# YouTube Transcript Scraper - Subtitles, Captions & Channels (`scrapesage/youtube-transcript-scraper`) Actor Extract YouTube transcripts, subtitles & captions in bulk — from video URLs, entire channels, playlists, or search. Timestamped segments, SRT/VTT, auto + manual captions, translation to 100+ languages, rich video metadata, and monitoring for new uploads. No login, no API key, no browser. - **URL**: https://apify.com/scrapesage/youtube-transcript-scraper.md - **Developed by:** [Scrape Sage](https://apify.com/scrapesage) (community) - **Categories:** Videos, AI, Automation - **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing from $5.00 / 1,000 transcript extracteds 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 ## YouTube Transcript Scraper — Subtitles, Captions & Channel Transcripts in Bulk Extract **YouTube transcripts, subtitles and captions at scale** — with **timestamps, SRT/VTT subtitle files, translation to 100+ languages, and rich video metadata** on every record. Feed it single videos, whole channels, playlists, or search queries and get clean, LLM-ready transcript data back. No login, no cookies, no API key, no browser — fast JSON extraction straight from YouTube's own mobile endpoints. ### Why this YouTube transcript scraper? Most transcript actors return just a wall of text. This one ships the **richest transcript record in the category** — the transcript *and* everything you'd otherwise scrape a separate video-details actor for: | Data | Typical scrapers | This actor | |---|---|---| | Plain-text transcript | ✅ | ✅ | | Timestamped segments (start / dur / end) | partial | ✅ | | Ready-to-save **SRT** and **WebVTT** files | ❌ | ✅ opt-in | | Auto-generated **and** human-written captions | partial | ✅ | | **Translate** the transcript to any language | ❌ | ✅ (YouTube caption translation) | | List of every available caption language | ❌ | ✅ | | Title, channel, views, **likes**, publish date, duration | ❌ | ✅ | | Category, keywords/tags, chapters, thumbnail | ❌ | ✅ | | Expand a **channel / playlist / search** into transcripts | partial | ✅ | | **Monitor mode** — only new videos | ❌ | ✅ | | Videos without captions flagged (not silently dropped) | ❌ | ✅ with reason | ### Use cases - **AI, RAG & LLM pipelines** — turn any channel, playlist, or search into a clean transcript corpus for summarization, semantic search, fine-tuning, or retrieval-augmented generation. Every record is LLM-ready JSON. - **Content repurposing** — pull transcripts to draft blog posts, newsletters, show notes, timestamps/chapters, and social clips from long-form video. - **Subtitle & localization workflows** — export SRT/VTT and use YouTube's own translation to caption or localize videos into 100+ languages. - **Research & analysis** — build datasets of what creators actually *say* — competitor messaging, market research, sentiment, keyword and topic mining across thousands of videos. - **Accessibility** — generate readable transcripts of talks, lectures, and tutorials at scale. - **Monitoring** — track a channel or search and transcribe only the newest uploads on a schedule. ### How to use 1. [Sign up for Apify](https://console.apify.com/sign-up) — the free plan is enough to try this actor. 2. Open the **YouTube Transcript Scraper**, paste video URLs (or a channel, playlist, or search query), and click **Start**. 3. Watch transcripts stream into the dataset table. 4. **Export** as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or RSS — or pull results programmatically via the [Apify API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2). ### Input ```json { "videoUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"], "channelUrls": ["@lexfridman"], "playlistUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4"], "searchQueries": ["ai agents tutorial"], "language": "en", "translateTo": "", "includeSegments": true, "includeSrt": false, "includeVtt": false, "includeVideoMetadata": true, "monitorMode": false, "maxResults": 25, "maxVideosPerSource": 25 } ```` - **videoUrls** — YouTube video URLs or 11-char IDs. Watch, `youtu.be`, Shorts, embed, and live URLs all work. - **channelUrls** — `@handle`, channel URL, or `UC…` ID → expands to the channel's latest videos. - **playlistUrls** — playlist URL or `PL…`/`UU…` ID → expands to the playlist's videos. - **searchQueries** — YouTube search keywords → expands to the top result videos (`searchSort`: relevance / date / views / rating). - **startUrls** — paste any mix of YouTube URLs; each is auto-detected as a video, playlist, channel, or search page. - **language** *(default `en`)* — preferred transcript language (ISO code). Picks a human-written track first, then auto-generated captions. - **fallbackToAutoCaptions** *(default true)* — use auto-generated (ASR) captions when no human track exists in the language. - **fallbackToAnyLanguage** *(default true)* — take the video's original caption track when nothing exists in the preferred language (rather than skipping it). - **translateTo** — optional ISO code to translate the transcript into, using YouTube's own