# Transcribe caption-less YouTube videos with Whisper

**Use case:** 

Fetches YouTube captions where they exist and, for videos with no usable caption track, falls back to downloading the audio and transcribing it with OpenAI Whisper inside the Actor (up to 30 minutes per video). Returns the transcript, segments and the method used (captions vs Whisper). Replace `startUrls`.

## Input

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ],
  "maxItems": 100,
  "language": "",
  "whisperFallback": true,
  "whisperMaxMinutes": 30,
  "maxConcurrency": 10,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}
```

## Output

```json
{
  "videoId": {
    "label": "Video ID",
    "format": "text"
  },
  "title": {
    "label": "Title",
    "format": "text"
  },
  "author": {
    "label": "Channel",
    "format": "text"
  },
  "lengthSeconds": {
    "label": "Length (s)",
    "format": "text"
  },
  "viewCount": {
    "label": "Views",
    "format": "text"
  },
  "language": {
    "label": "Language",
    "format": "text"
  },
  "transcriptSource": {
    "label": "Source",
    "format": "text"
  },
  "transcript_only_text": {
    "label": "Transcript",
    "format": "text"
  },
  "url": {
    "label": "URL",
    "format": "link"
  },
  "transcriptError": {
    "label": "Error",
    "format": "text"
  }
}
```

## About this Actor

This example demonstrates how to use [YouTube Transcript Scraper](https://apify.com/parsebird/youtube-transcript-scraper.md) with a specific input configuration. Visit the [Actor detail page](https://apify.com/parsebird/youtube-transcript-scraper.md) to learn more, explore other use cases, and run it yourself.


## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
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This Task's input is already configured above — use it as-is rather than inventing a new one.

- **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 full API examples (JavaScript, Python, CLI, MCP, OpenAPI), see this Task's Actor page: https://apify.com/parsebird/youtube-transcript-scraper.md

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).