YouTube doesn't have a "download comments" button. There's no menu item under the three-dot icon and YouTube Studio only exports comments on your own videos — not videos you're researching, competing with, or analyzing. If you need a CSV or Excel file of comments from any YouTube video, you need a downloader.
This guide covers the three free ways to do it in 2026, the limits each has, and which to pick depending on whether you're a developer or just trying to get a spreadsheet to your team this afternoon.
Method 1: Use a no-code YouTube comment downloader (recommended for non-developers)
The fastest way to download comments from any public YouTube video without installing anything:
- Go to ZocialComment's YouTube comment downloader.
- Copy the YouTube video URL from your browser's address bar (any format works —
youtube.com/watch?v=...,youtu.be/..., or Shorts). - Paste it into the input field.
- Choose CSV (opens in Excel) or JSON (for scripts and dashboards).
- Click "Download". The first 500 comments are processed for free in about 30–60 seconds.
What you get in the CSV: Comment text, author name, author channel URL, like count, reply count, published date, parent reference (for replies), and a handful of metadata columns — roughly the same shape as YouTube's own API returns.
Free tier: 3 videos per day per IP, 500 comments per video. No account, no card. If you need more (full threads, more than 3 videos, bulk runs), the $9 unlimited pass gives three days of unlimited downloads with a single Google login.
Method 2: Use the YouTube Data API (for developers)
YouTube publishes a free, documented API for retrieving comments — commentThreads.list in YouTube Data API v3. The cost is a couple of hours of setup; the benefit is a sustainable, official endpoint you can wire into a real product.
- Create a project in Google Cloud Console and enable the YouTube Data API v3.
- Create an API key (for read-only public data) or OAuth client (if you need user context).
- Call
GET https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/commentThreads?part=snippet,replies&videoId=VIDEO_ID&maxResults=100&key=YOUR_KEY. - Paginate with the
nextPageTokenuntil the response stops returning one. - Write the rows to a CSV — pandas'
to_csv()is one line.
Quota: 10,000 units per day by default. Each comment-thread list call costs 1 unit and returns up to 100 comments — so the cap is roughly a million comments per day per project. Plenty for most use cases.
Limits: Comments disabled on the video? You'll get an error. Private/unlisted video you don't own? Inaccessible. Comments removed by the creator or YouTube? They won't appear.
Method 3: Open-source CLI tool
The youtube-comment-downloader Python package (on PyPI and GitHub) scrapes comments without an API key. It's been maintained for years and is the standard reach-for tool for one-off pulls inside a Jupyter notebook.
pip install youtube-comment-downloaderyoutube-comment-downloader --url "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" --output comments.json- If you need CSV, pipe through
jqor a one-liner Python script.
Pros: Free, no quota, no OAuth, no key. Five minutes from pip install to a JSON file.
Cons: Scrapes YouTube's web frontend, which puts it outside the YouTube Terms of Service grey zone. When YouTube changes the request format, the tool breaks until the maintainer ships a patch. Don't depend on it for production.
What about YouTube Studio?
YouTube Studio's analytics has a comments tab, but it only shows comments on videos you own and there's no native CSV export. You can use the Reports section to export various engagement metrics, but the raw comment text isn't one of them. For comments on someone else's video, Studio is not an option.
Comparison: which downloader to pick
| If you… | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Need a CSV in the next 5 minutes | No-code downloader | Zero setup, runs in the browser |
| Are building a product or dashboard | YouTube Data API | Free, official, sustainable |
| Are a developer doing one-off research | Open-source CLI | Free, no auth, takes 5 minutes |
| Need 50+ videos at once | No-code bulk mode | Avoids quota juggling |
| Need replies, not just top-level | API or no-code | Both include replies; some extensions don't |
How to open the CSV in Excel without breaking emoji and Thai/Arabic text
YouTube comments are full of emoji, RTL scripts, and non-Latin characters. If Excel mangles them on open, the fix is the import flow rather than the double-click:
- Open Excel first with a blank workbook.
- Data → From Text/CSV → pick your downloaded file.
- In the preview, set "File Origin" to 65001: Unicode (UTF-8).
- Click Load.
Same trick we cover for TikTok in how to export TikTok comments to Excel — UTF-8 import works identically for YouTube.
What you can do with downloaded YouTube comments
- Sentiment analysis — pump the CSV into a sentiment model (or use built-in AI analysis) to score positive/negative/neutral and surface complaints.
- Topic extraction — cluster comments to see what viewers actually care about. Hugely useful for content strategy on a competitor's channel.
- UGC and testimonial mining — searchable text of every endorsement, useful for ad copy and landing pages.
- Influencer vetting — read the comments on a creator's last 10 videos before paying for a sponsorship. Comment sentiment tells you more than follower count.
- Giveaway pickers — randomize the CSV to draw a winner from public comments. (For TikTok, we have a dedicated comment picker guide; YouTube works the same way.)
Frequently asked questions
Is downloading YouTube comments allowed?
Using the YouTube Data API within its terms is explicitly allowed for documented purposes. Scraping the web frontend is a grey zone and not authorized by YouTube's ToS, even though it's a common pattern. Public comments are public data, but how you use them still matters — don't republish identifiable user content without reason and don't use it for individual ad targeting.
Can I download comments from a video that has comments disabled?
No. If the creator disabled comments, none of the methods above can return them — they don't exist as accessible data.
Can I download comments from a private or unlisted video?
Only if you own the video and authenticate via OAuth. The API and web scrapers can't read comments on videos you don't have access to.
How many comments can I download for free?
The Data API allows roughly 1,000,000 comments per day within its free quota. The no-code free tier on ZocialComment is 3 videos per day × 500 comments per video; the $9 pass raises that to unlimited for 3 days.
Does the download include replies?
The Data API and ZocialComment both include replies, with a parent-reference column so you can reconstruct threads. Some old Chrome extensions only return top-level comments — check before relying on one.
What format should I download — CSV or JSON?
CSV if a human is going to open it in Excel. JSON if a script is going to read it — JSON preserves nested replies and types more cleanly than CSV.
Download YouTube comments now
Most people Google "youtube comment downloader" because they need a spreadsheet, not a Python package. Run a free download here — paste a URL, get CSV in under a minute. If you need more, the $9 pass covers three days unlimited, and AI analysis is a $20/mo subscription if you'd rather get scored output than raw rows.