# TikTok Transcript Scraper — no AI, no waiting (`mu0i/tiktok-transcripts`) Actor

Transcripts and subtitles for TikTok videos, taken from TikTok's own caption track. Plain text, timestamped segments, VTT and SRT. No speech-to-text bill.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/mu0i/tiktok-transcripts.md
- **Developed by:** [Mu0i](https://apify.com/mu0i) (community)
- **Categories:** Videos, AI, Social media
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.80 / 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.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#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

### TikTok Transcript Scraper — no AI, no waiting

Transcripts and subtitles for TikTok videos: **plain text, timestamped segments, VTT and SRT**. Give it video
URLs, or a creator's handle to transcribe their recent videos in bulk.

No login, no cookies, no browser — and **no speech-to-text**.

### Why there is no AI in this

TikTok already publishes a caption track for most videos. This Actor reads **that** — the real subtitle file,
the one the app shows — instead of running audio through a model.

That changes three things you can measure:

| | |
|---|---|
| **speed** | a fetch and a parse, not a transcription queue |
| **cost** | no per-minute or per-second inference meter |
| **fidelity** | it is TikTok's own text, not a second-hand guess at it |

Where AI transcription is genuinely needed is the videos with **no** caption track — and this Actor does not
pretend otherwise. It returns a row saying so.

### Coverage, stated honestly

Captions are common but not universal, and coverage varies by creator:

| sample | videos with a caption track |
|---|---|
| 26 videos across search results and one creator | **21 — 80%** |
| @nasa's 10 most recent | **6 — 60%** |

Of the tracks found, most were auto-generated by TikTok (19 of 21) and a few were written by the creator; the
row tells you which via `isAutoGenerated`.

**Videos with no captions are not charged for.** You still get a row — `hasTranscript: false` with a note — so
you can see which inputs produced nothing rather than finding a short dataset and wondering. Charging for a
missing transcript would be charging for the absence of the product.

### How to use

1. Click **Try for free** at the top of this page. Apify creates a free account if you do not have one — no card is needed to run this.
2. Put what you want scraped into **Video URLs** — one per line.
3. Press **Start**.
4. Rows show up in the **Dataset** tab *while the run is still going*. Export to JSON, CSV, Excel or XML from there, or read them over the API.

Videos with no captions still get a row — `hasTranscript: false` and a note — and are not charged for.

### Input

Use either or both.

| field | | |
|---|---|---|
| `videoUrls` | | Full video URLs or bare numeric IDs |
| `profiles` | | `@handles`, profile URLs or user IDs — transcribes their recent videos |
| `maxVideosPerProfile` | 20 | Only used with `profiles` |
| `languages` | all | Two-letter codes. Empty means the video's original track |
| `includeSegments` | on | `{start, end, text}` per cue |
| `includeSrt` | on | The same track as SRT |
| `includeRawVtt` | off | TikTok's original file, unmodified |

Every field, with its default — paste the whole block and delete what you do not need:

```json
{
  "videoUrls": [
    "https://www.tiktok.com/@tiktok/video/7283509500307442987"
  ],
  "profiles": [],
  "maxVideosPerProfile": 20,
  "languages": [],
  "includeSegments": true,
  "includeSrt": true,
  "includeRawVtt": false
}
```

Transcribing a whole creator is the usual reason people want this — hook analysis, script study, or feeding a
model something better than a caption you paid to regenerate.

