YouTube Subtitles Pro - Transcripts, Brand Monitoring & Content Intelligence

Extract YouTube transcripts for brand monitoring, content intelligence, and sentiment analysis

Description

Extract YouTube transcripts for brand monitoring, content intelligence, and sentiment analysis. No API key required. Trusted by 100+ professionals for high-volume transcript extraction, competitor video research, and RAG pipeline integration.

Features

📌 Status 🧠 Context [2026-03-12] — outputSchema description added (spec-005)

How It Works

This actor uses intelligent extraction with Apify's proxy infrastructure to gather public data from YouTube Subtitles Pro - Transcripts, Brand Monitoring & Content Intelligence. It handles authentication, pagination, and error recovery automatically.

Quick Start

# Run via Apify API
apify run -a red.cars/youtube-subtitles-pro

# Or configure input and click Run on:
# https://apify.com/red.cars/youtube-subtitles-pro

Using as an MCP Tool

Running on Apify Platform

Set API_KEY in your Apify Console secrets, configure input via the Actor input schema UI, and click Run.

Input Schema

Parameter	Type	Description	Default
urls	array	YouTube video URLs to extract subtitles from.	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyyjU8fzEYU
languages	array	Preferred subtitle languages (ISO 639-1 codes). Defaults to English.	en
formatTranscript	boolean	Include a formatted full text transcript in addition to segments	true
proxyConfiguration	object	Use Apify residential proxies to bypass YouTube restrictions	-
debugMode	boolean	Enable minimal extraction for health checks and testing. Guarantees success within 300s.	false
checkOnly	boolean	When true, returns immediately with capability metadata without scraping. Used by AI agents to verify availability before committing to a paid run. Free, <5 seconds.	false

Infrastructure & Reliability

| proxyType | string | Choose your preferred balance of cost vs reliability. Standard (Datacenter) is faster; Premium (Residential) is most reliable for high-security targets.
Options: DATACENTER, RESIDENTIAL | RESIDENTIAL |

Output Schema

Field	Type	Description
results	string	YouTube transcripts with AI-ready cleanMarkdown for reasoning chains. Each result contains: videoId, url, subtitles (full text + time-coded segments), metadata (title, channel, duration, views), available_languages, subtitle_stats, cleanMarkdown. Use for content analysis, meeting transcription, knowledge extraction, brand monitoring. AI agents: supply any YouTube URL for instant AI-ready transcript.

Example Output

{
  "results": [
    {
      "url": "https://example.com/profile",
      "username": "example_user",
      "fullName": "Example User",
      "followersCount": 10000,
      "followingCount": 500,
      "postsCount": 250,
      "isVerified": false,
      "biography": "Example bio text",
      "latestPosts": [],
      "scrapedAt": "2026-03-23T13:24:36.608Z"
    }
  ]
}

Pricing

Use Cases

• Influencer Research: Identify and evaluate potential influencers by engagement metrics and audience quality
• Competitor Monitoring: Track competitor presence and activity on YouTube
• Lead Generation: Build targeted lead lists from public profiles and contact information
• Market Intelligence: Gather market intelligence and trend data for business decisions
• Content Aggregation: Collect content for analysis, archiving, or republication

FAQ

Do I need an API key?

Yes, this actor requires an API key. Set it via the secret environment variable in Apify Console.

How does pricing work?

This actor uses Apify's Pay-Per-Event model. You are charged per successful result returned. No charge for queries that return zero results.

What are the rate limits?

Rate limits depend on your Apify plan. Higher-tier plans provide more compute units and faster extraction.

How do I increase success rate?

• Enable Premium (Residential) proxy for high-security targets
• Reduce concurrency for rate-limited profiles
• Use debug mode to test before full extraction

Can I run this on a schedule?

Yes, use Apify Scheduler to run this actor on a cron schedule for continuous monitoring.

How do I export to CRM?

Set exportFormat to salesforce or hubspot for direct CRM import format.

Troubleshooting

Error	Cause	Fix
EXTRACTION_ERROR	Profile is private or not found	Check if profile exists and is public
NETWORK_ERROR	Network connectivity issue	Check internet connection, retry with proxy
VALIDATION_ERROR	Invalid input parameters	Review input schema and retry

Known Limitations

• Private accounts: Cannot extract data from private accounts without following
• Rate limiting: Platform may temporarily block repeated requests from same IP
• Data freshness: Extracted data reflects moment of extraction; historical data may be limited
• Proxy requirements: High-security targets may require residential proxy for reliable extraction
• Content limits: Platform-imposed limits on historical post retrieval

Legal

Data Source: YouTube (youtube.com)

Terms of Service: This actor is provided for legitimate data collection purposes only. Users must comply with the target platform's Terms of Service and applicable laws. Red.cars is not responsible for misuse of this tool.

Privacy: All extracted data is processed in accordance with applicable privacy laws. Do not use this tool for unauthorized data collection or privacy-violating activities.

Attribution: When using YouTube data, comply with their attribution requirements and data policies.

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red.cars Intelligence Fleet • apify.com/red.cars