0.29/1K); Advanced subscription – $50/25K requests ($2/1K)
Smartproxy is our favorite choice when it comes to affordable, well-maintained products and the best customer service. The provider has two YouTube scrapers: Web Scraping API and Site Unblocker. Contrary to Bright Data, Smartproxy focuses on ease of use and accessibility.
Site Unblocker is a web scraper that integrates as a proxy server. Smartproxy is one of the few providers to offer two pricing options: pay for successful requests or traffic.
Web Scraping API is a general-purpose scraper that integrates as a proxy or an API and returns results via an open connection. There are pricing plans for the scraper API: Core and Advanced. The Core plan comes with location limitations and excludes advanced features like JavaScript rendering, though it’s cheap. The Advanced plan has access to all features but you’ll pay the full price.
Smartproxy provides an API playground for live testing, allowing you to build requests, view their output, and download code snippets. Moreover, it offers detailed GitHub code examples and a Postman collection to facilitate easier integration.
For more information and performance tests, read our Smartproxy review.
3. Oxylabs
Premium YouTube scraper.
Available tools:
specialized YouTube scraper API
Locations:
195 with country-level targeting
- Pricing model: based on successful requests
- Pricing structure: subscription
- Support: 24/7 via live chat, dedicated account manager
- Free trial: 7-day trial with 5K results
- Pricing: starts from $49 for 24,500 results ($2/1K results)
Oxylabs is a premium provider with a reliable web scraping infrastructure. The provider offers Web Scraper API with dedicated endpoints for YouTube.
You can integrate Web Scraper API in two API formats with optional asynchronous delivery to get results in batches. You can get the HTML of any YouTube page.
Some useful features include task scheduling, location and device selection, and the ability to pass custom headers. The scraper also has parsing functionality but you’ll have to specify the selectors manually.
Additional perks if you stick with Oxylabs is 24/7 customer support, extensive documentation, and a simple user interface.
For more information and performance tests, read our Oxylabs review.
4. Nimbleway
AI-based YouTube scraper.
Available tools:
specialized YouTube scraper API
Locations:
150+ countries with state & city targeting
- Pricing model: based on successful requests
- Pricing structure: PAYG, subscription
- Support: live chat on the dashboard, email, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Discord
- Free trial: available
- Pricing: $3/1K requests
Like some other providers on this list, Nimbleway offers a scraper API with dedicated endpoints for YouTube.
What sets this provider apart from its competition is its use of AI trained on HTML structures to collect data from YouTube. With natural language instructions, you can create schemas that automatically correct errors.
Nimble API supports three delivery methods: real-time, where data is returned immediately; cloud, where data is delivered to your cloud storage; and push/pull, where data is stored on Nimble’s servers and can be downloaded via a provided URL.
You can also use batch requests and handle up to 1,000 tasks with a dedicated endpoint and a structure similar to asynchronous requests. Additionally, the provider allows you to use parsing templates to extract data points from YouTube using CSS selectors.
Nimbleway uses a credit-based pricing model, placing it in the higher price range, but it offers flexibility with pay-as-you-go or monthly plans.
For more information and performance tests, read our Nimbleway review.
5. Zyte
YouTube scraper at a relatively cheap price.
Available tools:
general-purpose scraper API
Locations:
150 with automatic country selection
- Geolocation: 150+ locations
- Pricing model: based on optional features
- Pricing structure: PAYG, subscription
- Support: available via asynchronous contact method
- Free trial: trial for $5 available
- Pricing: custom
Zyte offers a general-purpose web scraper that is fully capable of targeting YouTube.
The tool primarily integrates as an HTTP API. There’s also proxy-like integration, but you won’t get features like browser rendering, data parsing, and the ability to create sessions.
Zyte’s API automatically selects the location based on the page. The API selects request headers, device type, and other basic parameters. The provider also offers a playground in the dashboard that automatically generates code snippets based on your chosen parameters.
However, there’s a limit of 500 requests per minute with an option to increase it upon request. The provider uses a unique pricing model that dynamically calculates the cost of requests based on factors like the website’s difficulty, residential proxies, headless browsers, and others.
For more information and performance tests, read our Zyte API review.
6. ScraperAPI
YouTube Scraper for developers.
Available tools:
general-purpose scraper API
Locations:
12 (50+ available upon request)
- Pricing model: based on successful requests and optional features
- Pricing structure: subscription
- Support: available via email
- Free trial: 1,000 free credits/month or 7-day free trial
- Pricing: Starts from $49/100,000 API credits
ScraperAPI is another general-purpose scraper that you can use with YouTube.
The API is very versatile in terms of integration. You can choose between these methods: a proxy server, library/SDK, and two APIs (open connection and asynchronous).
ScraperAPI focuses on developers; it supports programming languages like Python, PHP, NodeJS, Ruby, and Java. The documentation comes with very neat and detailed instructions on how to set up each language.
All plans include automatic proxy rotation, retries, and session support. For an additional fee, you can access features like precise geotargeting covering 12 countries (50 more available upon request), JavaScript rendering, and dedicated support. You can also get a free plan with 5,000 API credits for 7 days to test the tool.
However, similar to Zyte’s product, the provider uses a credit-based system. Rendering JavaScript or using premium proxies costs extra. What’s more, ScraperAPI doesn’t offer a parser for Youtube.
7. Apify
No-code YouTube Scraper.
Available tools:
multiple YouTube scrapers
Locations:
Unknown
- Pricing model: based on usage
- Pricing structure: subscription
- Free trial: a free plan with $5 platform credits is available
- Pricing: monthly plans starting from $49 with $49 platform credits and 30 shared datacenter proxies.
Apify is a well-established provider focusing on no-code web scraping. It offers a YouTube template with a point-and-click interface with an option to customize the template by modifying its code or requesting a new one if needed.
You can scrape various YouTube data points like channel videos, subtitles, playlists, streams, search results, and more. The scraper can extract up to 20 thousand videos per URL.
Apify offers two web scraping methods: either by URL or by search term. The results will appear as a dataset that you can find in the provider’s dashboard. You can also download the file with data in formats like JSON, CSV, and Excel. Besides that, the provider supports scheduling, different delivery options, and the ability to get notifications when the YouTube scraper is done.
The provider uses a credit-based pricing system. If you’re serious about your YouTube project, you might need residential proxies that cost $10/GB extra. Otherwise, datacenter IPs are included with each plan.
