# Coursera Transcript Scraper — Lecture Subtitles (`scrapersdelight/coursera-transcript-scraper`) Actor

Extract Coursera lecture transcripts from the course's own subtitle tracks — no login, no ASR. By course slug, returns each open lecture's transcript as text, timestamped segments, and SRT/VTT, in any of 30+ available languages. Gated lectures are flagged, not faked.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/scrapersdelight/coursera-transcript-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Scrapers Delight](https://apify.com/scrapersdelight) (community)
- **Categories:** Videos, AI, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, NaN bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $4.00 / 1,000 per record returneds

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/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js.md):

```bash
npm install apify-client
```

In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.md):

```bash
pip install apify-client
```

In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md):

````bash
# MacOS / Linux
curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash
# Windows
irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex
```bash

In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp.md).

If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).


# README

## 🎓 Coursera Transcript Scraper — Lecture Subtitles (TXT / SRT / VTT)

**Pull the transcript of any open Coursera lecture straight from the course's own subtitle tracks — no login, no AI transcription. Give it a course slug and it returns every available lecture's transcript as clean text, timestamped segments, and ready-to-use SRT/VTT — in any of the 30+ languages Coursera provides. Enrollment-gated lectures are flagged honestly, never faked.**

No speech-to-text compute — it reads Coursera's existing captions, so it's fast and cheap.

---

### What does it do?

For each course slug you provide, it walks Coursera's public catalog API to list the lectures, then fetches each open lecture's subtitle track and returns, per lecture:

- 📝 **Full transcript** (plain text) — always included
- ⏲️ **Timestamped segments** — `{start, end, text}`
- 🎬 **SRT / VTT subtitles** — drop into a video editor or LMS
- 🌍 **Language** + the full list of **available languages** (often 30+)
- 🔒 **needs_auth** flag for enrollment-gated lectures (no fake data)

---

### What data does it extract?

For every lecture:

- 🏷️ `course_slug`, `course_id`, `course_title`
- 🎬 `lecture_id`, `lecture_title`
- 🌍 `language`, `available_languages[]`
- 📄 `transcript`, ⏲️ `segments[]`, `srt`, `vtt`, `segment_count`
- 🔒 `needs_auth`, ✨ `is_new` (monitor), 🕒 `scraped_at`

---

### Who is it for?

- 📚 **Ed-tech & course builders** repurposing lecture content into notes, summaries, and study guides.
- 🤖 **AI / RAG dataset builders** assembling clean, multilingual instructional text.
- 🌍 **Localization teams** pulling subtitles across languages.
- 🧑‍🎓 **Learners & researchers** searching lecture content as text.

---

### How to use it (step by step)

1. Click **Try for free**.
2. Enter one or more **course slugs** (e.g. `machine-learning`) or `/learn/{slug}` URLs.
3. *(Optional)* set a **language** (default `en`) and extra **formats** (`srt`, `vtt`, `segments`).
4. Click **Start**, then open the **Dataset** tab to view/export.
5. *(Optional)* set **monitorMode** + a **Schedule** to capture new lectures as courses update.

#### Quick start

```json
{ "courseSlugs": ["machine-learning"], "language": "en", "transcriptFormats": ["txt", "srt"] }
````

***

### Input

| Field | What it does |
|-------|--------------|
| `courseSlugs` | Coursera course slugs or `/learn/{slug}` URLs |
| `language` | preferred subtitle language (falls back to first available) |
| `transcriptFormats` | `txt` · `segments` · `srt` · `vtt` |
| `maxLecturesPerCourse` | hard cap per course (0 = all) |
| `includeLocked` | also list enrollment-gated lectures (flagged, no transcript) |
| `monitorMode`, `alertOnNewLecture` | recurring new-lecture watcher + alerts |
| `webhookUrl`, `slackWebhookUrl`, `emailRecipients` | alert channels |
| `proxyConfiguration`, `requestConcurrency` | proxy + parallelism |

***

### Output

Each lecture is one dataset record (fields above). Export to **JSON, CSV, Excel, HTML, or RSS**, or fetch via the **Apify API**.

***

### How much does it cost?

Pay-per-event — and with **no transcription compute**, it's cheap:

| Event | What it covers | Suggested price |
|-------|----------------|-----------------|
| `lot-scraped` | each lecture returned | ~$0.003 / lecture |
| `lot-detail-enriched` | each subtitle track fetched | ~$0.003 / lecture |
| `monitor-run-completed` | each scheduled watch run | ~$0.05 / run |
| `new-lot-detected` | each new lecture | ~$0.02 / lecture |
| `alert-delivered` | each Slack/email/webhook push | ~$0.005 / alert |

*(Final per-event prices are set on the actor's pricing page.)*

***

### How does it work without AI transcription?

Coursera publishes a subtitle (`.vtt`) track for each lecture's video, in many languages. This actor uses Coursera's public **onDemand** catalog APIs to find the subtitle URL for each open lecture and parses it — it does **not** run speech-to-text, so there's no GPU/compute cost.

