# YouTube Comments Scraper (`karamelo/youtube-comments-scraper`) Actor

YouTube comment scraper is a powerful tool that extracts valuable data from any YouTube video's comment section. Gather all comments, authors, posting dates, votes, reply counts. Use CSV or Excel or HTML tables, JSON...

- **URL**: https://apify.com/karamelo/youtube-comments-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [karamelo](https://apify.com/karamelo) (community)
- **Categories:** Videos, Social media
- **Features:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 63 total users, 0 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 3 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$0.50 / 1,000 comments

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

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

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
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.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## 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.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## YouTube Comments Scraper

Extract public top or newest comments from one YouTube video. Provide a standard YouTube watch URL, a comment limit, and an optional sort order. The actor follows YouTube's public web request flow, deduplicates comments by their public comment ID, and stops when it reaches the requested limit or YouTube has no further comments.

### Input

| Field | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `url` | Yes | URL of the YouTube video to inspect. |
| `number` | Yes | Number of comments to collect. The actor enforces a maximum of 10,000 comments per run. |
| `sorting` | No | `Top comments first` (default) or `Newest comments first`. |

### Output

Each dataset item is a public comment with the existing actor fields: `author`, `hasHeart`, `publishedTime`, `likes`, `replies`, `uCommentId`, `videoURL`, and `title`. Comment text is retained in `sortTopCommentsFirst` or `sortNewestCommentsFirst`, matching the selected sorting option.

Comments that are unavailable, disabled, or no longer returned by YouTube are not fabricated. The actor does not access private or login-only content.

### Example input

```json
{
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXJx8j7JpKY",
  "number": 100,
  "sorting": "Top comments first"
}
```

# Actor input Schema

## `url` (type: `string`):

The URL of the video you want to extract the comments from.

## `number` (type: `integer`):

How many comments do you want to extract from the video comment section.

## `sorting` (type: `string`):

You can sort the comments by Top Comments first or by Newest comments first.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXJx8j7JpKY",
  "number": 100,
  "sorting": "Top comments first"
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# 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 = {
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXJx8j7JpKY",
    "number": 100,
    "sorting": "Top comments first"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("karamelo/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 = {
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXJx8j7JpKY",
    "number": 100,
    "sorting": "Top comments first",
}

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

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

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

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXJx8j7JpKY",
  "number": 100,
  "sorting": "Top comments first"
}' |
apify call karamelo/youtube-comments-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,karamelo/youtube-comments-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/rzXNjclctTgoeQSMZ/builds/RFQIdmdGnQ2cDeSzH/openapi.json