Video Transcriber: Instagram, X, Facebook, TikTok

🎙️ Video Transcriber: Turn Any Video Into Text Using Speech-to-Text

Convert social videos into clean, timestamped transcripts in seconds. Video Transcriber uses speech-to-text to capture every spoken word even when videos have no subtitles or captions.

Powered by the speech‑to‑text engine from VidNavigator, it’s fast, accurate, and production‑ready. Works with Instagram, Facebook, X (Twitter), TikTok, Dailymotion, Vimeo, and Loom.

💰 $0.035 per video · ⏱️ No length limit · 🌍 99+ languages · 🎯 Timestamped segments

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✨ Why Use Video Transcriber for Speech-to-Text?

Most transcript tools rely on subtitle tracks, if a video has no captions, they return nothing. Video Transcriber solves this by converting actual speech into text.

• Speech-to-text, not subtitles: Captures speech even when videos have no captions
• Multi-platform support: Instagram, Facebook, X (Twitter), TikTok, Dailymotion, Vimeo, Loom
• Instagram carousel support: Automatically transcribes all videos in carousel posts, each video becomes a separate result
• 99+ languages: Works with most spoken languages
• Timestamped segments: Every word comes with precise start/end times
• Rich video metadata: Titles, descriptions, thumbnails, duration, views, likes, and more
• LLM-ready output: Pre-cleaned data ideal for RAG pipelines, NLP, sentiment analysis, or any AI workflow

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📊 What Data Can You Extract With Video Transcriber?

Field	Description
title	Video title
description	Video description
thumbnail	Thumbnail image URL
url	Original video URL
channel	Creator or channel name
duration	Video length in seconds
views	View count
likes	Like count
published_date	Publish date
keywords	Associated keywords
transcript	Timestamped segments with start/end times

You can download the dataset extracted by Video Transcriber in various formats such as JSON, CSV, Excel, or HTML directly from the Apify dashboard.

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🔗 Supported Video Platforms

Platform	Notes
Instagram	Full support including carousel posts (each video transcribed separately)
X (Twitter)	Paste the tweet URL containing the video
TikTok	Public videos
Facebook	Public videos
Dailymotion	Full support
Vimeo	Full support
Loom	Full support

The tool may also work on other platforms not listed here, though they have not been as thoroughly tested.

Need caption-based extraction instead of speech-to-text? Check our companion actor: Video Transcript Scraper.

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📸 Instagram Carousel Posts

When you provide an Instagram carousel post URL (a post containing multiple videos/images), the actor automatically transcribes all videos in the carousel:

• Each video in the carousel is processed separately
• Each video becomes a separate result in the dataset
• Images in the carousel are skipped (only videos are transcribed)
• Failed transcriptions are logged but don't stop other videos from being processed

Example: A carousel post with 4 videos produces 4 separate dataset entries. This is billed per result, so a carousel with 4 videos counts as 4 results.

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🛠️ How To Transcribe Videos Using Video Transcriber

1. Go to Video Transcriber on Apify
2. Click "Try for free"
3. Paste one or more public video URLs into the video_urls field, you can mix platforms in a single run
4. Click "Start" and wait for the run to finish
5. Download your transcripts in JSON, CSV, Excel, or HTML from the dataset tab

Run it your way

Because this is an Apify Actor, you also get:

• API access: Call it programmatically from any language — check the API tab for ready-made code examples
• Scheduling: Set up recurring runs to transcribe new content automatically
• Integrations: Connect to Zapier, Make, Google Sheets, webhooks, and more
• Monitoring: Track run history, costs, and results from the Apify dashboard

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📥 Input Example

Batch input (recommended)

{
  "video_urls": [
    "https://www.instagram.com/reel/C_L9MBOvb3q",
    "https://x.com/user/status/1234567890",
    "https://www.tiktok.com/@user/video/1234567890"
  ]
}

The actor transcribes up to 3 videos in parallel, so batches finish quickly. Videos of any length are supported, from short clips to multi-hour recordings.

Note: The video_url field (singular) still works for backward compatibility but is deprecated. Use video_urls instead.

