YouTube Transcript Extractor

Extract YouTube video transcripts with complete metadata including title, description, views, likes, channel information, tags, and more.

Features

• Complete video metadata - Title, description, views, likes, thumbnails, channel info
• Full transcript extraction - Text with precise timestamps
• Channel information - Name, ID, subscribers, verification status
• Multi-language support - Extract transcripts in any language available on YouTube
• Multiple output formats - JSON with timestamps, SRT, WebVTT
• Fast extraction - HTTP-only approach, no browser overhead

Input

Required Fields

Field	Type	Description
video_urls	Array	List of YouTube video URLs or video IDs

Optional Fields

Field	Type	Default	Description
language	String	auto	Transcript language (auto, en, fr, es, de, it, pt, ru, ja, ko, zh, ar, hi)
output_format	String	json	Output format: json, srt, webvtt
include_metadata	Boolean	true	Include video metadata (title, views, channel, etc.). Set to false for transcript only

🔐 proxyConfig (Required)

Proxy configuration to avoid YouTube bot detection.

Default: Apify Datacenter proxy - Free (upgrade to Residential if blocked)

Available types:

• "apify-datacenter" - Apify datacenter proxy (free, included in your plan) - Default
• "apify-residential" - Apify residential proxy (paid, most reliable if datacenter is blocked)
• "none" - No proxy (direct connection, usually blocked by YouTube)
• "custom" - Your own custom proxies

Option 1: Apify Datacenter proxy (default - free)

{
  "proxyConfig": {
    "type": "apify-datacenter"
  }
}

Option 2: Apify Residential proxy (if datacenter is blocked)

{
  "proxyConfig": {
    "type": "apify-residential"
  }
}

Option 3: No proxy (not recommended - YouTube blocks most requests)

{
  "proxyConfig": {
    "type": "none"
  }
}

Option 4: Custom proxy

{
  "proxyConfig": {
    "type": "custom",
    "proxyUrls": ["http://proxy.example.com:8080"]
  }
}

Example Input

{
  "video_urls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xObhZ0Ga7EQ"
  ],
  "language": "auto",
  "output_format": "json",
  "include_metadata": true,
  "proxyConfig": {
    "type": "apify-datacenter"
  }
}

Output

With Metadata (include_metadata: true)

{
  "video_id": "bBC-nXj3Ng4",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBC-nXj3Ng4",
  "url_short": "https://youtu.be/bBC-nXj3Ng4",
  "embed_url": "https://www.youtube.com/embed/bBC-nXj3Ng4",
  "title": "But how does bitcoin actually work?",
  "description": "The math behind cryptocurrencies...",
  "thumbnail_url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/bBC-nXj3Ng4/maxresdefault.webp",
  "upload_date": "2017-07-07",
  "duration": "25:15",
  "duration_seconds": 1515,
  "view_count": 17474405,
  "view_count_text": "17.5M",
  "like_count": 395820,
  "like_count_text": "396K",
  "comment_count": 24000,
  "channel_name": "3Blue1Brown",
  "channel_id": "UCYO_jab_esuFRV4b17AJtAw",
  "channel_url": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYO_jab_esuFRV4b17AJtAw",
  "channel_follower_count": 7840000,
  "channel_follower_count_text": "7.84M",
  "channel_is_verified": true,
  "transcript_text": "What does it mean to have a Bitcoin? Many people have heard...",
  "transcript_language": "auto",
  "transcript_segments": [
    {
      "timestamp": "0:03",
      "text": "What does it mean to have a Bitcoin?",
      "start_seconds": 3.9,
      "duration_seconds": 2.58
    },
    {
      "timestamp": "0:07",
      "text": "Many people have heard of Bitcoin...",
      "start_seconds": 7.42,
      "duration_seconds": 3.838
    }
  ],
  "word_count": 4422,
  "segment_count": 384,
  "tags": ["bitcoin", "cryptocurrency", "blockchain", "math"],
  "categories": ["Education"],
  "age_limit": 0,
  "is_live": false,
  "was_live": false,
  "has_transcript": true
}

Without Metadata (include_metadata: false)

{
  "video_id": "bBC-nXj3Ng4",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBC-nXj3Ng4",
  "transcript_text": "What does it mean to have a Bitcoin? Many people have heard...",
  "transcript_language": "auto",
  "transcript_segments": [
    {
      "timestamp": "0:03",
      "text": "What does it mean to have a Bitcoin?",
      "start_seconds": 3.9,
      "duration_seconds": 2.58
    },
    {
      "timestamp": "0:07",
      "text": "Many people have heard of Bitcoin...",
      "start_seconds": 7.42,
      "duration_seconds": 3.838
    }
  ]
}

SRT Format (output_format: "srt")

1
00:00:03,900 --> 00:00:06,480
What does it mean to have a Bitcoin?

2
00:00:07,420 --> 00:00:11,258
Many people have heard of Bitcoin, that it's a fully digital currency

WebVTT Format (output_format: "webvtt")

WEBVTT

00:00:03.900 --> 00:00:06.480
What does it mean to have a Bitcoin?

00:00:07.420 --> 00:00:11.258
Many people have heard of Bitcoin, that it's a fully digital currency

Use Cases

• Content analysis and research
• Subtitle generation for videos
• Accessibility improvements
• SEO and keyword extraction
• Video content indexing
• Educational content processing
• Data mining and analytics

Supported Languages

The actor automatically detects and extracts transcripts in any language available on YouTube:

• English (en), Français (fr), Español (es), Deutsch (de), Italiano (it)
• Português (pt), Русский (ru), 日本語 (ja), 한국어 (ko), 中文 (zh)
• العربية (ar), हिन्दी (hi), and many more...

Limitations

• Only publicly available transcripts can be extracted
• Private or age-restricted videos may not be accessible
• Transcripts must be enabled by the video owner
• Some videos may not have transcripts available