YouTube scraper

YouTube Channel Scraper API

Pull subscriber counts, view totals, video lists, and Shorts for any YouTube channel via simple API. No quota math. No OAuth dance.

The official YouTube Data API v3 lets you read channel data through a general daily quota pool, but collecting a complete channel library requires resolving the channel and paginating its uploads playlist. It does not provide a dedicated channel Shorts feed. CreatorCrawl reads a public YouTube channel by handle, returns channel metadata, and provides separate paginated video and Shorts endpoints.

What you get

  • Subscriber count, total views, country, join date

    Channel endpoint returns the full set of public channel stats and metadata in one call.

  • Long-form videos and Shorts in separate endpoints

    Dedicated /channel/videos and /channel/shorts endpoints make it easy to analyze long-form vs Shorts performance independently.

  • One credit model instead of Google quota planning

    The official API applies a daily quota pool across operations. CreatorCrawl uses credits, with one standard request consuming one credit.

  • Works with channel handle, ID, or URL

    Pass a handle (e.g. "mrbeast"), a channel ID, or a full channel URL. All work the same way.

Code example

Pass your API key in the x-api-key header. Get structured JSON back.

# Get a YouTube channel by handle
curl "https://app.creatorcrawl.com/api/youtube/channel?handle=mrbeast" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

# Get the channel's long-form videos
curl "https://app.creatorcrawl.com/api/youtube/channel/videos?handle=mrbeast" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

# Get the channel's Shorts
curl "https://app.creatorcrawl.com/api/youtube/channel/shorts?handle=mrbeast" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

How it works

1

Sign up for 50 free credits

No credit card required, no Google Cloud setup, no quota application. Your API key is generated instantly.

2

Pass a channel handle, ID, or URL

Pass a handle like "mrbeast" to /channel. Get back subscriber count, total views, country, join date, and description in 2 seconds.

3

Paginate through videos and Shorts

Use /channel/videos for long-form content and /channel/shorts for the Shorts feed. Both endpoints support pagination.

4

Build dashboards or AI agents

Pipe channel data into your dashboard, sponsorship outreach tool, or AI agent via MCP.

Endpoints

Every endpoint below is part of the CreatorCrawl YouTube API and is also exposed as a native MCP tool.

GETChannel/youtube/channel
GETChannel Videos/youtube/channel/videos
GETChannel Shorts/youtube/channel/shorts

Frequently asked questions

What channel data does the API return?

Subscriber count, total view count, country, join date, description, and the channel handle. The /channel/videos endpoint returns paginated long-form videos with title, view count, duration, publish date, and thumbnail. /channel/shorts returns the Shorts feed.

Can I look up a channel by URL or just by handle?

Both. Pass a handle (e.g. "mrbeast"), a channel ID (UCx6f6yJOZUhWLfaHL_NPN_g), or a full URL (https://www.youtube.com/@mrbeast). All resolve to the same data.

How is this different from the YouTube Data API v3?

The official API uses channels and playlistItems requests to resolve and paginate a channel uploads playlist, with costs drawn from its general daily quota pool. It does not provide a dedicated channel Shorts feed. CreatorCrawl offers separate channel, video, and Shorts endpoints and charges one credit per standard call.

Can I scrape channels at scale?

Yes. CreatorCrawl has no rate limits. Process tens of thousands of channels per hour with concurrent requests. The Scale tier (100,000 credits, $299) covers ~100K channel lookups per month at $2.99 per 1K.

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