YouTube Transcript Scraper

Turn YouTube videos into text. This YouTube transcript scraper gets everything that's said in a video, as plain text, line by line with timestamps, or as a ready-made SRT subtitle file. Paste video links, Shorts, playlists or channels, or search YouTube, and each video comes back as one row with its transcript, language, word count, title, channel, views, likes and upload date.

You don't need a YouTube account, a Google API key or a login. Transcripts come from YouTube's own captions, the creator's when they uploaded them and YouTube's automatic ones otherwise, so a video is ready in about a second with no waiting for audio to be processed.

What you get

Transcripts	The spoken words of each video as one block of plain text, in the video's own language
Videos, Shorts, playlists, channels	Paste any of them. A playlist or a channel (@handle, add /shorts for its Shorts) brings in its newest videos
YouTube search	Give a search like sourdough bread recipe and get the transcripts of the top videos
Timestamps and SRT	Optional: the captions line by line with start and end times, plus the same as an .srt subtitle file
Language choice	Ask for en, es or any language, and get that caption track when the video has one. Dubbed videos give the original language
Video details	Title, channel, upload date, length, views, likes, category, description, tags and thumbnail
Plain answers	A one-line summary per video, like "iPhone Duo Review: First Generation Fun!" by Marques Brownlee, a 29 min 4 s video from 21 Oct 2026 (7,054,421 views): English transcript from the creator's captions, 5,590 words.
Clear "no transcript" rows	Videos without captions, private, age-restricted or deleted videos, and mistyped links each get a row saying why, and cost little or nothing
One text file	Every transcript in a single transcripts.txt, ready to paste into a document or a chat
Excel report	A Videos sheet with transcripts and details side by side, plus Timed captions when timestamps are on

Example inputs

The transcript of one video:

{ "videos": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"] }

A batch of videos, links, Shorts and IDs mixed:

{ "videos": ["https://youtu.be/jNQXAC9IVRw", "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/aqz-KE-bpKQ", "9bZkp7q19f0"] }

The 50 newest videos of a channel, with timestamps and SRT subtitles:

{ "videos": ["@mkbhd"], "maxVideosPerSource": 50, "includeTimestamps": true }

A whole playlist, in English where the videos have English captions:

{ "videos": ["https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFgquLnL59alCl_2TQvOiD5Vgm1hCaGSI"], "languages": ["en"], "maxVideosPerSource": 200 }

The top 10 videos for a search:

{ "searchQueries": ["sourdough bread recipe"], "maxVideosPerSource": 10 }

Who uses it

• Content creators and marketers turning videos into blog posts, newsletters and social posts, and studying what top videos in their niche actually say.
• AI and data teams feeding video content into chatbots, search indexes and summaries.
• Researchers and analysts reading what's said across hundreds of videos on a topic, brand or product.
• Students and educators getting the text of lectures and tutorials to read, search and quote.
• Automated tools and assistants that are handed a YouTube link and need to know what's in the video, as text.

How to use it

1. On the Input tab, paste your videos under YouTube videos, playlists or channels, one per line. Full links, short youtu.be links, Shorts, playlists, channels and plain video IDs all work.
2. Optional: add searches under Search YouTube, set how many videos to take from each playlist, channel or search, and pick preferred languages.
3. Turn on Include timestamps and SRT subtitles if you want the captions line by line with times.
4. Click Start.
5. Open the Output tab. Results shows each video with its transcript. All transcripts is one text file with every transcript in order. Excel report downloads it all as a spreadsheet.

Getting your results into Excel, Google Sheets or Word

• Excel report: every run saves transcripts-report.xlsx, linked as Excel report on the Output tab. It opens in Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
• Word or Google Docs: open All transcripts on the Output tab and paste it in, or copy the Transcript column from the Excel report.
• Subtitles: with timestamps on, copy a video's srt field into a file ending in .srt. Video editors and players open it as subtitles.
• Other formats: the Export button on the Output tab downloads the results as CSV, JSON, XML or HTML.

Using it from your own code

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('quillstone-labs/youtube-transcript-scraper').call({
    videos: ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ'],
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items[0].transcript);

Or in one request, which waits for the run and returns the rows:

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/quillstone-labs~youtube-transcript-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"videos": ["dQw4w9WgXcQ"]}'

In Python:

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("quillstone-labs/youtube-transcript-scraper").call(run_input={"videos": ["dQw4w9WgXcQ"]})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item["title"], item["transcript"][:200])

The input also accepts the field names other YouTube Actors use (urls, startUrls, videoUrls, videoIds), so existing code usually works by changing only the Actor name.

Use it from an AI assistant

Claude, Cursor, VS Code and other assistants that support MCP can run this Actor for you. Add this server to your assistant's MCP settings:

https://mcp.apify.com?tools=quillstone-labs/youtube-transcript-scraper

The first time it connects, a browser window opens so you can sign in to Apify. Then just ask, for example "Summarise this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" Each result includes a plain-English explanation the assistant can pass straight on, and every output field is described, so it knows what each one means. To set up several Actors at once, use Apify's MCP configurator.

