# YouTube Shorts Transcript Scraper (`lergassy/youtube-shorts-transcript-scraper`) Actor \[$4/1K Shorts] Transcript of any YouTube Short: clean text, timestamps, spoken language, 3-second hook, plus title, channel, views, likes and date. Links or whole channels. Shorts without captions are free. No login. - **URL**: https://apify.com/lergassy/youtube-shorts-transcript-scraper.md - **Developed by:** [Matvey](https://apify.com/lergassy) (community) - **Categories:** Videos, Social media, AI - **Stats:** 1 total users, 0 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing from $2.80 / 1,000 shorts This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events. Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have. 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 Shorts Transcript Scraper turns public YouTube Shorts into text: the full transcript, timestamped caption lines, the language actually spoken and the hook (the words said in the first three seconds) — plus each Short's title, channel, views, likes, comments and publish date. Paste Shorts links or a channel and get one clean row per Short, ready for a spreadsheet, a content calendar or an LLM. ![YouTube Shorts Transcript Scraper output: YouTube Shorts with title, channel, views, likes, publish date, language and the first three seconds of speech](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lergassy/apify-actor-assets/main/youtube-shorts-transcript-scraper/youtube-shorts-transcript-scraper-output-table.png) This is the YouTube Shorts edition of [YouTube Shorts, TikTok & Reels Transcript Scraper](https://apify.com/lergassy/tiktok-reels-shorts-transcript-scraper), which also handles TikTok and Instagram Reels in the same run. ### Tested head-to-head — 16 October 2026 Same job for every Actor that takes a list: the 10 newest MrBeast Shorts by link (one of them in Russian, one that YouTube rarely serves captions for). Six popular transcript Actors compared. | | This Actor | Other popular transcript Actors | |---|---|---| | Shorts transcribed | **10 of 10** | 7–9 of 10 (two more take only one link per run) | | Russian Short | **Russian text, as spoken** | missing in 2 of 4 | | Title, channel, views, likes, comments, date in the row | **all, included in the price** | none in 2 of 6, partial in 3 | | Clean text (no `'` / `>>` codes) | **yes** | raw HTML codes in 2 of 6 | | Hook (first 3 seconds) column | **yes** | none of 6 | | Date filter for channels | **yes** | 2 of 6 | ### What is YouTube Shorts Transcript Scraper? A YouTube Shorts transcript tool that reads the caption track YouTube already publishes for a Short — the creator's own subtitles when they exist, otherwise YouTube's automatic captions in the language the Short is spoken in (never a machine translation unless you ask for one). Nothing is downloaded and no speech recognition is run, so a Short comes back in seconds and you pay one flat price per Short. - 🔗 **Shorts links** — `youtube.com/shorts/...`, `youtube.com/watch?v=...` or `youtu.be/...` - 📺 **Whole channels** — give `youtube.com/@channel`, `@channel` or just the name and it takes the newest Shorts from the Shorts tab, optionally only those after a date - 📊 **Short's numbers** — title, channel, subscribers, views, likes, comments, publish date, thumbnail - 🚀 **Viral finder** — flags Shorts that got 3× the channel's usual views (free) - ⏱️ **Timestamps** — every caption line with start and end time in seconds - 🪝 **Hook** — the words spoken in the first three seconds, in their own column - 🗣️ **Language** — the language actually spoken (Russian Shorts come back in Russian) - 🆓 **Free failures** — a Short whose captions could not be read returns a free error row - 🔓 **No login, no cookies, no API key** ### What data does it return? | Field | What it is | |---|---| | `url`, `videoId` | The Short and its YouTube id | | `title`, `caption` | Title and description of the Short | | `author`, `authorHandle`, `channelId`, `channelUrl`, `channelSubscribers` | The channel | | `views`, `likes`, `comments`, `postedAt` | The Short's numbers and publish time (UTC) | | `durationSeconds` | Length of the Short | | `language` | Language code of the speech (`en`, `es`, `ru` …) | | `captionsType` | `manual` (creator's subtitles), `auto` (YouTube's automatic captions) or `auto-translated` | | `transcriptText` | The whole transcript as one clean text | | `transcript` | Caption lines with `start`, `end` (seconds) and `text`; lines do not overlap | | `firstThreeSecondsSpeech` | The words said before the 3-second mark — the hook | | `thumbnailUrl` | Thumbnail