How to See / Export All Comments on a YouTube Video

YouTube shows you a comment section, but it never gives you the whole thing in a form you can actually work with. Scroll far enough, and comments keep loading, replies hide behind "view replies," and there's no button anywhere that says "download all of this." So the moment you need every comment in one place, whether to pick a giveaway winner, study what your audience is saying, or keep a record, you hit a wall.

The good news is that exporting comments is straightforward once you know the options. This guide covers how to see all the comments on a video, the four ways to export them, what data you actually get, and the fastest route when your real goal is running a giveaway.

Quick answer: YouTube has no built-in button to export all comments on a video. To download them, use a browser extension, a web-based comment exporter (paste the video URL and export to CSV, Excel, or JSON), or the YouTube Data API for large or repeatable jobs. For a giveaway, a comment picker skips the spreadsheet entirely by pulling the comments and selecting a winner for you.

Why you'd want to see or export all comments

People reach for a comment export for a handful of reasons, and each one shapes which method fits best.

The most common is running a giveaway. If you asked viewers to comment to enter, you need every entry in one list so you can remove duplicates and draw fairly. Doing that by hand on a video with hundreds of comments is painful, which is why most creators lean on a tool when running a giveaway.

Beyond giveaways, creators export comments to read audience feedback at scale, spotting recurring questions, requests, and complaints that are easy to miss while scrolling. Marketers run sentiment analysis on the text to gauge how a video landed. Researchers gather comments as qualitative data. And some people simply want an archive of a video's comments before they change or disappear.

How to actually see all the comments first

Before exporting, it helps to understand why "see all comments" is harder than it sounds. YouTube loads comments in batches as you scroll, a pattern called lazy loading, so the full set isn't on the page until you've scrolled to the very bottom. Replies are collapsed under each top-level comment and load separately.

To browse them manually, switch the sort order at the top of the comment section between "Top comments" and "Newest first," since each surfaces different entries. Use your browser's find function (Ctrl+F or Cmd+F) to jump to a keyword once comments are loaded. But know the limit: manual scrolling is fine for reading, and hopeless for capturing everything on a busy video. That's where exporting comes in.

Four ways to export YouTube comments

1. Manual copy and paste

Open the video, scroll, select the comments, copy, and paste into a spreadsheet or document. No tools, no setup.

This makes sense exactly once: when you need fewer than 20 or 30 comments from a single video and won't do it again. Past that, scrolling to load everything and cleaning up the pasted mess costs more time than learning a real method. It also can't capture hidden replies or give you structured columns.

2. A browser extension

Comment exporter extensions (search the Chrome Web Store for names like "Comment Exporter" or "YouTube Comment Exporter") add a button to the YouTube page. You open a video, click the extension icon, and it scrolls through the comment section, captures the comments and replies, and saves them as a CSV, JSON, or text file. No API key, no coding, often no sign-in, and a 500-comment video usually finishes in under a minute.

The trade-off is reliability. Extensions depend on YouTube's page layout, and a front-end update can break them overnight. Before installing one, check that it was updated in the last 60 to 90 days, read recent reviews, and confirm it supports Shorts if you need those. Avoid extensions that ask for more permissions than the job requires.

3. A web-based export tool

Web exporters work without installing anything. You paste the video URL into a random comment picker or a dedicated export site, the tool fetches the comments, and you download them as CSV, XLSX, or JSON. Most are built on YouTube's official API, which makes them safer than random scripts, and many add useful filters: include replies, remove duplicate comments from the same user, filter by keyword, by like count, or by date.

Watch the free-tier limits, which vary a lot. Some free tools cap you at 50 comments and one export a day, others allow a few hundred to a thousand, and a few offer a set number of exports per month. For a typical video this is plenty; for very large videos you may need a paid tier or the API.

4. The YouTube Data API

For developers, large jobs, or anything you'll repeat regularly, the YouTube Data API v3 is the most powerful option. Its CommentThreads and Comments endpoints return structured comment data in JSON, which a short Python script can write to a CSV. Example code is widely available on GitHub.

The API is free up to a default quota of 10,000 units per day, which is enough for a large volume of comments with efficient code, though videos with hundreds of thousands of comments may need to run across multiple days. You'll need a Google account and an API key, plus the willingness to run a little code. If you don't write code, stick to an extension or a web tool.

