# Facebook Reels Transcript + On-Screen Text (AI-Ready) (`fraserlabs/facebook-reels-transcript`) Actor

Turn Facebook Reels and videos into AI-ready text: timestamped transcript (Whisper large-v3-turbo) PLUS on-screen text, hook, caption and views as JSON. No login. $15 per 1,000 videos, failed videos free.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/fraserlabs/facebook-reels-transcript.md
- **Developed by:** [FraserLabs](https://apify.com/fraserlabs) (community)
- **Stats:** 1 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per event

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/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
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.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## 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.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Facebook Reels Transcript + On-Screen Text (AI-Ready)

Paste Facebook Reel or video links, get back **everything the video says**, both **spoken** and **written on screen**, as clean JSON with timestamps. Each video also gets a ready-to-paste text block for ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or your own pipeline.

**$15 per 1,000 videos** ($0.015 per video, up to 3 minutes; longer videos add $0.005 per extra minute). You pay only for videos that were processed successfully. No login, no cookies, no Facebook account needed.

### What you can use it for

- **Content research and swipe files.** Pull the exact hooks, scripts and on-screen text of top Reels from any public Page, then feed them to an AI model to find patterns.
- **Hook analysis.** Every video gets a `hook` field with what is said **and** what is shown in the first 3 seconds.
- **Competitor and brand monitoring.** Track what brands and publishers say and show in their Reels: offers, prices, claims, calls to action.
- **AI agents and RAG.** Turn Facebook video into searchable text. The `llm_text` field is one block per video, ready for embeddings or a prompt.
- **Repurposing.** Get the full script of a public Reel to rewrite as a post, thread, newsletter or blog.

### Why this Actor

| | This Actor | Typical Facebook transcript Actor |
|---|---|---|
| Spoken transcript with timestamps | Yes (Whisper large-v3-turbo) | Yes |
| **On-screen text** (titles, burned-in captions, overlays, name tags) with timestamps | **Yes** | No |
| Overlay vs. caption tagging (text that is **not** spoken) | **Yes** | No |
| Hook (first 3 s, spoken + on-screen) | **Yes** | No |
| Silent videos (text only) | On-screen text still extracted | Often fails or returns nothing |
| Price | **$15 / 1,000 videos** up to 3 min | Often $25-35 per 1,000 |

Publishers and brands put half their Reel in text on screen: headlines, quotes, stats, recipe steps. A speech-only transcript misses all of it. This Actor reads both.

### Sample output

From a public Business Insider Reel (shortened):

```json
{
  "url": "https://www.facebook.com/reel/4673610272962235",
  "platform": "facebook",
  "creator": "Business Insider",
  "creator_handle": "100059648793740",
  "published_at": "2026-10-12T15:52:19+00:00",
  "duration_s": 89.7,
  "views": 1595,
  "language": "en",
  "hook": {
    "spoken": "If you want to get better at work, here's one way to become more magnetic.",
    "on_screen": "The 5-minute reset to make you more magnetic at work"
  },
  "transcript": [
    { "start": 0.0, "end": 3.6, "text": "If you want to get better at work, here's one way to become more magnetic." },
    { "start": 4.28, "end": 6.26, "text": "Think about the person who commands the room." }
  ],
  "on_screen_text": [
    { "start": 0.5, "end": 4.0, "text": "The 5-minute reset to make you more magnetic at work", "position": "middle", "kind": "caption" },
    { "start": 5.0, "end": 6.0, "text": "Ana Altchek Senior Reporter Business Insider Think about the person", "position": "middle", "kind": "overlay" }
  ],
  "llm_text": "VIDEO: https://www.facebook.com/reel/4673610272962235\nCREATOR: Business Insider | DURATION: 89.706s | VIEWS: 1595\nHOOK (first 3s): spoken=\"If you want to get better at work ...\"\nTRANSCRIPT:\n[0:00.0] If you want to get better at work, here's one way to become more magnetic.\n...",
  "status": "ok"
}
```

#### Output fields

| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `transcript` | Spoken words as timestamped segments (seconds). Empty when the video has no speech. |
| `transcript_text` | The transcript as one string. |
| `on_screen_text` | Text shown in the video: `start`/`end` (seconds), `position` (top/middle/bottom), `kind` = `caption` (repeats the speech) or `overlay` (text that is not spoken). |
| `hook` | What is said and shown in the first 3 seconds. |
| `speech_seconds` | Seconds of detected voice. Lets you filter music-only and silent videos. |
| `caption`, `views`, `published_at`, `creator`, `duration_s` | Post metadata. `creator_handle` is the numeric Facebook Page/profile ID. `likes`, `comments` and `shares` are usually `null`: Facebook does not show them to logged-out visitors. |
| `language` | Detected spoken language (ISO code). |
| `llm_text` | Everything above as one plain-text block, ready to paste into an AI model. |
| `status` | `ok`, or `error` with an `error` message. Failed videos are **not charged**. |

### How to use it

1. Paste one or more public video URLs into **Video URLs**: `facebook.com/reel/...`, `facebook.com/watch?v=...`, Page video links or `fb.watch/...` links.
2. Click **Start**.
3. Download the results as JSON, CSV or Excel, or read them through the Apify API, integrations (Make, Zapier, n8n) or the Apify MCP server for AI agents.

