Video Transcript Scraper

Extract captions and transcripts from TikTok, YouTube, Instagram Reels, and Facebook Reels — all in one actor. Paste video URLs and get back full-text transcripts with timestamps. No API key needed, no manual copying.

Supports: TikTok · YouTube (videos + Shorts) · Instagram Reels · Facebook Reels

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What does Video Transcript Scraper do?

Video Transcript Scraper extracts the caption and subtitle tracks from social media videos and returns them as structured text data with timestamps. Give it a list of video URLs from any supported platform and it returns the full transcript, ready-to-use SRT and WebVTT subtitle documents, individual timed segments, word count, and video metadata (title, author, thumbnail).

For multilingual YouTube workflows, set preferredLanguage to an exact YouTube caption language code such as es, de, or pt-BR. The Actor prefers a manual track and then an auto-generated track in that language. When this option is omitted, selection remains English-first and then falls back to the first available track.

YouTube uses a native timedtext API for fast, reliable extraction. TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook are processed using a headless browser that intercepts subtitle API calls as the video player loads — the same approach used by the leading competitor but with wider platform coverage and better structured output.

Try it free on the Apify Store.

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Who is it for?

📢 Content marketers and social media managers

• Repurpose video content into blog posts, newsletters, or social captions
• Extract key quotes from interview-style Reels for ad copy
• Audit influencer content for brand mentions before partnerships

🎓 Researchers and academics

• Analyze linguistic patterns across thousands of TikTok or YouTube videos
• Build datasets of spoken language from social media for NLP training
• Study how topics are discussed across different video platforms

🤖 AI and automation engineers

• Feed transcripts into LLMs for summarization, sentiment analysis, or Q&A
• Build RAG pipelines indexing video content as searchable text
• Automate transcript generation for video archives

💼 SEO and content strategists

• Convert YouTube video content into text for programmatic SEO pages
• Identify top-performing topics by analyzing what high-view videos say
• Extract transcript data from competitor channels for content gap analysis

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Why use Video Transcript Scraper?

• 🎯 Multi-platform in one run — mix TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook URLs in a single input list
• ⚡ Pure HTTP for YouTube — no browser overhead; YouTube extraction is fast and free from blocking
• 🗣️ Optional YouTube caption language — use preferredLanguage for an exact available track, or omit it for English-first selection
• 🕐 Ready-to-use subtitles — each successful result includes complete srt and vtt documents generated from the timed segments
• 📄 Clean text output — transcriptText is a single clean string, while every segment retains startTime and endTime in seconds
• 🔁 Graceful error handling — failed or no-caption videos don't crash the run; they return an error field
• 🛡️ Residential proxy support — configure proxy for platforms that require it (TikTok, Instagram)
• 🔗 No login required — works on public videos without any account credentials
• 📊 Structured JSON output — every result includes platform, videoId, author, thumbnail, duration, language, segments, and word count

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What data can you extract?

Field	Description	Example
videoUrl	Original input URL	https://youtube.com/watch?v=...
platform	Platform name	youtube / tiktok / instagram / facebook
videoId	Platform video ID	dQw4w9WgXcQ
title	Video title	"10 Python Tips You Didn't Know"
author	Channel or username	"@techcreator"
thumbnailUrl	Thumbnail image URL	https://img.youtube.com/vi/.../maxresdefault.jpg
duration	Duration in seconds	243
language	Caption language code	en
transcriptText	Full transcript as plain text	"Today we're going to talk about..."
srt	Complete SubRip subtitle document (null on errors)	1\n00:00:01,250 --> ...
vtt	Complete WebVTT subtitle document (null on errors)	WEBVTT\n\n00:00:01.250 --> ...
segments	Array of timed caption segments	[{startTime, endTime, text}, ...]
segmentCount	Number of caption segments	87
wordCount	Approximate word count	1243
scrapedAt	Extraction timestamp	2026-04-04T12:00:00.000Z
error	Error message (null if successful)	"No captions available"

Segment object fields:

Field	Type	Description
startTime	number	Segment start time in seconds
endTime	number	Segment end time in seconds
text	string	Caption text for this segment

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How much does it cost to extract video transcripts?

This actor uses Pay-Per-Event (PPE) pricing with per-platform rates — you only pay for successful transcript extractions.

