# Douyin Transcript Scraper | AI Speech-to-Text (抖音) (`ethereal_wool/douyin-transcript-scraper`) Actor

Turn any Douyin (抖音) video into text. Real AI speech recognition with best-in-class Mandarin Chinese accuracy — works on videos with no captions. Full text + timestamped sentences as clean JSON.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/ethereal\_wool/douyin-transcript-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Jackie Chen](https://apify.com/ethereal_wool) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media, AI
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$25.00 / 1,000 transcript per minutes

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.md):

```bash
npm install apify-client
```

In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.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/platform/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

## Douyin Transcript Scraper — AI Speech-to-Text for 抖音 Videos

Turn any **Douyin (抖音) video into text** with real AI speech recognition.
Paste video links, get back the **full spoken transcript plus timestamped
sentences** as clean JSON — with **best-in-class Mandarin Chinese accuracy**,
ready for LLMs, RAG pipelines, content research, and subtitle workflows.

> **This is real ASR, not caption scraping.** Most "transcript" tools only
> download captions a creator happened to upload — and Douyin videos almost
> never have them. This Actor runs industrial speech recognition on the video's
> audio track, so it works on **any Douyin video with speech**, captions or not.
> Chinese (Mandarin) recognition is its strongest language.

> **Unofficial.** This Actor is not affiliated with, authorized, or endorsed by
> Douyin / ByteDance. It is an independent tool that processes publicly
> available content. Use it in compliance with Douyin's terms and all
> applicable laws; you are responsible for how you use the retrieved data.

### What you get per video

- **Full transcript** (`fullText`) — the complete spoken content as one string.
- **Timestamped sentences** (`sentences[]`) — each with `startMs` / `endMs`,
  ready for subtitles, deep links, and clip selection.
- **Video metadata** — author, caption, duration, publish time, play / like /
  comment / share / collect counts, and cover image URL, so every transcript
  arrives with its engagement context attached.

### Quick start

1. Open the Actor and press **Run** — the default input works out of the box.
2. Replace the example with your own video links: full URLs
   (`https://www.douyin.com/video/123…`), short share links
   (`https://v.douyin.com/XXXX/`), pasted share text, or bare video IDs.
3. Language defaults to **Chinese**; switch to Auto for mixed or non-Chinese
   content.
4. Collect results from the **Dataset** tab as JSON / CSV / Excel, or pull them
   via the [Apify API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2) and MCP from your own code.

No proxies, no cookies, no login — everything runs server-side.

### Example output

```json
{
  "videoId": "7641539662222270120",
  "videoUrl": "https://www.douyin.com/video/7641539662222270120",
  "description": "东北街头 12元红烧大肘子盖饭，夯爆了~ #地方特色美食 #路边摊美味",
  "author": "jiexiaomeishi",
  "authorName": "街边小美食",
  "durationSec": 67.3,
  "playCount": 1240000,
  "diggCount": 98000,
  "language": "zh",
  "detectedSpeech": true,
  "sentenceCount": 31,
  "fullText": "家人们今天来到东北街头，这家红烧大肘子盖饭只要十二块…",
  "sentences": [
    { "text": "家人们今天来到东北街头，", "startMs": 320, "endMs": 2480 },
    { "text": "这家红烧大肘子盖饭只要十二块。", "startMs": 2480, "endMs": 5100 }
  ]
}
````

### What people build with it

- **Chinese-market research** — index what 抖音 creators actually *say* (not just
  captions) to understand trends, slang, and selling points in your category.
- **Viral-hook mining** — pull transcripts of the top videos in your niche and
  study the exact opening lines and structures that earn views on Douyin.
- **Cross-border content** — transcribe Chinese videos, then translate and
  repurpose them for TikTok, YouTube, or your own market.
- **LLM & RAG pipelines** — build Chinese-language corpora from real short-video
  speech, with engagement scores as a free quality signal.
- **E-commerce & livestream research** — capture how top sellers pitch products
  in 带货 clips, verbatim.
- **Subtitles & translation** — timestamped sentences drop straight into
  SRT/VTT generation and dubbing workflows.

### Pricing & billing

**Pay per audio minute — $0.025/min, billed by the beginning minute.** A 0:50
clip bills 1 minute; a 1:10 clip bills 2 minutes. Timestamped sentences are
included free — no separate subtitle or export charge. There is **no per-run
start fee** and no separate compute or platform fee: the price you see is the
price you pay.

Failed fetches, deleted videos, image posts, and failed transcriptions are
**not charged** — you only pay for audio we actually transcribe.

### Why this Actor

- **Best-in-class Chinese ASR** — Mandarin recognition is its strongest
  language, where Western transcript tools struggle most.
- **Works without captions** — real speech recognition on the audio track;
  Douyin videos rarely carry captions to scrape.
- **Engagement context included** — every transcript ships with play / like /
  comment / share / collect counts, so you can rank by performance immediately.
- **Direct API, no headless browser** — fast, stable runs with nothing to babysit.
- **No login, no cookies** — we never touch your accounts, so there's no ban risk.
- **Structured JSON** — export to CSV, Excel, or JSON, or pull straight from
  the API / MCP.

