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

Fetch YouTube video transcripts — plain text plus timed segments, with title, channel, language and auto-generated flag. No login, no API key. Actively maintained. · More no-code data tools → datatools-hub.vercel.app

- **URL**: https://apify.com/fuze/youtube-transcript-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Fredrik Hansson](https://apify.com/fuze) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media, AI
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$10.00 / 1,000 transcript scrapeds

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 — Bulk Video Transcripts to Text, No API Key

Extract **YouTube transcripts in bulk** — plain text plus timestamped segments — from videos, channels and playlists. No login, no API key, no quota. A faster, cheaper alternative to the YouTube Data API for transcript data.

![YouTube Transcript Scraper — input and sample output](https://datatools-hub.vercel.app/actor-shots/youtube-transcript-scraper.png)

### Quick start

1. **Fill in the input** — set the fields in the input tab (prefilled with a working example).
2. **Click Start** — the Actor runs and writes one record per item to the dataset.
3. **Get your data** — export to **JSON, CSV or Excel**, or pull it via the API.

### What you get

- Full transcript as **plain text** and as **timestamped segments** (`start`, `duration`, `text`)
- Video `title`, `channelName`, `language`, `isAutoGenerated`, `durationSeconds`
- Output in **JSON, text or SRT**
- Works on single videos, whole **channels** and **playlists**
- Videos without captions are flagged (`status: "no_captions"`) and not charged

### Example

**Input**

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

**Output**

```json
{
  "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "title": "Example video",
  "channelName": "Example channel",
  "language": "en",
  "isAutoGenerated": false,
  "durationSeconds": 212,
  "segments": [{ "start": 0.0, "duration": 3.2, "text": "We're no strangers to love" }],
  "text": "We're no strangers to love ...",
  "status": "ok",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-07T12:00:00.000Z"
}
```

### Use cases

- **Content repurposing** — turn videos into blog posts, summaries and newsletters.
- **AI & RAG pipelines** — feed clean transcripts into LLMs, vector databases and search.
- **Research & analysis** — search across hundreds of videos at once.

### YouTube Data API alternative

No API key, no OAuth, no daily quota. Paste URLs and get transcripts — including auto-generated captions the official API does not expose as text.

### Pricing

**$10 per 1,000 transcripts** ($0.01 each). You are only charged for transcripts actually delivered — videos without captions cost nothing.

### FAQ

**Does it need a YouTube API key?** No. No key, no login, no quota.
**Can it do a whole channel or playlist?** Yes — pass a channel or playlist URL and set `maxVideos`.
**Which languages?** Any available caption track; set `languages` in priority order (default `["en"]`).
**Auto-generated captions?** Yes, and each record flags `isAutoGenerated`.
**What formats?** `json`, `text` or `srt`.

### Settings

- **urls** — videos, channels or playlists.
- **languages** — caption languages in priority order (default `["en"]`).
- **includeTimestamps**, **format** (`json`/`text`/`srt`), **maxVideos**.

### Related actors

- [AI SEO + AEO/GEO Site Auditor — Crawl & Auto-Fix](https://apify.com/fuze/ai-seo-site-auditor) — Crawl a whole site and get an AI-prioritized technical + content + AEO/GEO audit with
- [AI Web Extractor](https://apify.com/fuze/ai-web-extractor) — Extract structured data from any web page with plain-English instructions — no CSS
- [Google Reviews Insights (AI)](https://apify.com/fuze/google-reviews-insights) — Turns Google reviews into concrete insights for a business and its competitors: top

### Example output

```json
{
  "videoId": "arj7oStGLkU",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arj7oStGLkU",
  "success": true,
  "title": "Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator | Tim Urban | TED",
  "author": "TED",
  "language": "English",
  "isAutoGenerated": false,
  "transcript": "So in college, I was a government major, which means I had to write a lot of papers. Now, when a normal student writes a paper, they might…",
  "…": "…"
}
```

# Actor input Schema

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

Video URLs (watch, youtu.be, shorts, embed) or bare 11-char ids, one per line.

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

Language codes in priority order, e.g. en, sv, de. Falls back to the first available track.

## `includeSegments` (type: `boolean`):

Also return the timed caption lines (start, duration, text), not just the plain transcript.

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

How many videos to process in parallel.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ],
  "languages": [
    "en"
  ],
  "includeSegments": true,
  "maxConcurrency": 5
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `items` (type: `string`):

All records in the default dataset.

# 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.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
    ],
    "languages": [
        "en"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("fuze/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 = {
    "urls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"],
    "languages": ["en"],
}

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

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,fuze/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/DVuOKCgPKraIlPyS8/builds/l9pf18BIDp3ej3Dng/openapi.json