YouTube Transcript Scraper & Subtitles API

YouTube Transcript Scraper is an Apify Actor that returns the transcript of any YouTube video: the full text, timestamped segments and the video's details, in any caption language or translated. Paste video, Shorts, channel or playlist URLs and get one clean JSON row per video, ready for an LLM, a RAG index or analysis.

Example result

Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address (Stanford, 15:04), from a real run on 6 October 2026:

Language	Words	Transcript starts
English	2,298	"This program is brought to you by Stanford University…"

Each row also includes the timestamped segments (optional), title, channel, views, duration and the caption languages available.

Quick facts

• What you get, one row per video:
  • the transcript as plain text, plus timestamped segments (start, duration, text)
  • language, whether it's auto-generated, and every caption language the video has
  • title, channel, views, duration, description, tags and thumbnail
• Any language: manual captions first, then auto-generated ones. Translate to asks for YouTube's machine translation, which YouTube rate-limits; when it refuses, you get the original language with a note.
• Videos, Shorts, channels and playlists: a channel or playlist URL adds its latest 15 videos.
• Reliable: it reads captions through YouTube's app endpoint, and retries on residential IPs when YouTube asks a server to sign in.
• Price: $1.50 per 1,000 transcripts (less on paid Apify plans). Videos without captions, private or removed videos are free. Apify's free $5 monthly credit covers about 3,300 transcripts.
• AI agents: connect https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automationnation/youtube-transcript-scraper (setup below).

What can you do with YouTube transcripts?

• AI and RAG: index talks, courses and podcasts so an LLM can answer questions with sources and timestamps.
• Content repurposing: turn videos into blog posts, newsletters, show notes and social threads.
• Research and analysis: study what creators, competitors or experts say, across hundreds of videos.
• SEO: find the topics and phrases videos cover; pair with our Google Videos Scraper to find the videos first.
• Accessibility: get captions in every language the creator uploaded.
• Summarize videos with AI: give each video transcript to an LLM to summarize, search or quote it.

How to use it

1. Click Try for free.
2. Paste YouTube links into Videos: videos, Shorts, a channel (https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd) or a playlist.
3. Choose the Transcript language (default English) and whether you want timestamped segments.
4. Click Start. Most videos take a second or two. Download JSON, CSV or Excel, or use the API.

Run it on a schedule: transcribe each new video

Every new episode, transcribed once: point it at a channel or playlist and turn on Only new videos. Each run checks the latest uploads and transcribes, and charges for, only videos earlier runs didn't, ready for a knowledge base, RAG index or newsletter. Videos without captions yet are tried again next run, since YouTube often adds auto-captions a few hours after upload.

1. Add channel or playlist URLs to Videos and turn on Only new videos ("onlyNewVideos": true).
2. Click Save as a new task, then Schedule it daily.
3. On the task's Integrations tab, send new transcripts to a webhook, Google Drive, Slack or email, or pick them up in n8n, Make or Zapier.

{
  "videos": ["https://www.youtube.com/@lexfridman", "https://www.youtube.com/@hubermanlab"],
  "language": "en",
  "onlyNewVideos": true
}

A channel that posts a few videos a week costs a few cents a month. Use Monitor name to keep separate histories for the same channels.

Input example

{
  "videos": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc",
    "https://youtu.be/aircAruvnKk",
    "https://www.youtube.com/@lexfridman"
  ],
  "language": "en",
  "includeTimestamps": true,
  "maxVideosPerChannel": 5
}

Output example

{
  "videoId": "UF8uR6Z6KLc",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc",
  "title": "Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address",
  "channel": "Stanford",
  "channelId": "UC-EnprmCZ3OXyAoG7vjVNCA",
  "viewCount": 49185798,
  "durationSeconds": 904,
  "duration": "15:04",
  "status": "ok",
  "transcriptLanguage": "en",
  "transcriptLanguageName": "English - English",
  "isAutoGenerated": false,
  "isTranslated": false,
  "transcript": "This program is brought to you by Stanford University. Please visit us at stanford.edu. Thank you. I am honored to be with you today…",
  "wordCount": 2295,
  "segments": [
    { "start": 6.05, "duration": 1.0, "text": "This program is brought to you by Stanford University." },
    { "start": 21.05, "duration": 1.03, "text": "Thank you." }
  ],
  "availableLanguages": [
    { "languageCode": "en", "languageName": "English (auto-generated)", "isAutoGenerated": true },
    { "languageCode": "en", "languageName": "English - English", "isAutoGenerated": false },
    { "languageCode": "es", "languageName": "Spanish - Spanish", "isAutoGenerated": false }
  ],
  "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/UF8uR6Z6KLc/hqdefault.jpg",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-05T11:00:00.000Z"
}

Output fields

Field	Description
videoId, url, title	The video
channel, channelId, channelUrl	Who published it
viewCount, durationSeconds, duration, isLive	Views and length
status	ok, no_transcript, unavailable or failed; only ok rows are charged
transcript, wordCount	Full transcript as plain text
segments	Caption lines with start and duration in seconds (switch off with Timestamped segments)
transcriptLanguage, transcriptLanguageName, isAutoGenerated	Which captions were used
isTranslated, translatedFrom, translationNote	Set when YouTube translated the transcript, or why it didn't
availableLanguages	Every caption track on the video
description, keywords, thumbnail	Video details
error	Why there's no transcript, when status isn't ok

How much does it cost?

