# YouTube Transcript Scraper-m2 (`seashell_knighthood/yt-transcript-scraper`) Actor Extracts full transcripts from YouTube videos using Crawlee. Provide a video URL or ID. - **URL**: https://apify.com/seashell\_knighthood/yt-transcript-scraper.md - **Developed by:** [Mahir Sutar](https://apify.com/seashell_knighthood) (community) - **Categories:** Agents - **Stats:** 1 total users, 0 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, NaN bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing Pay per usage This Actor is paid per platform usage. The Actor is free to use, and you only pay for the Apify platform usage, which gets cheaper the higher subscription plan you have. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-usage ## 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 Extracts transcripts from YouTube videos using **Crawlee + Playwright**. Works locally and deploys directly to **Apify** with zero changes. ### How it works Three-strategy waterfall — stops at the first success: 1. **ytInitialPlayerResponse** — parses the JS blob YouTube embeds in every page; extracts the caption track URL and fetches it directly (fastest, no UI interaction needed) 2. **Network intercept** — opens the transcript panel and captures the `/api/timedtext` response as it fires 3. **DOM scraping** — reads the rendered transcript panel segments as a last resort No third-party transcript libraries → no proxy issues, no IP blocks from PyPI-style packages. --- ### Local usage #### 1. Install ```bash npm install npx playwright install chromium ## one-time browser download ```` #### 2. Run ```bash ## Full URL YT_VIDEO_URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" npm start ## Short URL YT_VIDEO_URL="https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ" npm start ## Bare video ID YT_VIDEO_ID="dQw4w9WgXcQ" npm start ``` Output is printed to the console **and** saved to `./storage/datasets/default/`. *** ### Apify deployment #### Option A — Apify CLI ```bash npm install -g apify-cli apify login apify push ``` Then run the Actor from the Apify Console with input: ```json { "videoUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" } ``` #### Option B — Apify Console UI 1. Create a new Actor → choose "Empty project" 2. Upload this folder (or connect your GitHub repo) 3. Set the Dockerfile path to `Dockerfile` 4. Build and run *** ### Output schema Each run saves one JSON object to the dataset: ```json { "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ", "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ", "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up", "language": "en", "source": "json3", "segmentCount": 142, "segments": [ { "start": "0:00", "startMs": 0, "duration": "0:03", "durationMs": 3000, "text": "We're no strangers to love" }, ... ], "fullText": "We're no strangers to love ...", "fetchedAt": "2024-01-01T00:00:00.000Z" } ``` *** ### Supported input formats | Format | Example | |---|---| | Full watch URL | `https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ` | | Short URL | `https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ` | | Shorts URL | `https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dQw4w9WgXcQ` | | Embed URL | `https://www.youtube.com/embed/dQw4w9WgXcQ` | | Bare ID | `dQw4w9WgXcQ` | | With timestamp | `https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ?t=42` | *** ### Troubleshooting **No transcript found** — The video may have captions disabled or only auto-generated captions in a non-English language. The scraper prefers English tracks but will fall back to the first available track. **Playwright browser not found** — Run `npx playwright install chromium`. **Rate limiting** — Add a delay between runs or use Apify's built-in proxy pool when deploying. # Actor input Schema ## `videoUrl` (type: `string`): Full YouTube URL (https://youtube.com/watch?v=...) or bare video ID (11 chars) ## Actor input object example ```json { "videoUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" } ``` # 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 = {}; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("seashell_knighthood/yt-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 = {} # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("seashell_knighthood/yt-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 '{}' | apify call seashell_knighthood/yt-transcript-scraper --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=seashell_knighthood/yt-transcript-scraper", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "YouTube Transcript Scraper-m2", "description": "Extracts full transcripts from YouTube videos using Crawlee. Provide a video URL or ID.", "version": "1.0", "x-build-id": "pZgNVENSwdIdgqEJc" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/seashell_knighthood~yt-transcript-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-seashell_knighthood-yt-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/seashell_knighthood~yt-transcript-scraper/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-seashell_knighthood-yt-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/seashell_knighthood~yt-transcript-scraper/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-seashell_knighthood-yt-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", "required": [ "videoUrl" ], "properties": { "videoUrl": { "title": "YouTube Video URL or ID", "type": "string", "description": "Full YouTube URL (https://youtube.com/watch?v=...) or bare video ID (11 chars)" } } }, "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 } } } } } } } } } } ```