Which method to pick

What data you get, and in what format

Most exporters return the same core fields for each comment: the author's name or handle, the comment text, the like count, the date it was posted, and identifiers like the comment ID and video ID. Many also pull the first level of replies if you enable that option.

Formats usually include CSV, which opens in Excel, Google Sheets, or Numbers and is best for sorting and filtering; XLSX for native Excel use; and JSON, which developers prefer for feeding into other software. CSV is the right default for almost everyone, since it lets you sort by likes, search the text, and remove duplicates with a few clicks.

Working with your exported file

Once you have a CSV or spreadsheet, a few quick steps make the data usable. Open it in Excel or Google Sheets, then sort by the like-count column to surface the comments that resonated most, which is the fastest way to read the room without scrolling the whole list. Use the column filters to isolate comments containing a keyword, a question mark, or a particular date range.

If you're deduplicating, for a giveaway tally or to count unique commenters, use your spreadsheet's remove-duplicates feature on the author column so each person counts once. For sentiment work, you can paste the text column into an analysis tool to tag positive and negative reactions in bulk. The structured columns are the whole point of exporting over copy-paste: they let you sort, filter, and count in seconds instead of reading line by line, and they turn a wall of comments into something you can act on.

Exporting comments for a giveaway: the shortcut

If your reason for exporting is a giveaway, there's a faster path than exporting to a spreadsheet and manually cleaning it. A comment picker does the export, the filtering, and the winner selection in one flow, so you skip the spreadsheet entirely.

This is what YT Picker is built for. It's the most advanced platform for running premium giveaways and contests on YouTube with unparalleled fairness and transparency. You paste the video URL, it pulls the comments, you set the filters you'd otherwise apply by hand in a spreadsheet (one entry per person, replies on or off, a required keyword), and it draws a winner with verifiable randomness. No exporting, no deduplicating columns, no random number generator on the side.

It also removes friction that matters during a giveaway. You can run the draw without an account when you just want a quick, clean result, and the duplicate-user filter solves the single biggest spreadsheet headache, which is one person commenting ten times. Even a free comment picker handles that deduplication automatically, so a small channel gets the same fairness as a large one.

In short: export to a spreadsheet when you want to read, analyze, or archive comments. Use a picker when you want to choose a winner from them.

Limitations and tips to know

A few constraints apply no matter which method you use. You can only export comments from public videos with comments enabled, not private or removed videos. Live chat from a stream is separate from regular comments and usually needs a dedicated live chat exporter. And many free tools cap how many comments they'll fetch, so check the limit against your video's comment count before you rely on it.

A note on Google Takeout, since people often expect it to help here: Takeout exports your own data, including comments you have posted, not the comments other people left on your video. It's the wrong tool for this job.

Finally, handle exported data responsibly. Comments contain usernames and sometimes personal details, and using any of these tools means agreeing to YouTube's Terms of Service. Don't publish someone's information, and don't collect comment data for purposes people wouldn't expect.

Common questions people ask

Can I export all comments from a YouTube video for free? Yes. Free browser extensions and free tiers of web tools cover most videos, though free plans often cap the number of comments or exports. The YouTube Data API is also free within its daily quota if you can run a little code.

Does YouTube have a built-in export button? No. There's no native way to download all comments on a video. You need an extension, a web tool, or the API. Google Takeout only exports comments you posted yourself, not comments on your video.

What format should I export to? CSV is best for most people because it opens in Excel and Google Sheets and lets you sort, filter, and remove duplicates easily. Choose JSON only if you're feeding the data into other software.

Can I export comments including replies? Yes, most extensions, web tools, and the API can include the first level of replies if you enable that option. Decide whether replies count before you export, especially for a giveaway.

How many comments can I export at once? It depends on the tool. Free tiers may stop at 50 to 1,000 comments, while the API can handle very large volumes across its daily quota. Check the limit against your video's comment count first.

Is it safe to use a comment exporter? Generally yes, if you choose a well-reviewed tool that relies on YouTube's official API and doesn't request unnecessary permissions. Avoid unverified scripts and extensions that haven't been updated in months.

What's the fastest way to pick a giveaway winner from comments? Skip the spreadsheet and use a comment picker. It pulls the comments, removes duplicate entries, applies any keyword filter, and draws a random winner in one step, which is faster and easier to prove fair than exporting and counting by hand.