Event	Price per event (FREE tier)
Run started	$0.060 (one-time)
YouTube transcript extracted	$0.046 per video
Facebook transcript extracted	$0.046 per video
TikTok transcript extracted	$0.138 per video
Instagram transcript extracted	$0.138 per video

Why do TikTok and Instagram cost more? Their estimated residential-proxy infrastructure cost is ~$0.03–$0.09 per URL. This is context about upstream infrastructure, not an Actor charge. YouTube and Facebook work without residential proxies, so their per-video Actor price is lower.

Tiered transcript discounts — the run-start charge is fixed, while per-transcript prices decrease on higher Apify plans:

Apify Tier	Start fee (fixed)	YouTube / Facebook per transcript	TikTok / Instagram per transcript
FREE	$0.060	$0.046	$0.138
BRONZE	$0.060	$0.040	$0.120
SILVER	$0.060	$0.031	$0.093
GOLD	$0.060	$0.024	$0.072
PLATINUM	$0.060	$0.016	$0.048
DIAMOND	$0.060	$0.011	$0.034

Free plan estimate: With $5 in free Apify credits, you can extract approximately 107 YouTube transcripts or 35 TikTok transcripts (after the $0.06 start fee).

Failed extractions are not charged — if a video has no captions or extraction fails, you only pay the start fee.

Real-world cost examples (FREE tier):

• 50 YouTube transcripts: $0.06 + (50 × $0.046) = $2.36
• 50 TikTok transcripts: $0.06 + (50 × $0.138) = $6.96
• Mixed batch (30 YouTube + 20 TikTok): $0.06 + (30 × $0.046) + (20 × $0.138) = $4.20
• 500 YouTube Shorts for content analysis: $0.06 + (500 × $0.046) = $23.06

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How to extract video transcripts

1. Go to Video Transcript Scraper on Apify Store
2. Click Try for free
3. In the Video URLs field, paste one or more video URLs (one per line)
4. (Optional) Set Preferred YouTube caption language to an exact code such as es; leave it empty for English-first selection
5. (Optional) Adjust Max retries for flaky connections
6. (Optional) Configure Proxy — residential proxies improve success rates for TikTok and Instagram
7. Click Start and wait for results
8. Download results as JSON, CSV, or Excel — or connect to downstream tools

Supported URL formats:

# YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dQw4w9WgXcQ

# TikTok
https://www.tiktok.com/@username/video/7123456789012345678

# Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/reel/ABC123def/

# Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/reel/123456789

Example input (JSON):

{
  "videoUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/5-WE64bwEMI",
    "https://www.tiktok.com/@nasa/video/7234567890123456789"
  ],
  "preferredLanguage": "es",
  "maxRetries": 2
}

Example input — batch content analysis:

{
  "videoUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID_1",
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID_2",
    "https://www.tiktok.com/@creator/video/TIKTOK_ID"
  ],
  "maxRetries": 3,
  "proxy": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"] }
}

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Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
videoUrls	array of strings	✅ Yes	—	Video URLs to transcribe. Mix platforms freely.
preferredLanguage	string	No	English-first	Exact YouTube caption language code (for example es or pt-BR). Manual tracks are preferred over generated tracks. You get an error row if the requested language is unavailable. This option does not affect other platforms or translate captions.
maxRetries	integer	No	2	Max retry attempts per URL on failure (0–5).
proxy	object	No	Residential	Proxy configuration. Residential proxies recommended for TikTok/Instagram.

Proxy notes:

• YouTube: No proxy needed. Works without any proxy configuration.
• TikTok: Residential proxy strongly recommended. Without it, TikTok often returns empty pages.
• Instagram: Residential proxy improves reliability for Reels.
• Facebook: Residential proxy helps bypass login walls on some videos.