***

### Is it legal to scrape Coursera transcripts?

This actor reads **publicly available** lecture subtitles for **open / audit-accessible** lectures; it cannot access enrollment-gated lectures (those are flagged `needs_auth` with no transcript). The content is instructional material, not personal data. Scraping public data is generally legal, but course content is copyrighted — **you are responsible for your use: review Coursera's Terms of Service and respect the content owners' rights. Don't redistribute copyrighted material.**

***

### FAQ

**Does it work on paid/locked lectures?**
No. Only open / audit-accessible lectures expose a subtitle URL. Locked lectures are reported with `needs_auth=true` and no transcript.

**Which languages?**
Whatever the course provides — often 30+. Set `language`; it falls back to the first available.

**Is there a Whisper/ASR step?**
No — it reads Coursera's own captions, so it's fast and cheap.

**Can I get subtitles?**
Yes — add `srt` and/or `vtt` to `transcriptFormats`.

**How do I export?**
JSON, CSV, Excel, HTML, or RSS from the Dataset tab, or via the Apify API.

***

### Feedback

Want full-course bundling, speaker labels, or another language default? Open an issue on the actor.

# Actor input Schema

## `courseSlugs` (type: `array`):

Coursera courses to transcribe — slugs (e.g. machine-learning) or full https://www.coursera.org/learn/{slug} URLs.

## `language` (type: `string`):

Preferred subtitle language code (e.g. en, es, fr, zh-CN). Falls back to the first available language for the lecture. Many courses offer 30+ languages.

## `transcriptFormats` (type: `array`):

Which transcript representations to include. Plain text is always included.

## `maxLecturesPerCourse` (type: `integer`):

Hard cap on lectures per course (0 = all).

## `includeLocked` (type: `boolean`):

Also emit a row for enrollment-gated lectures (with needs\_auth=true and no transcript) so you can see the full course outline.

## `monitorMode` (type: `boolean`):

Recurring watcher: diff against the prior run's seen lectures (per course set) and output/alert ONLY new lectures. Pair with an Apify Schedule.

## `alertOnNewLecture` (type: `boolean`):

In monitor mode, deliver an alert for each new lecture via the channels below.

## `webhookUrl` (type: `string`):

POST endpoint for new-lecture alert payloads.

## `slackWebhookUrl` (type: `string`):

Slack incoming-webhook URL for formatted cards.

## `emailRecipients` (type: `array`):

Emails for the new-lecture digest (via apify/send-mail).

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Proxy settings. Datacenter rotation is plenty.

## `requestConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

Max parallel lecture fetches.

## `diagnose` (type: `boolean`):

Dev only. Logs the resolved course + first lecture's subtitle languages + parsed cues, then exits.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "courseSlugs": [
    "machine-learning"
  ],
  "language": "en",
  "transcriptFormats": [
    "txt"
  ],
  "maxLecturesPerCourse": 0,
  "includeLocked": false,
  "monitorMode": false,
  "alertOnNewLecture": true,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  },
  "requestConcurrency": 5,
  "diagnose": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `transcripts` (type: `string`):

The dataset of lecture transcripts (one item per lecture).