caption translation (100+ languages). - **includeSegments** *(default true)* — include the `segments` array (`{ start, dur, end, text }` in seconds). - **includeSrt / includeVtt** *(default false)* — add ready-to-save `srt` / `vtt` subtitle-file content. - **includeVideoMetadata** *(default true)* — add publish date, category, likes, chapters, keywords, and channel handle (turn off for the fastest possible bulk transcript sweeps). - **monitorMode** *(default false)* — remember delivered videos and emit only new ones on later runs (great with [Schedules](https://docs.apify.com/platform/schedules) on a channel/search). - **maxResults** *(default 25)* — total cap. `0` = no limit (opt-in). - **maxVideosPerSource** *(default 25)* — per channel/playlist/search cap so one source can't crowd out the rest. ### Output One record per video (`type: "transcript"`; videos without captions come back as `type: "video"` with the reason): ```json { "type": "transcript", "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ", "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ", "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Video) (4K Remaster)", "channelTitle": "Rick Astley", "channelHandle": "@RickAstleyYT", "channelId": "UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw", "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw", "publishedDate": "2009-10-24T07:57:33-07:00", "viewCount": 1788562314, "likeCount": 19214235, "lengthSeconds": 213, "durationFormatted": "3:33", "category": "Music", "keywords": ["rick astley", "never gonna give you up", "…"], "chapters": [], "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/hqdefault.jpg", "hasTranscript": true, "language": "en", "languageName": "English", "trackKind": "manual", "isTranslated": false, "availableLanguages": [ { "code": "en", "name": "English", "kind": "manual", "translatable": true }, { "code": "de-DE", "name": "German (Germany)", "kind": "manual", "translatable": true } ], "wordCount": 487, "charCount": 2089, "segmentCount": 61, "transcript": "We're no strangers to love. You know the rules and so do I…", "segments": [ { "start": 18.64, "dur": 3.24, "end": 21.88, "text": "We're no strangers to love" } ], "source": "videoUrl", "scrapedAt": "2026-07-02T12:00:00.000Z" } ``` Turn on `includeSrt` / `includeVtt` to also get `srt` and `vtt` fields with subtitle-file text you can save directly as `.srt` / `.vtt`. ### Automate & schedule Run this actor on autopilot and pull results into your own stack: - **[Apify API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2)** — start runs, fetch datasets, and manage schedules over REST. - **[apify-client for JavaScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/)** and **[apify-client for Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/)** — official SDKs. - **[Schedules](https://docs.apify.com/platform/schedules)** — run it hourly/daily/weekly with `monitorMode` to transcribe only new uploads from a channel or search. - **[Webhooks](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/webhooks)** — trigger downstream actions (feed a RAG index, post to Slack, kick off summarization) the moment a run finishes. ```js import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client'; const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'MY_APIFY_TOKEN' }); const run = await client.actor('scrapesage/youtube-transcript-scraper').call({ channelUrls: ['@lexfridman'], maxResults: 25, includeSrt: true, }); const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems(); console.log(`Got ${items.length} transcripts`); ``` ### Integrate with any app Connect the dataset to 5,000+ apps — no code required: - **[Make](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/make)** — multi-step automation scenarios. - **[Zapier](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/zapier)** — push new transcripts straight into Docs, Notion, or your CMS. - **[Slack](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/slack)** — get notified when a monitored channel posts a new video. - **[Google Drive / Sheets](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/drive)** — auto-export every run to a spreadsheet. - **[Airbyte](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/airbyte)** — pipe results into your data warehouse. - **[GitHub](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/github)** — trigger runs from commits or releases. ### Use with AI assistants (MCP) The output is clean, LLM-ready JSON. You can call this actor from Claude, ChatGPT, or any agent framework through the **[Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp)** — ask your assistant to "get transcripts of the last 20 videos from this channel and summarize the key points" and let it run this scraper for you. ### Agent-ready: autonomous payments (x402 & Skyfire) This actor is **agent-ready** — AI agents can discover it, run it, and **pay for it autonomously**, with no Apify account and no human in the loop. It uses [pay-per-event](https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/publishing/monetize/pay-per-event) pricing