YouTube Transcript API: Full Video Captions in JSON

Hosted youtube transcript that returns structured JSON without the captcha-solving, proxy-rotation, and site-update maintenance you'd otherwise own. Run it from the Apify Store with one click, or call it from your own service via the Apify API. Pay only for what you scrape, no monthly subscription.

What you get

• Structured JSON output, every youtube transcript run returns clean, parseable records ready for analytics or downstream pipelines.
• Hosted on Apify, no servers, no proxies, no anti-bot maintenance. Click Run.
• Pay only for what you scrape, pricing scales with usage; no monthly subscription minimum.
• Multi-language support, set the language field to receive native-locale results.

Why use this youtube transcript

Most youtube transcript solutions fall into one of two camps: free open-source libraries that break every few months when the upstream site changes, or expensive SaaS tools that charge $99-$399/month for the data layer plus a dashboard UI you may not need.

This Apify Actor sits in the middle: same structured data the SaaS tools ship, but priced per run instead of per month, with a hosted infrastructure that handles proxies, retries, and captcha solving so you don't have to.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
videoUrls	array	required	List of YouTube video URLs or video IDs (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ or just dQw4w9WgX…
preferred_languages	array	['en']	Language codes in priority order (e.g. en, nl, de). The first available transcript wins; falls back to any …
prefer_manual	boolean	True	If true, manually-created transcripts beat auto-generated even when the language matches both. Auto-generat…
include_segments	boolean	False	If true, include the full segments[] array (start, duration, text). If false, only the joined transcript te…
concurrency	integer	10	Concurrent transcript fetches (1-50). Higher = faster but may hit YouTube rate limits.

Output

Every run pushes results to the Apify dataset as JSON records. Each record contains the structured fields surfaced by the youtube transcript, fields, IDs, timestamps, and any nested objects. You can:

• Download the dataset as JSON, JSONL, CSV, or Excel from the Apify console
• Stream results via the Apify API for use in your own application
• Pipe results to webhooks, S3, BigQuery, or any of Apify's 30+ integrations
• Diff today's run against yesterday's to detect changes (new entries, removed entries, modified fields)

Use cases for the youtube transcript

Competitive monitoring

Run the youtube transcript weekly across your top competitors. Spot meaningful changes before they show up anywhere else.

Lead enrichment

Pipe youtube transcript data into your CRM as part of a nightly enrichment job, every record gets the structured fields your team needs.

Market research

Aggregate youtube transcript data across a category to size demand, identify gaps, and find under-monetized niches.

Operational reporting

Schedule the youtube transcript as a recurring Apify task. Pipe results to your warehouse and surface in your existing dashboards.

How it compares

Search for a YouTube transcript tool and you land on open-source libraries, hosted API services, and copy-paste web pages. Here is how this Actor lines up against the ones that show up most.

	This Actor	jdepoix/youtube-transcript-api (open source)	transcriptapi.com	youtube-transcript.io
Hosted, no code or servers to run	Yes	No, you run and maintain it	Yes	Yes
Handles proxies and blocks for you	Yes	No, you supply your own proxies	Yes	Yes
Structured JSON output	Yes	Yes, in your own code	Yes	Manual copy from the page
Batch many videos in one run	Yes	Only if you script it	Yes	One video at a time
Signup or API key needed	No, run from Apify	No, but self-hosted	Account and API key	No, free web tool
Billing	Pay per run, no subscription	Free, self-run	Subscription plan	Free web tool

FAQ

Is this youtube transcript free?

The Actor itself is hosted on Apify with pay-per-event pricing, you only pay for what you actually scrape. There's no monthly subscription and no minimum spend. The first few runs typically cost less than a coffee. For long-running daily jobs, your monthly bill scales with the volume of data you pull.

How does this youtube transcript compare to existing tools?

Most off-the-shelf youtube transcript alternatives are either fragile open-source scripts that break every few months, or expensive SaaS subscriptions starting at $99-$399/month. This Actor sits in between: hosted infrastructure that handles proxy rotation and retries, but priced per run.

What input does the youtube transcript accept?

The full input schema is rendered as a form on the Apify Store page, you can run a job by filling out a few fields with no code. The schema also accepts raw JSON if you're calling the Actor via the Apify API from your own service. See the Input section above for the field list.

How accurate is the youtube transcript data?

The Actor scrapes data directly from the source, so accuracy matches what a human user would see on the page. There's no third-party cache or middleware, every run returns the live state. If the upstream site throttles requests, the Actor handles retries and proxy rotation transparently and surfaces a structured error in the dataset's errors field rather than failing silently.

Can I run this youtube transcript on a schedule?

Yes, Apify has built-in scheduling. You can set the Actor to run hourly, daily, or weekly, and pipe results to webhooks, S3, or your data warehouse via the Apify integrations. Most teams schedule the youtube transcript as a daily task and incrementally diff against the previous run to detect changes.

Pricing

This youtube transcript uses Apify's pay-per-event pricing, every successful record costs a small fixed amount, so your bill scales linearly with usage. There's no monthly subscription and no minimum spend. See the Apify Store page for the current per-event price; expect typical workloads to cost a few dollars per run.