How to scrape Google Videos with Python
This guide shows how to scrape Google Videos with Python: call one endpoint, get each video as clean JSON, then save it to a CSV file. No browser automation, no parsing HTML.
One request, real response
The hard part of scraping the Google Videos tab yourself is driving a browser, dodging blocks, and parsing a page that keeps changing. Instead you send one HTTP request to a search endpoint and get clean JSON back, or the same rows as CSV. First a quick test with curl:
Then the same call in Python with the requests library. Install it with pip install requests, drop in a key, and run:
The response is one JSON object. The searchParameters field echoes your query, and videos is the list of results. Here are the first two that came back, shown as CSV so they drop straight into Sheets or a database:
Each request returns one page of results. To pull more, pass a page number and loop, collecting every page into one list:
Change q to any search you would type into the Videos tab, like python tutorial or how to change a tire.
The full record, ready to use
Every result comes complete, so you build a research set or a content feed with no second call. Here is one record as CSV, ready for Sheets or a database:
Or the same record as JSON, exactly as the API returns it:
vs writing your own scraper
You can build a video-results scraper with a headless browser and a parser, and plenty of tutorials show how. The trade is maintenance. Here is the difference in practice.
| Writing it yourself | CrustAPI | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | Install a headless browser, handle blocks and page changes | One GET request, no browser |
| Output | Parse the HTML yourself; fields break when the layout changes | Clean JSON from the API, or the same rows as CSV |
| Maintenance | Fix the scraper each time the page changes | We keep it working |
| Free tier | Free, but you pay in time and blocked requests | 3,000 results / month, no card |
| Cost model | Server, proxy, and developer time | One credit per successful search, any number of videos; empty searches free |
| Storing the data | Yours to manage | No storage limits. Export to CSV or a database |
One credit per search
Prepaid packs, and credits never expire: 25k for $49 · 100k for $149 · 500k for $549 · 2.5M for $1,999 · up to 250M, all self-serve, ex-tax. A search that returns results costs one credit, however many videos come back; a search that returns none costs nothing.
Save the results to a CSV file
Because the response is plain JSON, Python's built-in csv module writes it to a file in a few lines. No extra libraries. This reads every video from the search and writes one row each:
Open videos.csv in Sheets or Excel and you have a finished list. Swap the query, run it again, and append to build a bigger dataset.
Related: Google Videos Scraper · Google Search API · Google Images API · API docs
When a different tool fits better: pulling a channel's full upload history, comment threads, or view counts is what the YouTube Data API is built for. This endpoint returns the public video results Google shows for a search, which is what most research and content work needs, but it is not the official YouTube API.
Common questions
Clay
Try it on a search you know
3,000 free credits covers a real search. Run one query and look at the JSON that comes back.
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