Apify Public Data & Leads

YouTube Video Search

youtube_video_search

Read-only

Search public YouTube videos by keyword to get title, channel, URL, views, duration, and publish date - no API quota needed. Use for content research, competitor video monitoring, and trend discovery.

Instructions

Search public YouTube videos by keyword, returning title, channel, canonical video URL, view count, duration, and publish date - no YouTube Data API quota required.

Behavioral Transparency:

Execution: Network call executed synchronously in the cloud via Apify Actor 'captainhandsome/youtube-search-scraper'.
Side Effects: Reads public sources and creates a billed Actor run and dataset on your Apify account.
Authentication: Requires APIFY_TOKEN environment variable.
Latency & Limits: Typical run duration is 10-30 seconds; timeout capped at 120 seconds.

Usage Guidelines:

When to use: Use for content research, competitor video monitoring, trend discovery, or building a list of videos on a topic.
When NOT to use: Do not use for retrieving a video's transcript/captions, channel analytics dashboards, or non-YouTube platforms.
Named alternatives: Use 'google_play_reviews_search' for app-store sentiment or 'linkedin_jobs_search' for job-market data; neither covers video content.

Input Schema

TableJSON Schema

Name	Required	Description	Default
`max_results`	No	Maximum number of unique video records to return. Defaults to 25.
`search_query`	Yes	Keyword or phrase to search for on YouTube (e.g. 'small business marketing').

Output Schema

TableJSON Schema

Name	Required	Description	Default
`run`	No
`error`	No
`status`	Yes
`results`	Yes

Schema Changelog

Changes observed during successful MCP inspections.

Changed18 schema fields changedv1.1.0Sep 15, 2026
- addedInput schema / additionalProperties
```
Added value: +false
```
- addedOutput schema / properties / error
```
Added value: +{
+  "type": "object"
+}
```
- removedOutput schema / properties / results / description
```
Removed value: -"Collection of YouTube video search result records."
```
- addedOutput schema / properties / results / items / properties / channel_name / title
```
Added value: +"Channel name"
```
- addedOutput schema / properties / results / items / properties / channel_url / title
```
Added value: +"Channel URL"
```
- addedOutput schema / properties / results / items / properties / duration / title
```
Added value: +"Video duration"
```
- changedOutput schema / properties / results / items / properties / published / description
```
Previous value: -"Relative publication age displayed in search results (e.g. '2 years ago')."New value: +"Relative publication time displayed in search results."
```
- addedOutput schema / properties / results / items / properties / published / title
```
Added value: +"Displayed publication age"
```
- changedOutput schema / properties / results / items / properties / title / description
```
Previous value: -"Public title of the video."New value: +"Public title of the YouTube video."
```
- addedOutput schema / properties / results / items / properties / title / title
```
Added value: +"Video title"
```
- addedOutput schema / properties / results / items / properties / video_url / title
```
Added value: +"Video URL"
```
- changedOutput schema / properties / results / items / properties / view_count / description
```
Previous value: -"'views' parsed into a number, handling K/M/B suffixes and comma grouping."New value: +"'views' parsed into a number, handling K/M/B suffixes and comma grouping. Null if unparseable."
```
- addedOutput schema / properties / results / items / properties / view_count / title
```
Added value: +"View count"
```
- addedOutput schema / properties / results / items / properties / views / title
```
Added value: +"Displayed view count"
```
- removedOutput schema / properties / results / items / required
```
Removed value: -[
-  "title",
-  "video_url"
-]
```
- addedOutput schema / properties / run
```
Added value: +{
+  "type": "object"
+}
```
- addedOutput schema / properties / status
```
Added value: +{
+  "enum": [
+    "success",
+    "empty_unverified",
+    "partial",
+    "error"
+  ],
+  "type": "string"
+}
```
- changedOutput schema / required
```
Previous value: -[
-  "results"
-]New value: +[
+  "results",
+  "status"
+]
```
Addedv1.0.11Sep 13, 2026

TDQS

A4.7/5.0

Behavior5/5

Does the description disclose side effects, auth requirements, rate limits, or destructive behavior?

The description goes well beyond annotations by disclosing the execution model (synchronous network call via Apify Actor), side effects (billed Actor run and dataset creation), authentication requirement (APIFY_TOKEN), and latency limit (120s timeout). This fully informs the agent of the operational consequences, and it does not contradict the readOnly/openWorld/destructive annotations.

Agents need to know what a tool does to the world before calling it. Descriptions should go beyond structured annotations to explain consequences.

Conciseness5/5

Is the description appropriately sized, front-loaded, and free of redundancy?

The description is well-organized with clear sections (Behavioral Transparency, Usage Guidelines) and front-loads the core purpose and outputs. Every sentence adds meaningful information, and the length is proportionate to the tool's complexity.

Shorter descriptions cost fewer tokens and are easier for agents to parse. Every sentence should earn its place.

Completeness5/5

Given the tool's complexity, does the description cover enough for an agent to succeed on first attempt?

The description covers purpose, output fields, usage boundaries, alternatives, auth, side effects, latency, and execution model. With an output schema present, nothing essential is missing for an agent to decide to use or correctly invoke this tool.

Complex tools with many parameters or behaviors need more documentation. Simple tools need less. This dimension scales expectations accordingly.

Parameters3/5

Does the description clarify parameter syntax, constraints, interactions, or defaults beyond what the schema provides?

Schema coverage is 100%, and the schema already documents both parameters with descriptions, defaults, constraints, and examples. The description adds minimal param-level meaning beyond the schema, only restating that it searches 'by keyword', so the baseline 3 is appropriate.

Input schemas describe structure but not intent. Descriptions should explain non-obvious parameter relationships and valid value ranges.

Purpose5/5

Does the description clearly state what the tool does and how it differs from similar tools?

The description states a specific verb ('Search'), a clear resource ('public YouTube videos'), and enumerates the exact returned fields (title, channel, canonical URL, view count, duration, publish date). It also distinguishes itself by noting 'no YouTube Data API quota required', which clearly differentiates it from typical YouTube API tools.

Agents choose between tools based on descriptions. A clear purpose with a specific verb and resource helps agents select the right tool.

Usage Guidelines5/5

Does the description explain when to use this tool, when not to, or what alternatives exist?

The description explicitly provides when-to-use scenarios (content research, competitor monitoring, trend discovery), clear when-NOT-to-use exclusions (transcripts, channel analytics, non-YouTube platforms), and names specific alternative tools (google_play_reviews_search, linkedin_jobs_search). This is complete routing guidance.

Agents often have multiple tools that could apply. Explicit usage guidance like "use X instead of Y when Z" prevents misuse.