### Output

| field | |
|---|---|
| `videoId`, `url`, `authorUsername`, `authorNickname`, `description`, `createdAt`, `durationMs` | |
| `hasTranscript` | the field to filter on |
| `text` | the whole transcript as one string |
| `segments[]` | `{start, end, text}` — timestamps as `HH:MM:SS.mmm` |
| `srt` | ready to save next to a video file |
| `vtt` | TikTok's original, when asked for |
| `language`, `isAutoGenerated`, `isOriginalLanguage`, `availableLanguages[]` | |
| `wordCount`, `segmentCount` | |
| `source` | `url`, or `creator:<handle>` — so mixed runs stay readable |
| `note` | why a transcript is missing, when one is |

One row, exactly as it lands in your dataset (long signed CDN links shortened here for readability):

```json
{
  "videoId": "7666060020596968717",
  "url": "https://www.tiktok.com/@velvetgloww1/video/7666060020596968717",
  "source": "url",
  "authorUsername": "velvetgloww1",
  "authorNickname": "beauty tips !",
  "description": "✨ Green Tea for Your Face 😍 I Tried This Unexpected Beauty Hack!",
  "createdAt": "2026-07-24T11:48:17.000Z",
  "durationMs": 12534,
  "availableLanguages": [
    "en"
  ],
  "hasTranscript": true,
  "language": "en",
  "isAutoGenerated": true,
  "isOriginalLanguage": true,
  "segmentCount": 5,
  "wordCount": 50,
  "text": "I just wanted to wash my dirty face when I spilled my green tea instead of wasting it I rinsed my face with the cooled green tea later my skin felt refreshed and looked calmer ever since then I've bee …",
  "segments": [
    {
      "start": "00:00:00.020",
      "end": "00:00:03.180",
      "text": "I just wanted to wash my dirty face when I spilled my green tea"
    },
    {
      "start": "00:00:03.181",
      "end": "00:00:06.901",
      "text": "instead of wasting it I rinsed my face with the cooled green tea later"
    },
    {
      "start": "00:00:06.902",
      "end": "00:00:08.781",
      "text": "my skin felt refreshed and looked calmer"
    },
    "…"
  ],
  "srt": "1\n00:00:00,020 --> 00:00:03,180\nI just wanted to wash my dirty face when I spilled my green tea\n\n2\n00:00:03,181 --> 00:00:06,901\ninstead of wasting it I rinsed my face with the cooled green tea later\n …",
  "note": null
}
```

### Notes

- **`url` is TikTok's own canonical link.** A photo post therefore points at `/photo/` and a video at
  `/video/`, and a row whose author handle is missing gets `null` rather than a link that would 404.
- A video with several caption tracks (original plus translations) returns the **original** unless you name a
  language in `languages`.
- Duplicate inputs are only fetched once, including a video that appears both in `videoUrls` and in a creator's
  recent posts.
- Only public data. There is no login, so nothing hidden from a logged-out visitor is reachable.

#### Run it from your own code

Every Actor is an API endpoint. This starts a run, waits for it, and returns the rows in one call — swap in your token from **Settings → Integrations**:

```bash
curl -X POST 'https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/mu0i~tiktok-transcripts/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_TOKEN' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "videoUrls": [
      "https://www.tiktok.com/@tiktok/video/7283509500307442987"
    ],
    "profiles": [],
    "maxVideosPerProfile": 20,
    "languages": [],
    "includeSegments": true,
    "includeSrt": true,
    "includeRawVtt": false
  }'
```

### Pricing

Pay per result, and here "result" means a **transcript**, not a row — a video that turned out to have no
captions still gets a row explaining that, and it is free. Nothing is billed for time or compute.

| Event | Per 1,000 | What one unit is |
|---|---:|---|
| `transcript` | $4.00 | one transcript in the dataset — rows with `hasTranscript: false` cost nothing |

**Paid Apify plans pay less than this.** The table above is the free-plan rate. Starter, Scale and Business each get a lower per-unit price — up to **55% off** on Business — and the Actor's Pricing tab shows every tier before you run anything.

**Starting a run costs $0.00001** — a cent per thousand runs — and there is no run minimum. **You are never billed for a run that found nothing.** If an input has nothing to collect the run says so
in a row of the dataset — never a silently empty result, and never a charge. A run that fails because the
data could not be *reached* fails loudly, because that one is worth retrying.

