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📘 Guide

A guide for those who want to order YouTube parsing as a service or independently extract data using the YouTube-Parser template.

This material will be useful both for YouTube-Parser owners and those who are first encountering the task of parsing data from YouTube. The guide thoroughly examines data collection features, current limitations, and ways to obtain the maximum number of relevant results in a given topic.

1. Input Data for YouTube Parsing​

Information search on YouTube works on the same principle as other search engines such as Google, Yandex, or Yahoo. To get the needed data, you must specify an input parameter -- search query (key phrase or keyword). The search query is entered into the search bar, after which YouTube returns results corresponding to the query topic.

Functions like: "parse everything", "collect channels from CIS with audience of 10,000+ subscribers" or "find cryptocurrency channels from USA" are absent and not provided. YouTube does not provide the ability to filter data by audience, content category, countries, number of subscribers, views, or video publication frequency. The only available way to search for channels, videos, and playlists is entering a search query into the YouTube search bar and analyzing the obtained results.

For example, to search for channels on cryptocurrency topics, you can use the following search queries:

  • Trending DeFi tokens

  • Crypto Exchange

  • Crypto passive income

In response, YouTube will provide relevant results corresponding to the entered queries.

2. YouTube Search Results Limitation​

YouTube imposes a limitation on the number of results returned for one search query -- no more than 600 results. This means that when entering one query, it's impossible to get more than 600 channels, videos, or playlists. This limitation cannot be bypassed!

The actual number of available results depends on the popularity of the search query. If the query is in demand, YouTube will provide the maximum possible number of records, but no more than 600. To get more data in the needed topic, it's recommended to use different search queries. The more different queries specified as input data for parsing, the more unique channels, videos, and playlists can be collected.

3. YouTube Parsing Stages​

YouTube data parsing is most often performed in several stages:

  1. Search results parsing for videos, channels, or playlists.

  2. Extended information parsing about channels, videos, and playlists based on collected links from search results.

YouTube provides only a limited set of data about found entities in search results. For example, such data as: number of subscribers, views, likes, full video description, publication date, channel country, and others cannot be obtained directly from search results. To collect this data, it's necessary to make separate requests to YouTube for each found entity.

Suppose you need to find children's channels with subscriber count from 5000 and created before 2022. In this case, the parsing process will consist of 2 stages:

  1. First, channel links are collected by thematic search queries.

  2. Then, for each found link, additional parsing of channel information is performed (subscriber count, creation date, etc.).

In some cases, a third parsing stage may be needed. For example, if required:

  • collect social media links

  • get a complete list of published videos on the channel,

  • select channels by video publication date, view count, likes, and other parameters.

If parsing is performed as a service, then each stage is paid separately according to current prices.

4. Why is it better to parse video results?​

When searching for thematic channels in search results, it's recommended to parse videos, not channels.

Why shouldn't you parse channel results?
If you use channel search, YouTube returns only those channels whose names contain all or part of the words from the search query in exact order. This means that:

  • The channel name must include the searched phrase or part of it.

  • The number of found channels will be significantly limited, as many thematic channels may not contain query keywords in the name.

Why is it better to parse video results?
If you search by videos, YouTube returns results of two types:

  1. Videos with exact match of the search phrase in the title.

  2. Videos that relate to the query topic, even if the title doesn't contain all keywords.

This is possible thanks to YouTube algorithms that analyze video content and classify it to a specific topic, even if the title doesn't have an exact match with the search query.

Thus, parsing search results by videos allows discovering more relevant channels that publish content in the needed topic.

💡 Optimal option – combine both methods:

  • Use video search to collect the widest possible base of thematic channels.

  • Additionally use channel search if you need to find channels with specific keywords in the name.

5. Results Filtering​

Data filtering allows excluding unwanted entities from parsing results. It can be performed in two ways:

  1. Filtering during parsing – performed by YouTube-Parser tools.

  2. Filtering after parsing – performed in the report table using filters and conditions in Microsoft Excel.

It's recommended to apply filtering in Microsoft Excel, as this provides more capabilities:

✅ Using complex filtering criteria and conditions.

✅ Ability to cancel excluded results and apply new filter values without re-collecting data.

How does filtering during parsing affect?

If you enable filtering at the parsing stage in YouTube-Parser, this doesn't slow down the data collection process – speed remains unchanged.

6. Parsing Methods​

In YouTube-Parser, two parsing methods are implemented that can be chosen depending on the type of data being collected or the task at hand:

  1. YouTube Data API v3 – official API designed for convenient data retrieval from YouTube.

  2. InnerTube API – private API used by YouTube itself for client-server interaction, for example, when loading content in a browser.

YouTube Data API v3​

The YouTube Data API v3 method is considered primary in YouTube-Parser because it:

  • Ensures stable operation.

  • Guarantees maximum data retrieval speed.

  • Allows extracting the vast majority of available information.

InnerTube API​

Some data is available only through InnerTube API because:

  • YouTube Data API v3 doesn't provide all possible methods for information retrieval.

  • YouTube restricts access to certain data through the official API.

Examples of functions that work exclusively through InnerTube API:

  • Trends parsing

  • Channel posts parsing

  • Post comments parsing

  • Channel social media links parsing

  • Video downloading

  • Subtitle downloading

Choosing Parsing Method​

Some functions support both methods, and the user can choose the appropriate option.
The used method affects the available data fields in the results table. The parsing method can be changed on the first tab of Input Settings.

7. YouTube API Keys​

For data parsing using YouTube Data API v3, special API keys (API Keys) are required -- this is a unique string of 39 characters through which access to YouTube API and data retrieval is performed.

How do API key quotas work?​

  • Each key has a daily quota -- 10,000 points that are consumed with each API call.

  • A fixed number of points is deducted for each operation.

  • The quota is renewed every day, allowing unlimited use of the key within the limit.

  • The more keys – the more data can be collected during the day.

How to get API keys?​

API keys can be:
✅ Registered independently in Google Developer Console.
✅ Purchased ready-made keys – this is more convenient and easier, especially if a large volume of data is required.

API Key Limits​

Approximate limits:
✅ 5 search queries – search results parsing.
✅ 10,000 videos – video information parsing.
✅ 10,000 channels – channel information parsing.

💡 Important!
The quota is shared for all parsing methods and tasks! If the key is completely exhausted, no other requests can be made until the quota is renewed.

8. Proxies for InnerTube API Parsing​

When using the InnerTube API parsing method, proxies may be needed, as YouTube limits request frequency. With too large a volume of requests, the service may request ReCaptcha completion for protection against automated systems.

Which proxies are better to use?​

Recommended:

✅ Individual IPv4 proxies with high speed and low ping (server, residential, mobile).

Not recommended:

❌ IPv6 proxies – YouTube often blocks them.

❌ Public proxies – low speed, instability, high probability of restrictions.

Request Limits for One IP​

Approximate limits:
✅ 50 search queries – search results parsing.
✅ 500 – 1000 videos – video information parsing.
✅ 500 – 1000 channels – channel information parsing.

💡 Important!
Using quality proxies allows increasing limits and reducing the probability of blocking.