How to scrape YouTube Channel Shorts with Node.js

A channel's Shorts, newest first, with views and likes. This tutorial gets it with a short Node.js program and the YouTube Channel Shorts API. Each successful call costs 1 credit; errors and not-found answers are free.

1. Get an API key

Sign in to get a key and 100 free credits, no card. Then put the key in an environment variable so it stays out of your code:

export SCRAPEIO_API_KEY="your_key_here"

2. Set up Node.js

Node 18 or newer; fetch is built in

3. Write the code

Save this as scrape.mjs.

const url = new URL("https://scrapeio.com/v1/youtube/channel/shorts");
url.searchParams.set("handle", "nike");
const headers = { "x-api-key": process.env.SCRAPEIO_API_KEY };

const items = [];
while (true) {
  const res = await fetch(url, { headers });
  if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`HTTP ${res.status}`);
  const { data } = await res.json();
  items.push(...(data.items ?? []));
  if (!data.has_more || !data.cursor || items.length >= 100) break;
  url.searchParams.set("cursor", data.cursor);
}
console.log(items.length, "items");
console.log(items.slice(0, 3));

The loop follows data.cursor until data.has_more is false, and stops at 100 items. Each page is one call, so it costs 1 credit.

4. Run it

node scrape.mjs

The response has the same envelope on every endpoint: success, cached, credits_used, credits_remaining and data. Shared fields such as handle, followers, plays, likes and created_at have the same names on every platform.

Parameters

Name	Type	Description
`handle`	string	Channel handle, e.g. @MrBeast.
`channelId`	string	Channel id (UC...). Send this or handle.
`cursor`	string	Cursor from the previous page's data.cursor.

Errors and what you pay

Status	Meaning	Charged
`200`	Success	Yes, unless cached
`400`	A parameter is missing or wrong	No
`401`	The key is missing or invalid	No
`402`	Not enough credits	No
`403`	The account or post is private	No
`404`	Not found on the platform	No
`429`	More than 300 requests a minute	No
`502`	Every source is down; retry shortly	No

Same endpoint in other languages

Python · JavaScript · TypeScript · Go · Rust · Java · C# · PHP · Ruby · Kotlin · Swift · R

Prefer no code?

Connect the MCP server to Claude Code, Cursor or Codex and ask in plain English. The agent uses the youtube_channel_shorts tool for you.

100 free credits, no card. Credits never expire.

Get API key