YouTube Transcript Scraper

YouTube transcripts by video ID or URL: full text, language, manual or auto captions, word count, and timestamped lines.

For AI builders, researchers, marketers, and content teams who need what a video says as text. Every run tells you plainly what worked and what did not: no silent empty runs.

What you can do with it

• AI and RAG: feed text to an LLM to summarize, tag, or answer questions about videos. Use segments to cite the exact second.
• Content repurposing: turn talks, podcasts, and tutorials into blog posts, notes, or social posts.
• Research at scale: collect what a list of videos says and search it by keyword.
• Translations and subtitles: pick any of the video's caption languages (availableLanguages) and export timed lines.

What you get

Field	What it is	Example
input	The video ID or URL you submitted.	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc
type	transcript or error.	transcript
videoId	11-character YouTube video ID.	UF8uR6Z6KLc
url	Watch URL of the video.	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc
language	Language code of the transcript in this row.	en
captionType	manual (written by the uploader) or auto (generated from speech).	manual
isFallbackLanguage	True when the requested language was missing and another track was used.	false
availableLanguages	Every language code the video has captions in.	[ar, …]
text	Full transcript as one plain-text string.	This program is brought to you by Stanford University. Please visit u…
wordCount	Number of words in text.	2298
characterCount	Number of characters in text.	12131
segmentCount	Number of timed caption lines.	244
durationSeconds	End time of the last caption line, in seconds. Close to the video length.	903.76
segments	Caption lines with start and end in seconds. Empty when Include timestamps is off.	[{"start": 7.47, "end": 10.369, "text": "This prog…, …]

Examples come from a real run. Every row has every field; a value the page did not show is null, never guessed.

One row per video. Every caption language the video has is checked; you choose which one is saved.

How to use it

1. Click Try for free (or Start) on this page.
2. Enter one video ID or URL per line in the first field. The form is prefilled with a working example.
3. Optional: set Max results and the other options.
4. Click Start. Open the Output tab, or export JSON, CSV, Excel, or HTML.

Example input

{
  "videos": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc"
  ],
  "language": "en"
}

Example output

One real row from a run on 23 October 2026 (long values shortened here):

{
  "input": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc",
  "type": "transcript",
  "videoId": "UF8uR6Z6KLc",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc",
  "language": "en",
  "captionType": "manual",
  "isFallbackLanguage": false,
  "availableLanguages": [
    "ar",
    "en",
    "es",
    "…"
  ],
  "text": "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 at your commencement from…",
  "wordCount": 2298,
  "characterCount": 12131,
  "segmentCount": 244,
  "durationSeconds": 903.76,
  "segments": [
    {
      "start": 7.47,
      "end": 10.369,
      "text": "This program is brought to you by Stanford University."
    },
    {
      "start": 10.47,
      "end": 14.443,
      "text": "Please visit us at stanford.edu"
    },
    {
      "start": 22.492,
      "end": 30.019,
      "text": "Thank You. I am honored to be with you today at your commencement"
    },
    "…"
  ]
}

Pricing

Pay per result: $3.00 per 1,000 rows, plus $0.001 per run start. No subscription.

Event	When	Price
Actor start	Once per run (per GB of memory; the default 256 MB counts as one)	$0.001
Result row	Each row saved to the dataset	$0.003

Example	Rows	Cost
10 videos	10	$0.001 + $0.03 = $0.031
100 videos	100	$0.001 + $0.30 = $0.301
1,000 videos	1,000	$0.001 + $3.00 = $3.001

• Retries after a bot check or a temporary error cost you nothing. You pay only for rows saved.
• An input that fails after all retries saves one error row (one row charge), so you can see what failed and why.
• Set Max total charge per run in the run options. The Actor stops cleanly at that limit and keeps every row saved so far.

What you can count on

• Same columns on every row. Missing values are null, so spreadsheets and databases never break.
• No silent failures. An input that fails gets an error row with errorCode and a plain-language errorMessage. The other inputs keep running.
• A clear run summary. The run status says how many results were saved, how many inputs failed, and why. The same numbers are saved as the RUN_SUMMARY record in the run's key-value store, for automations.
• Automatic retries. Bot checks and temporary errors are retried with a fresh request before an input counts as failed.
• Limits respected. Max results and your spending limit stop the run cleanly.

Use it from code, automations, and AI agents

API (returns the rows when the run finishes):

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

Python (pip install apify-client):

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_API_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("datacortex/youtube-transcript-scraper").call(run_input={"videos": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc"], "language": "en"})
for row in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(row)

JavaScript (npm install apify-client):

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_API_TOKEN' });
const run = await client.actor('datacortex/youtube-transcript-scraper').call({"videos": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc"], "language": "en"});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();

No-code: connect the Actor in Make, Zapier, n8n, or Google Sheets through Apify's integrations, or add a webhook to get notified when a run finishes.

AI agents (MCP): add https://mcp.apify.com?tools=datacortex/youtube-transcript-scraper to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client. The agent can call this Actor as a tool with the same input as above.

Limitations

• Only videos with captions (written by the uploader or generated by YouTube) have a transcript. Videos with no captions get an error row with no_transcript.
• Auto captions have no punctuation and can mishear names. captionType tells you which kind you got.
• When the requested language is missing, the video's own language is used and isFallbackLanguage is true. Turn on Only the requested language to get an error row instead.
• Private, members-only, and deleted videos have no transcript.

FAQ

What do I enter? A video ID like UF8uR6Z6KLc, or any watch, Shorts, youtu.be, embed, or live URL.

How do I get a transcript in Spanish? Set Language to es. It also matches regional tracks like es-ES or es-419. availableLanguages lists every language the video has.

Are manual or auto captions better? Manual captions, written by the uploader, are usually more accurate. By default the Actor takes manual captions first and auto captions when there are none.

Can I get only the text, without timestamps? Yes. Turn off Include timestamps. text and the counts stay; segments is left empty.

What does an error row mean? It marks an input that failed after retries. errorCode is short (blocked, empty_result, not_available, http_404, or invalid_... for a bad ID or URL) and errorMessage says what to do. Remove error rows with a filter on type.

Can I run it on a schedule? Yes. Create a task with your input in Apify Console, then add a schedule (for example every day at 8:00).

Is it legal to collect this data? The Actor reads public pages that anyone can open without logging in. You are responsible for how you use the data, including copyright, personal data rules such as GDPR, and the site's terms. If you are not sure, ask a lawyer.

Related Actors

• YouTube Metadata Scraper: Full metadata for YouTube videos by ID or URL.
• YouTube Search Scraper: YouTube search results by keyword.
• YouTube Channel Scraper: Latest videos from any YouTube channel plus the channel profile.

Support

Found a problem or need a field? Open an issue on the Issues tab. Include the run ID and one input that shows the problem. We read every issue.