YouTube Transcript API

Extract transcripts (subtitles) from any YouTube video in seconds. Just provide a video ID or full URL — the Actor returns the complete transcript with timestamps, video metadata, and multilingual support.

What does it do?

This Actor extracts the full transcript from any YouTube video. No configuration, no API keys — just pass a video link and get structured data back.

Supported input formats:

• Full YouTube URLs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ)
• Short URLs (https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ)
• Embed URLs (https://www.youtube.com/embed/dQw4w9WgXcQ)
• Plain video IDs (dQw4w9WgXcQ)

How to use

1. Open this Actor on Apify
2. Enter a YouTube video ID or URL
3. Click Start
4. Get the transcript in the Dataset tab

Input

Field	Type	Required	Description
videoId	string	Yes	YouTube video ID or full URL

Example input:

{
    "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ"
}

Output

The Actor saves results to the default dataset. Each result contains rich video metadata and transcripts in multiple formats.

Response structure

Field	Type	Description
videoId	string	Cleaned 11-character YouTube video ID
originalInput	string	The original input you provided (URL or ID)
videoInfo	object	Video metadata — title, author, thumbnails, duration, embed URL, channel ID
language_code	array	List of available transcript languages (code + name)
transcripts	object	Transcripts grouped by language, each containing up to 3 formats

Video info fields

Field	Type	Description
videoInfo.name	string	Video title
videoInfo.author	string	Channel / creator name
videoInfo.channel_id	string	YouTube channel ID
videoInfo.duration	string	Video duration in seconds
videoInfo.embedUrl	string	Embeddable video URL
videoInfo.thumbnailUrl	object	Thumbnail URLs (hqdefault, maxresdefault)
videoInfo.description	string	Video description
videoInfo.upload_date	string	Upload date
videoInfo.genre	string	Video genre / category

Transcript formats

Each language contains up to 3 transcript formats:

Format	Description
default	Line-by-line subtitles with precise timestamps (each line is a separate segment)
auto	Auto-generated subtitles — same structure as default, useful when manual subs are unavailable
custom	Merged paragraphs — longer text blocks grouped into larger time ranges, ideal for reading or AI processing

Every transcript segment has:

Field	Type	Example	Description
start	string	"00:00:19"	Segment start time (HH:MM:SS)
end	string	"00:00:22"	Segment end time (HH:MM:SS)
text	string	"We're no strangers to love"	Subtitle text

Example output (shortened)

{
    "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "originalInput": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "videoInfo": {
        "name": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Video)",
        "author": "Rick Astley",
        "channel_id": "UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw",
        "duration": "213",
        "embedUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/embed/dQw4w9WgXcQ",
        "thumbnailUrl": {
            "hqdefault": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/hqdefault.jpg",
            "maxresdefault": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/maxresdefault.jpg"
        },
        "description": "",
        "upload_date": "",
        "genre": ""
    },
    "language_code": [
        { "code": "en", "name": "English" }
    ],
    "transcripts": {
        "en": {
            "default": [
                { "start": "00:00:19", "end": "00:00:22", "text": "We're no strangers to love" },
                { "start": "00:00:23", "end": "00:00:27", "text": "You know the rules and so do I" },
                { "start": "00:00:27", "end": "00:00:31", "text": "A full commitment's what I'm thinking of" }
            ],
            "auto": [
                { "start": "00:00:19", "end": "00:00:22", "text": "We're no strangers to love" },
                { "start": "00:00:23", "end": "00:00:27", "text": "You know the rules and so do I" }
            ],
            "custom": [
                {
                    "start": "00:00:01",
                    "end": "00:00:49",
                    "text": "We're no strangers to love. You know the rules and so do I. A full commitment's what I'm thinking of..."
                }
            ]
        }
    }
}

Use cases

• AI & LLM pipelines — feed video transcripts into GPT, Claude, or other models for summarization, Q&A, or analysis
• Content research — quickly extract what's said in a video without watching it
• SEO & marketing — repurpose video content into blog posts, articles, or social media
• Accessibility — get text versions of video content
• Data analysis — analyze large volumes of video content at scale
• Education — extract lecture transcripts for study notes or translations

Integrations

Connect this Actor with other tools and platforms:

• Apify API — call the Actor programmatically from any language
• Zapier / Make — trigger the Actor and send results to Google Sheets, Slack, email, etc.
• Webhooks — get notified when a run finishes

API usage

Call this Actor via the Apify API:

curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/YOUR_USERNAME~youtube-transcript-scraper/runs" \
    -X POST \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
    -d '{"videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ"}'

Pricing

Your first run is free. After that, usage is based on the Apify platform subscription — see Apify pricing for details. Each run uses minimal compute resources and typically completes in under 10 seconds.

Limitations

• Transcripts are only available for videos that have subtitles (auto-generated or manual)
• Private or age-restricted videos may not be accessible