# YouTube Transcript Scraper: Subtitles, Channels & Whisper (`humble-echidna/youtube-transcripts`) Actor Get YouTube transcripts and subtitles from videos, Shorts, channels, playlists and keyword searches: text, timestamped segments, SRT and VTT, plus views, tags and chapters. No captions? Whisper transcribes the audio. Pick languages and a date window. Failed videos are free. - **URL**: https://apify.com/humble-echidna/youtube-transcripts.md - **Developed by:** [Michael Costa](https://apify.com/humble-echidna) (community) - **Categories:** Videos, AI, Social media - **Stats:** 6 total users, 5 monthly users, 88.9% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing from $4.50 / 1,000 transcripts 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 ### What does YouTube Transcript Scraper do? **YouTube Transcript Scraper** gets the **transcript of any YouTube video**, Short, **channel, playlist or keyword search**, as plain text, **timestamped segments, SRT or VTT**, with the video's title, views, tags, description and chapters. Videos with **no captions at all** are transcribed from their audio with the Whisper speech model. No login, no API key. [Input fields](https://apify.com/humble-echidna/youtube-transcripts/input-schema) · [API](https://apify.com/humble-echidna/youtube-transcripts/api) · [Use it from Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor (MCP)](#can-i-use-youtube-transcript-scraper-from-an-ai-agent-mcp) **Jump to:** [Fields](#what-data-does-youtube-transcript-scraper-return) · [Price](#how-much-does-it-cost-to-get-youtube-transcripts) · [How to use](#how-to-get-youtube-transcripts) · [No captions](#what-happens-to-videos-without-captions) · [What you get here](#what-you-get-here-that-other-transcript-actors-dont) · [Switching](#switching-from-another-youtube-transcript-actor) · [Input](#input) · [Output](#output) · [AI agents (MCP)](#can-i-use-youtube-transcript-scraper-from-an-ai-agent-mcp) · [Limits](#limits) · [FAQ](#faq) **Try it in one click:** the input comes pre-filled with "Me at the zoo", the first video ever uploaded to YouTube (19 seconds, with uploaded English subtitles). That's 1 transcript, about $0.0046 ($4.50 per 1,000, plus $0.00005 for the run start). **Then replace it with your own videos, channels, playlists or search keywords.** ### What data does YouTube Transcript Scraper return? One item per video: | Field | Example | Notes | |---|---|---| | `id`, `url`, `title` | `jNQXAC9IVRw`, `https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw`, `Me at the zoo` | The video id is stable: use it to deduplicate | | `input`, `inputType`, `inputTitle` | `sourdough starter`, `search` | Which link or search the video came from: `video`, `channel`, `playlist` or `search` | | `text` | `All right, so here we are, in front of the elephants...` | The whole transcript, a new paragraph after each pause of 2 s or more | | `segments` | `[{"start": 1.2, "end": 3.36, "text": "All right, so here..."}]` | Timed in seconds from the start of the video | | `srt`, `vtt` | `1\n00:00:01,200 --> 00:00:03,360\n...` | Subtitle files, when you turn them on | | `transcriptSource` | `manual` | `manual` (the uploader's subtitles), `auto` (YouTube's automatic captions) or `whisper` (transcribed from the audio by this actor) | | `transcriptLanguage` | `en` | With `languageFallback: true` when the language you asked for wasn't there | | `captionLanguages` | `{"manual": ["de", "en"], "auto": []}` | Every caption language the video offers | | `channel`, `channelId`, `channelHandle`, `channelFollowers` | `jawed`, `UC4QobU6STFB0P71PMvOGN5A`, `@jawed` | | | `uploadDate`, `publishedAt`, `durationSeconds`, `viewCount`, `likeCount`, `commentCount` | `2005-04-24`, `2005-04-24T03:31:52Z`, `19`, `444097321` | As YouTube shows them when the run reads the video; likes are `null` when hidden | | `tags`, `categories`, `description`, `thumbnail`, `chapters` | `["Film & Animation"]`, `[{"start": 0, "end": 5, "title": "Intro"}]` | Chapters with start and end in seconds | | `whisperMinutes`, `notes` | `0`, `[]` | Audio minutes charged (Whisper only), and anything worth knowing, in plain words | The full list, with every field's meaning, is under [Output](#output). ### How much does it cost to get YouTube transcripts? You pay per transcript: **$4.50 per 1,000 transcripts**, plus $0.00005 each time a run starts. Video details are included at no extra cost. Videos with **no captions** are transcribed from their audio with Whisper, only when you leave **Transcribe videos without captions** on, charged per started audio minute on top of the transcript: | Whisper model | Per audio minute | A 10-minute video without captions | |---|---|---| | Base (default) | $0.012 | $0.12 + $0.0045 | | Small (more accurate) | $0.024 | $0.24 + $0.0045 | - **A channel's last 100 videos**, all with captions: 100 × $0.0045 = **$0.45**. - **The top 20 results of a keyword search**: 20 × $0.0045 = **$0.09**. - **Caps:** **Max