# YouTube Transcript Scraper — $0.50/1K (`scrapesignal_labs/youtube-transcript-scraper`) Actor

Export public YouTube captions as clean transcripts and timestamped segments, with language selection and video metadata.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/scrapesignal\_labs/youtube-transcript-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [ScrapeSignal Labs](https://apify.com/scrapesignal_labs) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media, Developer tools, AI
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.50 / 1,000 video 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?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — 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 — $0.50 per 1,000 videos

Export public YouTube caption tracks as clean full transcripts and timestamped segments. Supply video URLs or IDs, rank preferred languages, and receive one structured record per video with an available caption track.

This is useful for search, summarization, retrieval-augmented generation, accessibility workflows, quote discovery, research, and content analysis.

### What you get

- Full normalized transcript
- Timestamped text segments with start and duration values
- Selected language, available languages, and manual/auto-generated status
- Acquisition method used for the successful track
- Video title, channel, and duration
- Per-video success or error coverage in the run's `SUMMARY` record
- Hard video and concurrency limits for predictable runs

### Example input

```json
{
  "videos": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID"
  ],
  "languages": ["en", "es"],
  "preferManual": true,
  "includeTimestamps": true,
  "includeMetadata": true,
  "maxVideos": 25
}
```

### Pricing

The introductory price is **$0.0005 per successfully delivered video transcript** ($0.50 per 1,000), plus a **$0.00005 start event**. Apify platform usage is included. Videos without a usable transcript produce no transcript charge.

### Availability and responsible use

The Actor reads caption tracks publicly exposed by YouTube. Because desktop caption URLs are now frequently proof-of-origin gated, it tries YouTube's Android and iOS player clients before the public watch-page response, and falls back between JSON3 and XML caption formats. It does not bypass authentication, paywalls, or unavailable captions. These undocumented surfaces can change, owners can disable tracks, and automated captions can contain errors. Video, audio, and captions remain the property of their respective rights holders; use outputs only where your purpose and permissions allow it and follow YouTube's terms.

# Actor input Schema

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

YouTube watch, youtu.be, Shorts, or embed URLs, or plain 11-character video IDs.

## `languages` (type: `array`):

Ordered language codes, such as en, es, fr, de, or pt-BR. The first available match wins; otherwise the first public track is used.

## `preferManual` (type: `boolean`):

When both manual and auto-generated tracks match, choose the manual track.

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

Return start and duration values for each caption segment.

## `includeMetadata` (type: `boolean`):

Return title, channel, and duration from the public watch response.

## `maxVideos` (type: `integer`):

A hard output and price ceiling for this run.

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of videos processed at once.

## `timeoutSeconds` (type: `integer`):

Stop waiting for an individual YouTube response after this many seconds.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "videos": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ],
  "languages": [
    "en"
  ],
  "preferManual": true,
  "includeTimestamps": true,
  "includeMetadata": true,
  "maxVideos": 25,
  "maxConcurrency": 3,
  "timeoutSeconds": 25
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `dataset` (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("scrapesignal_labs/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 '<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("scrapesignal_labs/youtube-transcript-scraper").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 scrapesignal_labs/youtube-transcript-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

```

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/iuzNgm5Q3eud6rNTB/builds/ZXBPFJJxKyPfVd8YK/openapi.json