### Related Actors

Fourteen Actors covering the whole public TikTok surface. Same billing rules and the same guarantees throughout: billed once for each row you receive, never billed for a run that found nothing, and told in the dataset why it found nothing.

| Actor | What it does |
|---|---|
| [TikTok Search Scraper — videos, users, hashtags](https://apify.com/mu0i/tiktok-search-scraper) | Keyword search across every tab, deduplicated. |
| [TikTok Hashtag Scraper — videos by hashtag](https://apify.com/mu0i/tiktok-hashtag-scraper) | Every video under a hashtag, walked deep. |
| [TikTok Trending Scraper — the real Explore feed](https://apify.com/mu0i/tiktok-trending) | The app's real Explore feed, not Creative Center. |
| [TikTok Profile Scraper — followers, likes, bio](https://apify.com/mu0i/tiktok-profile-scraper) | Followers, likes, bio for any public account. |
| [TikTok User Posts Scraper — every video + stats](https://apify.com/mu0i/tiktok-user-posts) | Every video an account posted, with stats. |
| [TikTok Comments Scraper — replies, no duplicates](https://apify.com/mu0i/tiktok-comments-scraper) | Every comment and reply, no duplicate pages. |
| [TikTok Video Downloader — no watermark MP4/MP3](https://apify.com/mu0i/tiktok-video-downloader) | No-watermark MP4, MP3, covers and subtitles. |
| [TikTok Sound Scraper — videos using a sound](https://apify.com/mu0i/tiktok-sound-scraper) | Videos that actually use a sound, filtered. |
| [TikTok Live Scraper — rooms, viewers, streams](https://apify.com/mu0i/tiktok-live-scraper) | Live rooms with playable stream links. |
| [TikTok Places Scraper — locations and reviews](https://apify.com/mu0i/tiktok-places-scraper) | Locations with addresses, coordinates and reviews. |
| [TikTok Shop Scraper — Products, Sellers & Reviews](https://apify.com/mu0i/tiktok-shop-scraper) | Shop search, product detail, seller catalogue. |
| [TikTok Shop Category Scraper — every product](https://apify.com/mu0i/tiktok-shop-category-scraper) | Every product in a Shop category and its subcategories. |
| [TikTok Shop Reviews Scraper — full archive](https://apify.com/mu0i/tiktok-shop-reviews-scraper) | The full review archive for a Shop product. |

# Actor input Schema

## `videoUrls` (type: `array`):

Full video URLs or bare numeric video IDs. One per line.

## `profiles` (type: `array`):

@handles, profile URLs or user IDs. Their most recent videos are transcribed — the usual way to analyse a creator's hooks or scripts in bulk.

## `maxVideosPerProfile` (type: `integer`):

Only used with creator handles.

## `languages` (type: `array`):

Two-letter codes, e.g. en, es. Leave empty for the video's original caption track. Most videos carry exactly one.

## `includeSegments` (type: `boolean`):

An array of {start, end, text} per cue, alongside the plain text.

## `includeSrt` (type: `boolean`):

The same track converted to SRT, ready to drop next to a video file.

## `includeRawVtt` (type: `boolean`):

TikTok's original file, unmodified. Off by default because it duplicates the segments and makes rows large.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "videoUrls": [
    "https://www.tiktok.com/@tiktok/video/7283509500307442987"
  ],
  "maxVideosPerProfile": 20,
  "includeSegments": true,
  "includeSrt": true,
  "includeRawVtt": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

One row per video; hasTranscript says whether text was found.

# 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 = {
    "videoUrls": [
        "https://www.tiktok.com/@tiktok/video/7283509500307442987"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("mu0i/tiktok-transcripts").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 = { "videoUrls": ["https://www.tiktok.com/@tiktok/video/7283509500307442987"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("mu0i/tiktok-transcripts").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.tiktok.com/@tiktok/video/7283509500307442987"
  ]
}' |
apify call mu0i/tiktok-transcripts --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,mu0i/tiktok-transcripts"
        }
    }
}

```

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/DTTkDZcT4VyVg15nT/builds/db52iM1PTj3OVYWOg/openapi.json