YouTube Views Counter

A Python script that extracts view counts from YouTube videos without using the YouTube API. The script can process multiple YouTube URLs from a text file and export the results to a CSV file.

⚠️ IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER

This tool is for educational and research purposes only.

• YouTube's Terms of Service may prohibit automated data extraction
• Use at your own risk and responsibility
• Consider using YouTube's official API for production use
• Ensure compliance with applicable laws and terms of service

Features

• No API Required: Scrapes view counts directly from YouTube pages without needing API keys
• Batch Processing: Process multiple YouTube URLs from a text file
• Multiple URL Formats: Supports various YouTube URL formats (youtube.com/watch?v=, youtu.be/, etc.)
• CSV Export: Save results to a CSV file with view counts and summary statistics
• Error Handling: Continues processing even if some URLs fail, with detailed error reporting
• Rate Limiting: Built-in delays to avoid being blocked by YouTube
• Robust Parsing: Uses multiple regex patterns and BeautifulSoup fallback for reliable extraction

Requirements

• Python 3.6+
• Required packages:

  pip install requests beautifulsoup4

Usage

Command Line

python3 search.py input_file.txt [output_file.csv]

Examples

# Basic usage - print results to console
python3 search.py urls.txt

# Save results to CSV file
python3 search.py urls.txt results.csv

Input File Format

Create a text file with one YouTube URL per line:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
https://youtu.be/jNQXAC9IVRw
https://youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0

Output Format

The script generates a CSV file with the following structure:

URL,Views
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ,1234567890
https://youtu.be/jNQXAC9IVRw,987654321
https://youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0,Error: Invalid YouTube URL

Summary
Total Views,2222222211
Successful URLs,2
Failed URLs,1

Supported URL Formats

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID
• https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID
• https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID
• URLs with additional parameters (e.g., &t=30s)

Limitations

• No API Guarantees: Since this scrapes YouTube directly, it may break if YouTube changes their page structure
• Rate Limiting: Includes delays to avoid being blocked, making large batches slow
• Accuracy: View counts are approximate and may not match official API results

Example Output

Processing 3 URLs...

Processing URL 1/3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
Views: 1,234,567,890

Processing URL 2/3: https://youtu.be/jNQXAC9IVRw
Views: 987,654,321

Processing URL 3/3: https://youtube.com/watch?v=invalid
Error: Invalid YouTube URL

Summary:
========================================
Total Views: 2,222,222,211
Successfully Processed URLs: 2
Failed URLs: 1
========================================

Results saved to results.csv