Instagram Reels Transcript: Reel & Video to Text

What is Instagram Reels Transcript?

Paste public Instagram Reel or video links and get what is said in each reel as text, with timestamps and optional SRT subtitles, plus the reel's creator, caption, views and likes.

Try it now: the example below transcribes a public reel in a few seconds.

What can this Instagram transcript tool do?

• Works on any public reel, with or without captions: the audio itself is transcribed.
• 99+ languages, detected automatically (Whisper large-v3).
• Music-only reels are recognised: they come back marked noSpeech with an empty transcript, and are not charged.
• Pay per audio minute. Most reels are under a minute, so one reel usually costs one minute. Nothing is charged for reels that fail.
• No login, no cookies, no Instagram account.

Because it runs on Apify, you also get:

• Scheduling: collect transcripts of new reels on a regular basis.
• API access: start runs and read results from your own code.
• Integrations: send results to Make, Zapier, n8n, Google Sheets and more.
• Monitoring: get alerted when a run fails or returns less than expected.
• Exports: download results as JSON, CSV or Excel.

What can you provide?

Input	Example
Reel link	https://www.instagram.com/reel/CqlKdduP1p-/
Video post link	https://www.instagram.com/p/POST_ID/
Link copied from the app	https://www.instagram.com/reel/POST_ID/?igsh=...

Paste as many links as you like, one per line. Profiles, stories and highlights are not supported: open the reel and copy its link.

How to get an Instagram transcript

1. Copy the link of each reel (in the app: Share → Copy link).
2. Paste the links into Instagram Reel or video links.
3. Optionally set the language, turn off timestamps, or turn on SRT subtitles.
4. Click Start, then download the results from the Output tab as JSON, CSV or Excel.

How much does an Instagram transcript cost?

You pay for each minute of audio transcribed, rounded to the nearest minute, with a minimum of one minute per reel that contains speech. Most reels are under a minute, so one reel usually costs one minute. The price depends on your Apify Store discount tier:

Store discount tier	Price per audio minute
Free plan	$0.003
Bronze	$0.0027
Silver	$0.0024
Gold and above	$0.0021

At the Bronze price:

Run	Cost
100 reels of under a minute	$0.27
1,000 reels of under a minute	$2.70

Music-only reels and failed reels are free. Set Maximum minutes per video or the run's maximum charge to cap spending.

On the free Apify plan, each run transcribes up to 10 minutes of audio in total: longer audio is cut there and marked "truncated": true. Paid Apify plans have no such limit.

Input example

{
    "urls": [
        "https://www.instagram.com/reel/CqlKdduP1p-/"
    ],
    "includeSegments": true
}

Field	Meaning
urls	Links to public reels, one per line
language	Two-letter language code (optional; detected automatically otherwise)
includeSegments	Add timestamped segments to each result
includeSrt	Add the transcript as SRT subtitles
maxMinutesPerFile	Longer videos are cut at this length

Output example

A real result for the input above, shortened. One dataset item per reel:

{
    "inputUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/CqlKdduP1p-/",
    "status": "ok",
    "platform": "Instagram",
    "postUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/CqlKdduP1p-/",
    "postTitle": "Video by potus46archive",
    "creator": "President Joe Biden Archived",
    "creatorHandle": "potus46archive",
    "caption": "The @NASA Artemis II crewed mission around the Moon will inspire the next generation of explorers...",
    "postedAt": "2023-04-03",
    "likes": 474902,
    "comments": 5135,
    "language": "English",
    "durationSeconds": 90,
    "transcribedMinutes": 1,
    "truncated": false,
    "text": "President Biden? Yes. You're Artemis Team Two. Hey, Artemis Team Two. How are you all doing? Look, I want to thank you for your incredible service...",
    "segments": [{ "start": 0, "end": 5.28, "text": "President Biden?" }]
}

Counts are the public figures at the time of the run. Fields Instagram does not show for a reel (views are often hidden) are left out. Reels that cannot be read produce an item with "status": "error" and an error message saying why.

Use cases

• Content research: read what top creators in your niche say in their reels, and search it.
• Repurposing: turn your own reels into captions, blog posts or newsletters.
• Brand and competitor monitoring: see how products are presented and reviewed.
• Subtitles: get SRT files to repost a reel elsewhere with captions.
• AI workflows: feed transcripts to an LLM for summaries, hooks or trend analysis.

Tips for reliable results

• Paste the link of the reel itself. Profile and hashtag pages are not accepted.
• Run a failed link again later. A platform refusal is usually temporary, and it is not charged.
• Set the language for short clips or noisy audio.

FAQ

Does it need the reel's captions?

No. It listens to the audio, so it works on reels without captions, and in any language.

Can I transcribe a whole profile?

Paste the links of the reels you want. Profile pages are not accepted, so a run never costs more than the reels you chose.

Can I use it from my own code, Make, Zapier or n8n?

Yes. Every Apify Actor has an API and ready-made integrations. See the examples below.

Limits

• All users share one transcription service with an hourly limit. When it is reached, the Actor waits up to 5 minutes, then returns what it has finished, marked "truncated": true and charged only for that part, with a note saying when to try again.
• Public reels only. Private accounts, stories and some age-restricted reels need a login, which this Actor does not use.
• Instagram occasionally refuses a request. The Actor retries once; if it still fails, the reel is reported as an error, not charged, and can be run again later.

Other Actors you may find useful

Actor	What it does
TikTok Transcript	What is said in TikTok videos, with creator and public counts
Audio & Video to Text	Transcribe your own files and public video links
Subtitle Generator	SRT and VTT subtitle files, ready for your editor
Spotify Podcast Transcript	Transcripts of Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Deezer episodes
Meta AI Brand Visibility Tracker	Whether Meta AI recommends your brand

Run it from the API

With cURL:

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/spokentext~instagram-reel-transcript/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "urls": ["https://www.instagram.com/reel/CqlKdduP1p-/"] }'

With Python:

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("spokentext/instagram-reel-transcript").call(run_input={"urls": ["https://www.instagram.com/reel/CqlKdduP1p-/"]})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item.get("creator"), item.get("text", "")[:100])

This Actor is an independent tool. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Instagram or Meta; their names only describe the links it accepts.

Feedback

Something failed or gave a wrong result? Open an issue in the Issues tab of this page, with the error message from your results: every report is read and fixed. If the Actor saved you time, a rating helps others find it.