🎬 YouTube Transcript & Metadata Extractor

Extract YouTube transcripts, subtitles, and complete video metadata in seconds - no manual work, no copy-paste, just pure automated data extraction.

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Extract transcripts from any YouTube video in 3 clicks

Paste URL → Click Start → Download data. That's it.

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Why 1,000+ marketers, researchers, and developers choose this tool

What You Get	Why It Matters
⚡ 5-second extraction	Process 100 videos while your coffee brews
🎯 100% accurate transcripts	Official YouTube data, not AI guesses
📊 Complete metadata	Views, likes, channel info, thumbnails - everything
💰 Free tier available	Test with 10 videos before paying anything
🔄 Never extract twice	Smart caching saves time and money
📥 Export anywhere	JSON, CSV, Excel, or direct API integration

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How It Works

Step 1: Paste Your URLs

{
  "youtubeUrl": [
    { "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" }
  ]
}

Step 2: Configure (Optional)

• Clean transcript: Remove "um", "uh", filler words
• Include timestamps: Get second-by-second text timing
• Extract comments: Pull top comments with replies (NEW!)

Step 3: Get Your Data

{
  "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "Video_title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up",
  "Views": "1,234,567,890 views",
  "transcriptText": "We're no strangers to love...",
  "channel": {
    "name": "Rick Astley",
    "subscribers": "3.2M subscribers"
  }
}

What You Can Do With This Data

📝 Content Creators & Marketers

• Repurpose videos into blogs - Extract transcript, feed to AI, generate 5 articles
• Create social media posts - Pull key quotes and timestamps
• Generate SEO-optimized content - Turn video content into searchable text
• Subtitle generation - Export timestamps for perfect captions

Real example: Marketing agency extracts 100 competitor videos weekly, identifies trending topics, creates counter-content. Result: 40% traffic increase in 3 months.

🔬 Researchers & Academics

• Analyze lecture content at scale - Process entire course catalogs
• Study speaking patterns - Extract timestamps for linguistic analysis
• Sentiment analysis - Feed transcripts into NLP models
• Citation extraction - Find and verify sources mentioned in videos

Real example: PhD student analyzed 500 TED Talks in 2 days instead of 6 months, discovered key patterns in successful presentations.

🤖 Developers & AI Teams

• Train chatbots - Use video transcripts as training data
• Build recommendation engines - Analyze content similarity
• Automated workflows - Trigger actions based on new videos
• Knowledge base creation - Convert video libraries into searchable databases

Real example: SaaS company built AI support bot using 1,000 tutorial video transcripts. Result: 60% reduction in support tickets.

📊 Business Intelligence

• Competitor monitoring - Track what competitors are saying
• Brand sentiment tracking - Analyze mentions across video content
• Market research - Extract insights from industry thought leaders
• Product feedback analysis - Process customer testimonial videos

Real example: E-commerce brand analyzes 200 review videos monthly, identifies pain points, improves product design. Result: 25% reduction in returns.

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Complete Feature List

Core Extraction

• ✅ Full video transcripts with cleaned text
• ✅ Precise second-by-second timestamps
• ✅ Video metadata (title, views, likes, date)
• ✅ Channel information (name, subscribers, verification)
• ✅ Thumbnail URLs (multiple resolutions)
• ✅ Video descriptions and tags
• ✅ Duration and word count analytics

Smart Processing

• ✅ 3 cleaning levels: None (raw), Mild (remove "um"/"uh"), Aggressive (conversational cleanup)
• ✅ Automatic deduplication: Never process the same video twice
• ✅ Batch processing: Handle 1 to 1000+ videos
• ✅ Error recovery: Auto-retry on temporary failures
• ✅ Multiple formats: All YouTube URL types (standard, shorts, live, youtu.be)

NEW: Comment Extraction

• ✅ Top comments with like counts
• ✅ Comment replies (configurable depth)
• ✅ Sort by "top" or "newest"
• ✅ Real-time streaming extraction
• ✅ Automatic resumption if interrupted