results per run** and **Max Whisper minutes per video** in the input, and **Maximum cost per run** in the run options. The run checks the budget before it reads each video and before it transcribes audio, so it stops cleanly and never does work it can't charge for. A video that only partly fits gets its first minutes, and its `notes` say so. **Never charged:** videos that are private, removed, members-only or age-restricted, live streams in progress, videos without captions when Whisper is off, audio Whisper finds no speech in, videos outside your date window, and anything that fails. A video that gives no transcript isn't written to the dataset at all, so there is no error row to pay for either; the run's log and `RUN_STATS` record say why each one was left out. ### How to get YouTube transcripts 1. Open YouTube Transcript Scraper and click **Try for free** (or **Start** if you're signed in). 2. Paste video, channel or playlist links into **YouTube links**, one per line, or type keywords into **Search keywords** (or both). 3. Optional: a **Transcript language** (e.g. `es`, or `es, en` for Spanish, else English), **Max videos per channel, playlist or search**, a **date window** for channels, playlists and searches, and the output formats you want (plain text, timestamped segments, SRT, VTT). 4. Click **Start**, then open the **Output** tab and export as JSON, CSV or Excel. ### What happens to videos without captions? Most YouTube videos have captions: the uploader's own subtitles, or YouTube's automatic captions of the spoken language. This actor reads those first, in that order. Some videos have neither (very new uploads, music, many non-English channels, some Shorts). Caption-only scrapers return nothing for them. With **Transcribe videos without captions** on (the default), this actor downloads the video's smallest audio stream and transcribes it with Whisper (faster-whisper, run on Apify, nothing sent to a third party), in the language YouTube labels the video with, or the one Whisper hears. The item says `"transcriptSource": "whisper"`, which model ran and how many minutes were charged. A transcript from Whisper is a machine transcript: very good on clear speech, weaker on music, heavy accents and crosstalk; pick the **Small** model for those. Whisper gets a time budget per video (about 30 s per audio minute at 4 GB of memory, twice that at the default 2 GB): speech it can't follow, often a language it doesn't know, would otherwise take many times longer. A transcript cut there says so in `notes`, and only the minutes it covers are charged. ### What you get here that other transcript actors don't - **A transcript even when the video has no captions.** Whisper transcribes the audio, charged per minute only for those videos. Caption-only tools return an error or an empty field for them. - **Videos, Shorts, channels, playlists and keyword searches in one run**, mixed freely, each video read once even when two inputs name it. - **Every format in the same item**: plain text, timed segments, SRT and WebVTT, with no second run for another format. - **Full video details at no extra cost**: channel, follower count, exact publish time, duration, views, likes, comment count, tags, categories, description, thumbnail and chapters, plus every caption language the video offers. - **A date window for channels, playlists and searches** that skips videos outside it before they're read, so they cost nothing, and stops reading a channel once its videos are older than the window. - **Nothing to pay for videos that fail**: no error rows in your dataset, and the reason for each one in the log. - **Language list in order of preference**, with a clear flag when a video had none of them. ### Switching from another YouTube transcript actor? Paste the same video links. What usually maps over: | You had | Here | |---|---| | One video per run | Any number of videos, channels and playlists in **YouTube links** | | A channel or playlist actor feeding a transcript actor | Paste the channel or playlist link directly; set **Max videos per channel, playlist or search** | | Search keywords | **Search keywords**, one search per line, or paste a YouTube search results link | | A channel URL with a start and end date | The channel link plus **Published on or after** / **Published on or before** (a date, or a span such as `30 days`) | | Language list / preferred language | **Transcript language**: one code, or several in order (`es, en`); when none is there you get the video's own language, flagged with `languageFallback` | | Output format switch (text, timestamps, SRT, VTT) | Turn on any mix of `text`, `segments`, `srt`, `vtt`; they come in the same item | | "Transcript not available" rows | Not written and not charged; the run log and `RUN_STATS` list each video and why | ### Input | Field | What it does | |---|---| | **YouTube links** (`urls`) | Videos (watch, youtu.be, Shorts, live, embed links or bare ids), channels (`@handle`, `/channel/UC...