YouTube Transcript Scraper - Pay Only for Success

Extract YouTube transcripts in bulk: paste video links and get the transcript of each one as plain text, with timestamps, or as an SRT subtitle file. Works as a no-code tool and as a YouTube transcript API.

You pay only for transcripts that were actually delivered. A video without captions, a deleted or restricted video, a broken link - each comes back as a row with the reason and costs nothing.

What can this YouTube transcript extractor do?

• Bulk transcripts. Pass one link or thousands; a run of 300 videos takes about four minutes.
• Any link format. Regular links, youtu.be, Shorts, embed and live links, or bare video IDs.
• Original language by default. If you do not name a language, you get the language spoken in the video, not the first one in YouTube's alphabetical list.
• Language choice. Name the language codes you want in order of preference.
• Human or auto-generated captions. Human-made captions are preferred; every row tells you which kind you received.
• Three formats. Plain text for AI and search, timed segments for apps, SRT for video editors.
• Video details included. Title, channel, length and the list of all available caption languages.
• No setup. No YouTube API key, no proxies to buy, no code to host.

Why not a free transcript library?

Free libraries work well on your own computer. Run from a cloud server, they are often refused by YouTube with an "IP blocked" or "sign in to confirm you're not a bot" error. In our own test, every request sent to YouTube straight from a data center was refused.

This Actor sends each request through a residential address and, if YouTube refuses, tries again from a different one - up to three times. In two test runs of 300 recent videos each (October 2026), 599 of 600 requests got an answer.

And when a transcript still cannot be delivered, you are not charged for it.

How much does it cost to scrape YouTube transcripts?

Result	What you get	Charged
ok	Transcript, video title, channel, length, language	$0.004
no_captions	The video has no captions at all	Free
language_unavailable	No captions in the languages you asked for; the available ones are listed	Free
unavailable	The video cannot be played: deleted, restricted or not started yet; the reason is included	Free
blocked	YouTube refused the request after three attempts from different addresses	Free
invalid_url	The link is not a YouTube video	Free

That is $4 per 1,000 delivered transcripts. There is no start fee and no charge for platform usage or proxies.

On Apify's free plan the monthly $5 credit covers about 1,250 transcripts.

How to get a YouTube transcript

1. Open the Actor and paste your video links into YouTube videos.
2. Optionally name the languages you prefer and choose the output format.
3. Click Start.
4. Download the result as JSON, CSV or Excel, or fetch it through the API.

Input

Field	What it does
YouTube videos	Video URLs or 11-character video IDs. Duplicates are processed once.
Preferred languages	Language codes in order of preference, for example en, es, de. The first available one is returned, and a track written by a human is preferred over an auto-generated one. Leave empty to get the original language of the video.
Use auto-generated captions	On by default. Switch off to accept only captions uploaded by the video owner.
Output format	Plain text is always included. Add timed segments (default) or an SRT file.

{
    "videoUrls": [
        "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw",
        "https://youtu.be/aircAruvnKk"
    ],
    "languages": ["en"],
    "includeAutoGenerated": true,
    "outputFormat": "segments"
}

Output

One row per video, in the order they finish.

{
    "videoId": "jNQXAC9IVRw",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw",
    "status": "ok",
    "reason": null,
    "title": "Me at the zoo",
    "channel": "jawed",
    "channelId": "UC4QobU6STFB0P71PMvOGN5A",
    "lengthSeconds": 19,
    "language": "en",
    "languageName": "English",
    "isAutoGenerated": false,
    "availableLanguages": [
        { "code": "en", "name": "English", "isAutoGenerated": false },
        { "code": "de", "name": "German", "isAutoGenerated": false }
    ],
    "text": "All right, so here we are, in front of the elephants ...",
    "segments": [
        { "start": 1.2, "duration": 2.16, "text": "All right, so here we are, in front of the elephants" }
    ]
}

With Plain text only the segments field is left out. With SRT it is replaced by an srt field holding the subtitle file as a string.

When a transcript could not be delivered, status says why, reason carries the explanation YouTube gave, and text is null.

Use it as a YouTube transcript API

One request starts the Actor, waits for it to finish and returns the rows:

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/dbolat88~youtube-transcript-pay-per-success/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"videoUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw"], "outputFormat": "text"}'

The API button at the top of this page gives ready-made snippets for Python, JavaScript and other clients.

Use it in n8n, Make, Zapier and AI agents

• n8n, Make, Zapier. Add the Apify app or node, choose to run an Actor and pick this one. A typical workflow: new video in a channel, transcript from this Actor, summary from your AI model.
• AI agents. The Actor is available to agents through the Apify MCP server, and agents can pay for a run without an Apify account.
• LangChain and RAG. Use the plain text output as documents; title, channel and url are ready to use as metadata.

Frequently asked questions

Can I get a transcript of a video without captions? No. The Actor returns the captions YouTube has, human-made or auto-generated. It does not transcribe audio. A video with no captions comes back as no_captions and is free.

Does the transcript include timestamps? Yes. The default format returns segments with start and duration in seconds. Choose SRT to get a ready subtitle file.

Which languages are supported? Every language YouTube has a caption track in for that video. availableLanguages lists them in each row. The Actor does not translate captions itself.

What about auto-generated captions? They are returned when no human-made track exists in the language you need. In many languages they come without punctuation. isAutoGenerated tells you which kind you received.

Can it scrape a whole channel or playlist? Not yet. Pass the links of the videos themselves.

Is there a limit on the number of videos? No fixed limit. If you set a maximum charge for the run, the Actor stops when it is reached and reports how many videos were left unprocessed.

What happens when YouTube changes something? Some videos may come back as blocked until the Actor is updated. Those rows are free.

Responsible use

The Actor reads captions that YouTube shows to any visitor without signing in. You are responsible for how you use the transcripts, including copyright and the terms of the services involved.

This Actor is an independent tool. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by YouTube or Google.

Found a problem? Open an issue on the Issues tab of this page.