# YouTube Transcript API – Extractor, Generator & Subtitles (`rowfeed/youtube-transcript-api`) Actor

YouTube transcript extractor: the full transcript of any YouTube video (also Shorts and lives) as clean text plus timed segments, with title, language, duration and word count. Bulk up to 1,000 videos. $4 per 1,000 transcripts. Licensed data, no blocked runs.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/rowfeed/youtube-transcript-api.md
- **Developed by:** [Rowfeed](https://apify.com/rowfeed) (community)
- **Categories:** AI, Videos, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $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 API – Extractor, Generator & Subtitles

Get the transcript of any YouTube video as clean text, plus every caption line with its start and end time. Works for normal videos, Shorts and live recordings, one video or up to 1,000 per run.
Use it to summarize videos with AI, build RAG and training data, repurpose videos into blog posts, research competitors' content, or download YouTube subtitles in bulk.
The data comes through a licensed data provider (DataForSEO), not by scraping YouTube from a browser, so runs do not fail on captchas or blocks.

### What you get

- **Full transcript text** in one field, ready for ChatGPT, Claude or any AI tool.
- **Timed segments** (optional): every caption line with start and end in seconds, for subtitles, quotes and chapters.
- **Video title, language, length and word count.**
- **Bulk:** paste links in any format (watch, youtu.be, Shorts, live, embed) or bare video ids. Duplicates are looked up once.

The transcript is the one YouTube shows for the video (the uploader's captions or YouTube's automatic captions), in the video's language.

### Example output

A real row for a TED talk (segments shortened):

```json
{
  "type": "transcript",
  "video_id": "8jPQjjsBbIc",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jPQjjsBbIc",
  "title": "How to stay calm when you know you'll be stressed | Daniel Levitin | TED",
  "language": "en",
  "segments_count": 260,
  "duration_seconds": 739,
  "word_count": 2232,
  "text": "A few years ago, I broke into my own house. I had just driven home, it was around midnight in the dead of Montreal winter ...",
  "segments": [
    {"start": 13.24, "end": 15.8, "text": "A few years ago, I broke into my own house."},
    {"start": 16.88, "end": 18.1, "text": "I had just driven home,"}
  ],
  "checked_at": "2026-10-22T17:27:28+00:00"
}
```

### Input

| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| `videos` | Video links or ids. Up to 1,000 per run. |
| `includeTimestamps` | Also return the timed caption lines (default on). Off = full text only. |

### Pricing

Pay per event, no subscription:

- **$4 per 1,000 transcripts** ($0.004 per video with a transcript).
- $0.0025 for a real video that has no transcript on YouTube (the lookup still had to be made).
- Links that are not YouTube videos are never charged.
- $0.001 per run start.

Example: transcripts of 100 videos cost about $0.40.
You can cap the cost of a run with the maximum charge setting; the Actor only looks up the videos the budget covers.
Live lookups need a paid Apify plan (any plan); the pre-filled example works on the free plan.

### Good to know

- Transcripts usually arrive within a minute, also for big batches (they are fetched in parallel).
- Private, removed and age-restricted videos, and videos without any captions, have no transcript.
- Use it from the API, on a schedule, in n8n/Make/Zapier, or from AI agents through MCP (`rowfeed-seo-mcp`).

### Related tools

- [Google Search Results API](https://apify.com/rowfeed/google-serp-api) – Google results, including video results, for any query.
- [Keyword Research](https://apify.com/rowfeed/keyword-search-volume) – search volume for video topics.

Not affiliated with YouTube or Google.

# Actor input Schema

## `videos` (type: `array`):

Video links (watch, youtu.be, Shorts, live, embed) or 11-character video ids. Up to 1,000 per run.

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

Also return every caption line with its start and end time (seconds). Off = full text only.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "videos": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jPQjjsBbIc",
    "https://youtu.be/jNQXAC9IVRw",
    "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xxxxxxxxxxx"
  ],
  "includeTimestamps": 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 = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("rowfeed/youtube-transcript-api").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 = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("rowfeed/youtube-transcript-api").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 '{}' |
apify call rowfeed/youtube-transcript-api --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

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/D8mgmnCcDZq7n6ZLG/builds/gxFAlvKKEcSgJUuNM/openapi.json