# YouTube Shorts Transcript Scraper ⚡ Bulk, No API Key (`cleanfeed/youtube-shorts-transcript-downloader`) Actor

Download transcripts and captions for every YouTube Short on a channel. Pass channel URLs or @handles; get plain text or timestamped segments, plus title, duration and view count per Short, as JSON or CSV. No YouTube API key, no quota, no cap.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/cleanfeed/youtube-shorts-transcript-downloader.md
- **Developed by:** [Yaniv van der Stigchel](https://apify.com/cleanfeed) (community)
- **Categories:** AI, Videos, Social media
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 1 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $5.00 / 1,000 transcript returneds

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?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## YouTube Shorts Transcript Scraper — the format most tools skip

Transcripts for every Short on a channel. Most transcript tools only handle
long-form video and quietly return nothing for Shorts.

### What it does

- Download transcripts from YouTube Shorts
- Export all Shorts captions from a channel
- Bulk Shorts transcripts to JSON or CSV
- Build a dataset from short-form video
- Analyse Shorts scripts and hooks across creators

Pass several channels at once. Each row is tagged with its source channel.

### Why Shorts specifically

Shorts are where the volume is — channels publish them far faster than long-form
— and they are where hook and script analysis actually pays off, because the
whole video is 60 seconds of copy.

The catch is that most Shorts carry **auto-generated captions only**. This
scraper's language fallback goes human-written → auto-generated → any available
track, so it returns text where tools demanding a manual track return nothing.

### You only pay for transcripts

| `reason` | Meaning | Charged |
|---|---|---|
| — (`ok: true`) | Transcript returned | Yes |
| `no-captions` | Short has no captions at all | No |
| `unavailable` | Deleted, private, or region-locked | No |
| `blocked` | Extraction route failed | No |

### Input

| Field | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `channels` | yes | URLs, `@handles`, or channel IDs |
| `maxShortsPerChannel` | no | Newest first. Default 100. Your cost ceiling. |
| `language` | no | Two-letter code. Default `en`. |
| `includeSegments` | no | Add timestamps. Default `false`. |
| `maxConcurrency` | no | 1–25, default 10 |

### Output

Every row has the same fields whether it succeeded or failed, so you can
select columns without branching. Failed rows are never charged.

| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `sourceChannel` | string | The channel input this row came from. |
| `success` | boolean | True when a transcript was returned. Failed rows are never charged. |
| `videoId` | string | YouTube's 11-character video identifier. |
| `videoUrl` | string | Canonical watch URL for the video. |
| `title` | string | The video's title as published. |
| `channel` | string | Display name of the channel that published the video. |
| `channelId` | string | YouTube channel identifier, stable across renames. |
| `durationSeconds` | number | Length of the video in seconds. |
| `viewCount` | integer | Views at the time of the run. |
| `language` | string | BCP-47 code of the caption track returned. |
| `isAutoGenerated` | boolean | True when the captions were machine-generated rather than human-authored. |
| `segmentCount` | integer | Number of timed segments in the transcript. |
| `fullText` | string | The complete transcript as one plain-text string. Null on failure. |
| `segments` | array | Timestamped transcript segments. Only present when includeSegments is enabled. |
| `errorCode` | string | Machine-readable failure reason. Null on success. |
| `errorMessage` | string | Human-readable explanation of the failure. Null on success. |

#### Example — success

```json
{
  "sourceChannel": "https://www.youtube.com/@MITOCW",
  "success": true,
  "videoId": "jNQXAC9IVRw",
  "videoUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw",
  "title": "Me at the zoo",
  "channel": "jawed",
  "channelId": "UC4QobU6STFB0P71PMvOGN5A",
  "viewCount": 358194821,
  "durationSeconds": 19,
  "language": "en",
  "isAutoGenerated": false,
  "segmentCount": 3,
  "fullText": "All right, so here we are, in front of the elephants. The cool thing about these guys is that they have really, really, really long trunks.",
  "errorCode": null,
  "errorMessage": null,
  "segments": [
    {
      "start": 0.84,
      "duration": 3.2,
      "text": "All right, so here we are, in front of the elephants."
    },
    {
      "start": 4.04,
      "duration": 3.6,
      "text": "The cool thing about these guys is that they have"
    },
    {
      "start": 7.64,
      "duration": 2.9,
      "text": "really, really, really long trunks."
    }
  ]
}
```

#### Example — failure

A failure carries the same fields, so nothing downstream has to branch.

```json
{
  "sourceChannel": "https://www.youtube.com/@MITOCW",
  "success": false,
  "videoId": "s1CFmzZzO4c",
  "videoUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1CFmzZzO4c",
  "title": "Board meeting recording",
  "channel": "Example Corp",
  "channelId": "UCzzz999",
  "viewCount": 412,
  "durationSeconds": 3120,
  "language": null,
  "isAutoGenerated": null,
  "segmentCount": null,
  "fullText": null,
  "errorCode": "no-captions",
  "errorMessage": "This video has no captions published, so there is no transcript to return."
}
```

#### Error codes

- `no-captions`
- `unavailable`
- `blocked`
- `empty-transcript`
- `unparseable-input`
- `error`
- `unparseable-channel`
- `channel-blocked`

### Use it for

- **Shorts transcripts** — the whole short-form feed of a channel
- **YouTube Shorts captions** — spoken text from vertical video
- **Tutorial transcripts** — short-form how-to content
- Hook and script analysis across a creator's Shorts
- Short-form content research and competitor tracking
- RAG over short-form libraries, training datasets

