Slot usage
1 slot
Estimated execution time
~30 seconds per video
What you'll need
-
One or more YouTube video URLs
→ See the full breakdown of all input fields in the detailed section below.
What you’ll get
- Video URL, ID, title, and description
- Video length and thumbnail URL
- Channel and author details (URLs, thumbnails, subscribers)
- Engagement metrics (views and likes)
-
Content metadata (category, publish date, live/family-safe flags)
→ See the full breakdown of all output fields in the detailed section below.
Step 1: Provide your video URLs
Tell the Phantom which YouTube videos you want to extract. You can provide inputs in any of these formats:
- Paste a single YouTube video URL directly in the setup field.
- Provide a Google Sheet with YouTube video URLs (make sure it’s shared with “Anyone with the link”).
- Upload a CSV file with YouTube video URLs (make sure it’s publicly accessible, and note that CSV upload is only available on paid plans).
→ If you’re using a spreadsheet, the Phantom defaults to the first column (A). To use a different column, enter the column’s header name in the field “Column name containing video URLs.”
Step 2: Configure extraction settings
Fine-tune how much data to collect per launch:
-
Number of videos to scrape per launch (optional):
- Default = 10.
- Leave empty to process all provided videos in one launch.
-
Extract the video transcript (optional):
- Enable if you want the Phantom to collect the transcript of each video (if available).
Result file settings (dropdown in setup)
-
Name your results file (optional)
-
You can customize the file name.
If you rename the file between launches, the Phantom will create a new results file and start processing inputs from scratch.
-
-
Fields to keep (optional)
- Export only the fields you care about by listing them (comma-separated).
Example: profileUrl, job, location. - This generates a second CSV file with just those fields.
- Learn more in our guide: Customize how your Phantom results files are saved.
- Export only the fields you care about by listing them (comma-separated).
Step 3: Select launch frequency
Choose how often the Phantom should run:
- Launch manually: Start the Phantom yourself whenever you need.
- Launch once at a specific time: schedule a one-time run at a set date and time.
- Launch repeatedly: schedule regular runs (e.g. once per day, several times during working hours).
- Launch after another Phantom: chain automations together so this Phantom starts right after another finishes.
- Advanced scheduling: customize the exact minutes, hours, days, or months when the Phantom should run.
→ For a complete walkthrough of scheduling options, see our guide to scheduling Phantoms automatically.
Step 4 (Optional): Advanced settings
Advanced settings are available if you want to fine-tune how your Phantom runs, but by default they’re already optimized for most use cases.
We recommend leaving them as they are unless a guide specifically instructs you to change something.
→ For a detailed overview of all advanced options (like execution limits, retries, email notifications, proxies, webhooks, and file management), see our Advanced settings guide.
Launch and results
When you’re ready:
- Click Launch to start your Phantom.
- Once it finishes, open the Results tab in the Phantom console to see extracted video data (titles, descriptions, engagement counts, transcript if enabled).
- Download your results as a CSV or JSON file.
→ To learn how to export your data to Google Sheets, integrate with other tools, or reuse it in more automations, check our Access and Export your Phantom Results guide.
Export and input limits on the Free plan
If you’re on the Free plan or Free trial, some features are limited:
- CSV exports include only the first 10 rows of results.
- CSV download links (for dynamic viewing in Google Sheets or integrations) are not available.
- JSON exports are not available.
- CSV upload as an input method is not supported.
To unlock all features, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.
What you give (Input) and What you get (Output)
This section gives you a detailed breakdown of everything you need to provide to run this Phantom, and everything you’ll receive once it completes.
What you give (Input)
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| YouTube videos | YouTube video URLs |
What you get (Output)
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| title | Title |
| description | Description |
| videoLength | Video Length |
| thumbnailUrl | Thumbnail URL |
| videoId | Video ID |
| videoUrl | Video URL |
| channelId | Channel ID |
| channelUrl | Channel URL |
| author | Author |
| authorThumbnailUrl | Author Thumbnail URL |
| subscriberCount | Subscriber Count |
| profileUrl | Profile URL |
| viewCount | View Count |
| likeCount | Like Count |
| category | Category |
| publishDate | Publish Date |
| isLiveContent | Is Live Content |
| isFamilySafe | Is Family Safe |
Tips and troubleshooting
Common pitfalls
- Using a private spreadsheet (make sure it’s set to “Anyone with the link”).
- Processing too many videos in one launch: Stick to the defaults to reduce errors or timeouts. Running too many at once can cause Phantom performance issues (timeouts or incomplete runs).
- Transcript extraction: Some videos don’t have transcripts, or may have them only in certain languages. In these cases, no transcript will be returned.
If you run into issues
- Check how to troubleshoot your phantom using Logs.
- Browse the Fix Issues & Troubleshoot Errors section for solutions to common problems.
- Review our Automation Rate Limits by Platform guide.
- Check our Best Practices for Social Media Automation guide.
Suggested automations
- YouTube Channel Scraper → Collect channel-level data (e.g. descriptions, subscribers) to combine with video-level results.
- YouTube Channel Video Extractor → Build video lists directly from YouTube channels, then pass them to the Video Scraper for enrichment.
- AI Advanced Enricher → Analyze or summarize video content and engagement data for deeper insights.