YouTube is one of the largest video platforms on the internet, with over 2 billion monthly logged-in users. With this huge amount of data, it's understandable why developers may want to collect or "scrape" YouTube data for analysis and insight purposes. However, YouTube's terms of service strictly prohibit scraping without permission.
What Does YouTube Consider Scraping?
Using an automated program to extract large amounts of data from YouTube, such as video titles, descriptions, captions, comments, view counts and more. This includes using the YouTube API to pull data beyond the normal usage limits.
YouTube specifically calls out the following activities under scraping:
Why Does YouTube Restrict Scraping?
YouTube aims to protect its platform, users and intellectual property. Indiscriminate scraping can overburden YouTube's servers, interfere with the user experience, and enable collection of personal data without consent.
Are There Any Exceptions?
YouTube does allow limited personal, non-commercial use of its API to view public data. But in general, collecting or using aggregate YouTube data requires explicit permission under its Terms of Service.
Some exceptions YouTube states:
Best Practices for Scraping YouTube Safely
If you want to analyze YouTube data, consider these options:
The key is respecting YouTube's terms and conditions, limiting collection only to what you need, and handling any scraped data securely. With the right approach, useful YouTube data analysis is possible while still following YouTube's rules.