# YouTube Transcript Scraper - Fast, Cheap, Any Language (`resolver/youtube-transcript-scraper-fast`) Actor

Get YouTube video transcripts (captions) as clean text plus timestamps, with title, channel, views and available languages. Manual or auto-generated, translate to any language. Only pay for videos that have a transcript.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/resolver/youtube-transcript-scraper-fast.md
- **Developed by:** [Resolver Data](https://apify.com/resolver) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$4.00 / 1,000 transcripts

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

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

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
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.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## 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.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## YouTube Transcript Scraper - Fast, Cheap, Any Language

Get **YouTube transcripts** as clean text plus timestamps. Works for videos, Shorts and live replays with captions.

**You only pay for videos that return a transcript.** Videos without captions are listed with a note and not charged.

### What you get (one row per video)

| Field | Example |
|---|---|
| videoId, url, title, channel, channelId | jNQXAC9IVRw / Me at the zoo / jawed |
| durationSeconds, views, publishDate | 19 / 380000000 / 2005-04-23 |
| language, autoGenerated | en / false |
| text | full transcript as one string |
| segments | \[{start: 1.2, duration: 2.16, text: "All right, so here we are"}] |
| availableLanguages | every caption track on the video |
| description, thumbnail | |
| error | why no transcript was returned, if so |

### Input

- **Video URLs** and/or **video IDs**.
- **Preferred languages** in order, with `any` as fallback.
- Allow or skip **auto-generated** captions; include or skip **timestamps**.

### Use cases

- Feed videos into ChatGPT, Claude or RAG pipelines.
- Summaries, show notes, blog posts and SEO content from videos.
- Research and monitoring of what channels say.

### Pricing

**$4 per 1,000 transcripts** ($0.004 each). No charge for videos without a transcript.

# Actor input Schema

## `videoUrls` (type: `array`):

YouTube video, Shorts or youtu.be links.

## `videoIds` (type: `array`):

Or 11-character video IDs, like jNQXAC9IVRw.

## `languages` (type: `array`):

Transcript languages in order of preference, like en, es, de. Add 'any' to fall back to whatever exists.

## `includeAutoGenerated` (type: `boolean`):

Use YouTube's automatic captions when no manual transcript exists.

## `includeTimestamps` (type: `boolean`):

Add timed segments (start, duration, text) in addition to the full text.

## `useProxy` (type: `boolean`):

Recommended on the Apify platform. YouTube rate-limits datacenter IPs.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "videoUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw"
    }
  ],
  "languages": [
    "en",
    "any"
  ],
  "includeAutoGenerated": true,
  "includeTimestamps": true,
  "useProxy": true
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

No description

# 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 = {
    "videoUrls": [
        {
            "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw"
        }
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("resolver/youtube-transcript-scraper-fast").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 = { "videoUrls": [{ "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw" }] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("resolver/youtube-transcript-scraper-fast").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 '{
  "videoUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw"
    }
  ]
}' |
apify call resolver/youtube-transcript-scraper-fast --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,resolver/youtube-transcript-scraper-fast"
        }
    }
}
```

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/LphLpd3f5wblTWpew/builds/bCdP1N65oKx6NN3J9/openapi.json