YouTube Transcript Scraper & Captions
Pricing
from $0.003 / video scraped
YouTube transcript scraper and transcript API alternative for public videos, channels, and searches. Export captions, subtitles, timestamped segments, metadata, comments, AI chapters, and MCP connector summaries.
Choose the type of YouTube content to scrape. Transcript Export is the fastest first-run path for RAG-ready transcript text and timestamped segments from video URLs.
YouTube channel URLs (used in 'channel' mode). Supported formats: https://youtube.com/@handle (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast), https://youtube.com/channel/UCxxx, or https://youtube.com/c/CustomName.
CLI alias for channelUrls (single-URL form). Hidden from Console form; exposed so apify call -i '{"channelUrl":"..."}' works consistently across the portfolio.
Search term to find videos on YouTube (e.g. 'AI tutorials', 'machine learning 2026', 'python crash course'). Used in 'search' mode.
CLI alias for searchQuery. Hidden from Console form.
Short CLI alias for searchQuery. Hidden from Console form.
CLI alias for searchQuery. Hidden from Console form.
CLI alias for searchQuery. Hidden from Console form.
CLI alias for searchQuery. Hidden from Console form.
YouTube video URLs to fetch details or transcripts for (used in 'transcript' and 'video' modes). Supported formats: https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID, https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID.
CLI alias for videoUrls (single-URL form). Hidden from Console form.
CLI alias for videoUrls (single-URL form). Hidden from Console form.
Maximum number of videos to scrape per channel (in 'channel' mode) or total search results (in 'search' mode). Range: 1-100.
CLI alias for maxVideos. Hidden from Console form.
Scrape top comments for each video. Adds ~2-3 seconds per video and requires extra HTML parsing. Disable for faster runs.
Maximum number of top-level comments to scrape per video (only used when Include Comments is enabled). Range: 1-50.
Download video subtitles/transcripts via YouTube's timedtext endpoint. Prefers human-uploaded captions; falls back to auto-generated (ASR). When enabled alongside AI analysis, the AI report switches to transcript-aware theme extraction (actual spoken topics, not just titles). Adds ~1-2 seconds per video and a separate $0.005 charge per transcript retrieved. Disabled by default.
Preferred transcript language codes in priority order (e.g. ['en', 'es']). YouTube has hundreds of ASR languages; specify a short list to match your content. If none match, the first available track is returned. Only used when 'Include Transcripts' is enabled.
[ "en"]Auto-segment each video's transcript into 3-8 chapters with titles, summaries, and start/end timestamps - useful for podcasters and long-form creators who want searchable timestamps without writing them manually, or agencies re-packaging long-form content into clips. Requires 'Include Transcripts' AND an LLM API key. Each chapter-set costs $0.01 per video (only charged when chapters are successfully generated). Disabled by default.
Order for channel videos: 'Most Popular' (highest view count), 'Newest First' (recent uploads), or 'Oldest First' (channel's earliest uploads).
Generate AI-powered channel or content analysis with growth strategy insights, audience patterns, and content recommendations. Requires an LLM API key.
Which AI provider to use for analysis. OpenRouter is the cheapest option.
Specific model to use. Leave empty for the provider default (google/gemini-2.0-flash-001 for OpenRouter, claude-sonnet-4-20250514 for Anthropic, gemini-2.0-flash for Google AI, gpt-4o-mini for OpenAI, llama3.1 for Ollama).
Your OpenRouter API key. Get one free at https://openrouter.ai/keys. Required if using OpenRouter as the LLM provider. Alternatively set OPENROUTER_API_KEY env var.
Your Anthropic API key. Get one at https://console.anthropic.com/settings/keys. Required if using Anthropic as the LLM provider. Alternatively set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY env var.
API key for Google AI (Gemini). Get one at https://aistudio.google.com/app/apikey. Required if using Google AI as the LLM provider. Alternatively set GOOGLE_API_KEY env var.
API key from https://platform.openai.com/api-keys. Required if using OpenAI as the LLM provider. Alternatively set OPENAI_API_KEY env var.
Base URL for Ollama API. Default: http://localhost:11434
Optional MCP connectors for transcript and video summaries. Choose Slack, Notion, GitHub, Sheets, CRM, or another compatible connector. At the end of the run, the actor sends a compact video/transcript summary plus structured payload through each connector. Connector failures never fail the scrape. Billed at $0.002 per successful connector dispatch.
Optional connector destination such as a Slack channel, Notion database ID, sheet name, table, or CRM list. Leave empty when the selected connector already has a default target.