Transcripts	Free & Bronze plans	Silver	Gold and above
1,000	$1.50	$1.35	$1.20
10,000	$15	$13.50	$12

Only transcripts returned are charged. Set a maximum cost per run in the run options; the Actor stops at your limit and keeps everything saved up to then.

Switching from youtube-transcript-api

On AWS, Google Cloud, Azure and most other hosts, youtube-transcript-api fails with RequestBlocked or IpBlocked, because YouTube blocks cloud-provider IPs. The open-source youtube-transcript-cloud package keeps its interface and runs on this Actor, so the same code works from any server:

from youtube_transcript_cloud import YouTubeTranscriptApi   # was: from youtube_transcript_api import YouTubeTranscriptApi

transcript = YouTubeTranscriptApi().fetch("dQw4w9WgXcQ", languages=["en"])

Install it with pip install git+https://github.com/retracn/youtube-transcript-cloud and set APIFY_TOKEN. fetch(), list(), the 0.x get_transcript() and the formatters work as before, and fetch_many() gets a batch of videos in one request.

Switching from youtube-transcript (npm)

If the Node package youtube-transcript works on your laptop but fails on Vercel, AWS Lambda or Render (often as YoutubeTranscriptDisabledError for videos that do have captions), swap in youtube-transcript-cloud. It keeps the same API, output (times in milliseconds) and error classes, and runs each request on this Actor:

$npm install github:retracn/youtube-transcript-cloud-js

- import { YoutubeTranscript } from 'youtube-transcript';
+ import { YoutubeTranscript } from 'youtube-transcript-cloud';

Set APIFY_TOKEN in your deployment's environment variables. YoutubeTranscript.fetchTranscripts([...]) gets many videos in one request.

Use it with AI agents (MCP)

Hosted: add https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automationnation/youtube-transcript-scraper to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or another MCP client and sign in with Apify.

Local (Claude Desktop or Cursor config):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-transcripts": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@apify/actors-mcp-server", "--tools", "automationnation/youtube-transcript-scraper"],
      "env": { "APIFY_TOKEN": "YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" }
    }
  }
}

Then ask, for example: "Summarise the last 5 videos on @lexfridman with the key quotes and timestamps."

Open WebUI: the YouTube Transcripts tool runs this Actor from Open WebUI, so transcripts keep working on a cloud server or VPS, where YouTube blocks direct requests. Paste it under Workspace → Tools and add your Apify token in its Valves.

Integrations and API

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/automationnation~youtube-transcript-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"videos":["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc"],"includeTimestamps":false}'

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("automationnation/youtube-transcript-scraper").call(run_input={"videos": ["UF8uR6Z6KLc"]})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item["title"], item["wordCount"])

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_TOKEN' });
const run = await client.actor('automationnation/youtube-transcript-scraper').call({ videos: ['UF8uR6Z6KLc'] });
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items[0].transcript);

LangChain and LlamaIndex users can load the dataset straight into documents with Apify's integrations. Schedules, webhooks, Google Sheets, Slack, n8n, Make and Zapier work through Apify.

FAQ

Does it work for videos without manual subtitles? Yes. It uses YouTube's auto-generated captions when there are no manual ones (switch this off with Allow auto-generated captions).

Can I get a transcript in another language? Set Transcript language to pick among the video's caption tracks. If the video doesn't have that language, the Actor asks YouTube for a machine translation; YouTube rate-limits these, so when it refuses you get the original language and a translationNote.

What about videos with no captions at all? They come back with status: no_transcript and aren't charged. The Actor doesn't transcribe audio.

Can I get every video of a channel? A channel or playlist URL adds its latest 15 videos. For more, paste the video URLs, for example from our Google Videos Scraper.

Is it legal? Transcripts are public captions that YouTube shows to everyone. They can be copyrighted by the creator, so use them for analysis, research and accessibility, and respect creators' rights and YouTube's terms.

Guides: How to get YouTube transcripts in 2026 · youtube-transcript-api RequestBlocked or IpBlocked on a server · yt-dlp "Sign in to confirm you're not a bot" on a server · youtube-transcript · Side-by-side comparison · Code examples (Python, JavaScript, MCP)

More from AutomationNation

• Google Videos Scraper: find videos on any topic across YouTube, TikTok and more.
• Google News Scraper: headlines, sources and article URLs.
• AI Visibility Tracker: whether AI answers mention and cite your brand.
• Google Trends Scraper: interest over time and trending searches.

Questions or a missing field? Open an issue on the Issues tab; fixes usually ship within a day.