### Related actors

| If you need | Use |
|---|---|
| Specific videos you already have URLs for | [YouTube Transcript Scraper](https://apify.com/cleanfeed/youtube-transcript-downloader) |
| The channel's long-form videos | [YouTube Channel Transcript Scraper](https://apify.com/cleanfeed/youtube-channel-transcript-downloader) |
| Every video in a playlist | [YouTube Playlist Transcript Scraper](https://apify.com/cleanfeed/youtube-playlist-transcript-downloader) |
| Videos from a keyword search | [YouTube Search to Transcripts](https://apify.com/cleanfeed/youtube-search-transcript-downloader) |
| Comments instead of the spoken text | [YouTube Comments Scraper](https://apify.com/cleanfeed/youtube-comments-downloader) |

### Use it from an AI agent (MCP)

This Actor is callable as a tool through the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp), so Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and VS Code can run it directly.

Add the server to your MCP client:

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer <YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

Then ask for what you want in plain language — for example *“get transcripts for this channel's YouTube Shorts”* — and the agent calls `cleanfeed/youtube-shorts-transcript-downloader` with the right input. Every output field is described in the dataset schema, so the agent knows what it is getting back before it runs anything.

### Call it from code

#### Python

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>")

run = client.actor("cleanfeed/youtube-shorts-transcript-downloader").call(run_input={
    "channels": ["https://www.youtube.com/@TED"],
})

for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    if item["success"]:
        print(item)
```

#### JavaScript

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

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>' });

const run = await client.actor('cleanfeed/youtube-shorts-transcript-downloader').call({
    channels: ["https://www.youtube.com/@TED"],
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items.filter((i) => i.success));
```

#### cURL

```bash
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/cleanfeed~youtube-shorts-transcript-downloader/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"channels": ["https://www.youtube.com/@TED"]}'
```

### Limitations

- **A residential proxy is required.** YouTube serves `playabilityStatus: ERROR` to datacenter IP ranges while the identical request succeeds from a home connection — measured 12/12 success on residential against 0/12 on a cloud host with no proxy, and 7/12 through a datacenter proxy. The input defaults to residential; changing it will break most runs. Full method and per-environment figures are published in the [reliability benchmark](https://publicapidata.com/benchmarks/youtube-transcript-reliability/).
- **Not every video has captions.** Videos with captions disabled return `errorCode: no-captions` and are never charged. This is a property of the video, not a failure of the run.
- **Shorts only.** The channel's long-form videos are a separate surface — use YouTube Channel Transcript Scraper for those.
- Many Shorts carry only auto-generated captions, flagged by `isAutoGenerated: true`.

### FAQ

#### Do I need a YouTube API key?

No key, no OAuth and no quota.

#### Does this cover the channel's normal videos too?

No — Shorts only. Use [YouTube Channel Transcript Scraper](https://apify.com/cleanfeed/youtube-channel-transcript-downloader) for long-form.

#### Do Shorts even have captions?

Most carry auto-generated captions, flagged with `isAutoGenerated: true`. Shorts without any caption track return `errorCode: no-captions` and are not charged.

#### Why do I need a residential proxy?

YouTube serves errors to datacenter IPs. Residential egress is the default here and is why runs succeed.

### Notes

Only publicly available caption data is collected. No login, no personal data,
no video downloads.

# Actor input Schema

## `channels` (type: `array`):

YouTube channels whose Shorts should be transcribed: channel URLs or /@handle links. Covers the Shorts feed only. For the channel's long-form videos use cleanfeed/youtube-channel-transcript-downloader.

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

Two-letter code (en, nl, de, es...). Falls back to auto-generated captions in that language, then to any available track.

## `includeSegments` (type: `boolean`):

Adds timed segments alongside plain text. Off by default — channel runs return a lot of data.

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

Parallel requests. Higher is faster; lower is gentler.

## `proxy` (type: `object`):

YouTube blocks datacenter IPs. Residential proxy is required for reliable results.

## `maxShortsPerChannel` (type: `integer`):

Newest first. You are charged per transcript returned, so this is your cost ceiling.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "channels": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/@fireship"
  ],
  "language": "en",
  "includeSegments": false,
  "maxConcurrency": 10,
  "proxy": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  },
  "maxShortsPerChannel": 100
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `transcripts` (type: `string`):

One row per video, tagged with its source channel. Successful rows include plain text, detected language and whether captions were auto-generated. Failed rows carry a reason: no-captions, unavailable, blocked, or empty-transcript.

## `summary` (type: `string`):

Channels processed, videos found, transcripts delivered, and counts per failure type.

# 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 = {
    "channels": [
        "https://www.youtube.com/@fireship"
    ],
    "proxy": {
        "useApifyProxy": true,
        "apifyProxyGroups": [
            "RESIDENTIAL"
        ]
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("cleanfeed/youtube-shorts-transcript-downloader").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 = {
    "channels": ["https://www.youtube.com/@fireship"],
    "proxy": {
        "useApifyProxy": True,
        "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"],
    },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("cleanfeed/youtube-shorts-transcript-downloader").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 '{
  "channels": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/@fireship"
  ],
  "proxy": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}' |
apify call cleanfeed/youtube-shorts-transcript-downloader --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

```

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/BVyoLkJF5dqt6y7JX/builds/4mNgnQJYxqJwJosqa/openapi.json