TikTok Transcript Scraper

Extract subtitles and full transcripts from TikTok videos in every available language. The actor fetches all subtitle tracks attached to a video — including auto-generated speech recognition (ASR) captions and machine-translated (MT) versions — parses the WebVTT format, and emits one dataset row per video-language combination. No account, login, or cookies are required to scrape public videos.

What this actor does

• Accepts TikTok video URLs or bare numeric post IDs as input
• Returns one output row per video per language (e.g. a video with 6 languages produces 6 rows)
• Provides both a full plain-text transcript field and a segments array with precise start/end/text cues
• Identifies the subtitle source: ASR (auto speech recognition), MT (machine translation), or other creator-uploaded captions
• Includes video metadata — username, display name, caption, publish date, duration — on every row
• Supports an optional language filter so you only receive the language(s) you need
• Exits cleanly with a success: false row when a video has no captions available
• Empty fields are omitted

Output per transcript row

• postId — unique TikTok video ID
• postUrl — canonical video URL
• username — author's TikTok username
• displayName — author's display name
• caption — video description/caption text
• createdAt — publish timestamp (ISO 8601)
• duration — video duration in seconds
• languageCode — BCP-47 language code (e.g. eng-US, fre-FR, spa)
• languageId — TikTok's internal language identifier
• subtitleFormat — subtitle format, always webvtt
• source — subtitle origin: ASR (auto speech recognition), MT (machine translation), or other
• version — subtitle version string from TikTok
• variant — subtitle variant identifier from TikTok
• subtitleUrl — direct URL to the WebVTT subtitle file
• subtitleUrlExpiresAt — expiry timestamp of the subtitle URL
• isAutoGenerated — true when TikTok generated the captions automatically
• isOriginalCaption — true when the caption is in the video's original language
• segments — array of timestamped cues: [{ "start": 0.0, "end": 2.5, "text": "..." }, ...]
• segmentCount — number of caption segments
• transcript — full joined plain-text transcript for this language
• transcriptDuration — total duration covered by captions in seconds
• scrapedAt — ISO 8601 timestamp of when the row was collected

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
postUrls	array of strings	—	TikTok video URLs to extract transcripts from. Accepts full URLs and short links.
postIds	array of strings	—	Numeric TikTok post IDs (alternative to postUrls).
languages	array of strings	all	Optional language filter. Only return rows whose languageCode starts with one of these values (e.g. ["eng-US", "fre-FR"]). Leave empty for all languages.
useWhisperFallback	boolean	false	When enabled, uses Whisper speech-to-text to generate transcripts for videos with no native subtitles. Adds significant processing time.

Example: Extract all languages from a NatGeo video

{
  "postUrls": ["https://www.tiktok.com/@natgeo/video/7637581966396656909"]
}

Example: English transcripts only

{
  "postUrls": [
    "https://www.tiktok.com/@natgeo/video/7637581966396656909",
    "https://www.tiktok.com/@natgeo/video/7652858746137234702"
  ],
  "languages": ["eng-US"]
}

Example: Using post IDs

{
  "postIds": ["7637581966396656909", "7652858746137234702"],
  "languages": ["eng-US", "spa"]
}

Example: Enable Whisper fallback for videos without captions

{
  "postUrls": ["https://www.tiktok.com/@somecreator/video/7123456789012345678"],
  "useWhisperFallback": true
}

Use cases

• Content repurposing — convert TikTok videos into blog posts, newsletters, or social copy using the plain-text transcript field
• Multi-language SEO — harvest all MT subtitle tracks to identify keyword opportunities across markets
• Accessibility tooling — build caption archives or compliance audits for brands and media companies
• Journalism and research — extract verbatim quotes from news, political, or educational creators without manual transcription
• Translation pipelines — feed segments arrays into translation APIs with exact timing for dubbed audio or subtitle files

FAQ

Q: Do I need a TikTok account or cookies?
A: No. The actor works entirely with public TikTok videos and requires no authentication.

Q: How many rows will I get per video?
A: One row per available language. Popular news and educational videos often have 5–10 languages (one original plus several machine translations).

Q: What is the difference between ASR and MT sources?
A: ASR (auto speech recognition) is the transcript generated from the video's own audio. MT (machine translation) is a TikTok-produced translation of the ASR track into another language. Creator-uploaded subtitle files appear as a separate source.

Q: What happens when a video has no subtitles?
A: The actor emits one row with success: false and a descriptive message. Video metadata (username, caption, duration) is still populated in that row.

Q: Which URL formats are supported?
A: Standard video URLs (https://www.tiktok.com/@username/video/ID), short share links (vm.tiktok.com, vt.tiktok.com), and bare numeric IDs.

Q: Can I scrape private or deleted videos?
A: No. Private, deleted, or regionally restricted videos return a failure row with an explanatory message.

Q: What is the languages filter format?
A: Prefix-based matching on BCP-47 codes. For example, "eng" matches eng-US, eng-GB; "eng-US" matches only that exact variant. You can mix short and long codes in the same array.

Q: Are slideshow (photo) posts supported?
A: Slideshows do not have audio tracks and therefore typically have no subtitle data. The actor will return a failure row for those posts.

Q: How fresh are the subtitle URLs?
A: The subtitleUrl expires after a short window (usually a few hours). The subtitleUrlExpiresAt field tells you the exact cutoff. Download the VTT file promptly if you need it long-term.

Q: Can I run this on hundreds of videos?
A: Yes. The actor processes URLs sequentially. For large batches, consider splitting across multiple runs.

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