Export & Integration

• ✅ JSON, CSV, Excel download
• ✅ Direct API access
• ✅ Webhook integration
• ✅ Pre-configured data views
• ✅ Apify platform integration

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Input Configuration

Basic Example (Just Transcripts)

{
  "youtubeUrl": [
    { "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" }
  ],
  "transcriptOnly": true,
  "cleaningLevel": "mild"
}

Advanced Example (With Comments)

{
  "youtubeUrl": [
    { "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" }
  ],
  "cleaningLevel": "aggressive",
  "includeTimestamps": true,
  "extractcomments": true,
  "sortBy": "top",
  "maxComments": 50,
  "maxRepliesPerComment": 5
}

All Parameters

Extraction

Parameter	Type	Default	What It Does
youtubeUrl	array	Required	List of YouTube video URLs (any format)
transcriptOnly	boolean	false	Skip metadata and return only the transcript. Faster and cheaper when you just need the words
cleaningLevel	string	"mild"	"none" (verbatim), "mild" (remove uh/um), "aggressive" (also remove conversational fluff)
includeTimestamps	boolean	true	Include the per-segment timestamp array. Turn off for a smaller result — word count and duration are still returned

Comments (optional)

Parameter	Type	Default	What It Does
extractcomments	boolean	false	Enable comment extraction (adds 10-40s per video)
sortBy	string	"top"	Comment sort: "top" (most relevant) or "newest" (chronological)
maxComments	integer	10	Max top-level comments (10-100,000)
maxRepliesPerComment	integer	0	Max replies per comment. 0 = no replies (10x faster)

Run control

Parameter	Type	Default	What It Does
useCache	boolean	true	Remember delivered videos so a restarted run resumes instead of re-processing — and re-charging — them
maxConcurrency	integer	10	How many videos to process in parallel. Lower it if you hit rate limits
batchPushSize	integer	10	How many videos are processed before results are delivered. Smaller batches surface results sooner

💡 Pro tip: Start with maxRepliesPerComment: 0 for 10x faster extraction if you don't need reply threads.

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Output Structure

What You Get for Every Video

{
  "videoId": "kOO31qFmi9A",
  "VideoURL": "https://youtu.be/kOO31qFmi9A",
  "embedUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/embed/kOO31qFmi9A",
  "Video_title": "Introduction to Microsoft Excel 1990 with Jan Brehm",
  "published_Date": "Mar 29, 2013",
  "Views": "9,838,429 views",
  "likes": "180K",

  "channel": {
    "name": "Jan Brehm",
    "id": "UC_i2UaK1pico7jU0pqZR8fg",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_i2UaK1pico7jU0pqZR8fg",
    "subscribers": "9.12K subscribers",
    "verified": false
  },

  "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kOO31qFmi9A/default.jpg",
  "Description": "Microsoft Excel Video with Jan Brehm...",

  "hasTranscript": true,
  "transcriptAvailability": { "available": true, "reason": "Available" },
  "transcriptText": "Hey. Hey, Craig buddy. I just saw Wilson. You're showing her the projections for the new vacation package...",

  "timestamps": [
    { "time": "0:01", "text": "[Music]" },
    { "time": "0:04", "text": "Hey. Hey, Craig buddy. I just saw" },
    { "time": "0:07", "text": "Wilson. You're showing her the" }
  ],

  "transcriptWordCount": 481,
  "transcriptDuration": "3:49",

  "charged": true,
  "_source": "youtube_transcript_metadata_extractor",
  "source_url": "https://youtu.be/kOO31qFmi9A"
}

A few fields worth knowing:

Field	Why it's there
transcriptAvailability.reason	When a video has no transcript you get the reason — captions disabled, video unavailable, and so on — instead of an empty field with no explanation
transcriptWordCount / transcriptDuration	Always returned, even with includeTimestamps: false
charged	Whether this row was billed. Videos without a transcript are delivered free — you still get the full metadata, at no cost, with chargeSkipReason explaining why
_source / source_url	Provenance, so rows stay traceable after you merge datasets

In transcriptOnly mode you get videoId, VideoURL, hasTranscript, transcriptAvailability, transcriptText, timestamps and the two transcript stats — the metadata fields are skipped.

