YouTube Transcript Downloader & Scraper: Videos, Channels

This YouTube transcript scraper turns videos into clean text, in bulk, without the API. Paste video links, whole channels (youtube.com/@handle) or playlists, and get each transcript as full text, timestamped segments and an optional SRT subtitle file. You only pay for transcripts delivered. Videos without captions are listed for free.

Why this YouTube transcript downloader

• Channels and playlists in one go. No need to collect video URLs first.
• Language control. Give your preferred languages; human-made captions are used before auto-generated ones. If none match, you get the video's own language, or YouTube's translation into the language you choose.
• Keeps going when YouTube pushes back. Blocked requests switch to a fresh IP and retry, so big batches finish.
• AI-ready output. One clean text field per video for LLMs and RAG, plus segments with start times for citations and clips.

How to download YouTube transcripts in bulk

Paste video, channel or playlist links, set the languages you prefer and run. Example input:

{
  "videos": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ", "https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd"],
  "maxVideosPerChannel": 20,
  "languages": ["en"],
  "includeSrt": true
}

Output (one item per video)

{
  "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Video)",
  "channel": "Rick Astley",
  "languageCode": "en",
  "isGenerated": false,
  "isTranslated": false,
  "text": "We're no strangers to love ...",
  "wordCount": 487,
  "transcriptSeconds": 211.3,
  "segments": [{"start": 18.6, "duration": 3.2, "text": "We're no strangers to love"}],
  "srt": "1\n00:00:18,600 --> 00:00:21,800\nWe're no strangers to love\n"
}

Videos without captions (or private, removed, age-restricted) appear with the reason in the FAILED record of the key-value store. They are not charged.

Ideas

• Feed a channel's transcripts into an LLM to make summaries, show notes, blog posts or a searchable knowledge base.
• Do competitor and creator research at scale.
• Find the exact moment a topic is mentioned using segment timestamps.
• Send the results to Google Sheets with our Google Sheets Import & Export Actor.

YouTube transcript API

Call this Actor from the Apify API, Python, JavaScript, Make, Zapier or n8n and get transcripts back as JSON. There's no YouTube API key, no OAuth and no quota. YouTube's official Data API only lets a channel's owner download its captions.

Use it in Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor

Connect Apify's MCP server (mcp.apify.com) and your AI assistant can fetch transcripts itself. For example: "get the transcripts of the last 10 videos on @mkbhd and summarize them." The only required input is videos.

How much does it cost

Pay per event: $0.002 per transcript delivered (100 transcripts ≈ $0.20), plus the standard start fee. Apify Silver plans get 10% off, Gold and higher 20%.

FAQ

Is there a YouTube transcript API?

YouTube's official Data API only lets a channel's owner download its captions. This Actor works as a YouTube transcript API for any public video, channel or playlist, with no API key.

How do I download YouTube subtitles as an SRT file?

Turn on includeSrt. Each video then comes with an srt field you can save as a .srt subtitle file.

How do I get the transcript of a YouTube video?

Paste the video link. You get the full text, timestamped segments and, if you turn on includeSrt, an SRT subtitle file.

Can I download transcripts for a whole channel or playlist?

Yes. Paste a channel (youtube.com/@handle) or playlist link and set maxVideosPerChannel. No need to collect the video URLs first.

What if a video has no captions?

It is listed with the reason (no captions, private, removed or age-restricted) in the FAILED record, and it is not charged.

Can I choose the language, or get a translation?

Yes. Give your preferred languages. Human-made captions are used before auto-generated ones. If none match, you get the video's own language, or YouTube's translation into the language you choose.

Is it free to get YouTube transcripts?

Opening a transcript in YouTube is free for one video. This Actor is for bulk work and is pay per event: $0.002 per transcript delivered (100 transcripts ≈ $0.20). You pay nothing for videos without captions.

Is it legal to scrape YouTube transcripts?

The captions are public and no login is used. Follow YouTube's terms and respect the creators' copyright when you reuse the text.

Related tools

• YouTube Channel Scraper lists a channel's videos with views, likes and comments.
• Transcribe Audio to Text transcribes videos that have no captions, with your own API key.