YouTube extraction API

YouTube Scraper - Extract Videos & Channels

Extract public YouTube video metadata, channels, and playlists into clean Markdown or normalized JSON for agents and RAG.

Try it free No account needed

Live playground

Try YouTube extraction.

Use an example or paste your own public URL. The playground calls the same cacheable GET API your agent will use.

Result

Open raw

Supported inputs

Built for normal public URLs.

Public watch, Shorts, and youtu.be URLs
Public channels, handles, and legacy user pages
Public playlist pages
Markdown and schema-versioned JSON

Clear boundaries

Know exactly what to expect.

No transcripts, captions, comments, or media downloads
No private videos or unlisted channel discovery
Video output describes the page rather than spoken content

One GET request

Add YouTube data to your agent.

No SDK and no account are required during the public preview. Choose JSON for typed entities or Markdown for direct model context.

Read the quickstart

curl --get 'https://extractor.sh/api/extract' \
  --data-urlencode 'url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ' \
  --data-urlencode 'format=json'

const params = new URLSearchParams({
  url: 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ',
  format: 'json',
});

const response = await fetch(
  `https://extractor.sh/api/extract?${params}`,
);
const data = await response.json();

from json import load
from urllib.parse import urlencode
from urllib.request import urlopen

params = urlencode({
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "format": "json",
})

with urlopen(f"https://extractor.sh/api/extract?{params}") as response:
    data = load(response)

Common questions

YouTube scraper FAQ

What YouTube URLs can extractor.sh process?

Videos and Shorts, Channels, Playlists. Use an ordinary public URL from the platform.

What does the YouTube extraction API return?

One video entity or an ordered feed for a channel or playlist. Choose raw Markdown or schema-versioned JSON for every request.

What are the limits of YouTube extraction?

No transcripts, captions, comments, or media downloads. No private videos or unlisted channel discovery. Video output describes the page rather than spoken content.

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