YouTube Transcript & Subtitles (SRT, VTT)

Get transcripts from YouTube videos

Paste YouTube links. Get each video's transcript back, ready to read, search or download.

What you get for each video

• The full transcript in the formats you pick: plain text, timestamped lines, or SRT and WebVTT subtitle text you can save as files.
• The language, and whether the creator wrote the captions or YouTube made them automatically.
• The title, channel and length of the video.
• A plain reason if there's no transcript. You're not charged for those.

Example output

{
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw",
  "status": "OK",
  "title": "Me at the zoo",
  "channelName": "jawed",
  "language": "en",
  "isAutoGenerated": false,
  "text": "All right, so here we are, in front of the elephants…"
}

How to use it

1. Paste video links into Videos (up to 100). Two examples are already filled in.
2. Optional: add up to 5 Channels to get their latest videos.
3. Press Start. Download your results from the Output tab as Excel, CSV or JSON.

No YouTube account or API key needed.

Pricing

You pay only for transcripts you get. The price is the same for any video length or format. Videos without a transcript are free. There's also a small charge each time a run starts. Current prices are on the pricing card. To cap a run's cost, set a maximum charge in the run options.

When there's no transcript

The row is free, and errorReason says which of three cases it is:

• Nothing to get. No captions, or the video is removed, private, age-restricted or restricted by YouTube. Trying again won't help. (NO_CAPTIONS, UNAVAILABLE, LOGIN_REQUIRED, CAPTIONS_RESTRICTED)
• Try again later. YouTube didn't answer properly this time, or the run ran out of time. (BOT_CHECK, RATE_LIMITED, CONNECTION_FAILED, EMPTY_TRANSCRIPT, SOURCE_ERROR, TIME_BUDGET)
• Check your settings. A bad or repeated link, a channel that couldn't be found, no captions in your languages, or a limit you set. (INVALID_INPUT, DUPLICATE_INPUT, CHANNEL_UNAVAILABLE, LANGUAGE_NOT_FOUND, OVER_MAX_VIDEOS, CHARGE_LIMIT)

Limits

• Public videos only.
• No translation, playlists, search, comments or video downloads.
• Channels give their latest videos only (up to 15 each).

For developers and AI agents

Run it from the Apify API, on a schedule, or from AI agents through Apify's MCP server (mcp.apify.com). Simplest input:

{ "videos": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw"] }

Every setting is explained in the Input tab. Match on errorReason, not on the wording of errorDetail.

Your data

Everything the Actor saves stays in your own Apify account; we, the developer, can't see it. Run results follow Apify's retention policy; export them or name the dataset to keep them. To speed up reruns, the Actor keeps a small store called yt-transcripts-cache in your account. You can delete it at any time.

Your responsibilities

Transcripts are the creator's words and are usually protected by copyright. Getting one doesn't give you the right to republish it. You're responsible for following YouTube's Terms of Service and your local law. Don't use this Actor to collect personal data about people.

Not affiliated

Not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by YouTube or Google. "YouTube" is a trademark of Google LLC. Questions? Use the Issues tab.