What a result looks like

{
    "input": "@mkbhd",
    "videoId": "ESABTN4VtrA",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESABTN4VtrA",
    "found": true,
    "hasTranscript": true,
    "transcript": "First-generation devices... are always the most fun to review. And for the past, like, month, everyone I talk to has been asking me...",
    "transcriptLanguage": "en",
    "transcriptSource": "creator",
    "wordCount": 5590,
    "captionLanguages": "en, ja, pt, tr, vi",
    "noTranscriptReason": "",
    "explanation": "\"iPhone Duo Review: First Generation Fun!\" by Marques Brownlee, a 29 min 4 s video from 21 Oct 2026 (7,054,421 views): English transcript from the creator's captions, 5,590 words.",
    "title": "iPhone Duo Review: First Generation Fun!",
    "channel": "Marques Brownlee",
    "channelId": "UCBJycsmduvYEL83R_U4JriQ",
    "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBJycsmduvYEL83R_U4JriQ",
    "publishedAt": "2026-10-21T05:00:52-07:00",
    "durationSeconds": 1744,
    "views": 7054421,
    "likes": 148734,
    "category": "Science & Technology",
    "description": "What it's actually like to use the first folding iPhone...",
    "keywords": ["iPhone Duo", "iPhone duo review"],
    "isLive": false,
    "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ESABTN4VtrA/sddefault.jpg",
    "source": "channel: Marques Brownlee"
}

With Include timestamps and SRT subtitles on, each row also has segments, a list of { "start": 3.16, "end": 4.95, "text": "First-generation devices... are always" } with times in seconds, and srt, the same captions as an SRT subtitle file.

A video that can't be transcribed still gets a row, so you always know what happened to each link:

{
    "input": "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/aqz-KE-bpKQ",
    "found": true,
    "hasTranscript": false,
    "noTranscriptReason": "This video has no captions: the creator added none and YouTube made no automatic ones (common for music, very new, or very short videos).",
    "explanation": "\"Big Buck Bunny 60fps 4K - Official Blender Foundation Short Film\" by Blender, a 10 min 35 s video from 10 Nov 2014 (23,456,373 views): no transcript. This video has no captions..."
}

How much does it cost?

You pay per video, not for run time, and Apify's platform costs are included. A video with a transcript is one charge; a video YouTube has no captions for costs less; links that are deleted, private or not YouTube videos are free. Listing a channel's, playlist's or search's videos is free too: you pay only for the videos read. Timestamps, SRT subtitles, the text file and the Excel report cost nothing extra. Exact prices are on the Pricing tab, and they're lower on Apify's paid plans. To cap what a run can cost, set Max total charge in the run options before you start.

FAQ

How do I get the transcript of a YouTube video? Copy the video's link, paste it under YouTube videos, playlists or channels and click Start. The transcript is in the Results a few seconds later, and in the All transcripts text file.

Can I download YouTube subtitles as SRT? Yes. Turn on Include timestamps and SRT subtitles and each video gets an srt field with its captions as an SRT file, plus segments with start and end times in seconds.

Can I get all the transcripts of a channel or a playlist? Yes. Paste the channel (@handle or its link) or the playlist link, and set Videos per playlist, channel or search. Channels give their newest videos first. Add /shorts to a channel link for its Shorts, or /streams for its past live streams.

Does it work with YouTube Shorts? Yes. Shorts links (youtube.com/shorts/...) work like any other video.

Which videos have transcripts? Most videos where someone speaks. YouTube captions spoken videos automatically in English and many other languages, and many creators upload their own. Music without lyrics captions, very new videos and very short clips can have none; you'll get a row saying so.

How accurate are the transcripts? They are YouTube's own captions, the same ones viewers turn on with the CC button. Creator captions are usually exact. Automatic ones are generated from the audio, so names and jargon are sometimes misheard, and they often have little punctuation. transcriptSource says which kind you got.

Which languages work? Any language a video has captions in. By default you get the language spoken in the video. Set Preferred caption languages to get, say, the English track of a video that has one; captionLanguages lists every language a video has.

Can it translate a transcript? No. YouTube's automatic translation isn't available without signing in, so you get the caption tracks the video really has. Most AI tools translate a transcript well if you need another language.

Why does a video say it's unavailable? It was deleted or made private, the link has a typo, or it's age-restricted or for channel members only, which YouTube only shows to signed-in viewers. None of these are charged.

Do I need a YouTube API key or the YouTube Data API? No. Nothing to set up: no Google Cloud project, API key or quota.

How many videos can I run at once? As many as you like. A few are read at the same time, so a few hundred videos finish in a couple of minutes.

More from Quillstone Labs

• TikTok Transcript Scraper: the same for TikTok videos, with English translations.
• App Store & Google Play Reviews Scraper: reviews from both app stores in one run, with the top complaint words and rating trends.
• USPTO Trademark Search & Monitor: is a brand name or slogan already taken in the US, sound-alikes included.
• Used Car Search: ten used-car sites searched at once, duplicates merged, with a price check.

Support

Found a bug, or need a field that isn't there? Open an issue on the Issues tab and include the input you used. For anything else, like a custom version or a bulk data job, email QuillStoneLabs@yahoo.com.

Data and fair use

The transcripts and details come from public YouTube videos, as shown to any visitor who isn't signed in. Creators own their content: use transcripts for research, analysis, accessibility and quoting, and don't republish someone else's video content as your own. Output includes channel names, so treat it as personal data where your local law does. This Actor is an independent tool and isn't affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by YouTube or Google. YouTube is a trademark of Google LLC.