# Video Transcript API - 100% Free (`om_kh/video-transcript-api`) Actor

Completely free - no charge per transcript, ever. Convert any YouTube video to text: full transcript plus timestamped segments, ready for summarisation, RAG pipelines and AI agents. Reads YouTube's own first-party endpoint - no API key, no cookies, nothing that expires.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/om\_kh/video-transcript-api.md
- **Developed by:** [omar khandji](https://apify.com/om_kh) (community)
- **Categories:** AI, MCP servers
- **Stats:** 1 total users, 0 monthly users, 0.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per usage

This Actor is paid per platform usage. The Actor is free to use, and you only pay for the Apify platform usage, which gets cheaper the higher subscription plan you have.

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

## 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

## Video Transcript API — YouTube to Text, 100% Free

> A developer-first video transcript API: pass YouTube videos, get back clean text and timestamped segments. Built for summarisation, RAG pipelines and AI agents.

### 100% free

**This Actor is free.** There is no charge per transcript and no charge per run
from us — you pay only Apify's own platform usage for the run, exactly as you
would for any Actor you wrote yourself.

It is free because it costs us nothing to operate: it reads YouTube's own
first-party endpoint, so there is no upstream scraper to pay for. No API key, no
cookies, nothing that expires.

### What you get per video

- **`text`** — the full transcript as one clean string, ready to feed an LLM
- **`segments`** — every caption line with `start` and `duration`, for players,
  subtitles or chunked RAG ingestion
- **`language`** and whether the captions are human-written or auto-generated —
  human-written is always preferred when both exist
- **`word_count`**, `video_id`, `title`

### Input

| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| `videos` | Video URLs or IDs — watch links, youtu.be, Shorts, embeds or bare 11-character IDs, mixed freely |
| `language` | Preferred two-letter caption language (`en`, `fr`, `es`, …). Empty = English, then the video default |
| `includeSegments` | Set `false` for plain text only |
| `proxyConfiguration` | Defaults to the Apify proxy — YouTube blocks datacenter IPs, so leave it on |

### Call it as a live API

This Actor runs in **Standby**: the container is already up, so an HTTP request
answers in seconds — no cold start.

```
GET https://<standby-url>/?videos=aircAruvnKk,dQw4w9WgXcQ
```

Or POST the same JSON you would use as run input. The answer is JSON with
`transcripts`, per-video `source_errors`, and totals.

### For AI agents (MCP)

The same endpoint speaks the Model Context Protocol at `/mcp`. Agents get one
tool, `video_transcript`, that converts a video to text in a single call —
usable from Claude, Cursor and any MCP client.

### Honest failure modes

A video with captions disabled returns a `NO_TRANSCRIPT` source error, not a
crash and not an empty string pretending to be a transcript. Invalid references
return `INVALID_VIDEO` with the reason. You are never billed for a failure —
there is nothing to bill, everything is free.

### The rest of the family

- [YouTube Transcript Scraper](https://apify.com/om_kh/youtube-transcript-api) —
  the same engine, transcript-first wording
- [YouTube Channel & Playlist Transcripts](https://apify.com/om_kh/youtube-channel-transcripts) —
  whole channels in bulk, $1/1K

### Support

Found a bug or have a feature request? Use the **Issues** tab on this Actor's Apify Store page, or message the author (`om_kh`) directly through Apify — every report gets a reply.

# Actor input Schema

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

Video URLs or IDs. Accepts watch links, youtu.be links, Shorts, embeds and bare 11-character IDs.

## `language` (type: `string`):

Two-letter language code (en, fr, es, de...). Human-written captions are always preferred over auto-generated ones. Leave empty for English, then the video's default.

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

Keep the per-line segments with start time and duration. Turn off for a plain-text transcript only.

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

YouTube blocks datacenter IPs, so this Actor routes through a proxy. Leave the default (Apify Proxy) unless you have your own.

## `maxTotalChargeUsd` (type: `number`):

Hard maximum amount that this run may charge. The run stops before exceeding it.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "videos": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aircAruvnKk",
    "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ],
  "language": "",
  "includeSegments": true,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  },
  "maxTotalChargeUsd": 1
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `report` (type: `string`):

A visual summary of delivery, charges, changes, and source issues.

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

Business-ready results in a sortable table. No JSON knowledge required.

## `csv` (type: `string`):

Results ready for spreadsheets, CRMs, and analytics tools.

## `excel` (type: `string`):

Results as an Excel workbook for non-technical teams.

## `runSummary` (type: `string`):

Machine-readable delivery, billing, and source diagnostics.

# 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=aircAruvnKk",
        "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ"
    ],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("om_kh/video-transcript-api").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=aircAruvnKk",
        "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    ],
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": True },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("om_kh/video-transcript-api").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=aircAruvnKk",
    "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}' |
apify call om_kh/video-transcript-api --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

```

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/diQMlrpIGX08NEgda/builds/c21GqZqezbJXogCtC/openapi.json