# YouTube Transcript (`aliraza94/yt-transcript`) Actor

Get full transcripts and timestamped captions from YouTube videos. Paste video URLs or IDs, choose a language, and export clean text and segments as JSON, CSV or Excel. No YouTube API key required.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/aliraza94/yt-transcript.md
- **Developed by:** [ali raza](https://apify.com/aliraza94) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.50 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

### YouTube Transcript Scraper in Python

An [Apify Actor](https://apify.com/actors) that extracts transcripts (captions) from YouTube videos in Python, with no YouTube API key required. You pass in video URLs or IDs via input, which is defined by the [input schema](https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/development/input-schema). For each video the Actor stores the full transcript text plus timestamped segments in a [dataset](https://docs.apify.com/sdk/python/docs/concepts/storages#working-with-datasets), where you can download them as JSON, CSV, Excel and more.

The Actor uses [HTTPX2](https://github.com/pydantic/httpx2) to call YouTube's internal (InnerTube) API the same way the Android app does, so no browser or HTML parsing is needed.

### Included features

- **[Apify SDK](https://docs.apify.com/sdk/python/)** for Python - a toolkit for building Apify [Actors](https://apify.com/actors) and scrapers in Python
- **[Input schema](https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/development/input-schema)** - define and easily validate a schema for your Actor's input
- **[Dataset](https://docs.apify.com/sdk/python/docs/concepts/storages#working-with-datasets)** - store structured data where each object stored has the same attributes
- **[Apify Proxy](https://docs.apify.com/platform/proxy)** - optional proxy support, since YouTube often blocks datacenter IPs
- **[HTTPX2](https://github.com/pydantic/httpx2)** - library for making asynchronous HTTP requests in Python

### Input

| Field | Type | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `videoUrls` | array | Video URLs (`watch`, `youtu.be`, `shorts`, `embed`) or bare 11-character video IDs. |
| `language` | string | Preferred caption language code, e.g. `en`, `es`, `de`. Falls back to any available track. Default `en`. |
| `country` | string | Two-letter country code sent to YouTube. Default `US`. |
| `proxyConfiguration` | object | Proxy settings. Residential proxies are the most reliable option. |

Example:

```json
{
  "videoUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpA6KCHK5tM",
    "https://youtu.be/JpA6KCHK5tM"
  ],
  "language": "en",
  "country": "US",
  "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"] }
}
```

### Output

One dataset item per video:

```json
{
  "videoId": "JpA6KCHK5tM",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpA6KCHK5tM",
  "language": "en",
  "segmentCount": 123,
  "text": "Full transcript as a single string...",
  "segments": [
    { "start": 0.0, "text": "First caption line" },
    { "start": 4.5, "text": "Second caption line" }
  ]
}
```

# Actor input Schema

## `videoUrls` (type: `array`):

List of YouTube video URLs to scrape transcripts and metadata from.

## `language` (type: `string`):

Preferred language code for the transcript/subtitles (e.g., 'en', 'hi', 'ur').

## `country` (type: `string`):

Two-letter country code for regional context or proxy routing (e.g., 'US', 'PK', 'IN').

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "videoUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpA6KCHK5tM"
  ],
  "language": "en",
  "country": "US"
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

Dataset with the video ID, URL, language, and timestamped transcript segments.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "videoUrls": [
        "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpA6KCHK5tM"
    ],
    "language": "en",
    "country": "US"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("aliraza94/yt-transcript").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "videoUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpA6KCHK5tM"],
    "language": "en",
    "country": "US",
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("aliraza94/yt-transcript").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "videoUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpA6KCHK5tM"
  ],
  "language": "en",
  "country": "US"
}' |
apify call aliraza94/yt-transcript --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,aliraza94/yt-transcript"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/acqYU3PZnIdHfib1x/builds/2mCvoFJ3gQnJo7o29/openapi.json