and [limited permissions](https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/development/permissions), so it qualifies for Apify's agentic-payment standards: - **[x402](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/x402)** — an open, HTTP-native payment protocol. Agents pay per run in USDC on the Base network directly through the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp) — no account, no API key. - **[Skyfire](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/skyfire)** — agent-to-service payments for fully autonomous AI-agent workflows. Building an AI agent, MCP tool, or autonomous data pipeline? This scraper is ready to plug in and pay as it goes. ### More scrapers from scrapesage Build a complete **video, creator & content pipeline**: - **[YouTube Scraper](https://apify.com/scrapesage/youtube-scraper)** — channels, videos, and creator-contact leads (emails, socials). - **[TikTok Ad Library Scraper](https://apify.com/scrapesage/tiktok-ad-library-scraper)** — TikTok ads and Creative Center intelligence. - **[Twitter (X) Scraper](https://apify.com/scrapesage/twitter-scraper)** — tweets, profiles, and monitoring. - **[Reddit Scraper](https://apify.com/scrapesage/reddit-scraper)** — posts, comments, subreddits, and users. - **[Substack Scraper](https://apify.com/scrapesage/substack-scraper)** — newsletters, posts, and creator leads. - **[Apple Podcasts Scraper](https://apify.com/scrapesage/apple-podcasts-scraper)** — shows, episodes, reviews, and host leads. - **[Google News Scraper](https://apify.com/scrapesage/google-news-scraper)** — articles, sources, and monitoring. - **[Keyword Research Scraper](https://apify.com/scrapesage/keyword-research-scraper)** — Google, YouTube, and Amazon keyword ideas. ### Tips - **Fastest bulk sweeps**: turn `includeVideoMetadata` off — you'll get transcript + core video info from a single request per video (skips the metadata page). - **Auto vs manual captions**: `trackKind` tells you whether a transcript is `manual` (human-written, most accurate) or `auto` (ASR). Keep the fallbacks on so you never miss a video that only has one. - **Translate anything**: set `translateTo` to any ISO code (e.g. `en`, `es`, `ja`) — YouTube translates the source captions on the fly, even for auto-generated tracks. - **Exhaust a channel/playlist**: raise `maxVideosPerSource` (and `maxResults`), or set `maxResults: 0` for no cap. The run self-limits before the platform timeout and reports where it stopped. - **Recurring monitoring**: combine [Schedules](https://docs.apify.com/platform/schedules) with `monitorMode` to transcribe only newly uploaded videos. ### FAQ **Does it work without the YouTube Data API?** Yes. There's no API key, quota, or login. The actor reads YouTube's own public endpoints — the same caption data the site and app use — so there's no 10,000-unit daily quota to worry about. **Manual vs auto-generated captions — which do I get?** Both. It prefers a human-written track in your chosen `language`, then falls back to auto-generated (ASR) captions, then to the video's original language. The `trackKind` field says which one each transcript came from. **Can it translate transcripts?** Yes — set `translateTo` to an ISO language code and YouTube translates the captions into that language (works for 100+ languages, including auto-generated source tracks). **Can I get SRT or VTT subtitle files?** Yes — enable `includeSrt` and/or `includeVtt` and each record gets ready-to-save `srt` / `vtt` text. **A video came back with `hasTranscript: false` — why?** Some videos genuinely have no captions (neither uploaded nor auto-generated), or are private/age-restricted/unavailable. Those are returned as `type: "video"` with a `transcriptUnavailableReason` (e.g. `no_captions`, `age_restricted`, `video_unavailable`) instead of being silently dropped. **Can I export to Google Sheets, CSV, or Excel?** Yes — one click in the dataset view, or automatically on every run via the [Google Drive integration](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/drive). **Is scraping YouTube transcripts legal?** This actor collects publicly available data only. You are responsible for using the data in compliance with applicable laws (including copyright and YouTube's terms). Transcripts are the creator's content — use them accordingly. ### Need help? Open an issue on the actor's **Issues** tab, or visit the [Apify help center](https://help.apify.com/). Feature requests are welcome — this actor is actively maintained. # Actor input Schema ## `videoUrls` (type: `array`): YouTube video URLs or 11-character video IDs. All formats work: watch URLs, youtu.be, Shorts, embeds, live URLs. ## `channelUrls` (type: `array`): Channels to expand into their latest videos — @handle, full URL, or UC… channel ID. Combine with Monitor mode to transcribe only newly uploaded videos on a schedule. ## `playlistUrls` (type: `array`): Playlists to expand into videos (playlist URL or PL…/UU… ID). ## `searchQueries` (type: `array`): YouTube search keywords — each query is expanded into its top result