Extract public YouTube playlist video lists with titles, channels, positions, durations, thumbnails, URLs, and playlist metadata.
Use this actor when you need a clean dataset from one or more public YouTube playlists for research, audits, curation, monitoring, or reporting.
At a glance
- Input: Public YouTube playlist URLs or playlist IDs, per-playlist video cap, and optional proxy settings.
- Output: One row per public playlist video with position, video URL, title, channel, duration, views, thumbnails, and playlist context.
- Best for: Playlist exports, video inventory, curriculum/media lists, creator research, and YouTube data pipelines.
- Pricing unit: A start event per run plus one
resultevent for each saved playlist-video row. - Login required: No. The Actor reads public YouTube playlist pages only.
What can it do?
YouTube Playlist Videos Scraper turns public YouTube playlist URLs into structured dataset rows.
Each output item represents one video in a playlist.
The actor collects playlist-level context and video-level metadata in the same row.
You can export the results as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, RSS, or HTML from Apify.
Common jobs include content inventory, playlist backup, competitor research, and recurring monitoring.
Who is it for?
📣 Content marketers can audit brand, competitor, or influencer playlists.
🎓 Educators can catalog course playlists and learning paths.
🧪 Researchers can build repeatable video datasets from public playlist pages.
🎬 Media teams can monitor editorial playlists and content collections.
🧑💻 Developers can feed playlist video rows into automations, dashboards, and enrichment pipelines.
Why use this actor?
YouTube playlists are easy to browse manually but slow to copy into a spreadsheet.
This actor saves the repetitive work.
It returns normalized video IDs, video URLs, playlist IDs, titles, positions, thumbnails, channels, and timestamps.
The dataset format is designed for downstream filtering, deduplication, and reporting.
How to use it
- Open the actor on Apify.
- Paste one or more public YouTube playlist URLs.
- Set the maximum number of videos per playlist.
- Leave proxy settings at the default unless you have a reason to change them.
- Click Start.
- Download the dataset when the run finishes.
Input notes
The main input is playlistUrls.
You can paste full URLs like:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrEnWoR732-DZV1Jc8bUpVTF_HTPbywpE
You can also use playlist IDs.
PLrEnWoR732-DZV1Jc8bUpVTF_HTPbywpE
Input example
{
"playlistUrls": [
{ "url": "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrEnWoR732-DZV1Jc8bUpVTF_HTPbywpE" }
],
"maxVideosPerPlaylist": 25,
"proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": false }
}
Output example
{
"playlistUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrEnWoR732-DZV1Jc8bUpVTF_HTPbywpE",
"playlistId": "PLrEnWoR732-DZV1Jc8bUpVTF_HTPbywpE",
"playlistTitle": "Learn Something New",
"position": 1,
"videoId": "MhgLasBFr6o",
"videoUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhgLasBFr6o&list=PLrEnWoR732-DZV1Jc8bUpVTF_HTPbywpE&index=1",
"title": "What was TEKOI? [INCORRECT VERSION]",
"duration": "6:19",
"channelName": "CGP Grey",
"channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@CGPGrey",
"scrapedAt": "2026-06-17T08:47:04.106Z"
}
Tips for best results
Use public playlists.
Check that the playlist opens in a normal browser without logging in.
Start with a low maxVideosPerPlaylist value for testing.
Increase the limit once the output shape looks right.
Run separate jobs for unrelated playlist groups if you want easier exports.
Integrations
Send results to Google Sheets for editorial calendars.
Send results to Airtable for content databases.
Use webhooks to trigger notifications after a playlist audit finishes.
Use the Apify API to schedule recurring playlist monitoring.
Connect the dataset to BI tools for video catalog analysis.
API usage with Node.js
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';
const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('fetch_cat/youtube-playlist-videos-scraper').call({
playlistUrls: [{ url: 'https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrEnWoR732-DZV1Jc8bUpVTF_HTPbywpE' }],
maxVideosPerPlaylist: 25
});
console.log(run.defaultDatasetId);
API usage with Python
from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient('MY_APIFY_TOKEN')
run = client.actor('fetch_cat/youtube-playlist-videos-scraper').call(run_input={
'playlistUrls': [{'url': 'https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrEnWoR732-DZV1Jc8bUpVTF_HTPbywpE'}],
'maxVideosPerPlaylist': 25,
})
print(run['defaultDatasetId'])
API usage with cURL
curl -X POST 'https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/fetch_cat~youtube-playlist-videos-scraper/runs?token=MY_APIFY_TOKEN' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"playlistUrls":[{"url":"https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrEnWoR732-DZV1Jc8bUpVTF_HTPbywpE"}],"maxVideosPerPlaylist":25}'
MCP and AI agents
Use the Apify MCP server to run this actor from Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or another MCP-compatible client.
Server URL pattern:
https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch_cat/youtube-playlist-videos-scraper
Claude Code setup:
claude mcp add apify-youtube-playlists https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch_cat/youtube-playlist-videos-scraper
Claude Desktop JSON configuration:
{
"mcpServers": {
"apify-youtube-playlists": {
"url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch_cat/youtube-playlist-videos-scraper"
}
}
}
Example prompts:
- "Extract the first 25 videos from this YouTube playlist and summarize the channels."
- "Run the YouTube Playlist Videos Scraper every Monday and compare new video IDs."
- "Export this playlist inventory to a CSV-friendly table."
Limitations
Only public playlist data can be extracted.
Private, deleted, members-only, age-restricted, or region-blocked videos may not appear.
Very large playlists may require multiple runs or future pagination improvements.
Fields depend on what YouTube exposes publicly for each playlist row.
Some metadata, such as exact publish dates or views, may be absent on some playlist pages.
Troubleshooting
If a run returns no items, confirm that the playlist URL contains a list= parameter.
If the playlist opens only after login, the actor cannot access it as public data.
If a playlist is very large, reduce the limit for a first test run.
If YouTube temporarily blocks your run environment, try enabling Apify Proxy.
Legal and ethical use
This actor extracts publicly available YouTube playlist information.
You are responsible for using the output in compliance with applicable laws, YouTube terms, and privacy rules.
Do not use scraped data for spam, harassment, impersonation, or other abusive workflows.
Support
If you need help, open an issue on the Apify actor page and include your run ID, playlist URL, and expected output.
Data export formats
After a run, open the dataset tab.
Choose JSON for APIs.
Choose CSV or Excel for spreadsheets.
Choose HTML for quick review.
Choose RSS if another tool needs feed-style ingestion.
Quality checklist
The default input is intentionally small.
The output is flat and spreadsheet-friendly.
The dataset contains stable IDs for deduplication.
The actor is suitable for one-off exports and recurring playlist audits.
