# YouTube Transcript Scraper Pro: Playlists, Channels & All Langs (`muarafa/youtube-transcript-pro`) Actor

Extract YouTube transcripts from videos, Shorts, whole playlists and channels. Every language, timestamps, clean text, paragraphs, optional summary & SRT. Failed videos never charged. $0.002 per video.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/muarafa/youtube-transcript-pro.md
- **Developed by:** [Mohamed Arafa](https://apify.com/muarafa) (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

$2.00 / 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

## YouTube Transcript Scraper Pro – Videos, Playlists, Channels, All Languages

Turn any YouTube video, Short, **entire playlist or entire channel** into clean, timestamped text – in **any available language** – with readable **paragraphs**, an optional **summary** and **SRT** subtitles. Paste URLs, get JSON. Videos that can't be processed are reported with the exact reason and **never charged**.

**$0.002 per transcript** ($2 per 1,000 videos) – up to 5× cheaper than the most popular alternative.

### Why this scraper?

We read the reviews and issue tracker of the most-used YouTube transcript actor on Apify (17% of its runs fail) and fixed every recurring complaint:

| Common complaint | YouTube Transcript Scraper Pro |
|---|---|
| "Returns empty string / no results" | Uses YouTube's own app endpoints, retries with a **fresh session and proxy IP** on any empty or blocked response |
| "No caption found" on videos that do have captions | Reads the full caption track list – human-made **and** auto-generated, in every language |
| HTTP 403 / blocked | Apify Proxy rotation + exponential backoff built in |
| "Impossible to retrieve video ID" | Accepts watch, youtu.be, **Shorts**, live, embed, mobile, music URLs, bare IDs, **playlists** and **channels** (@handle, /channel/, /c/, /user/) |
| One video per run | **Bulk**: hundreds of videos, playlists and channels in one run, de-duplicated |
| Target language ignored | Ordered language preference, human captions first, **auto-translation** fallback, or **all languages** at once |
| No metadata, raw text only | Title, channel, duration, views, thumbnail + clean text, timestamped text, paragraphs, summary, SRT |
| Live videos crash the run | Clear `LIVE_STREAM` status – captions appear after the stream ends |
| Paying for failures | Failed videos are listed with a reason code and **not charged** |

### Input

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "https://youtu.be/jNQXAC9IVRw",
    "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/aqz-KE-bpKQ",
    "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRqwX-V7Uu6ZiZxtDDRCi6uhfTH4FilpH",
    "@TED"
  ],
  "maxVideosPerSource": 50,
  "languages": ["en", "ar"],
  "includeParagraphs": true,
  "includeSummary": true
}
```

- **languages** – your order of preference. Leave empty for the video's original language.
- **translateTo** – force YouTube's auto-translation into one language (e.g. `ar`, `es`).
- **allLanguages** – also return every other caption track in `otherLanguages`.
- **allowAutoGenerated** – turn off to accept human-made captions only.
- Output toggles: timestamped text, segments, paragraphs, summary, SRT, noise-tag removal.

### Output example

```json
{
  "videoId": "46v8M4RsCzg",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46v8M4RsCzg",
  "title": "Why We Should Design Cities Like Disney | Zach DeBoer | TED",
  "channelName": "TED",
  "channelId": "UCAuUUnT6oDeKwE6v1NGQxug",
  "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAuUUnT6oDeKwE6v1NGQxug",
  "durationSecs": 987,
  "viewCount": 38876,
  "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/46v8M4RsCzg/sddefault.webp",
  "language": "en",
  "languageName": "English",
  "isAutoGenerated": false,
  "isTranslated": false,
  "wordCount": 2854,
  "text": "During the pandemic, I got really into watching videos about Disney theme parks. How they're built, their history...",
  "timestampedText": "[00:00] During the pandemic, I got really into watching videos\n[00:02] about Disney theme parks.\n...",
  "paragraphs": [
    { "start": 0, "end": 41.2, "timestamp": "00:00", "text": "During the pandemic, I got really into watching videos about Disney theme parks. How they're built, their history..." }
  ],
  "summary": "But at Disney theme parks, they were essential. So instead of designing places for people, we were now designing them for vehicles. Denser places also make us more money...",
  "segments": [
    { "start": 0, "end": 2.54, "duration": 2.54, "text": "During the pandemic, I got really into watching videos" },
    { "start": 2.582, "end": 3.791, "duration": 1.209, "text": "about Disney theme parks." }
  ],
  "availableLanguages": [
    { "languageCode": "ar", "languageName": "Arabic", "isAutoGenerated": false },
    { "languageCode": "en", "languageName": "English", "isAutoGenerated": false },
    { "languageCode": "es", "languageName": "Spanish", "isAutoGenerated": false }
  ],
  "status": "ok"
}
```

Failed video:

```json
{ "videoId": "aqz-KE-bpKQ", "status": "failed", "errorCode": "NO_CAPTIONS", "error": "This video has no captions (neither manual nor auto-generated)." }
```

Error codes: `NO_CAPTIONS`, `VIDEO_UNAVAILABLE`, `LOGIN_REQUIRED` (private / age-restricted), `LIVE_STREAM`, `INVALID_URL`, `EMPTY_SOURCE`, `BLOCKED`.

### Use cases

- **AI & RAG pipelines** – feed paragraphs with timestamps into vector databases and chatbots
- **Content repurposing** – turn videos into blog posts, newsletters, threads and show notes
- **SEO** – publish transcripts next to your videos; research competitors' channels
- **Research & education** – analyse lectures, interviews, podcasts and whole courses (playlists)
- **Subtitles & translation** – export SRT, pull every language a creator has uploaded
- **Market & brand monitoring** – scan entire channels for mentions of products or topics

### Pricing

Pay-per-event: **$0.002 per successfully extracted transcript** = **$2 per 1,000 videos**. Playlists and channels are charged per video found with a transcript – listing is free, failed videos are free, extra languages (`allLanguages`) are free. Set *Maximum cost per run* and the scraper stops cleanly at your budget.

### FAQ

**Does it work without captions?** No speech-to-text is performed – the scraper returns the captions YouTube has (human or automatic). Almost all spoken videos have automatic captions.

**Channels – which videos?** The channel's uploads, newest first, up to *Max videos per playlist / channel*.

**Can I call it from code, Make, Zapier, n8n or an AI agent?** Yes – via the Apify API, the JS/Python clients, all Apify integrations and the Apify MCP server.

Found a video that fails? Open an issue with the URL – we fix reports fast.

# Actor input Schema

## `urls` (type: `array`):

Any mix of: video URLs (watch, youtu.be, Shorts, live, embed, mobile), bare video IDs, <b>playlist</b> URLs or IDs, <b>channel</b> URLs (@handle, /channel/UC…, /c/…, /user/…) or just <code>@handle</code>. Playlists and channels are expanded into their videos automatically; duplicates are removed.

## `maxVideosPerSource` (type: `integer`):

Limit how many videos are taken from each playlist or channel (newest first for channels). Single video URLs are not affected.

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

Language codes in order of preference, e.g. <code>en</code>, <code>ar</code>, <code>es</code>, <code>pt-BR</code>. Human-made captions are preferred over auto-generated ones in the same language. Leave empty to get the video's original language. If none of them exists, the best track is auto-translated into the first one.

## `translateTo` (type: `string`):

Force a YouTube auto-translation into this language code (e.g. <code>ar</code>, <code>fr</code>), even if the video has no captions in it. If YouTube refuses the translation, the original transcript is returned with a <code>translationError</code> note instead of failing.

## `allowAutoGenerated` (type: `boolean`):

Use YouTube's automatic (speech-recognition) captions when there are no human-made ones. Turn off to get human-made captions only.

## `allLanguages` (type: `boolean`):

Also return the text of every other caption track in <code>otherLanguages</code> (still one result / one charge per video).

## `includeTimestampedText` (type: `boolean`):

A readable transcript with <code>\[mm:ss]</code> timestamps on each line.

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

Every caption line with numeric start, end and duration in seconds.

## `includeParagraphs` (type: `boolean`):

Transcript grouped into readable paragraphs with start timestamps — great for blogs, notes and RAG chunks.

## `includeSummary` (type: `boolean`):

Add a short extractive summary (the most representative sentences of the video).

## `summarySentences` (type: `integer`):

Number of sentences in the summary.

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

Add the transcript as an SRT subtitle file string.

## `removeNoiseTags` (type: `boolean`):

Strip non-speech tags and ♪ symbols from the text.

## `includeFailedVideos` (type: `boolean`):

Add an item with the exact reason (no captions, private, live, invalid URL…) for every video that could not be processed. These items are never charged.

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

How many videos to process at the same time.

## `maxRetries` (type: `integer`):

Retries with a fresh session and proxy IP when YouTube rate-limits or returns an empty response.

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

YouTube blocks many datacenter IPs. Apify Proxy is enabled by default and rotated automatically on every retry.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "https://youtu.be/jNQXAC9IVRw",
    "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRqwX-V7Uu6ZiZxtDDRCi6uhfTH4FilpH",
    "@TED"
  ],
  "maxVideosPerSource": 50,
  "languages": [
    "en",
    "ar"
  ],
  "translateTo": "ar",
  "allowAutoGenerated": true,
  "allLanguages": false,
  "includeTimestampedText": true,
  "includeSegments": true,
  "includeParagraphs": true,
  "includeSummary": false,
  "summarySentences": 5,
  "includeSrt": false,
  "removeNoiseTags": true,
  "includeFailedVideos": true,
  "maxConcurrency": 5,
  "maxRetries": 5,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

No description

# 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 = {
    "urls": [
        "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
        "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRqwX-V7Uu6ZiZxtDDRCi6uhfTH4FilpH"
    ],
    "languages": [],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("muarafa/youtube-transcript-pro").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 = {
    "urls": [
        "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
        "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRqwX-V7Uu6ZiZxtDDRCi6uhfTH4FilpH",
    ],
    "languages": [],
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": True },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("muarafa/youtube-transcript-pro").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 '{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRqwX-V7Uu6ZiZxtDDRCi6uhfTH4FilpH"
  ],
  "languages": [],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}' |
apify call muarafa/youtube-transcript-pro --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,muarafa/youtube-transcript-pro"
        }
    }
}
```

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/hx9ieVXPIzEHyXbjp/builds/ZB0nd9WAwrUCiUZ5v/openapi.json