image | | `isOutlier`, `vsAuthorMedian` | With "Find viral videos": how this Short did against the channel's usual | | `scrapedAt` | When the row was made (UTC) | ### How much does it cost to get YouTube Shorts transcripts? Pay per result, no monthly fee, no fee per run: | Event | Price (free plan) | |---|---| | Short transcribed (one row) | $0.004 — **$4 per 1,000 Shorts** | Higher Apify plans pay less per Short (down to $0.0028). Title, channel, views, likes, comments and date are included in that price. Error rows — a Short without a readable caption track, a broken link, a video above your duration limit — are free. YouTube Shorts never use the per-audio event of the pricing table: it applies only to TikTok and Reels links that have no captions of their own and go through speech recognition, and only when you send them. ### How to get the transcript of a YouTube Short 1. Click **Try for free** and open the Input tab. 2. Paste one or more Shorts links into **YouTube Shorts URLs**, or a channel into **YouTube channels**. 3. Click **Start**. Download the results as JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML, or read them through the API. ### ⬇️ Input ![YouTube Shorts Transcript Scraper input form: YouTube Shorts URLs, YouTube channels, Shorts per channel and spoken language](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lergassy/apify-actor-assets/main/youtube-shorts-transcript-scraper/youtube-shorts-transcript-scraper-input-form.png) ```json { "videoUrls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Df5Y-2ndQyU" ], "profiles": ["https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast"], "resultsLimitPerProfile": 10, "onlyPostsNewerThan": "2026-10-01", "compareWithAuthor": true, "maximumVideoDurationSeconds": 180, "language": "auto", "includeTranscriptSegments": true } ``` - **YouTube Shorts URLs** — any public Short. Regular video links work too. - **YouTube channels** and **Shorts per channel** — the newest Shorts from each channel. - **Only Shorts newer than** — for channels: stop at the first Short published before this date. - **Find viral videos** — compares each Short's views with the channel's median in this run. - **Spoken language** — leave on Auto to get the language actually spoken; pick one to get that track first (for a language the Short is not spoken in, YouTube's translation is requested and marked `auto-translated`; when YouTube refuses it, the spoken language comes back instead). - **Maximum video duration** — longer videos are skipped with a free error row before anything is fetched. - **Include timestamped segments** — turn off for a flatter table with just the text. ### ⬆️ Output One row per Short (real row from a test run on 16 October 2026, transcript and lines shortened): ```json { "type": "reel", "url": "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Df5Y-2ndQyU", "platform": "youtube", "videoId": "Df5Y-2ndQyU", "title": "Read My Book, You Could Win $1,000,000", "author": "MrBeast", "authorHandle": "@MrBeast", "channelId": "UCX6OQ3DkcsbYNE6H8uQQuVA", "channelSubscribers": 521000000, "views": 28793558, "likes": 732446, "comments": 23000, "postedAt": "2026-07-17T16:00:06Z", "durationSeconds": 32, "language": "en", "captionsType": "auto", "transcriptSource": "platform-captions", "transcriptText": "You can win $1,000,000 and all you have to do to enter is buy our brand new book that drops September [music] 1st. Growing up, I thought reading was boring, so I partnered with James Patterson here. …", "firstThreeSecondsSpeech": "You can win $1,000,000 and all you have to do to enter is buy", "transcript": [ { "start": 0, "end": 2.2, "text": "You can win $1,000,000 and all you have" }, { "start": 2.2, "end": 3.72, "text": "to do to enter is buy our brand new book" }, { "start": 3.72, "end": 5.12, "text": "that drops September [music] 1st." } ], "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Df5Y-2ndQyU/hqdefault.jpg", "scrapedAt": "2026-10-16T02:27:16Z" } ``` Caption lines keep markers such as `[music]` and YouTube's `>>` speaker-change sign. Need the text written on screen as well (caption cards, title cards)? That is a feature of [YouTube Shorts, TikTok & Reels Transcript Scraper](https://apify.com/lergassy/tiktok-reels-shorts-transcript-scraper). #### Error rows A Short that could not be read returns its own row and is not billed: ```json { "type": "error", "url": "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/…", "platform": "youtube", "videoId": "…", "title": "…", "errorCode": "no_captions", "errorMessage": "YouTube returned no caption track for this