# 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 = {
    "courseSlugs": [
        "machine-learning"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("scrapersdelight/coursera-transcript-scraper").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 = { "courseSlugs": ["machine-learning"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("scrapersdelight/coursera-transcript-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "courseSlugs": [
    "machine-learning"
  ]
}' |
apify call scrapersdelight/coursera-transcript-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=scrapersdelight/coursera-transcript-scraper",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

```json
{
    "openapi": "3.0.1",
    "info": {
        "title": "Coursera Transcript Scraper — Lecture Subtitles",
        "description": "Extract Coursera lecture transcripts from the course's own subtitle tracks — no login, no ASR. By course slug, returns each open lecture's transcript as text, timestamped segments, and SRT/VTT, in any of 30+ available languages. Gated lectures are flagged, not faked.",
        "version": "0.1",
        "x-build-id": "FlNlo58CeJWIvjWjj"
    },
    "servers": [
        {
            "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2"
        }
    ],
    "paths": {
        "/acts/scrapersdelight~coursera-transcript-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-scrapersdelight-coursera-transcript-scraper",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK"
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/scrapersdelight~coursera-transcript-scraper/runs": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "runs-sync-scrapersdelight-coursera-transcript-scraper",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK",
                        "content": {
                            "application/json": {
                                "schema": {
                                    "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema"
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/scrapersdelight~coursera-transcript-scraper/run-sync": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-scrapersdelight-coursera-transcript-scraper",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK"
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    },
    "components": {
        "schemas": {
            "inputSchema": {
                "type": "object",
                "properties": {
                    "courseSlugs": {
                        "title": "Course slugs / URLs",
                        "type": "array",
                        "description": "Coursera courses to transcribe — slugs (e.g. machine-learning) or full https://www.coursera.org/learn/{slug} URLs.",
                        "items": {
                            "type": "string"
                        }
                    },
                    "language": {
                        "title": "Subtitle language",
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "Preferred subtitle language code (e.g. en, es, fr, zh-CN). Falls back to the first available language for the lecture. Many courses offer 30+ languages.",
                        "default": "en"
                    },
                    "transcriptFormats": {
                        "title": "Transcript formats",
                        "type": "array",
                        "description": "Which transcript representations to include. Plain text is always included.",
                        "items": {
                            "type": "string",
                            "enum": [
                                "txt",
                                "segments",
                                "srt",
                                "vtt"
                            ],
                            "enumTitles": [
                                "Plain text",
                                "Timestamped segments (array)",
                                "SRT subtitles",
                                "VTT subtitles"
                            ]
                        },
                        "default": [
                            "txt"
                        ]
                    },
                    "maxLecturesPerCourse": {
                        "title": "Max lectures per course",
                        "minimum": 0,
                        "type": "integer",
                        "description": "Hard cap on lectures per course (0 = all).",
                        "default": 0
                    },
                    "includeLocked": {
                        "title": "Include locked lectures",
                        "type": "boolean",
                        "description": "Also emit a row for enrollment-gated lectures (with needs_auth=true and no transcript) so you can see the full course outline.",
                        "default": false
                    },
                    "monitorMode": {
                        "title": "Monitor mode (new-lecture watcher)",
                        "type": "boolean",
                        "description": "Recurring watcher: diff against the prior run's seen lectures (per course set) and output/alert ONLY new lectures. Pair with an Apify Schedule.",
                        "default": false
                    },
                    "alertOnNewLecture": {
                        "title": "Alert on new lectures",
                        "type": "boolean",
                        "description": "In monitor mode, deliver an alert for each new lecture via the channels below.",
                        "default": true
                    },
                    "webhookUrl": {
                        "title": "Webhook URL",
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "POST endpoint for new-lecture alert payloads."
                    },
                    "slackWebhookUrl": {
                        "title": "Slack webhook URL",
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "Slack incoming-webhook URL for formatted cards."
                    },
                    "emailRecipients": {
                        "title": "Email recipients",
                        "type": "array",
                        "description": "Emails for the new-lecture digest (via apify/send-mail).",
                        "items": {
                            "type": "string"
                        }
                    },
                    "proxyConfiguration": {
                        "title": "Proxy",
                        "type": "object",
                        "description": "Proxy settings. Datacenter rotation is plenty.",
                        "default": {
                            "useApifyProxy": true
                        }
                    },
                    "requestConcurrency": {
                        "title": "Request concurrency",
                        "minimum": 1,
                        "maximum": 10,
                        "type": "integer",
                        "description": "Max parallel lecture fetches.",
                        "default": 5
                    },
                    "diagnose": {
                        "title": "Diagnostic mode (dev)",
                        "type": "boolean",
                        "description": "Dev only. Logs the resolved course + first lecture's subtitle languages + parsed cues, then exits.",
                        "default": false
                    }
                }
            },
            "runsResponseSchema": {
                "type": "object",
                "properties": {
                    "data": {
                        "type": "object",
                        "properties": {
                            "id": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "actId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "userId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "startedAt": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "format": "date-time",
                                "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z"
                            },
                            "finishedAt": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "format": "date-time",
                                "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z"
                            },
                            "status": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "example": "READY"
                            },
                            "meta": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "origin": {
                                        "type": "string",
                                        "example": "API"
                                    },
                                    "userAgent": {
                                        "type": "string"
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "stats": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "inputBodyLen": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 2000
                                    },
                                    "rebootCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "restartCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "resurrectCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "computeUnits": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "options": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "build": {
                                        "type": "string",
                                        "example": "latest"
                                    },
                                    "timeoutSecs": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 300
                                    },
                                    "memoryMbytes": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 1024
                                    },
                                    "diskMbytes": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 2048
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "buildId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultKeyValueStoreId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultDatasetId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultRequestQueueId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "buildNumber": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "example": "1.0.0"
                            },
                            "containerUrl": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "usage": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 1
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_SERPS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "usageTotalUsd": {
                                "type": "number",
                                "example": 0.00005
                            },
                            "usageUsd": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "number",
                                        "example": 0.00005
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_SERPS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}
```