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Output examples

Successful YouTube transcript:

{
  "videoUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "platform": "youtube",
  "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Music Video)",
  "author": "Rick Astley",
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/maxresdefault.jpg",
  "duration": 213,
  "language": "en",
  "transcriptText": "We're no strangers to love You know the rules and so do I...",
  "srt": "1\n00:00:18,560 --> 00:00:20,560\nWe're no strangers to love\n\n2\n00:00:20,560 --> 00:00:22,560\nYou know the rules and so do I\n",
  "vtt": "WEBVTT\n\n00:00:18.560 --> 00:00:20.560\nWe're no strangers to love\n\n00:00:20.560 --> 00:00:22.560\nYou know the rules and so do I\n",
  "segments": [
    { "startTime": 18.56, "endTime": 20.56, "text": "We're no strangers to love" },
    { "startTime": 20.56, "endTime": 22.56, "text": "You know the rules and so do I" }
  ],
  "segmentCount": 54,
  "wordCount": 312,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-04-04T12:00:00.000Z",
  "error": null
}

No captions available:

{
  "videoUrl": "https://www.tiktok.com/@creator/video/1234567890",
  "platform": "tiktok",
  "videoId": "1234567890",
  "title": "My TikTok video",
  "transcriptText": null,
  "srt": null,
  "vtt": null,
  "segments": [],
  "segmentCount": 0,
  "wordCount": 0,
  "error": "No captions available for this TikTok video"
}

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Tips for best results

• 🎯 YouTube has the highest success rate — YouTube's timedtext API is reliable and fast. If you only need YouTube transcripts, no proxy configuration is needed at all.
• 📋 Caption availability — Not all videos have captions. Auto-generated captions are available on most YouTube videos. TikTok and Instagram auto-captions are only available on a subset of videos (typically creators who have enabled them).
• 🗣️ Language selection is exact and YouTube-only — preferredLanguage selects an existing YouTube caption track; it does not translate or generate captions. If that exact language is unavailable, the result contains an honest error and no transcript extraction event is charged.
• 🌐 Always use residential proxy for TikTok — TikTok actively blocks datacenter IPs. Configure "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"] for TikTok batches.
• 📦 Batch efficiently — Mix YouTube and TikTok/Instagram URLs in one run. YouTube URLs are free of proxy costs; the residential proxy charges only apply when actually used for non-YouTube platforms.
• 🔄 Use maxRetries: 3 for large batches — transient failures are common with social media platforms. Set retries higher for unattended automation runs.
• 📅 Schedule for monitoring — use Apify's scheduler to run weekly transcript extraction on channels you monitor, and connect to Google Sheets for automatic updates.
• 🚀 Start small to test — run 5-10 URLs first to verify captions are available for your target channels before running large batches.

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Integrations

📊 Video Transcript Scraper → Google Sheets (content monitoring) Connect output via Apify webhooks to automatically append new transcripts to a Google Sheet. Use the built-in Google Sheets integration in Apify Console → Integrations.

🤖 Video Transcript Scraper → OpenAI / Claude (AI summarization) Feed transcriptText into an LLM prompt via Make.com or Zapier: "Summarize this video transcript in 3 bullet points and extract 5 key quotes." Build content briefs automatically from competitor videos.

📧 Video Transcript Scraper → Email alerts (keyword monitoring) Schedule weekly runs on a YouTube channel's latest videos. Use a Make.com filter on transcriptText to check for keyword mentions, then send a Slack or email alert when your brand or competitor is mentioned.

🗂️ Video Transcript Scraper → RAG pipeline (AI search) Export JSON output, chunk segments arrays by timestamp windows, embed with OpenAI, and index into Pinecone or Weaviate. Build a searchable knowledge base of video content queryable by natural language.

📝 Video Transcript Scraper → WordPress / CMS (SEO content) Pipe YouTube transcripts into a templating system that auto-generates blog post drafts. Each transcript becomes a lightly-edited article, turning a video library into an SEO content moat.

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API usage

Run Video Transcript Scraper programmatically from any language or CI/CD pipeline.

Node.js:

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_API_TOKEN' });

const run = await client.actor('automation-lab/video-transcript-scraper').call({
  videoUrls: [
    'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ',
    'https://www.youtube.com/shorts/5-WE64bwEMI',
  ],
  maxRetries: 2,
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Python:

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient(token="YOUR_API_TOKEN")

run = client.actor("automation-lab/video-transcript-scraper").call(run_input={
    "videoUrls": [
        "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
        "https://www.tiktok.com/@nasa/video/7234567890",
    ],
    "maxRetries": 2,
})

items = client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).list_items().items
for item in items:
    print(item["platform"], item["wordCount"], item["transcriptText"][:100])

cURL:

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/automation-lab~video-transcript-scraper/runs" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "videoUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"],
    "maxRetries": 2
  }'

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Use with AI agents via MCP

Video Transcript Scraper is available as a tool for AI assistants that support the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

Add the Apify MCP server to your AI client — this gives you access to all Apify actors, including this one:

Setup for Claude Code

$claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/video-transcript-scraper"

Setup for Claude Desktop, Cursor, or VS Code

Add this to your MCP config file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/video-transcript-scraper"
        }
    }
}

Your AI assistant will use OAuth to authenticate with your Apify account on first use.

