Youtube Transcript Scraper

YouTube Video Transcript Scraper 🎬

YouTube Video Transcript Scraper, your premier YouTube transcript scraper for seamlessly extracting video transcripts, captions, and metadata from any public YouTube video. Perfect for content creators, researchers, marketers, and developers, this tool revolutionizes YouTube data extraction with unmatched speed and reliability.

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Why Choose YouTube Video Transcript Scraper?

Feature	Benefit
✅ Only $5	Most affordable YouTube transcript solution
✅ Multi-Format Support	Works with all YouTube URL types (standard, shorts, shortened)
✅ Smart Proxy Fallback	Automatic proxy rotation to avoid rate limits

🔑 Key Features

• ✅ High Accuracy & Reliability: Engineered for robust performance with 3 retries and intelligent fallback mechanisms.
• 🌐 Universal YouTube Support: Extract transcripts from standard videos, YouTube Shorts, and shortened URLs in a single run.
• 💸 Affordable: Only $5 per run—the most cost-effective YouTube video transcript scraper available.
• 🛡️ Smart Proxy Integration: Automatically switches between no proxy, datacenter, and residential proxies when YouTube blocks requests.
• 🔄 Intelligent Language Detection: Automatically detects available languages and uses fallback transcripts when needed.
• ⚡ Fast & Scalable: Processes videos efficiently with intelligent retry delays to ensure maximum success.
• 📊 Structured Output: Export comprehensive transcript data as JSON with both raw and formatted text output.
• 🔄 Advanced Retry Mechanism: Up to 3 attempts per video per proxy type with exponential backoff for maximum data retrieval success.
• 💾 Real-time Data Saving: Results saved immediately as processed, ensuring no data loss even if interrupted.

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📝 Input

The YouTube transcript scraper accepts a JSON input file (input.json) with the following structure:

{
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  },
  "startUrls": [
    { "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-ORhEE9VVg" },
    { "url": "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ" },
    { "url": "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/abc123def456" }
  ]
}

Key	Type	Description
proxyConfiguration	object	Proxy settings. If useApifyProxy is false, it will automatically default to datacenter (AUTO), then residential proxy as a fallback.
useApifyProxy	boolean	true to enable Apify proxy (recommended to handle YouTube's rate limiting); false for automatic proxy handling.
apifyProxyGroups	array	(Optional, only if useApifyProxy is true) Specify preferred proxy groups, e.g., ["RESIDENTIAL"] or ["AUTO"].
startUrls	array	A list of public YouTube video URLs to extract transcripts from.
url	string	The full YouTube video URL in any supported format (standard, shorts, or shortened URLs).

Supported URL Formats:

• Standard YouTube URLs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID
• Shortened YouTube URLs: https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID
• YouTube Shorts: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VIDEO_ID

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📦 Output

Upon successful execution, the YouTube video transcript scraper will produce JSON objects for each video, containing detailed transcript data and metadata:

[
  {
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-ORhEE9VVg",
    "video_id": "e-ORhEE9VVg",
    "transcript": [
      {
        "text": "Welcome to this comprehensive tutorial",
        "start": 0.0,
        "duration": 3.5
      },
      {
        "text": "Today we'll be covering advanced techniques",
        "start": 3.5,
        "duration": 4.2
      }
    ],
    "transcript_text": "Welcome to this comprehensive tutorial. Today we'll be covering advanced techniques...",
    "transcript_length": 156,
    "error": null
  }
]

Key	Type	Description
url	string	The original YouTube video URL provided.
video_id	string	The extracted YouTube video ID.
transcript	array	An array of transcript objects, each containing text, start time (seconds), and duration for each segment.
transcript_text	string	Formatted transcript as a single readable string for easy consumption.
transcript_length	number	Total number of transcript segments available.
error	string	Error message if processing failed, null if successful.

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🚀 How to Use the YouTube Video Transcript Scraper (via Apify Console)

1. Open Apify Console: Log in at https://console.apify.com and navigate to the Actors tab.
2. Find Your Actor: Search for youtube-video-transcript-scraper and click its card to view details.
3. Configure Input: In the INPUT section, utilize the intuitive built-in form:
   • For Proxy configuration, either enable "Use Apify Proxy" and select preferred groups (e.g., "RESIDENTIAL"), or leave it unchecked for automatic fallback (datacenter (AUTO) → residential).
   • Add one or more YouTube video URLs in any supported format (standard, shorts, or shortened URLs)
4. Run the Actor: Click the Run button located in the top-right corner to initiate the YouTube transcript extraction.
5. Monitor Progress: Observe real-time logs in the Run panel to track extraction status, retries, proxy usage, and language fallbacks.
6. Access Results: Once the run is complete, switch to the OUTPUT tab and open the YouTube Video Transcript Data dataset.
7. Export Data: Filter, preview, and effortlessly export your scraped YouTube transcripts to JSON or CSV format.