video in 8 tries. Usually the Short has none (music, no speech); sometimes YouTube withholds an existing track from automated requests, and running the link again later succeeds. Nothing was charged for this URL." } ``` Other reasons: `youtube_refused` (YouTube blocked every try — run again), `not_found` (removed, private or mistyped link), `too_long` (above your duration limit). Error rows come after the data rows, and the run's status line counts them by reason. ### Use cases - **Content research** — read what top channels say in their Shorts without watching them one by one. - **Hook library** — collect the first-three-second lines of a niche's Shorts and see which openings repeat. - **Repurposing** — turn your own Shorts into captions, blog drafts, threads or newsletter snippets. - **LLM and RAG input** — clean text with timestamps, one row per Short, no transformation needed. ### Integrations Run it from the [Apify API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2) or the Python and JavaScript clients, call it from AI agents through the [Apify MCP server](https://mcp.apify.com), or connect it to Make, Zapier, n8n, Google Sheets and webhooks. ```python from apify_client import ApifyClient client = ApifyClient("") run = client.actor("lergassy/youtube-shorts-transcript-scraper").call(run_input={ "videoUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Df5Y-2ndQyU"], }) for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items(): print(item.get("title"), "|", item.get("firstThreeSecondsSpeech"), "|", item.get("transcriptText")) ``` ### ❓ FAQ #### Does it transcribe the audio of the Short? No. It reads the caption track YouTube publishes for the Short — the creator's subtitles or YouTube's automatic captions. That is why it is fast and cheap. A Short with no caption track at all comes back as a free error row. #### Why did some Shorts come back as error rows? Usually the Short has no captions at all (music, no speech). Each Short is tried up to eight times from different residential addresses, because YouTube sometimes withholds captions or blocks automated traffic; what is still missing after that comes back as a free error row with the reason. #### How much does it cost to get 1,000 Shorts transcripts? $4 on the free plan, down to $2.80 on paid Apify plans — with title, channel, views, likes, comments and date included. Error rows are free. #### Which languages are supported? Any language YouTube provides captions in. With Auto you get the creator's subtitles when they exist, otherwise YouTube's automatic captions in the language the Short is spoken in. Pick a language to ask for that track first; if the Short is not spoken in it, YouTube's machine translation is requested and marked `captionsType: "auto-translated"`. YouTube often refuses translations to automated traffic; then you get the language actually spoken, the `language` column says which, and the status line counts them. #### Can I get the newest Shorts of a channel? Yes. Put the channel link (`https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast`), the handle (`@MrBeast`) or just the name (`MrBeast`) in **YouTube channels** and set **Shorts per channel** (up to 200). #### Does it also work for TikTok and Instagram Reels? Links from those platforms are accepted too, but for mixed lists the [YouTube Shorts, TikTok & Reels Transcript Scraper](https://apify.com/lergassy/tiktok-reels-shorts-transcript-scraper) is the main Actor and is documented for all three platforms. #### Is it legal to scrape YouTube Shorts transcripts? It reads only public videos that anyone can open without logging in and collects no personal data beyond what the video page shows. Laws differ by country and use case; check with a lawyer before building a commercial product on scraped data. ### Your feedback Found a Short it handles badly? Open an issue on the **Issues** tab with the link — every issue gets a reply. # Actor input Schema ## `videoUrls` (type: `array`): Add one or more public YouTube Shorts links (youtube.com/shorts/...). Regular youtube.com/watch?v= and youtu.be links work too. A channel link pasted here is understood as a channel. Leave both this and YouTube channels empty to run the example. No login or cookies needed. ## `profiles` (type: `array`): Give a YouTube channel link (youtube.com/@name), a handle (@name) or just the channel name (name) and the Actor takes its newest Shorts from the channel's Shorts tab — no need to collect links by hand. TikTok profiles work here too as a link (tiktok.com/@user). ## `resultsLimitPerProfile` (type: `integer`): How