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📤 Output Example

{
  "status": "success",
  "data": {
    "video_info": {
      "title": "A Reel Interesting Video",
      "description": "An example description for the video.",
      "thumbnail": "https://example.com/thumbnail.jpg",
      "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/C_L9MBOvb3q",
      "channel": "Example Creator",
      "duration": 58.5,
      "views": 123456,
      "likes": 7890,
      "published_date": "2024-07-01",
      "keywords": ["example", "social media", "video"]
    },
    "transcript": [
      { "text": "Hello, world!", "start": 0.0, "end": 1.5 },
      { "text": "Welcome to our channel.", "start": 1.5, "end": 3.0 }
    ]
  }
}

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🚀 Quick Start Code Examples

cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/invideoiq~video-transcriber/run-sync?token=YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"video_urls": ["https://www.instagram.com/reel/C_L9MBOvb3q"]}'

Python

import requests, json

url = "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/invideoiq~video-transcriber/run-sync?token=YOUR_TOKEN"
data = {"video_urls": ["https://www.instagram.com/reel/C_L9MBOvb3q"]}
res = requests.post(url, json=data)
print(json.dumps(res.json(), indent=2, ensure_ascii=False))

JavaScript

fetch("https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/invideoiq~video-transcriber/run-sync?token=YOUR_TOKEN", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({ video_urls: ["https://www.instagram.com/reel/C_L9MBOvb3q"] })
})
  .then(r => r.json())
  .then(console.log)
  .catch(console.error);

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💰 How Much Does Video Transcription Cost?

$35 per 1,000 results (pay per result — you are not charged for Apify platform usage, only a fixed price per transcription event).

Each result includes up to 10 minutes of video. Longer videos are fully supported, with no length limit: each additional started 10 minutes costs $0.035.

Scenario	Cost
1 video up to 10 minutes	$0.035
100 short videos	$3.50
1,000 short videos	$35.00
Instagram carousel with 4 short videos	$0.14 (4 results)
1 video of 12 minutes	$0.07 (charged twice)
1 video of 24 minutes	$0.105 (charged 3 times)
1 podcast of 45 minutes	$0.175 (charged 5 times)

Try it on the Apify free plan: runs are limited to 3 videos, enough to check the transcript quality. Any paid Apify plan removes the limit.

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📈 Use Cases for Video Transcription

• RAG pipelines and AI agents — Feed video transcripts into retrieval-augmented generation systems for LLM-powered search and Q&A
• Content repurposing — Turn Instagram Reels, TikToks, and tweets into blog posts, newsletters, or social threads
• Accessibility and compliance — Generate text versions of video content for accessibility requirements
• Market research — Monitor what competitors and influencers say across social platforms at scale
• Media monitoring — Track brand mentions across video platforms
• Dataset building — Build training datasets from spoken video content across multiple platforms
• Sentiment analysis — Process transcripts through NLP pipelines for opinion mining and sentiment tracking

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❓ FAQ

Is video transcription legal?

This actor processes publicly available video content and does not extract private user data such as email addresses, gender, or location — only information that users have chosen to share publicly. However, results may contain personal data. Personal data is protected by the GDPR in the European Union and by other regulations around the world. You should not extract personal data unless you have a legitimate reason to do so. If you're unsure whether your reason is legitimate, consult your lawyers.

What if a video has no speech?

Some videos contain minimal or no spoken words (e.g., music-only videos). In these cases, the transcript will be empty or very short. This is expected behavior.

Why is a video URL returning an error?

Make sure the URL is a direct, public video link. Private, geo-restricted, or login-protected content cannot be transcribed. Use the video_urls array format (not the deprecated singular video_url field).

What languages does Video Transcriber support?

The speech-to-text engine supports 99+ languages and automatically detects the spoken language.

What is the difference between Video Transcriber and Video Transcript Scraper?

Video Transcriber uses speech-to-text to generate transcripts, it works even when videos have no subtitles. Video Transcript Scraper extracts existing subtitle tracks from videos — it's faster and cheaper but only works when captions are already available.

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🔗 Related Actors

Check the rest of the suite:

• Video Transcript Scraper — $10 per 1,000 results. Faster and cheaper when the video already has captions, with rich metadata.
• TikTok Search Scraper — Find TikTok videos by keyword, with views, likes, comments and creator data. $0.40 per 1,000 videos.
• TikTok Profile Scraper — Every video from any public TikTok creator, with engagement stats. $0.20 per 1,000 videos.
• Tweet Claim Analyzer — What a tweet really claims, including its quoted tweet, video and images. $0.02 per tweet.

Workflow idea: find videos with TikTok Search Scraper, then transcribe them here.

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💬 Support

Found a bug or have a feature request? Open an issue and we'll get back to you.

Need a custom workflow or integration? Reach out through the Issues tab — we're happy to help tailor the actor to your use case.