FAQ

Do I need a YouTube API key?

No. ytscrape talks to YouTube's internal InnerTube API — the same endpoints the website uses — so there is no key, no Google Cloud project, and no quota.

How is this different from yt-dlp?

yt-dlp focuses on downloading media. ytscrape focuses on data: search, metadata, comments, transcripts and channel uploads, returned as typed Python objects, with a sync and an async API.

I get RateLimited or BotDetected. What now?

Slow down: use min_interval=, a larger RetryPolicy, and lower concurrency. A different IP/proxy can help too. See Reliability.

Why is published_at approximate?

Search results only show relative text like "3 weeks ago". Use video.details().published_at for the exact date.

Why is views None?

YouTube did not show a count (e.g. upcoming premieres). The raw wording is in views_text.

Is scraping YouTube legal?

Check YouTube's Terms of Service and the laws in your jurisdiction. Only collect public data, respect rate limits, and do not redistribute content.

Does it work with asyncio?

Yes — install ytscrape[async] and use AsyncYouTube. See Async API.

Something broke after a YouTube change.

Open an issue with the failing call and, if possible, the debug log of the ytscrape logger.