# YouTube Transcript Scraper — Bulk, With Timestamps (`mojocakes/youtube-transcript-scraper`) Actor

Extract transcripts/subtitles from YouTube videos in bulk — manual or auto-generated captions, any language, with timestamps and video metadata. Clean JSON for AI pipelines, summarisation, research and content workflows. You only pay for transcripts actually delivered.

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

## Pricing

from $8.00 / 1,000 transcripts

This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## YouTube Transcript Scraper — Bulk, With Timestamps

Extract **transcripts (subtitles/captions) from YouTube videos in bulk** — manual or auto-generated, in any language, with timestamped segments and video metadata. Clean JSON built for **AI/LLM pipelines**, summarisation, research, SEO and content repurposing.

**You only pay for transcripts actually delivered.** Videos with no captions, or unavailable videos, are reported in a failure list — never billed as results.

### What it does

- Accepts any mix of YouTube URLs (watch, youtu.be, Shorts, embed) or bare video IDs
- Language preference with sensible fallbacks (manual captions → auto-generated → any language, all configurable)
- Timestamped segments (`start`, `duration`, `text`) plus the joined plain-text transcript
- Video metadata: title, channel, duration, view count
- Failure transparency: a `FAILED_VIDEOS` record explains every undelivered video (no captions / unavailable / blocked)

### Output example

```json
{
  "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Video)",
  "channelName": "Rick Astley",
  "durationSeconds": 213,
  "language": "en",
  "isAutoGenerated": false,
  "wordCount": 488,
  "transcript": "We're no strangers to love You know the rules and so do I...",
  "segments": [
    { "startSeconds": 18.64, "durationSeconds": 3.96, "text": "We're no strangers to love" }
  ]
}
```

### Typical uses

- **AI pipelines** — feed transcripts into LLM summarisation, RAG indexes, or agents
- **Content repurposing** — turn videos into articles, newsletters, show notes
- **Research** — analyse messaging across a channel or topic at scale
- **SEO** — mine competitor video content for topics and phrasing
- **Accessibility & archiving**

### Notes

- Works with public videos that have captions (manual or auto-generated)
- For very large batches, the automatic proxy setting handles rotation; switch to residential proxies if you see `botwall` entries in the failure list
- Only publicly available caption data is collected

# Actor input Schema

## `videos` (type: `array`):

YouTube video URLs (any format: watch, youtu.be, shorts, embed) or bare 11-character video IDs.

## `preferredLanguage` (type: `string`):

ISO language code to prefer (e.g. `en`, `de`, `es`). If unavailable, the actor falls back per the options below.

## `fallbackToAutoGenerated` (type: `boolean`):

If no manual captions exist in the preferred language, use YouTube's auto-generated (ASR) captions.

## `fallbackToAnyLanguage` (type: `boolean`):

If nothing matches the preferred language, take the first available caption track in any language.

## `includeTimestamps` (type: `boolean`):

Include a `segments` array with start time, duration, and text for each caption line — plus the plain-text transcript.

## `includeVideoMetadata` (type: `boolean`):

Include title, channel, duration, and view count with each transcript.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Proxy settings. Automatic proxy works for most volumes; switch to residential if you see many `botwall` failures.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "videos": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ],
  "preferredLanguage": "en",
  "fallbackToAutoGenerated": true,
  "fallbackToAnyLanguage": true,
  "includeTimestamps": true,
  "includeVideoMetadata": true,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `transcripts` (type: `string`):

Transcripts delivered for the requested videos, with timestamps and metadata.

# 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 = {
    "videos": [
        "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
    ]
};

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

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

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,mojocakes/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/FXS4caGTsCJ1jny2o/builds/aCwGxGnFRH83UZy4a/openapi.json