YouTube Transcript Scraper — Captions, Subtitles & Auto-Generated Text

Extract the full transcript from any YouTube video in seconds. Supports auto-generated captions, manual subtitles, multiple languages, and batch processing of hundreds of videos in one run. No API key. No browser. No login required.

Built for AI/LLM workflows, content research, accessibility tooling, and data science pipelines.

Why use YouTube Transcript Scraper?

• AI & LLM ready — outputs clean full-text transcripts perfect for feeding into ChatGPT, Claude, RAG pipelines, and vector databases
• Auto-generated captions — works even when no manual subtitles exist (covers 99% of videos)
• Multi-language — specify language priority: ["en", "es", "fr"] and the actor tries each in order
• Timestamped segments — get {text, start, duration} arrays for subtitle editors, clipping tools, search indexing
• Batch mode — process 1 to 1,000+ videos in a single run
• Zero auth — uses YouTube's public caption API, no login or API key needed

Use cases

• LLM context extraction — pull transcript of any video to summarize, translate, or Q&A with an LLM
• Content research — analyze what top YouTubers say about a topic across hundreds of videos
• SEO & keyword mining — extract spoken content from video for transcription-based SEO
• Accessibility — generate caption data for videos missing subtitles
• Competitive intelligence — monitor what competitors say in video content
• Training data — build speech/NLP datasets from high-quality human-narrated video

How to use

1. Open the Input tab
2. Paste one or more YouTube URLs or video IDs into Video URLs or IDs
3. Set your preferred language (default: en)
4. Choose output format: full text (for LLMs), timestamped segments (for editors), or both
5. Click Start — transcripts appear in the Output tab in seconds

Input

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
videoUrls	string[]	—	YouTube URLs or video IDs (e.g. https://youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ or dQw4w9WgXcQ)
languages	string[]	["en"]	Language priority list. Tries each in order. Falls back to any available transcript.
includeAutoGenerated	boolean	true	Include YouTube's auto-generated captions if no manual transcript exists
outputFormat	string	"both"	"full_text" (single string), "timestamped" (segments array), or "both"
maxVideos	integer	0	Cap how many videos to process (0 = unlimited)

Example input

{
  "videoUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "https://youtu.be/jNQXAC9IVRw"
  ],
  "languages": ["en", "en-US"],
  "includeAutoGenerated": true,
  "outputFormat": "both"
}

Output

Each processed video produces one output item:

{
  "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "videoUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "success": true,
  "language": "en",
  "isAutoGenerated": false,
  "segmentCount": 61,
  "transcript": "We're no strangers to love. You know the rules and so do I...",
  "segments": [
    { "text": "We're no strangers to love.", "start": 18.64, "duration": 3.24 },
    { "text": "You know the rules and so do I.", "start": 22.64, "duration": 4.32 }
  ]
}

When a transcript cannot be fetched, success is false and error explains why (disabled, private video, no captions available, etc).

Output fields

Field	Type	Description
videoId	string	YouTube video ID
videoUrl	string	Full YouTube URL
success	boolean	Whether the transcript was fetched successfully
error	string | null	Error message if failed
language	string	Language code of the returned transcript (e.g. en, es)
isAutoGenerated	boolean	Whether this is an auto-generated caption or a manual transcript
segmentCount	integer	Number of caption segments
transcript	string	Full text joined from all segments (outputFormat: full_text or both)
segments	array	Timestamped caption segments (outputFormat: timestamped or both)

Supported URL formats

All of these work:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
• https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ
• https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dQw4w9WgXcQ
• https://www.youtube.com/embed/dQw4w9WgXcQ
• dQw4w9WgXcQ (bare video ID)

Pricing

This actor uses the Pay Per Event model — you pay per video processed, not per run.

• 10 videos: ~$0.01
• 100 videos: ~$0.10
• 1,000 videos: ~$1.00

Transcripts are fetched via YouTube's caption API — no proxies or browsers needed, so runs are fast and cheap.

Tips

• For LLMs: use outputFormat: "full_text" — clean text with no timestamps, ready to paste into any AI prompt
• For subtitle editing: use outputFormat: "timestamped" — each segment has start and duration in seconds
• Multi-language: set languages: ["en", "auto"] — auto is not a real code, so it triggers fallback to auto-generated
• Batch processing: dump a list of 100 video IDs and run once — much cheaper than 100 separate runs
• Private/unavailable videos: these return success: false with a descriptive error, the run still completes cleanly

FAQ

Does this work without a YouTube account? Yes. No login or API key required.

Does it work with auto-generated captions (videos with no manual subtitles)? Yes — set includeAutoGenerated: true (default).

What if the video has no captions at all? The actor returns success: false with error: "Transcripts are disabled" and continues to the next video.

Can I get transcripts in Spanish, French, Japanese, etc.? Yes — set languages: ["es"] or whatever language you need. If no Spanish transcript exists it falls back through your priority list or to any available transcript.

Is this against YouTube's Terms of Service? This actor uses YouTube's public caption API endpoints. Transcripts are publicly accessible and indexed by search engines. Always ensure your use case complies with applicable data protection laws.

Something not working? Open an issue on the Issues tab with the video ID and error message.