# YouTube Comments Scraper - Text, Authors, Likes & Replies (`parseforge/youtube-comments-scraper`) Actor

Scrape YouTube comments from any video: comment text, author, like count, reply count, and timestamp. No API key required. Reliable structured output for sentiment analysis, audience research, and moderation. Export to CSV, JSON, or Excel.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/parseforge/youtube-comments-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [ParseForge](https://apify.com/parseforge) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media, Videos, AI
- **Stats:** 92 total users, 9 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 3 bookmarks
- **User rating**: 5.00 out of 5 stars

## Pricing

from $3.50 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

![ParseForge Banner](https://github.com/ParseForge/apify-assets/blob/ad35ccc13ddd068b9d6cba33f323962e39aed5b2/banner.jpg?raw=true)

## 💬 YouTube Comments Scraper

> 🚀 **Collect comments and replies from YouTube videos in minutes.** Paste video URLs and export comment text, authors, likes, timestamps, and reply threads. Optional AI sentiment analysis. No coding, no YouTube API key.

> 🕒 **Last updated:** 2026-07-28 · 100% run success, no API key required.

The **YouTube Comments Scraper** collects comment data from any public YouTube video, returning **15+ fields per comment**: author name, comment text, like count, reply count, timestamp, and full reply threads. Optional AI enhancement adds sentiment analysis and topic categorization. Runs support up to 1,000,000 comments on a paid plan.

The Actor accepts video URLs and supports configurable reply depth, per-comment reply limits, and optional AI-powered sentiment analysis.

| 🎯 Target Audience | 💡 Primary Use Cases |
|---|---|
| Content creators, marketers, brand teams, social media analysts, product teams, academic researchers | Audience feedback analysis, sentiment tracking, community monitoring, content research, competitor analysis |

### 📋 What the YouTube Comments Scraper does

Video URL input with reply and AI options:

- 🔗 **Video URL input.** Paste one or more YouTube video URLs.
- 💬 **Reply threads.** Include nested replies with configurable depth.
- 🔢 **Reply limits.** Control max replies per top-level comment.
- 🤖 **AI enhancement.** Optional sentiment analysis and topic categorization.

Each comment record includes author name, author channel URL, comment text, like count, reply count, timestamp, and (when replies enabled) nested reply array with the same fields.

> 💡 **Why it matters:** reading through thousands of YouTube comments manually is slow and tedious. This Actor exports structured comment data at scale, ready for sentiment analysis, community feedback reports, or content strategy insights.

### 📊 Data fields

Each record includes: `authorId`, `authorName`, `authorThumbnailUrl`, `authorUrl`, `commentId`, `isPinned`, `isVerified`, `likeCount`, `parentId`, `publishedAt`, `publishedTimeText`, `replyCount`, `scrapedAt`, `text`, `type`, `videoId`, `videoUrl`. All 17 field names come from a real production run, so what you see here is what lands in your dataset.

> ⚠️ **Good to Know:** some videos have comments disabled. The Actor reports this and moves to the next URL. AI enhancement requires additional processing time per comment.

### 🚀 How to use

1. 📝 **Sign up.** [Create a free account with $5 credit](https://console.apify.com/sign-up?fpr=vmoqkp) (takes 2 minutes).
2. 🌐 **Open the Actor.** Go to the YouTube Comments Scraper page on the Apify Store.
3. 🎯 **Set input.** Paste video URLs. Enable replies and/or AI enhancement.
4. 🚀 **Run it.** Click **Start** and let the Actor collect your data.
5. 📥 **Download.** Grab your results in the **Dataset** tab as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML.

> ⏱️ Total time from signup to downloaded dataset: **3-5 minutes.** No coding required.

### 🔗 Recommended Actors

- [**🎬 YouTube Scraper**](https://apify.com/parseforge/youtube-scraper) - Video data and channel stats
- [**🎬 Auto Video Thumbnail Generator**](https://apify.com/parseforge/auto-video-thumbnail-generator) - AI video thumbnails
- [**📸 Instagram Posts Scraper**](https://apify.com/parseforge/instagram-posts-scraper) - Instagram posts and engagement
- [**🐦 X.com Tweets Scraper**](https://apify.com/parseforge/x-com-scraper) - Tweet data and metrics
- [**📱 Reddit Posts Scraper**](https://apify.com/parseforge/reddit-posts-scraper) - Reddit posts

> 💡 **Pro Tip:** browse the complete [ParseForge collection](https://apify.com/parseforge) for more video and social scrapers.

> **⚠️ Disclaimer:** this Actor is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by YouTube, Google LLC, or Alphabet Inc. All trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. Only publicly available comment data is collected.

### 🆘 Need Help?

If you hit a bug, have questions about setup, or need a scraper we haven't built yet, open our [contact form](https://tally.so/r/BzdKgA) or write to parseforge@protonmail.com. We also take on paid custom data projects.

For faster answers, join our [Discord](https://parseforge.co/discord). It's the best place to get support and suggest new actors.

# Actor input Schema

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

Enter YouTube video URLs to scrape comments from. Supports youtube.com/watch, youtu.be, and youtube.com/shorts URLs.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

How many comments to collect per run.

## `includeReplies` (type: `boolean`):

Whether to include replies to comments. If false, only main comments will be scraped.

## `maxRepliesPerComment` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of replies to fetch per comment. Only used when Include Replies is enabled.

## `aiEnhancement` (type: `boolean`):

Enable AI-powered analysis for each comment. Adds sentiment analysis, emotion detection, toxicity scoring, and language detection. Note: This uses AI processing and may increase run time.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
    }
  ],
  "maxItems": 10,
  "includeReplies": true,
  "maxRepliesPerComment": 100,
  "aiEnhancement": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `overview` (type: `string`):

Complete dataset with all comment fields including AI analysis

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

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

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("parseforge/youtube-comments-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "startUrls": [{ "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" }],
    "maxItems": 10,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("parseforge/youtube-comments-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
    }
  ],
  "maxItems": 10
}' |
apify call parseforge/youtube-comments-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=parseforge/youtube-comments-scraper",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/cFxUatbor0Yo5sL9X/builds/Q1Y1IM4JJ4Qq3eGhH/openapi.json