# YouTube Transcript Product Scraper (`fullcirclescrapper/youtube-transcript-scraper`) Actor

Extract products, prices, availability and sellers from www.youtube.com

- **URL**: https://apify.com/fullcirclescrapper/youtube-transcript-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Fernando Akio Pucci](https://apify.com/fullcirclescrapper) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.50 / 1,000 transcript delivereds

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

## YouTube Transcript Scraper

### What does YouTube Transcript Scraper do?

Give it YouTube URLs or video IDs — it returns the full transcript of each
video as clean text plus timestamped segments, ready for LLMs, RAG pipelines,
subtitles analysis or content research.

- **Batch native** — pass one video or five hundred in a single run
- **All URL shapes** — `watch`, `youtu.be`, `/shorts/`, `/embed/`, `/live/` and raw 11-char IDs
- **Language control** — preference list (e.g. `["pt", "en"]`); manual captions win over auto-generated, and the output tells you which one you got
- **You only pay for delivered transcripts** — failed videos are never charged

### Why this scraper?

Transcript actors are notorious for two things: silently returning nothing
and charging for it. This one was built the other way around:

1. Every failure produces an **explicit error item** in the dataset
   (`"error": "video has no captions at all"`) — never a silent empty run.
2. Failures are **free**. You are charged per transcript delivered, not per attempt.
3. YouTube bot-checks are retried automatically across proxy sessions and
   multiple player clients before giving up.

### How do I use it?

1. Click **Try for free** — the prefilled example works as-is.
2. Paste your video URLs/IDs, set preferred languages.
3. Run and download JSON/CSV — or connect the Apify API / MCP server.

### How much will it cost?

**$2.50 per 1,000 transcripts** ($0.0025 each), plus a $0.005 flat start fee.
Failed videos cost nothing. The Apify free plan is enough for roughly 1,900
transcripts per month.

### ⬇️ Input

```json
{
  "videos": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw",
    "dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ],
  "languages": ["en", "pt"]
}
```

### ⬆️ Output (real example)

```json
{
  "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Video) (4K Remaster)",
  "channel": "Rick Astley",
  "language": "en",
  "is_generated": false,
  "text": "We're no strangers to love You know the rules and so do I...",
  "word_count": 487,
  "segments": [
    { "start": 18.64, "dur": 3.36, "text": "We're no strangers to love" }
  ],
  "segment_count": 61,
  "duration_seconds": 213,
  "scraped_at": "2026-09-17T22:19:00+00:00"
}
```

### Limitations & honesty notes

- **Videos without captions cannot produce transcripts** — you get a clear
  error item instead (not charged). No scraper can transcribe what YouTube
  doesn't have; actors that promise otherwise are running speech-to-text and
  charging accordingly.
- **YouTube bot-checks datacenter IPs.** The Actor retries each video across
  fresh proxy sessions and three different player clients. If your runs still
  show `Sign in to confirm you're not a bot` errors, switch the proxy to
  RESIDENTIAL — transcripts are tiny (a few MB per 1,000 videos), so the
  proxy cost stays in cents.
- Playlists/channels are not expanded yet (roadmap) — pass video URLs.
- Age-restricted and private videos may be unavailable.

### FAQ

#### Is it legal to scrape YouTube transcripts?

This Actor collects publicly available caption data only — no personal data,
no logged-in areas. Review YouTube's terms and your local rules for your use case.

#### Which caption track do I get?

Your preferred language's **manual** track when it exists, then that
language's auto-generated (ASR) track, then any manual track. The
`is_generated` and `available_languages` fields tell you exactly what happened.

#### Something broke

Open an issue in the **Issues tab** — it reaches us directly and we ship
fixes fast (this Actor is canary-tested daily). Reviews can't notify us.

### Your feedback

If this Actor saves you time, a review helps other users find it.

# Actor input Schema

## `videos` (type: `array`):

YouTube video URLs or 11-character video IDs. Accepts watch, youtu.be, shorts and embed URLs.

## `languages` (type: `array`):

Language codes in order of preference (e.g. en, pt, es). Manual captions win over auto-generated when available.

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

Datacenter proxy (default). Switch to RESIDENTIAL only if you see 'video unavailable' errors on videos you know exist.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "videos": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw",
    "dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ],
  "languages": [
    "en",
    "pt"
  ],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `products` (type: `string`):

No description

# 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 = {
    "videos": [
        "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw",
        "dQw4w9WgXcQ"
    ],
    "languages": [
        "en",
        "pt"
    ]
};

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

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "videos": [
        "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw",
        "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    ],
    "languages": [
        "en",
        "pt",
    ],
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("fullcirclescrapper/youtube-transcript-scraper").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 '{
  "videos": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw",
    "dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ],
  "languages": [
    "en",
    "pt"
  ]
}' |
apify call fullcirclescrapper/youtube-transcript-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

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/ChFPT5En9j1EPROGW/builds/3u6p1UymmgIrnaW4K/openapi.json