youtube-scraper-api

Node.js client for the ScrapingBee YouTube scraper API. Search YouTube, read video metadata, and pull subtitles as parsed JSON, with proxies, headless rendering, and anti-bot handling done server-side. If you need a youtube scraping api in a Node service without running browsers yourself, this is the wrapper.

npm install youtube-scraper-api

Free tier: 1,000 credits, no card, at scrapingbee.com.

Build a YouTube scraper in three calls

A common flow: search a topic, pick a result, then enrich it with metadata and captions. Here it is end to end.

const { YouTubeScraper } = require('youtube-scraper-api');

const yt = new YouTubeScraper({ apiKey: 'YOUR-API-KEY' });

async function run() {
    const hits = await yt.search({ search: 'python tutorial', type: 'video', sortBy: 'view_count' });
    const videoId = hits.results[0].videoId;

    const details = await yt.metadata({ videoId });
    const captions = await yt.subtitles({ videoId, language: 'en' });

    console.log(details, captions);
}

run();

Every method returns a Promise that resolves to parsed JSON. Authentication is a Bearer token the client sets for you.

Each call on its own

Searching

const hits = await yt.search({ search: 'machine learning' });
console.log(hits.results);

A search is the core of any youtube video scraper: it returns videos, channels, and playlists with titles, view counts, durations, and thumbnails.

Metadata

const details = await yt.metadata({ videoId: 'dQw4w9WgXcQ' });

Returns duration, view count, like count, upload date, description, channel info, thumbnails, and available formats for one video.

Subtitles

const captions = await yt.subtitles({ videoId: 'dQw4w9WgXcQ', language: 'en' });

Returns timestamped caption segments. Pass subtitleOrigin to choose auto-generated or uploader-provided captions when both exist.

Search filters

Add any of these to a search() call:

| Option | API parameter | Accepted values | |---|---|---| | type | type | video, channel, playlist, movie | | uploadDate | upload_date | today, last_hour, this_week, this_month, this_year | | duration | duration | <4, 4-20, >20 | | sortBy | sort_by | rating, relevance, view_count, upload_date | | hd, fourK, subtitles, creativeCommons, live | hd, 4k, subtitles, creative_commons, live | booleans | | tag | tag | custom id echoed back in the response | | extra | (any) | object for other documented flags: 360, 3d, hdr, vr180, location, purchased |

const filtered = await yt.search({
    search: 'lo-fi',
    type: 'video',
    uploadDate: 'this_week',
    duration: '>20',
    live: true,
});

What a search returns

{
  "results": [
    {
      "videoId": "...",
      "title": { },
      "longBylineText": { },
      "thumbnail": { },
      "lengthText": { },
      "shortViewCountText": { },
      "publishedTimeText": { }
    }
  ],
  "search": "query string"
}

Each result carries only the fields YouTube returned, so guard with optional chaining before reading.

Credits and pricing

ScrapingBee bills successful calls. search() is 5 credits per call. The cost for metadata() and subtitles() shows in the dashboard request builder. Plan tiers: scrapingbee.com/pricing.

FAQ

Is there a free youtube scraper api?

ScrapingBee gives 1,000 free credits with no card. Search is 5 credits per call, enough for a few hundred test queries.

How do I get a transcript?

Call subtitles({ videoId }). It returns timestamped caption segments, and subtitleOrigin picks auto-generated or uploader-provided captions.

Why does a plain fetch return no video data?

YouTube renders results in the browser, so the raw HTML is empty. These endpoints run a headless browser server-side and return parsed JSON.

Is scraping YouTube allowed?

Public data is generally collectible for research and monitoring, but YouTube's terms and local regulations apply. Scrape public content only.

Links

• ScrapingBee YouTube API
• YouTube API documentation
• ScrapingBee pricing

License

MIT. See LICENSE.

Disclaimer

Unofficial Node.js wrapper around the ScrapingBee YouTube API. Not affiliated with ScrapingBee or YouTube. Compliance with YouTube's terms of service and applicable data-protection law is the responsibility of the operator.