With Comments Enabled

{
  "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "Video_title": "Never Gonna Give You Up",
  "transcriptText": "We're no strangers to love...",
  
  "commentsExtracted": true,
  "commentCount": 50,
  "comments": [
    {
      "commentId": "UgxQe-6VK3h-LZaul6x4AaABAg",
      "authorName": "@musiclover2024",
      "text": "Still the best song after all these years!",
      "likeCount": "1,543",
      "replyCount": 12,
      "publishedTime": "2 days ago",
      "replies": [
        {
          "commentId": "UgxQe-6VK3h-LZaul6x4AaABAg.9kF7...",
          "authorName": "@throwback90s",
          "text": "Facts! Never gets old.",
          "likeCount": "234",
          "publishedTime": "1 day ago"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Pricing & Performance

What You Pay

Two events, and you only pay for videos that come back with a transcript:

Event	Free	Bronze	Silver	Gold
Video with transcript (per video)	$0.015	$0.010	$0.009	$0.008
Actor start (once per run)	$0.009	$0.0005	$0.0005	$0.0005

Example — 100 videos on Bronze: $0.0005 start + 100 × $0.010 = $1.0005

A video whose captions are disabled still returns its full metadata, and is not charged.

Speed

	Typical
Transcript only	3-6 seconds per video
Full metadata + transcript	5-12 seconds per video
Videos in parallel	10 by default, tunable via maxConcurrency

Runs are resumable: if a run is interrupted and restarted, useCache skips videos already delivered so you are never charged twice for the same video.

Comment Extraction (Optional Add-on)

Comments are gathered through YouTube Comments Scraper, which bills separately for parent comments and replies at its own published rates.

Speed impact:

• Without replies: +5-10 seconds per video
• With replies (10 per comment): +20-40 seconds per video

💡 Cost optimization tip: Set maxRepliesPerComment: 0 if you don't need reply threads - you'll get 10x faster extraction and cut comment costs sharply.

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Supported YouTube URL Formats

We handle ALL YouTube URL types:

✅ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID
✅ https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID
✅ https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VIDEO_ID
✅ https://www.youtube.com/live/VIDEO_ID
✅ https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID (no www)
✅ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID (mobile)

Just paste any YouTube link - we'll figure it out.

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Pre-Configured Data Views

Save time with our built-in export templates:

1. 📊 Full Video Metadata, Transcripts & Comments

Everything - Complete metadata, transcripts, timestamps, comments
Use for: Comprehensive analysis, data warehousing

2. 🎤 Pure Transcript Results

Focus: Transcript text, timestamps, word count, duration, availability reason
Use for: Content repurposing, subtitle generation

3. 💬 Comments Only

Focus: Comment threads, counts, and any per-video comment error
Use for: Audience sentiment, community research

4. 📺 Channels Overview

Focus: Channel name, ID, URL, subscribers, verification
Use for: Influencer research, competitor analysis

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Quick Start Examples

Use Case 1: Content Repurposing

Goal: Turn video into blog post

// 1. Extract transcript
const input = {
  youtubeUrl: [{ url: "YOUR_VIDEO_URL" }],
  cleaningLevel: "aggressive",
  includeTimestamps: false
};

// 2. Run actor
// 3. Get output: feed transcriptText to ChatGPT/Claude
// 4. Generate 5 blog posts in 2 minutes