many of the newest Shorts to take from each channel. ## `onlyPostsNewerThan` (type: `string`): For channels: take only Shorts published on or after this date (YYYY-MM-DD). The newest Shorts are checked first and the run stops at the first older one; skipped Shorts are free. Leave empty to take the newest Shorts whatever their date. ## `compareWithAuthor` (type: `boolean`): Compares each Short's views with the channel's median across the Shorts of this run and flags the ones that got 3× or more (isOutlier, vsAuthorMedian). Needs 4 or more Shorts from the same channel. Free: no extra charge. ## `language` (type: `string`): Leave on Auto to get the captions in the language actually spoken in the Short. Pick a language to get that track first; if the Short is not spoken in it, YouTube's machine translation is requested (captionsType = auto-translated). YouTube often refuses translations to automated traffic — then you get the spoken language, the language column says which, and the status line counts such Shorts. ## `maximumVideoDurationSeconds` (type: `integer`): Videos longer than this are skipped with a free error row, before anything is fetched. 0 means no limit. Useful when a channel link or pasted list mixes Shorts with long uploads. ## `includeTranscriptSegments` (type: `boolean`): Return the transcript as timestamped segments in addition to the plain text. Turn off for a flatter table. ## `transcriptionMode` (type: `string`): YouTube Shorts always use their own caption track (the creator's subtitles first, then YouTube's automatic captions in the spoken language) — fast and cheap, no audio download. A Short without a caption track comes back as a free error row. This setting only matters for TikTok and Reels links. ## `quality` (type: `string`): Only used for TikTok/Reels videos that have no captions of their own. YouTube Shorts do not use speech recognition. ## Actor input object example ```json { "videoUrls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Df5Y-2ndQyU" ], "profiles": [ "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast" ], "resultsLimitPerProfile": 10, "compareWithAuthor": false, "language": "auto", "maximumVideoDurationSeconds": 300, "includeTranscriptSegments": true, "transcriptionMode": "captions-first", "quality": "fast" } ``` # Actor output Schema ## `dataset` (type: `string`): One row per Short: transcript with timestamps, hook, language, title, channel, views, likes, comments and publish date. ## `overview` (type: `string`): Table view: title, channel, views, hook and transcript side by side. ## `runSummary` (type: `string`): JSON summary of the run: Shorts requested, transcribed, failed (free) and proxy statistics. # 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 '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "videoUrls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Df5Y-2ndQyU" ], "profiles": [ "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast" ], "resultsLimitPerProfile": 10, "compareWithAuthor": false, "language": "auto", "maximumVideoDurationSeconds": 300, "includeTranscriptSegments": true, "transcriptionMode": "captions-first", "quality": "fast" }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("lergassy/youtube-shorts-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 '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = { "videoUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Df5Y-2ndQyU"], "profiles": ["https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast"], "resultsLimitPerProfile": 10, "compareWithAuthor": False, "language": "auto", "maximumVideoDurationSeconds": 300, "includeTranscriptSegments": True, "transcriptionMode": "captions-first", "quality": "fast", } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("lergassy/youtube-shorts-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 '{ "videoUrls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Df5Y-2ndQyU" ], "profiles": [ "https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast" ], "resultsLimitPerProfile": 10, "compareWithAuthor": false, "language": "auto", "maximumVideoDurationSeconds": 300, "includeTranscriptSegments": true, "transcriptionMode": "captions-first", "quality": "fast" }' | apify call lergassy/youtube-shorts-transcript-scraper --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "type": "http", "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,lergassy/youtube-shorts-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 ` 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/SIOV2l67uDil5Q2Sw/builds/ZyG4Zp2Vo9zozcbSe/openapi.json