That's all it takes! Leverage the user-friendly Apify interface—no coding required—to start extracting YouTube video transcripts in minutes.

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🎯 Advanced Features

Smart Proxy Management

• Intelligent Proxy Selection: Automatically starts with datacenter proxies (AUTO), then residential proxies.
• Automatic Fallback: Seamlessly switches to different proxy types if YouTube blocks requests.
• User-Controlled Proxy Preference: Optionally specify starting proxy type (AUTO or residential).

Smart Language Handling

• Automatic Language Detection: Uses video's default transcript language when available.
• Intelligent Fallback: If default language fails, automatically tries any available transcript language.
• Multi-Language Support: Handles videos with multiple transcript language options seamlessly.

Robust Error Handling

• 3 Retry Attempts per Proxy Type: Each video transcript fetch gets up to 3 extraction attempts with exponential backoff for each proxy method.
• Graceful Degradation: Failed videos don't stop processing of remaining URLs in the batch.
• Real-time Data Persistence: Results for each video are saved immediately to prevent data loss during interruptions.

Intelligent Processing

• Adaptive Delays: Processes videos sequentially with smart delays between retries to respect YouTube's rate limits.
• Format Recognition: Automatically detects and handles all YouTube URL formats without manual configuration.
• Comprehensive Logging: Detailed logs for troubleshooting and monitoring extraction progress and proxy usage.

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💡 Best Use Cases for YouTube Video Transcript Scraper

• Content Analysis: Analyze YouTube trends, educational content, and viral video narratives at scale.
• Accessibility Enhancement: Extract transcripts to make YouTube video content accessible to hearing-impaired audiences.
• SEO & Content Strategy: Use YouTube video transcripts to discover trending keywords and optimize content for search engines.
• Market Research: Gain insights into competitor video strategies, product reviews, and consumer sentiment on YouTube.
• Content Repurposing: Transform video content into blog posts, articles, social media content, or podcast scripts.
• Academic Research: Collect and analyze educational, news, or documentary content from YouTube for research studies.
• Brand Monitoring: Track mentions of your brand, products, or relevant keywords within YouTube video content.
• Translation & Localization: Use extracted transcripts as source material for translating YouTube content into multiple languages.
• Training Data Collection: Gather transcript data for machine learning models, chatbots, or AI training purposes.
• Compliance & Documentation: Create text records of video content for legal, compliance, or archival purposes.

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🔧 Technical Specifications

Supported Video Types

• ✅ Public YouTube videos
• ✅ YouTube Shorts
• ✅ Educational content
• ✅ News and documentary videos
• ✅ Entertainment content
• ✅ Auto-generated captions
• ✅ Manual captions/subtitles

Proxy Support

• ✅ Datacenter proxies (AUTO group - default starting method)
• ✅ Residential proxies (automatic fallback)
• ✅ User-configurable proxy preferences
• ✅ Automatic proxy rotation on failures

Limitations

• ❌ Private or unlisted videos
• ❌ Age-restricted content without proper authentication
• ❌ Videos without any available transcripts/captions
• ❌ Live streams (transcript availability varies)

Performance

• Processing Speed: 1-3 seconds per video (depending on transcript length and proxy usage)
• Batch Size: No limit on number of URLs
• Success Rate: 95%+ for videos with available transcripts
• Data Retention: Immediate saving prevents data loss
• Proxy Resilience: Up to 6 total attempts per video (3 per proxy type)

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🛠️ Support & Feedback

We're committed to providing the best YouTube transcript scraper experience! For any questions, feature requests, or technical support, please reach out:

• 🐞 Report Issues: Open an issue on the repository for bug reports
• 📩 Email Support: Contact us at scrapermindapi@gmail.com
• 💬 Feature Requests: Suggest new features or improvements
• ⭐ Rate & Review: Help others discover this tool by leaving a review

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Get started today with the most affordable and reliable YouTube video transcript scraper on the market!