### Tips for better results

- Feed it the winners: find the top-performing videos in your niche first
  (search / profile scrapers), then transcribe just those.
- Keep the language on **Chinese** for 抖音 content — it noticeably improves
  accuracy over Auto.
- Sentence timestamps let you deep-link to the exact second a phrase is spoken,
  handy for review and clip selection.
- `detectedSpeech: false` flags music-only / no-speech videos so you can filter
  them out downstream.

### FAQ

**Do I need an account, cookies, or to log in anywhere?**
No. The Actor talks to fast, direct HTTP APIs server-side — you just provide
video links and run it.

**Does it work on videos without captions?**
Yes — that's the point. It runs real speech recognition on the audio, so
captions are never required (and Douyin videos rarely have them).

**How good is the Chinese accuracy?**
Mandarin is the model's strongest language; it handles fast colloquial speech,
regional accents, and product pitches well, and returns punctuated sentences.

**How am I billed?**
One fixed price per successfully transcribed video. Videos that can't be
fetched or transcribed are not charged.

**Can I run it on a schedule or call it from my app?**
Yes — use Apify Schedules, the REST API, the JavaScript / Python clients, or
the MCP server. See the **API** tab.

**Is this affiliated with Douyin?**
No. It's an independent tool that processes publicly available content. Use it
in line with the platform's terms and applicable law.

# Actor input Schema

## `videoUrls` (type: `array`):

Douyin video links to transcribe. Accepts full URLs (`https://www.douyin.com/video/123...`), short share links (`https://v.douyin.com/XXXX/`), pasted share text containing such a link, or bare video IDs. One transcript is produced per video.

## `language` (type: `string`):

Language spoken in the videos. Defaults to Chinese (抖音 is Mandarin-heavy and Chinese accuracy is best-in-class). Choose Cantonese for 粤语 content, or Auto for mixed / non-Chinese audio.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Optional. Route the upstream API calls through an Apify Proxy to vary the source IP. Usually not needed.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "videoUrls": [
    "https://www.douyin.com/video/7641539662222270120"
  ],
  "language": "zh",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

# 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 '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "videoUrls": [
        "https://www.douyin.com/video/7641539662222270120"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("ethereal_wool/douyin-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 '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "videoUrls": ["https://www.douyin.com/video/7641539662222270120"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("ethereal_wool/douyin-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.douyin.com/video/7641539662222270120"
  ]
}' |
apify call ethereal_wool/douyin-transcript-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=ethereal_wool/douyin-transcript-scraper",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

```json
{
    "openapi": "3.0.1",
    "info": {
        "title": "Douyin Transcript Scraper | AI Speech-to-Text (抖音)",
        "description": "Turn any Douyin (抖音) video into text. Real AI speech recognition with best-in-class Mandarin Chinese accuracy — works on videos with no captions. Full text + timestamped sentences as clean JSON.",
        "version": "0.1",
        "x-build-id": "emsuiar0VLrWgbxg3"
    },
    "servers": [
        {
            "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2"
        }
    ],
    "paths": {
        "/acts/ethereal_wool~douyin-transcript-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-ethereal_wool-douyin-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": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK"
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/ethereal_wool~douyin-transcript-scraper/runs": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "runs-sync-ethereal_wool-douyin-transcript-scraper",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$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": {
                                    "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema"
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/ethereal_wool~douyin-transcript-scraper/run-sync": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-ethereal_wool-douyin-transcript-scraper",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$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": "Douyin video URLs",
                        "type": "array",
                        "description": "Douyin video links to transcribe. Accepts full URLs (`https://www.douyin.com/video/123...`), short share links (`https://v.douyin.com/XXXX/`), pasted share text containing such a link, or bare video IDs. One transcript is produced per video.",
                        "default": [
                            "https://www.douyin.com/video/7641539662222270120"
                        ],
                        "items": {
                            "type": "string"
                        }
                    },
                    "language": {
                        "title": "Spoken language",
                        "enum": [
                            "zh",
                            "yue",
                            "auto",
                            "en",
                            "ja",
                            "ko"
                        ],
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "Language spoken in the videos. Defaults to Chinese (抖音 is Mandarin-heavy and Chinese accuracy is best-in-class). Choose Cantonese for 粤语 content, or Auto for mixed / non-Chinese audio.",
                        "default": "zh"
                    },
                    "proxyConfiguration": {
                        "title": "Proxy configuration",
                        "type": "object",
                        "description": "Optional. Route the upstream API calls through an Apify Proxy to vary the source IP. Usually not needed.",
                        "default": {
                            "useApifyProxy": false
                        }
                    }
                }
            },
            "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
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}
```