YouTube Transcript Scraper

What does YouTube Video Transcript do?

YouTube Video Transcript turns YouTube video URLs or video IDs into structured transcript data in a single run. Paste one or more video links from YouTube or raw IDs, optionally choose a transcript language, and the Actor will return transcript lines, selected language details, and available language options in a clean dataset.

This Actor is built for the Apify platform, so you get more than just transcript extraction. You can run it manually, automate it via API, schedule recurring jobs, monitor logs, and plug the output into other workflows and integrations. It is designed to be simple for first-time users but reliable enough for repeated production runs.

What can this Actor do?

• 🎬 Accept full YouTube video URLs or plain video IDs.
• 🧠 Extract transcript data in a structured JSON format.
• 🌍 Request a specific transcript language when available.
• ⚡ Process multiple videos in one run.
• 🔁 Retry temporary failures automatically.
• 📦 Save all results to an Apify dataset for export or downstream automation.

Why use YouTube Video Transcript?

If you need transcript data quickly, this Actor removes the repetitive setup work. You do not need to normalize video links, process items one by one, or build your own retry logic before you can start collecting usable output.

Common use cases:

• Content research and topic analysis
• LLM, RAG, and summarization pipelines
• Subtitle and transcript availability checks
• Internal knowledge base enrichment
• Monitoring transcripts across many videos over time

How to get YouTube video transcripts

1. Open the Actor in Apify Console.
2. Paste one or more YouTube video URLs or raw video IDs into the urls field.
3. Optionally set the language field with a two-letter language code like en or es.
4. Start the run.
5. Open the dataset after the run finishes to review or download the results.

The Actor is suitable for both quick one-off runs and recurring automated jobs. Because it runs on Apify, you can connect it to schedules, webhooks, integrations, and API-based workflows without changing the input format.

Input

YouTube Video Transcript has a small input schema designed for fast first runs. Use the Input tab in Apify Console for full field details.

{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZW5o1VegRI",
    "_ZW5o1VegRI"
  ],
  "language": "en"
}

Input fields

• urls - Required. A list of YouTube video URLs or raw video IDs.
• language - Optional. A two-letter transcript language code such as en, es, fr, or de.

Output

The Actor returns one dataset item per input value. Successful items include the transcript itself plus metadata about the selected language and other language options. If a video cannot be processed, the Actor still stores a failure record so you can easily see which inputs need attention.

You can download the dataset extracted by YouTube Video Transcript in various formats such as JSON, HTML, CSV, or Excel.

[
  {
    "originalInput": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AbFXuGDRTs",
    "videoId": "_AbFXuGDRTs",
    "requestedLanguage": "en",
    "success": true,
    "transcriptCount": 42,
    "id": "_AbFXuGDRTs",
    "transcript": [
      {
        "text": "Hello and welcome",
        "start": 0.12,
        "duration": 1.84
      }
    ],
    "selected": {
      "language": "English"
    },
    "languageMenu": [
      {
        "language": "English",
        "languageCode": "en"
      }
    ]
  }
]

Data table

Field	Type	Description
originalInput	string	Original input value from the run
videoId	string	Normalized YouTube video ID
requestedLanguage	string or null	Requested transcript language
success	boolean	Whether transcript retrieval succeeded
transcriptCount	number	Number of transcript lines returned
error	string or null	Error message for failed items
transcript	array	Transcript lines with timing data
selected	object or null	Selected transcript/language details
languageMenu	array	Other language options returned for the video

Pricing / Cost estimation

How much does it cost to extract YouTube transcripts?

This Actor is lightweight because it does not run a browser. That makes it a good fit for cost-efficient transcript extraction at scale. Your final usage cost depends mostly on how many videos you process per run and how often you run the Actor.

To keep runs efficient:

• Start with a small sample first.
• Only request a language when you need one.
• Avoid sending duplicate videos unless you intentionally want duplicate output.

Tips or Advanced options

• Use raw video IDs if you already have them in a spreadsheet or database.
• Batch multiple videos into one run instead of launching many tiny runs.
• Review failed items in the dataset instead of guessing which inputs need a rerun.
• Use Apify scheduling and API access if you need recurring transcript collection.

FAQ, disclaimers, and support

Does this Actor download the video or audio?

No. It only returns transcript-related data for the supplied YouTube videos.

What if a transcript is unavailable?

The Actor retries temporary failures automatically and records failed items in the dataset with success: false and an error message.

Is it legal to extract YouTube transcript data?

You are responsible for using this Actor in compliance with YouTube terms and applicable laws. If your output contains personal data, make sure you have a legitimate reason to process it and consult legal counsel if needed.

Where can I get help or request improvements?

Use the Issues tab on the Actor page for feedback, bug reports, and feature requests. If you need custom output fields or workflow changes, this Actor can be extended further.