Input example:

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.facebook.com/reel/1144376318271639",
    "https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
  ]
}
```

A typical Reel takes 5 to 15 seconds. Videos are processed one after another within a run. For large batches, split the URLs over several runs to process them in parallel.

### Pricing

- **$0.015 per successfully processed video** ($15 per 1,000) for videos up to 3 minutes. That covers about 95% of Facebook Reels.
- **Longer videos:** + $0.005 per started minute beyond 3 minutes (a 10-minute video costs $0.015 + 7 x $0.005 = $0.05).
- Videos longer than 30 minutes are skipped and not charged.
- Videos that fail (private, deleted, login-only, unavailable) are not charged.
- Set **Maximum cost per run** in the run options to cap your spend. The Actor stops cleanly when the cap is reached.

### Settings

| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Video URLs | (required) | Public Facebook Reel or video URLs. |
| Read on-screen text | on | Turn off if you only need the spoken transcript. |
| Add llm_text field | on | One ready-to-paste text block per video. |
| Proxy configuration | automatic | Leave empty. The Actor uses Apify datacenter proxy and switches to residential automatically if Facebook blocks a request. |

### Limitations

- **Public videos only.** Private profiles, group videos, deleted posts and anything that needs a login cannot be processed. They return `status: "error"` and are not charged.
- **On-screen text** is most accurate on designed text (titles, captions, quotes, explainer text). Text that is physically in the scene (signs, jerseys, screens) is read less reliably and partly filtered out. Fast word-by-word captions are sampled, not captured word for word; the spoken transcript covers those words.
- **Songs:** lyrics may appear in the transcript; pure music returns an empty transcript.
- **Instagram or TikTok?** Use the sister Actors [Instagram Reels Transcript + On-Screen Text](https://apify.com/fraserlabs/instagram-reels-transcript) and [TikTok Transcript + On-Screen Text](https://apify.com/fraserlabs/tiktok-transcript), same output format.
- **Podcasts, audio files or other video links?** Use [Audio & Video to Text](https://apify.com/fraserlabs/audio-video-transcript) (priced per minute).
- **Need frames?** [Video Frame Extractor](https://apify.com/fraserlabs/video-frame-extractor) returns the key frames of the same links as image URLs, each with its timestamp and the text visible on it ($2 per 1,000 frames).

### FAQ

**Do I need a Facebook account or cookies?** No. The Actor reads only what any logged-out visitor can see.

**Which languages are supported?** Speech in about 100 languages (Whisper large-v3-turbo). On-screen text is tuned for Latin-script text (English and European languages).

**Is this legal?** The Actor processes publicly available content and collects no personal data beyond the public post's creator name and ID. You are responsible for how you use the output under the platform's terms and the laws that apply to you (e.g. copyright, GDPR).

**Something wrong with a result?** Open an issue on the Actor's Issues tab with the video URL. Reliability fixes ship within 24 hours.

# Actor input Schema

## `urls` (type: `array`):

Public Facebook Reel or video URLs, one per line (facebook.com/reel/..., facebook.com/watch?v=..., Page video links, fb.watch/...). No login needed. You pay only for videos processed successfully.

## `includeOnScreenText` (type: `boolean`):

Read text shown in the video (titles, burned-in captions, overlays, name tags) with timestamps. Each block is tagged 'caption' (repeats the speech) or 'overlay' (text that is not spoken).

## `includeLlmText` (type: `boolean`):

One plain-text block per video with creator, caption, hook, timestamped transcript and overlays, ready to paste into ChatGPT, Claude or your own pipeline.

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

Leave empty: the Actor uses Apify datacenter proxy and switches to residential automatically only when Facebook blocks a request.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.facebook.com/reel/1068261349577561"
  ],
  "includeOnScreenText": true,
  "includeLlmText": true
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

One item per video: transcript, on-screen text, hook, caption and stats.

## `llmText` (type: `string`):

One plain-text block per video, ready to paste into an AI model.

# 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 = {
    "urls": [
        "https://www.facebook.com/reel/1068261349577561"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("fraserlabs/facebook-reels-transcript").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 = { "urls": ["https://www.facebook.com/reel/1068261349577561"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("fraserlabs/facebook-reels-transcript").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.facebook.com/reel/1068261349577561"
  ]
}' |
apify call fraserlabs/facebook-reels-transcript --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,fraserlabs/facebook-reels-transcript"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/6ckfX8aFWjzb15HN6/builds/0uubuCYUAjCfhyrpH/openapi.json