# Youtube Transcript Scraper (`devon_gtme/youtube-transcript-scraper`) Actor Extract transcripts, subtitles and closed captions from YouTube videos in bulk - fast and reliable. Accepts URLs, youtu.be links or bare IDs; returns timestamped segments plus full plain text, with language preference and fallback. Built for AI/LLM pipelines, RAG, research and SEO. - **URL**: https://apify.com/devon\_gtme/youtube-transcript-scraper.md - **Developed by:** [Devon Kellar](https://apify.com/devon_gtme) (community) - **Categories:** Videos, Social media - **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing from $2.00 / 1,000 results This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event ## What's an Apify Actor? Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases. In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours, and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store. In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server. Actors are written with capital "A". ## How to integrate an Actor? If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects. You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready. The best way to integrate Actors is as follows. In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): ```bash npm install apify-client ``` In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): ```bash pip install apify-client ``` In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): ````bash # MacOS / Linux curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash # Windows irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex ```bash In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md). If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md). For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below. For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt). # README ## YouTube Transcript Scraper — Bulk Video to Text Extract **transcripts, subtitles and closed captions from YouTube videos in bulk** — clean, structured, and cheap. Paste video URLs (or just video IDs), get back timestamped segments **and** the full plain-text transcript for every video. No YouTube API key, no quota, no browser automation. **~$2 per 1,000 videos** — and videos with no transcript are **skipped, not charged**. No data, no charge. ### Why this one - **Built for bulk** — paste hundreds or thousands of URLs in one run; videos are processed concurrently with automatic retries and rotating proxy sessions - **No data = no charge** — videos with captions disabled, unavailable videos, and age-restricted videos are skipped and never billed as results. Competing actors charge you for empty rows - **Any URL shape** — full `watch?v=` URLs, `youtu.be` short links, Shorts, embeds, live URLs, or bare 11-character video IDs - **Language-smart** — give a preference order (`en`, `de`, `pt` …); the actor takes the best match (human-created transcripts first) and gracefully falls back to whatever language the video actually has, so you always get a transcript when one exists ### Who uses this data - **AI / LLM pipelines** — turn videos into training data, RAG knowledge bases, embeddings, or summarisation inputs at scale - **Content repurposing** — convert videos into blog posts, newsletters, show notes, and social snippets - **Research & analysis** — study interviews, lectures, earnings calls, podcasts and news coverage as searchable text - **SEO & competitive intel** — mine competitor channels for topics, keywords and hooks that work ### What you get One record per video: | Field | Example | |---|---| | `videoId` | `jNQXAC9IVRw` | | `url` | `https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw` | | `title` | Me at the zoo | | `language` / `languageCode` | English / `en` | | `isAutoGenerated` | `false` | | `segments` | `[{ "start": 1.2, "duration": 2.16, "text": "All right, so here we are…" }, …]` | | `plainText` | The full transcript joined into one clean string | | `wordCount` / `segmentCount` | `39` / `6` | Choose `segments`, `plainText`, or `both` (default) via the **Output format** option. ### Input example ```json { "videoUrls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw", "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ", "9bZkp7q19f0" ], "languages": ["en"], "includeAutoGenerated": true, "outputFormat": "both" } ```` ### Languages Works with every language YouTube supports — both human-created subtitles and auto-generated captions. Set `languages` as a preference order; turn `includeAutoGenerated` off if you only want human-created transcripts. ### Videos without transcripts Some videos have captions disabled, are unavailable, or are age-restricted. These are **skipped**: they don't appear in the dataset and are **not charged**. The run log and status message report exactly how many were skipped. ### Proxy YouTube blocks most datacenter IPs, so the actor defaults to **Apify residential proxies** — this is what makes the 100%-reliability bulk runs possible. Leave the default proxy configuration unless you know what you're doing. ### Export & integrations Results land in an Apify dataset — export **CSV, Excel, JSON**, or connect Google Sheets, Make, Zapier, Slack, and webhooks via Apify integrations. *** **Need something more custom?** Channel-level scraping, transcript summarisation, keyword extraction, translation, or a fully managed video-to-text pipeline — message me via my Apify profile and I'll build it. # Actor input Schema ## `videoUrls` (type: `array`): YouTube videos to transcribe. Accepts full URLs (watch, shorts, embed, live), short youtu.be links, or bare 11-character video IDs. One per line — paste hundreds or thousands for bulk runs. ## `languages` (type: `array`): ISO language codes in preference order (e.g. en, de, es, pt, en-US). The first available transcript matching this order is used. If none match, the actor falls back to whatever language the video actually has — so you always get a transcript when one exists. ## `includeAutoGenerated` (type: `boolean`): When on (default), YouTube's auto-generated captions are used if no manually created transcript exists. Turn off to only accept human-created transcripts. ## `outputFormat` (type: `string`): "segments" = timestamped array of {start, duration, text}. "plainText" = the full transcript joined into one string. "both" (default) = both fields on every record. ## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`): Proxies used to fetch transcripts. YouTube blocks most datacenter IPs, so RESIDENTIAL proxies (the default) are strongly recommended — datacenter proxies will usually fail with 'IP blocked' errors. ## Actor input object example ```json { "videoUrls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw", "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ" ], "languages": [ "en" ], "includeAutoGenerated": true, "outputFormat": "both", "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": [ "RESIDENTIAL" ] } } ``` # API You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup. ## JavaScript example ```javascript import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client'; // Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token // Replace the '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "videoUrls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw", "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ" ], "languages": [ "en" ], "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": [ "RESIDENTIAL" ] } }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("devon_gtme/youtube-transcript-scraper").call(input); // Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any) console.log('Results from dataset'); console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`); const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems(); items.forEach((item) => { console.dir(item); }); // 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs ``` ## Python example ```python from apify_client import ApifyClient # Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token # Replace '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = { "videoUrls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw", "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ", ], "languages": ["en"], "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": True, "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"], }, } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("devon_gtme/youtube-transcript-scraper").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"]) for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items(): print(item) # 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start ``` ## CLI example ```bash echo '{ "videoUrls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw", "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ" ], "languages": [ "en" ], "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": [ "RESIDENTIAL" ] } }' | apify call devon_gtme/youtube-transcript-scraper --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=devon_gtme/youtube-transcript-scraper", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "Youtube Transcript Scraper", "description": "Extract transcripts, subtitles and closed captions from YouTube videos in bulk - fast and reliable. Accepts URLs, youtu.be links or bare IDs; returns timestamped segments plus full plain text, with language preference and fallback. Built for AI/LLM pipelines, RAG, research and SEO.", "version": "0.1", "x-build-id": "nCx4O6mBHGVjtWkRe" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/devon_gtme~youtube-transcript-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-devon_gtme-youtube-transcript-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/devon_gtme~youtube-transcript-scraper/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-devon_gtme-youtube-transcript-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK", "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/devon_gtme~youtube-transcript-scraper/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-devon_gtme-youtube-transcript-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } } }, "components": { "schemas": { "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "required": [ "videoUrls" ], "properties": { "videoUrls": { "title": "Video URLs or IDs", "type": "array", "description": "YouTube videos to transcribe. Accepts full URLs (watch, shorts, embed, live), short youtu.be links, or bare 11-character video IDs. One per line — paste hundreds or thousands for bulk runs.", "items": { "type": "string" } }, "languages": { "title": "Language preference order", "type": "array", "description": "ISO language codes in preference order (e.g. en, de, es, pt, en-US). The first available transcript matching this order is used. If none match, the actor falls back to whatever language the video actually has — so you always get a transcript when one exists.", "default": [ "en" ], "items": { "type": "string" } }, "includeAutoGenerated": { "title": "Include auto-generated transcripts", "type": "boolean", "description": "When on (default), YouTube's auto-generated captions are used if no manually created transcript exists. Turn off to only accept human-created transcripts.", "default": true }, "outputFormat": { "title": "Output format", "enum": [ "segments", "plainText", "both" ], "type": "string", "description": "\"segments\" = timestamped array of {start, duration, text}. \"plainText\" = the full transcript joined into one string. \"both\" (default) = both fields on every record.", "default": "both" }, "proxyConfiguration": { "title": "Proxy configuration", "type": "object", "description": "Proxies used to fetch transcripts. YouTube blocks most datacenter IPs, so RESIDENTIAL proxies (the default) are strongly recommended — datacenter proxies will usually fail with 'IP blocked' errors.", "default": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": [ "RESIDENTIAL" ] } } } }, "runsResponseSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "data": { "type": "object", "properties": { "id": { "type": "string" }, "actId": { "type": "string" }, "userId": { "type": "string" }, "startedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "finishedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "status": { "type": "string", "example": "READY" }, "meta": { "type": "object", "properties": { "origin": { "type": "string", "example": "API" }, "userAgent": { "type": "string" } } }, "stats": { "type": "object", "properties": { "inputBodyLen": { "type": "integer", "example": 2000 }, "rebootCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "restartCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "resurrectCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "computeUnits": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "options": { "type": "object", "properties": { "build": { "type": "string", "example": "latest" }, "timeoutSecs": { "type": "integer", "example": 300 }, "memoryMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 1024 }, "diskMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 2048 } } }, "buildId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultKeyValueStoreId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultDatasetId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultRequestQueueId": { "type": "string" }, "buildNumber": { "type": "string", "example": "1.0.0" }, "containerUrl": { "type": "string" }, "usage": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 1 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "usageTotalUsd": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "usageUsd": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } } } } } } } } } ```