YouTube Channel Transcripts: every video of a channel, one run

Transcripts for the recent videos of a YouTube channel in one run, up to 50 channels: give a handle or channel URL, get one row per video with full transcript text, language, duration and views. Videos without captions cost nothing. Pay per transcript.

Why this scraper

• Only delivered results are charged. Inputs that fail come back as clear error records at no cost.
• One input, whole channel. Give @RickAstleyYT; measured on 15 September 2026 the run returned the five newest videos with full English transcripts (2,100 to 2,400 characters each) at a platform cost of a tenth of a cent for the whole run.
• Videos without captions cost nothing. They are not delivered as rows; instead every row of the channel carries skippedNoCaptions, so you know how many fell outside and why.
• Built from two proven routes. The channel listing and the transcript fetch are the same tested code as youtube-channel-videos and youtube-transcript-bulk, with their test suites carried over (50 tests).

Who this is for

Anyone who needs the spoken content of a channel rather than of a list of videos: research on what a creator says over time, training and search corpora, content audits, competitive monitoring of a channel's messaging. Up to 50 channels per run, up to 200 videos each, newest first.

Who this is not for

• Channels whose videos have no captions. No captions, no transcript: those videos are skipped (not charged) and counted in skippedNoCaptions. This actor does not transcribe audio.
• Full channel history on very large channels. The cap is 200 videos per channel per run, newest first. For a complete back catalogue, run youtube-channel-videos for the list and feed the ids to youtube-transcript-bulk in batches.
• Comments, viewers or any person data. Not delivered.

Input fields

Field	Type	Required or default	What it does
channels	list of text	required	One per row, up to 50: an @handle, a channel id (UC...) or any youtube.com channel URL.
maxVideosPerChannel	number	20	Cost ceiling per channel, newest first. Each delivered transcript is one charged event.
languages	list of text	empty	Language codes in order of preference, for example en, nl, de. Empty takes the video's default track.
preferManualCaptions	true/false	true	On, a human-made track wins over an auto-generated one when both exist.
includeTimestampedSnippets	true/false	false	On, each row also carries the transcript as timed snippets. Off keeps rows small.

Input example

{
    "channels": [
        "@RickAstleyYT"
    ],
    "maxVideosPerChannel": 20,
    "languages": [],
    "preferManualCaptions": true,
    "includeTimestampedSnippets": false
}

Output example

Field	Type	What it holds	Example
channelHandle	text	The channel's @handle, the name in its short link.	@RickAstleyYT
channelId	text	The channel id (UC...), stable where the channel name can change.	UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw
channelName	text	The channel that published the video.	Rick Astley
videoId	text	The eleven-character YouTube id of the video, the key to join other data on.	PXC_PYeB6F8
url	text	The watch page of the video.	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXC_PYeB6F8
title	text	The title as the uploader set it.	Rick Astley - Angels On My Side (Live at The O2, London,...
publishedText	text	How long ago YouTube says it appeared, for example "3 weeks ago"; YouTube gives no exact date here.	3 months ago
viewCount	number	Views as YouTube reports them at the moment of the run.	100966
durationSeconds	number	The length of the video in seconds.	231
language	text	The caption language the transcript was taken from, as a language code.	en
isAutoGenerated	true/false	True when the captions come from YouTube's speech recognition instead of the channel.	True
text	text	The full transcript of the video as one block of text.	Sometimes, I just don't feel like waking up. >> [music] >...
snippets	list	The same transcript in timed pieces, each with its start time in seconds and its text.
skippedNoCaptions	number	How many videos in this input were passed over because they carry no captions at all.	1

{
    "channelHandle": "@RickAstleyYT",
    "channelId": "UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw",
    "channelName": "Rick Astley",
    "videoId": "PXC_PYeB6F8",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXC_PYeB6F8",
    "title": "Rick Astley - Angels On My Side (Live at The O2, London, April 2026)",
    "publishedText": "2 days ago",
    "viewCount": 87548,
    "durationSeconds": 231,
    "language": "en",
    "isAutoGenerated": false,
    "text": "...",
    "skippedNoCaptions": 0,
    "status": "ok"
}

Error codes: INVALID_CHANNEL, CHANNEL_NOT_FOUND (no channel behind the handle or URL), NO_VIDEOS, NO_TRANSCRIPT (no video of the channel has captions), BLOCKED (after retries on fresh exits). None is charged.

Related actors from steadydata

• youtube-transcript-bulk: transcripts for a list of specific videos
• youtube-channel-videos: the video list of the channel, without transcripts
• youtube-channel-details: the channel profile: subscribers, total views, country

Pricing

Pay per event: one transcript-fetched event per delivered result. No charge for inputs that fail, no separate platform-usage surcharge.

Free Apify plan: this actor delivers up to 25 rows per run for accounts on the Apify free plan, and then stops with a message. That limit is set by us, not by Apify. It exists so the actor keeps paying for itself for the people who do pay. Any paid Apify plan runs it at full size, billed per delivered row, with failed rows never charged.

Reviews: if this actor saves you time, a short review on this page is the one thing that helps most. Ratings are what other buyers look at first, and we have no other way to ask.

FAQ

Which videos are included? The newest ones on the channel's Videos tab, up to maxVideosPerChannel. Shorts and live streams follow YouTube's own listing.

Can I choose the transcript language? Yes, languages in order of preference (for example nl, en). With preferManualCaptions on, a human-made track wins over an auto-generated one; isAutoGenerated tells you which one you got.

Why is a video missing? It has no captions in any language, or YouTube blocked that request; the first case is counted in skippedNoCaptions, the second is retried on a fresh exit before the channel is reported as blocked.

Do I get timestamps? Set includeTimestampedSnippets on to add the timed snippets per row; off (the default) keeps rows small.

Is personal data collected? No. Titles, transcripts and view counts of public videos; no commenters, no viewers.

Is personal data collected? No. Public video titles, transcripts and view counts only; no commenters, no viewers.

What happens when the source changes? Sources change from time to time; that is the nature of this work. The actor is monitored daily and fixed fast, and while it is broken you are not charged, because only delivered results cost anything.

Can I call it from my own code, like an API? Yes. Every run is available through the Apify API: start it with one HTTP request, then read the results as JSON, CSV or Excel from the dataset endpoint, or use the official Python and JavaScript clients. The input is the same JSON as in the input example above, so a scheduled script, a Make or Zapier step or an AI agent can call it without any changes.