YouTube Transcript Export

YouTube Transcript Export collects transcripts and subtitles from YouTube videos and turns them into structured text for research, SEO, translation, and AI workflows. Provide YouTube video URLs, choose languages and caption type, run the Actor, and export timed segments, full text, language, and video metadata to JSON, CSV, Excel, or your preferred integration. Use it to index what creators say, audit caption coverage, and automate recurring transcript collection. Pricing starts at $10.00 per 1,000 transcripts.

What can you automate with YouTube Transcript Export?

• Export transcripts at scale — Feed one or many YouTube video URLs and receive one record per video-language pair.
• Choose languages — Request en, a comma-separated list such as en,es,fr, or all available languages.
• Include auto-generated captions — Collect YouTube's automatic captions as well as manually uploaded subtitles.
• Keep timestamps — Each record includes segments with text, startTime, and duration.
• Get a readable full text — Use fullText when you need a single concatenated transcript for search or LLM input.
• Attach video metadata — Export title, channel, duration, publish date, and view count with the transcript.

Who is this scraper for?

Team	Workflow
Content researchers	Reading what creators say without watching every video.
SEO and editorial teams	Mining transcripts for topics and keywords.
Localization teams	Exporting subtitles in several languages for translation.
Data and AI teams	Building text datasets from YouTube captions.

What data can you collect from YouTube?

Data group	Example fields	How it helps
Video identity	videoId, videoUrl, videoTitle, channelName, channelId	Tie the transcript back to the source video.
Video stats	videoDuration, videoPublishedAt, videoViewCount	Filter by length, date, or popularity.
Language	language, languageName, transcriptType	Know whether the caption is manual or automatic.
Transcript	segments, fullText, segmentCount	Use timed segments or a single text block.

A transcript is available only when YouTube has manual subtitles or auto-generated captions for that video and language.

How to use YouTube Transcript Export

1. Open the YouTube Transcript Export on Apify.
2. Add YouTube video URLs to videoUrls.
3. Set language (en, en,es, or all), caption preferences, and an optional maxItems limit.
4. Run the Actor and wait for transcript records to appear in the dataset.
5. Export JSON, CSV, or Excel, or connect the dataset to your workflow.

{
    "videoUrls": [
        "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw"
    ],
    "maxItems": 5,
    "language": "en",
    "includeAutoGenerated": true,
    "preferAutoGenerated": false,
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true,
        "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
    }
}

Example workflow

Export English transcripts for a research list

1. Put the video URLs in videoUrls and set language = en.
2. Keep includeAutoGenerated on so videos without manual captions still return text.
3. Send fullText into a spreadsheet or search index through a webhook.
4. Deduplicate later runs on videoId + language.

Automate and integrate your results

• Schedules — Run weekly for a fixed research list, or trigger on demand when a new video URL is added.
• Webhooks — Push completed transcripts into a database, translation pipeline, or Slack channel.
• Exports and API — Download from the Apify Console or start a run from the API:

curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/scraptivo~youtube-transcript-export/runs?token=YOUR-APIFY-TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "videoUrls": [
      "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw"
    ],
    "maxItems": 5,
    "language": "en",
    "includeAutoGenerated": true,
    "preferAutoGenerated": false,
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true,
        "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
    }
  }'

• Deduplication — The Actor appends results on every run. Use videoId + language as the stable key. One transcript equals one video plus one language.

Input reference

Field	Type	Required	Default	What it controls
videoUrls	Array of strings	Yes	—	YouTube video URLs to export transcripts from.
maxItems	Integer	No	10	Maximum transcripts across all videos (0 = unlimited). One transcript = one video + one language.
language	String	No	en	Comma-separated language codes, or all for every available language.
includeAutoGenerated	Boolean	No	true	Include YouTube's automatically generated captions.
preferAutoGenerated	Boolean	No	false	When both manual and auto captions exist for a language, prefer the auto-generated one.
proxyConfiguration	Proxy object	No	Apify proxy, RESIDENTIAL	Proxy settings. Enable residential proxies if a run is throttled.

What language codes are accepted?

Use ISO language codes such as en, es, fr, or zh-Hans. Separate several codes with commas. Set language to all to export every caption track YouTube exposes for those videos.

Output example

Each dataset item is one transcript:

{
    "videoId": "jNQXAC9IVRw",
    "videoUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw",
    "videoTitle": "Me at the zoo",
    "channelName": "jawed",
    "channelId": "UC4QobU6STFB0P71PMvOGN5A",
    "videoDuration": 19,
    "videoPublishedAt": "2005-04-24",
    "videoViewCount": 403264098,
    "language": "en",
    "languageName": "English",
    "transcriptType": "manual",
    "segments": [
        {
            "text": "All right, so here we are, in front of the elephants",
            "startTime": 1.2,
            "duration": 2.16
        }
    ],
    "fullText": "All right, so here we are, in front of the elephants ...",
    "segmentCount": 6
}

How much does it cost to scrape YouTube transcripts?

The Actor uses pay-per-event pricing plus a small Actor-start event ($0.00005 per start, scaled by memory):

• $10.00 / 1,000 transcripts — one dataset-item event per transcript saved to the default dataset.

A 10-transcript run costs about $0.10; 100 transcripts cost $1.00; 1,000 transcripts cost $10.00. Volume discounts on Apify paid plans reduce the per-1,000 rate (for example $9.70 per 1,000 at the Gold plan). Requesting two languages for one video counts as two transcripts. Compute units consumed are deducted from your Apify plan.

Reliability and responsible use

• Proxy recommendation — The default input uses Apify residential proxies. If a run returns empty results, enable or confirm residential proxies; some videos are also region-restricted or have no captions.
• Missing transcripts — YouTube only provides text when manual subtitles or auto captions exist. Very new videos may have neither.
• Public captions — The Actor collects publicly available transcript and subtitle tracks from the video URLs you provide.
• Responsible use — Only use the data in ways that comply with YouTube's terms and applicable law.

Frequently asked questions

Can I export a YouTube transcript from a video URL?

Yes. videoUrls is required. Paste standard watch URLs such as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw.

Can I schedule YouTube Transcript Export to run automatically?

Yes. Use the Scheduler tab in Apify Console, or start runs from the API when a new video URL is added.

What counts as one result?

One transcript is one video plus one language. English and Spanish from the same video count as two results. Manual and auto captions for the same language are not both returned as two records; the Actor keeps one track per language based on your caption preferences.

Why did a video return no transcript?

The creator may have no captions, auto-generation may not have finished, or the video may be restricted. Enable includeAutoGenerated and confirm the proxy if other videos in the same run succeed.

How do I avoid duplicate records?

The Actor does not deduplicate across runs. Merge on videoId + language. Use maxItems to cap a run.

Do I need a proxy?

Residential proxies are the default and are recommended when YouTube throttles requests. Some videos also require a matching region.

Related Scraptivo automations

• YouTube Channel Scraper — channel and video metadata from YouTube.
• YouTube Comment Scraper — comments from YouTube videos.
• TikTok Profile Scraper — profile and video metadata from TikTok.

Support and custom workflows

Need a different field, source, or delivery workflow? Contact Scraptivo at scraptivo@gmail.com. Include the Actor name, sample URL, required fields, and expected volume so we can assess the request.