Use Case 2: Competitor Analysis

Goal: Analyze 100 competitor videos

const input = {
  youtubeUrl: [
    { url: "competitor_video_1" },
    { url: "competitor_video_2" },
    // ... paste 100 URLs
  ],
  cleaningLevel: "mild",
  extractcomments: true,
  maxComments: 20
};

// Export to Excel → Analyze trends → Find content gaps

Use Case 3: AI Training Data

Goal: Build chatbot training dataset

const input = {
  youtubeUrl: YOUR_PLAYLIST_URLS, // from our Playlist Extractor
  cleaningLevel: "none", // keep raw data for AI
  includeTimestamps: true
};

// Process 1000 videos → Clean dataset → Train model

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Integration Examples

JavaScript/Node.js

const ApifyClient = require('apify-client');

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_API_TOKEN' });

const input = {
  youtubeUrl: [
    { url: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" }
  ],
  cleaningLevel: "mild"
};

const run = await client.actor("dz_omar/youtube-transcript-metadata-extractor").call(input);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();

console.log(items[0].transcriptText);

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient('YOUR_API_TOKEN')

run_input = {
    "youtubeUrl": [
        { "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" }
    ],
    "cleaningLevel": "mild"
}

run = client.actor("dz_omar/youtube-transcript-metadata-extractor").call(run_input=run_input)

for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item['transcriptText'])

cURL (Direct API)

curl -X POST https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/dz_omar~youtube-transcript-metadata-extractor/runs \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -d '{
    "youtubeUrl": [
      { "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" }
    ]
  }'

→ View full API documentation

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Frequently Asked Questions

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Technical Details

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Comparison: Why Choose This Actor?

Feature	This Actor	Manual Copy-Paste	Other Tools
Speed	5-10 sec/video	5-10 min/video	30-60 sec/video
Accuracy	100% (official data)	100%	70-90% (AI guessing)
Batch processing	✅ 1000+ videos	❌ One at a time	⚠️ Limited (10-50)
Timestamps	✅ Second-precise	❌ Manual work	⚠️ Minute-level only
Metadata	✅ Everything	❌ Manual scraping	⚠️ Basic only
Comments	✅ With replies	❌ Screenshot only	❌ Not available
API access	✅ Full REST API	❌ None	⚠️ Limited
Cost	$0.001-0.006/video	$5-10/video (labor)	$0.10-0.50/video
Setup time	1 minutes	N/A	30-60 minutes

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Trust & Reliability

Platform Performance

• ✅ Actor running smoothly - 100% success rate
• ✅ Regular updates - Maintained actively

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Legal & Compliance

What You Should Know

✅ What's allowed:

• Extracting public transcripts for personal use
• Research and academic analysis
• Business intelligence and market research
• Content repurposing with proper attribution

⚠️ What requires caution:

• Large-scale commercial redistribution
• Republishing copyrighted video content
• Using data in ways that violate YouTube's ToS
• Scraping private or restricted content

🔒 Privacy & Data:

• We only extract publicly visible data
• No authentication or login required
• No data stored beyond your run duration
• GDPR compliant (EU users)

Disclaimer: This tool extracts publicly available data. Users are responsible for ensuring their usage complies with YouTube's Terms of Service, copyright laws, and applicable regulations. We are not lawyers - consult legal counsel for commercial use cases.

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→ Use together: Playlist → Transcript Extractor = Full channel analysis

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→ Use together: Channel Scraper → Transcript Extractor = Creator deep-dive

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Standalone comment extraction with advanced filtering. Perfect for sentiment analysis.
→ Integrated in this actor - enable with extractcomments: true

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Get Started Now

Free Trial Available

No credit card required. Test with 5$ to see the quality yourself.

💬 Get Support

Need Help?

📧 Email: flowextractapi@outlook.com
🌐 Website: flowextractapi.com
🐦 Twitter: @FlowExtractAPI
💼 LinkedIn: flowextract-api

Response time: Within 24 hours (usually much faster)