videos. ## `startUrls` (type: `array`): Paste any YouTube URLs — video, Shorts, playlist, channel, or search-results pages are detected automatically. ## `searchSort` (type: `string`): How search-query results are ordered before taking the top videos. ## `language` (type: `string`): ISO language code (en, es, de, fr, pt, hi, ja, ko, zh…). The scraper picks a human-written track in this language first, then auto-generated captions (see fallbacks below). ## `fallbackToAutoCaptions` (type: `boolean`): When no human-written track exists in the preferred language, use YouTube's auto-generated (ASR) captions. ## `fallbackToAnyLanguage` (type: `boolean`): When nothing exists in the preferred language at all, take the video's default/original caption track instead of skipping the video. ## `translateTo` (type: `string`): Optional ISO language code — uses YouTube's own caption translation (100+ languages, e.g. en, es, fr, de, pt, ar, hi, ja). Leave empty for the original language. ## `includeSegments` (type: `boolean`): Include the segments array ({ start, dur, end, text } in seconds) alongside the plain-text transcript. ## `includeSrt` (type: `boolean`): Add an srt field with ready-to-save SubRip subtitles. ## `includeVtt` (type: `boolean`): Add a vtt field with ready-to-save WebVTT subtitles. ## `includeVideoMetadata` (type: `boolean`): Title, channel, views, likes, publish date, duration, category, keywords and chapters on every record (no extra requests — it comes from the same page). ## `monitorMode` (type: `boolean`): Remember every video already delivered and emit only videos not seen in previous runs. Combine with an Apify Schedule on channel/playlist/search inputs to get transcripts of new uploads only — the schedule triggers the runs, monitor mode deduplicates across them. ## `maxResults` (type: `integer`): Stop after this many records in total. 0 = no limit (opt-in; mind the run timeout on huge sweeps). ## `maxVideosPerSource` (type: `integer`): Per-source expansion cap so one huge channel can't crowd out the others. 0 = use the global limit. ## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`): Residential proxies strongly recommended — YouTube limits caption downloads from datacenter IPs. ## Actor input object example ```json { "videoUrls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ", "https://youtu.be/jNQXAC9IVRw", "iG9CE55wbtY" ], "channelUrls": [ "@mkbhd", "https://www.youtube.com/@lexfridman" ], "playlistUrls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMC9KNkIncKtPzgY-5rmhvj7fax8fdxoj" ], "searchQueries": [ "ai agents tutorial" ], "searchSort": "relevance", "language": "en", "fallbackToAutoCaptions": true, "fallbackToAnyLanguage": true, "translateTo": "en", "includeSegments": true, "includeSrt": false, "includeVtt": false, "includeVideoMetadata": true, "monitorMode": false, "maxResults": 25, "maxVideosPerSource": 25, "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": [ "RESIDENTIAL" ] } } ``` # Actor output Schema ## `results` (type: `string`): All scraped records in the default dataset. Transcript rows carry the full text, segments and video metadata; no-caption videos carry metadata plus transcriptUnavailableReason. # 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 '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "videoUrls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ", "https://youtu.be/jNQXAC9IVRw", "iG9CE55wbtY" ], "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": [ "RESIDENTIAL" ] } }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("scrapesage/youtube-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 '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = { "videoUrls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ", "https://youtu.be/jNQXAC9IVRw", "iG9CE55wbtY", ], "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": True, "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"], }, } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("scrapesage/youtube-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 '{ "videoUrls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ", "https://youtu.be/jNQXAC9IVRw", "iG9CE55wbtY" ], "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": [ "RESIDENTIAL" ] } }' | apify call scrapesage/youtube-transcript-scraper --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=scrapesage/youtube-transcript-scraper", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "YouTube Transcript Scraper - Subtitles, Captions & Channels", "description": "Extract YouTube transcripts, subtitles & captions in bulk — from video URLs, entire channels, playlists, or search. Timestamped segments, SRT/VTT, auto + manual captions, translation to 100+ languages, rich video metadata, and monitoring for new uploads. No login, no API key, no browser.", "version": "0.1", "x-build-id": "UMS0wJEiSTLM3ph9j" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/scrapesage~youtube-transcript-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-scrapesage-youtube-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": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/scrapesage~youtube-transcript-scraper/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-scrapesage-youtube-transcript-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$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": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/scrapesage~youtube-transcript-scraper/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-scrapesage-youtube-transcript-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$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": { "videoUrls": { "title": "Video URLs or IDs", "type": "array", "description": "YouTube video URLs or 11-character video IDs. All formats work: watch URLs, youtu.be, Shorts, embeds, live URLs.", "items": { "type": "string" } }, "channelUrls": { "title": "Channel URLs or @handles", "type": "array", "description": "Channels to expand into their latest videos — @handle, full URL, or UC… channel ID. Combine with Monitor mode to transcribe only newly uploaded videos on a schedule.", "items": { "type": "string" } }, "playlistUrls": { "title": "Playlist URLs or IDs", "type": "array", "description": "Playlists to expand into videos (playlist URL or PL…/UU… ID).", "items": { "type": "string" } }, "searchQueries": { "title": "Search queries", "type": "array", "description": "YouTube search keywords — each query is expanded into its top result videos.", "items": { "type": "string" } }, "startUrls": { "title": "Start URLs (auto-detected)", "type": "array", "description": "Paste any YouTube URLs — video, Shorts, playlist, channel, or search-results pages are detected automatically.", "items": { "type": "object", "required": [ "url" ], "properties": { "url": { "type": "string", "title": "URL of a web page", "format": "uri" } } } }, "searchSort": { "title": "Search sort order", "enum": [ "relevance", "date", "views", "rating" ], "type": "string", "description": "How search-query results are ordered before taking the top videos.", "default": "relevance" }, "language": { "title": "Preferred transcript language", "type": "string", "description": "ISO language code (en, es, de, fr, pt, hi, ja, ko, zh…). The scraper picks a human-written track in this language first, then auto-generated captions (see fallbacks below).", "default": "en" }, "fallbackToAutoCaptions": { "title": "Fall back to auto-generated captions", "type": "boolean", "description": "When no human-written track exists in the preferred language, use YouTube's auto-generated (ASR) captions.", "default": true }, "fallbackToAnyLanguage": { "title": "Fall back to any available language", "type": "boolean", "description": "When nothing exists in the preferred language at all, take the video's default/original caption track instead of skipping the video.", "default": true }, "translateTo": { "title": "Translate transcripts to", "type": "string", "description": "Optional ISO language code — uses YouTube's own caption translation (100+ languages, e.g. en, es, fr, de, pt, ar, hi, ja). Leave empty for the original language." }, "includeSegments": { "title": "Include timestamped segments", "type": "boolean", "description": "Include the segments array ({ start, dur, end, text } in seconds) alongside the plain-text transcript.", "default": true }, "includeSrt": { "title": "Include SRT subtitle file content", "type": "boolean", "description": "Add an srt field with ready-to-save SubRip subtitles.", "default": false }, "includeVtt": { "title": "Include WebVTT subtitle file content", "type": "boolean", "description": "Add a vtt field with ready-to-save WebVTT subtitles.", "default": false }, "includeVideoMetadata": { "title": "Include rich video metadata", "type": "boolean", "description": "Title, channel, views, likes, publish date, duration, category, keywords and chapters on every record (no extra requests — it comes from the same page).", "default": true }, "monitorMode": { "title": "Monitor mode (only new videos)", "type": "boolean", "description": "Remember every video already delivered and emit only videos not seen in previous runs. Combine with an Apify Schedule on channel/playlist/search inputs to get transcripts of new uploads only — the schedule triggers the runs, monitor mode deduplicates across them.", "default": false }, "maxResults": { "title": "Max results (total)", "minimum": 0, "type": "integer", "description": "Stop after this many records in total. 0 = no limit (opt-in; mind the run timeout on huge sweeps).", "default": 25 }, "maxVideosPerSource": { "title": "Max videos per channel/playlist/search", "minimum": 0, "type": "integer", "description": "Per-source expansion cap so one huge channel can't crowd out the others. 0 = use the global limit.", "default": 25 }, "proxyConfiguration": { "title": "Proxy configuration", "type": "object", "description": "Residential proxies strongly recommended — YouTube limits caption downloads from datacenter IPs.", "default": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": [ "RESIDENTIAL" ] } } } }, "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 } } } } } } } } } } ```