`, a `/videos`, `/shorts` or `/streams` tab), playlists and search result links, one per line. | | Search keywords (`searchQueries`) | One YouTube search per line; its top results in YouTube's order. | | Max videos per channel, playlist or search (`maxVideosPerSource`) | Channels newest first; default 10, up to 5,000. | | Transcript language(s) (`language`) | A code such as `en`, `es`, `pt-BR`, or several in order (`es, en`). Empty: the video's own language. | | Published on or after / on or before (`publishedAfter`, `publishedBefore`) | A date window for videos from channels, playlists and searches: `2026-01-31` or a span back from today such as `30 days`. Video links you paste are always read. | | Transcribe videos without captions (`whisperFallback`) | On by default; charged per audio minute. | | Whisper model (`whisperModel`) | `base` (default) or `small`. | | Max Whisper minutes per video (`maxWhisperMinutesPerVideo`) | Default 60, up to 300. | | Plain text, Timestamped segments, SRT, WebVTT (`includeText`, `includeSegments`, `includeSrt`, `includeVtt`) | Which formats each item carries. Text and segments are on by default. | | Video details (`includeMetadata`) | Channel, date, views, likes, tags, description, chapters. On by default. | | Max results per run (`maxResults`) | Cap the number of transcripts. | | Proxy (`proxyConfiguration`) | Apify Proxy by default. | ```json { "urls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw", "https://www.youtube.com/@jawed", "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxxxxxxxx" ], "searchQueries": ["sourdough starter"], "maxVideosPerSource": 20, "publishedAfter": "90 days", "language": "en, es", "includeSrt": true } ``` ### Output One item per video with a transcript. Real output of the default input on Apify (2026-10-14; text and segments shortened, some details left out). Fields YouTube doesn't publish for a video are `null`. ```json { "id": "jNQXAC9IVRw", "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw", "title": "Me at the zoo", "input": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw", "inputType": "video", "inputTitle": null, "transcriptSource": "manual", "transcriptLanguage": "en", "requestedLanguage": null, "languageFallback": false, "captionLanguages": {"manual": ["de", "en"], "auto": []}, "whisperModel": null, "whisperMinutes": 0, "wordCount": 39, "segmentCount": 6, "text": "All right, so here we are, in front of the elephants the cool thing about these guys is that they have really... really really long trunks ...", "segments": [{"start": 1.2, "end": 3.36, "text": "All right, so here we are, in front of the elephants"}], "srt": null, "vtt": null, "notes": [], "scrapedAt": "2026-10-14T22:45:32.983015Z", "channel": "jawed", "channelId": "UC4QobU6STFB0P71PMvOGN5A", "channelHandle": "@jawed", "viewCount": 444097321, "likeCount": 20077772, "tags": ["me at the zoo", "jawed karim", "first youtube video"], "uploadDate": "2005-04-24", "publishedAt": "2005-04-24T03:31:52Z", "durationSeconds": 19, "chapters": [{"start": 0, "end": 5, "title": "Intro"}] } ``` The run's `RUN_STATS` record lists every input line and every video, with why a video had no transcript (`noCaptions`, `private`, `unavailable`, `ageRestricted`, `membersOnly`, `live`, `blocked` ...), and which videos were skipped for falling outside your date window. ### Run it on a schedule, or from your own code 1. Save your input as a [task](https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/tasks) (**Save as a new task**, top right of the actor page) and add it to a [schedule](https://docs.apify.com/platform/schedules) (Console → Schedules → **Create new**), for example to pull a channel's newest videos every morning. 2. Collect results: download the dataset as JSON, CSV or Excel; fetch the latest run's results from the [API](https://apify.com/humble-echidna/youtube-transcripts/api) (`GET https://api.apify.com/v2/actor-tasks//runs/last/dataset/items?status=SUCCEEDED&format=json`, with your API token); let a [webhook](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/webhooks) tell your system when a run succeeds; or connect it to Make, Zapier or n8n through [Apify's integrations](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations). #### Can I use YouTube Transcript Scraper from an AI agent (MCP)? Yes, through [Apify's MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp), from Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any other MCP client. Add this to your client's MCP configuration (or let the agent find it with the server's actor search); your client signs you in to Apify: ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=humble-echidna/youtube-transcripts" } } } ``` To use an [Apify API token](https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations) instead of signing in, add `"headers": {"Authorization": "Bearer "}` next to `url`. An agent passes `{"urls": ["