🎬 YouTube Transcript Scraper

Extract the full transcript of any YouTube video in seconds. No YouTube API key required, no browser automation, no manual copy-paste. Get word-level timestamps, auto-generated captions, and optional auto-translation into 40+ languages.

• 📝 Full Transcript Extraction: Scrape the complete YouTube video transcript with millisecond-precision timestamps
• 🌍 40+ Languages: Extract captions in any available language (English, French, Spanish, German, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, and more)
• 🔄 Auto-Translation: No English transcript? YouTube auto-translate kicks in automatically to convert any caption track into your target language
• ⏱️ 3 Output Formats: Structured segments { start, duration, end, text }, full plain text, or timestamped [MM:SS] text
• 🔗 All YouTube URL Formats: Works with youtube.com/watch?v=, youtu.be/, youtube.com/shorts/, and bare video IDs
• 🤖 Auto-Generated Captions Supported: Works on videos with manually uploaded subtitles and YouTube's auto-generated ASR captions
• ⚡ No API Key Required: Directly taps YouTube's internal InnerTube API with no quota limits and no Google Cloud setup
• 🛡️ Resilient by Design: Multi-client fallback (Android → iOS → TV), proxy rotation, and automatic retry on rate limits

ℹ️ Proxy note: YouTube's transcript API blocks datacenter IPs. Use Apify Residential Proxy for reliable results. The proxy selector is pre-configured in the input form.

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💎 Why Choose This YouTube Transcript Scraper?

Most YouTube transcript scrapers rely on fragile HTML parsing or third-party libraries that break every few weeks. This scraper uses YouTube's own InnerTube API, the same internal API the YouTube app uses, making it significantly more stable and capable.

Feature	This Scraper	Generic scrapers
No API key required	✅	✅
Multi-client bot bypass	✅	❌
Auto-translate fallback	✅	❌
Millisecond timestamps	✅	❌
Proxy rotation per request	✅	❌
Batch processing	✅	Rarely

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🚀 How to Scrape YouTube Transcripts

1. 🔗 Paste Your YouTube URLs

Add one or more YouTube video URLs. Supported formats:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
• https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ
• https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dQw4w9WgXcQ
• Bare video ID: dQw4w9WgXcQ

2. 🌍 Select Your Language

Pick the transcript language from the dropdown (40+ ISO 639-1 codes). If the requested language has no native caption track, the scraper automatically uses YouTube's built-in auto-translate to convert the closest available track.

3. 📄 Choose Your Output Format

Format	Output field	Best for
Segments (default)	segments array	AI pipelines, RAG, search indexing
Full text	fullText string	LLM prompts, summarization, translation
Timestamps	fullText string	Subtitles, video editing, karaoke

4. 🔒 Configure Your Proxy

Select Apify Residential in the proxy dropdown (pre-selected by default). YouTube's InnerTube API rejects datacenter IPs, so residential proxies are required for stable operation.

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✨ What You'll Get

📊 Output Data Structure

Field	Type	Description
videoId	string	YouTube video ID
videoUrl	string	Full YouTube watch URL
title	string	Video title
author	string	Channel name
channelId	string	YouTube channel ID
durationSeconds	number	Total video duration in seconds
language	string	Language code of the returned transcript
nativeLanguage	string	Original caption track language
isAutoTranslated	boolean	true if YouTube auto-translated the transcript
isAutoGenerated	boolean	true if captions were auto-generated by YouTube (ASR)
segmentCount	number	Total number of transcript segments
availableLanguages	array	All available caption tracks for this video
segments	array	[{ start, duration, end, text }] with times in seconds (3 decimal places)
fullText	string	Full transcript as plain text or [MM:SS] timestamped text

📋 Output Example — Segments Format

{
  "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "videoUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Video)",
  "author": "Rick Astley",
  "channelId": "UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw",
  "durationSeconds": 212,
  "language": "en",
  "nativeLanguage": "en",
  "isAutoTranslated": false,
  "isAutoGenerated": false,
  "segmentCount": 87,
  "availableLanguages": [
    { "code": "en", "name": "English", "isAutoGenerated": false }
  ],
  "segments": [
    { "start": "0.320", "duration": "4.080", "end": "4.400", "text": "We're no strangers to love" },
    { "start": "4.400", "duration": "3.920", "end": "8.320", "text": "You know the rules and so do I" }
  ]
}

📋 Output Example — Full Text Format

{
  "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Video)",
  "language": "en",
  "segmentCount": 87,
  "fullText": "We're no strangers to love You know the rules and so do I..."
}

📋 Output Example — Timestamps Format

{
  "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Video)",
  "language": "en",
  "segmentCount": 87,
  "fullText": "[00:00] We're no strangers to love\n[00:04] You know the rules and so do I\n[00:08] A full commitment's what I'm thinking of..."
}