Example prompts

Once connected, try asking your AI assistant:

• "Use automation-lab/video-transcript-scraper to get the transcript of this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
• "Extract transcripts from these 5 TikTok videos and summarize the main topics covered in each"
• "Get transcripts for all videos in this list and tell me which ones mention the keyword 'climate change'"

Learn more in the Apify MCP documentation.

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Legality

This actor extracts publicly available caption data from public videos on social media platforms. It does not:

• Bypass any authentication walls
• Download video or audio content
• Access private or unlisted videos
• Store or redistribute video content

Caption data scraped is functionally equivalent to reading the closed captions a user can already see while watching a video.

Best practices:

• Only scrape public videos
• Respect platform terms of service for your use case
• Do not use transcript data to reproduce original creative works in full
• Review Apify's terms of service and the responsible scraping guidelines

This actor is intended for research, analysis, content repurposing, and automation workflows using publicly available data.

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FAQ

Which platform has the highest transcript success rate? YouTube has near-100% success for videos with captions (most YouTube videos have auto-generated English captions). TikTok success depends on whether the creator has enabled auto-captions — typically 60-70% of videos. Instagram and Facebook have lower availability as they rely on creators manually enabling captions.

How much does it cost to transcribe 100 videos? Depends on the platform. On the FREE tier: 100 YouTube videos cost $0.06 + (100 × $0.046) = $4.66. 100 TikTok videos cost $0.06 + (100 × $0.138) = $13.86. A mixed batch of 50 YouTube + 50 TikTok costs $0.06 + (50 × $0.046) + (50 × $0.138) = $9.26. TikTok and Instagram are more expensive because they require residential proxies. Videos without captions are not charged.

How is this different from the official YouTube Transcript API? YouTube has no official transcript API. This actor uses the internal timedtext endpoint that the YouTube player uses — the same data that shows as closed captions when you watch a video. It works for any public video with captions, including auto-generated ones.

Why are some TikTok transcripts empty? TikTok only generates auto-captions for some videos — typically newer videos where the creator has TikTok's auto-caption feature enabled. Older videos or videos from creators who've opted out of captions will return error: "No captions available". This is a TikTok platform limitation, not a scraper issue.

Why does my TikTok run return no results? Most likely cause: no residential proxy configured. TikTok blocks datacenter IP addresses. Add "proxy": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"] } to your input and re-run.

Can I extract transcripts from private or unlisted videos? No. This actor only works with publicly accessible videos. Private videos require authentication, which is outside the scope of this tool.

What languages are supported? For YouTube, any existing caption track can be requested with preferredLanguage (for example es, de, or pt-BR). Selection prefers an exact manual track and then an exact generated track. Leave the option empty for the existing English-first behavior, which prefers English and then falls back to the first available track. preferredLanguage does not apply to TikTok, Instagram, or Facebook, and it never translates or generates captions. If the requested YouTube language is unavailable, the result is an error row rather than a silent English fallback.

How fast does it run? YouTube extractions take 1-3 seconds each (pure HTTP). TikTok/Instagram/Facebook take 15-45 seconds each (browser-based). A batch of 50 YouTube videos completes in about 2-3 minutes. A mixed batch of 50 videos including TikTok takes 10-20 minutes depending on proxy response times.

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Other video and social media scrapers

Looking for related tools? Check out these other automation-lab actors:

• 🎵 TikTok Sound Scraper — Extract all videos using a specific TikTok sound or music track
• 📺 YouTube Scraper — Scrape YouTube video data, channel info, and comments
• 📸 Instagram Scraper — Extract posts, reels, profiles, and hashtag feeds from Instagram
• 🔗 Broken Link Checker — Crawl websites and find all broken or dead links
• 🛒 Amazon Reviews Scraper — Extract product reviews from Amazon for sentiment analysis