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📋 Quick Start

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
videoUrls	array		List of YouTube video URLs or video IDs
preferredLanguage	string	"en"	Language code from dropdown (ISO 639-1)
customLanguageCode	string		Override the dropdown with any language code (e.g. sw, eu)
outputFormat	string	"segments"	"segments", "text", or "timestamps"
proxyConfiguration	object	Residential	Apify proxy settings (residential required)

Input Example

{
  "videoUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "https://youtu.be/mFQ2wRDNdww"
  ],
  "preferredLanguage": "en",
  "outputFormat": "segments",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}

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🔗 Integrations

Connect this YouTube transcript scraper to your AI workflows and automation tools:

• 🔄 N8N — Apify + N8N Integration Guide
• ⚡ Make (Integromat) — Apify + Make Integration Guide
• 🤖 MCP (AI Agents) — Apify MCP Server
• 🧠 OpenAI / Claude / Gemini: Feed transcripts directly into LLM pipelines via the Apify API
• 📊 Google Sheets / Airtable: Export via dataset webhooks or Zapier

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🎯 Use Cases

🤖 AI & LLM Applications

• Build RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) systems from YouTube video content
• Feed transcripts into ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini for summarization, Q&A, or translation
• Create podcast and video search engines indexed by transcript content
• Train fine-tuned models on domain-specific YouTube content

📚 Content Research

• Repurpose video content into blog posts, newsletters, or social media threads
• Extract quotes and key insights from interviews, lectures, and talks
• Monitor competitor content and what topics they cover in depth
• Research SEO keywords from high-ranking YouTube videos in your niche

🎓 Education & Accessibility

• Generate subtitles and closed captions for your own content
• Create study notes from educational videos, MOOCs, and lectures
• Make video content accessible for deaf or hard-of-hearing audiences
• Translate educational content into multiple languages automatically

📊 Data Analysis

• Analyze speaking patterns and vocabulary across channels
• Track keyword frequency in video transcripts over time
• Build content classification models from transcript data
• Compare how different creators cover the same topic

🔍 Journalism & Research

• Verify quotes and statements made in video interviews
• Archive public speeches, hearings, and press conferences
• Cross-reference claims across multiple video sources
• Extract structured data from video earnings calls or conference talks

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💡 Pro Tips

🎯 For AI Pipelines

Use outputFormat: "segments" to get timestamped chunks ideal for vector embedding and semantic search. Each segment maps cleanly to a text chunk with its position in the video.

📝 For LLM Summarization

Use outputFormat: "text" to get the full transcript as a single string, ready to drop into a prompt with no parsing required.

🎬 For Subtitle Editing

Use outputFormat: "timestamps" to get [MM:SS] prefixed lines, easy to import into subtitle editors like Aegisub or review in a spreadsheet.

🌍 For Non-English Videos

Set preferredLanguage to your target language. If the video doesn't have a native track in that language, the scraper will automatically request YouTube's auto-translation which covers 100+ languages. If translation is rate-limited, it gracefully falls back to the native language track.

⚡ For Bulk Processing

Pass multiple URLs in a single run. The scraper processes them sequentially with independent proxy sessions per video.

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❓ FAQ

How do I scrape a YouTube transcript without an API key?

This scraper uses YouTube's internal InnerTube API with no Google Cloud setup, no YouTube Data API key, and no quota limits. Just paste your video URLs and run.

Can I extract auto-generated captions from YouTube?

Yes. The scraper fully supports YouTube's auto-generated (ASR) captions, which are available on most videos even without manually uploaded subtitles. The isAutoGenerated field in the output tells you which type was used.

Can I get YouTube transcripts in multiple languages?

Yes. Select the target language from the 40-language dropdown, or enter any ISO 639-1 code in the custom field. If the video has a native track in that language, it's returned directly. If not, YouTube's auto-translate is used automatically.

Why do I need a residential proxy?

YouTube's transcript API blocks requests from datacenter IP ranges. Residential proxies route requests through real home IP addresses, which YouTube treats as legitimate user traffic. The Apify Residential proxy option is pre-selected in the input form.

What YouTube URL formats are supported?

All standard formats: youtube.com/watch?v=, youtu.be/, youtube.com/shorts/, youtube.com/live/, and bare 11-character video IDs.

What happens if a video has no transcript?

The scraper pushes an error entry to the dataset with the videoId, videoUrl, and an error message. Processing continues with the next video in the list.

Is this YouTube transcript scraper free to use?

The actor itself is free. You pay only for Apify compute units (CUs) consumed during the run, plus residential proxy bandwidth. A single video transcript typically costs a fraction of a cent.

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🤝 Support

Need help or have a feature request? Open an issue on the actor page.

❤️ Love this scraper? Leave a review on the Apify Store, it helps others discover it!

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Built for AI engineers, content creators, researchers, and data teams who need reliable YouTube transcript extraction at scale.