# YouTube Video Chapters: chapter titles and timestamps per video (`steadydata/youtube-video-chapters`) Actor

The chapters of YouTube videos, up to 200 videos per run: one row per video with the ordered chapter list (title, start, end, duration, deep link), chapter count, video title, channel and length. Videos without chapters cost nothing. Pay per video.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/steadydata/youtube-video-chapters.md
- **Developed by:** [Steadydata Team](https://apify.com/steadydata) (community)
- **Categories:** Videos, AI, Automation
- **Stats:** 3 total users, 2 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$1.50 / 1,000 chapters fetcheds

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?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
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.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## 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.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## YouTube Video Chapters: chapter titles and timestamps per video

The chapters of YouTube videos, up to 200 videos per run: one row per video with the ordered chapter list (title, start, end, duration, deep link), chapter count, video title, channel and length. Videos without chapters cost nothing. Pay per video.

### Why this scraper

- **Only delivered results are charged.** Inputs that fail come back as clear error
  records at no cost.
- Two light requests per video over YouTube's mobile route, no browser and no transcript parsing: the chapter panel YouTube itself renders is read as data. Measured on MKBHD's Retro Tech video: 8 chapters with exact start times for a tenth of a cent.
- Chapters as structured rows, not a description to parse: every chapter carries its index, title, start, end and duration in seconds and a deep link that opens the video at that point. `chapterTitles` gives the whole outline in one string for a spreadsheet.

### Who this is for

Paste video URLs, youtu.be links or 11-character ids in `videos` (up to 200 per run). Every row carries the video id, title, channel, length, the number of chapters, the ordered `chapters` list (index, title, startSeconds, endSeconds, durationSeconds, url) and `chapterTitles`, the titles joined with a pipe.

### Who this is not for

Only videos whose creator added chapters (timestamps in the description, or YouTube's automatic chapters when the creator allows them) have a chapter list. A video without chapters comes back as one free `NO_CHAPTERS` error row, and in a random set of videos that can be the majority; on ten recent review videos from one large channel on 16-09-2026, only one had chapters, while cooking tutorials nearly always do. Chapters are as the creator wrote them, in the video's own language.

### Input example

```json
{
    "videos": [
        "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifI_fwg55k8"
    ]
}
```

### Output example

- `videoId`
- `url`
- `title`
- `channelName`
- `durationSeconds`
- `chapterCount`
- `chapters`
- `chapterTitles`

Error codes: `INVALID_VIDEO_ID`, `VIDEO_UNAVAILABLE`, `NO_CHAPTERS`, `BLOCKED`.

One delivered row looks like this:

```json
{
  "videoId": "ifI_fwg55k8",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifI_fwg55k8",
  "title": "Retro Tech: Flying Cars",
  "channelName": "Marques Brownlee",
  "durationSeconds": 1161,
  "chapterCount": 8,
  "chapters": [
    {
      "index": 1,
      "title": "Intro",
      "startSeconds": 0,
      "endSeconds": 40,
      "durationSeconds": 40,
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifI_fwg55k8&t=0s"
    },
    {
      "index": 2,
      "title": "Unboxing The Segway",
      "startSeconds": 40,
      "endSeconds": 189,
      "durationSeconds": 149,
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifI_fwg55k8&t=40s"
    },
    {
      "index": 3,
      "title": "Talking Flying Cars",
      "startSeconds": 189,
      "endSeconds": 332,
      "durationSeconds": 143,
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifI_fwg55k8&t=189s"
    },
    {
      "index": 4,
      "title": "Hyperchange’s Galli Russell",
      "startSeconds": 332,
      "endSeconds": 509,
      "durationSeconds": 177,
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifI_fwg55k8&t=332s"
    },
    {
      "index": 5,
      "title": "The Hoverboard",
      "startSeconds": 509,
      "endSeconds": 674,
      "durationSeconds": 165,
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifI_fwg55k8&t=509s"
    },
    {
      "index": 6,
      "title": "Dope Or Nope",
      "startSeconds": 674,
      "endSeconds": 970,
      "durationSeconds": 296,
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifI_fwg55k8&t=674s"
    },
    {
      "index": 7,
      "title": "Omni Hoverboards",
      "startSeconds": 970,
      "endSeconds": 1124,
      "durationSeconds": 154,
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifI_fwg55k8&t=970s"
    },
    {
      "index": 8,
      "title": "Wrap Up",
      "startSeconds": 1124,
      "endSeconds": 1161,
      "durationSeconds": 37,
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifI_fwg55k8&t=1124s"
    }
  ],
  "chapterTitles": "Intro | Unboxing The Segway | Talking Flying Cars | Hyperchange’s Galli Russell | The Hoverboard | Dope Or Nope | Omni Hoverboards | Wrap Up",
  "status": "ok"
}
```

### Related actors from steadydata

- [youtube-transcript-bulk](https://apify.com/steadydata/youtube-transcript-bulk): the transcript text to go with the chapters
- [youtube-video-details](https://apify.com/steadydata/youtube-video-details): full metadata of the same video
- [youtube-channel-videos](https://apify.com/steadydata/youtube-channel-videos): the videos of a channel to feed in

### Pricing

Pay per event: one `chapters-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

**Do I pay for videos without chapters?** No. Only a video with a delivered chapter list is charged.

**Where does the last chapter end?** At the video's length; every other chapter ends where the next one starts.

**Can I combine this with the transcript?** Yes: run the YouTube Transcript actor from the related actors below on the same ids and cut its timestamped snippets by `startSeconds` and `endSeconds`.

**Are automatic chapters included?** When YouTube shows them on the video, yes; they come from the same panel as creator chapters.

**Can I feed a whole channel?** Take the video ids from the YouTube Channel Videos actor and paste them in `videos`.

**Is personal data collected?**
`durationSeconds` is the video's full length from YouTube; chapter times are whole seconds.

**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.

# Changelog

This Actor's version history is a separate document: https://apify.com/steadydata/youtube-video-chapters/changelog.md

# Actor input Schema

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

One per row, up to 200: a video URL, youtu.be link or 11-character video id.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "videos": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifI_fwg55k8"
  ]
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (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 = {
    "videos": [
        "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifI_fwg55k8"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("steadydata/youtube-video-chapters").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 = { "videos": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifI_fwg55k8"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("steadydata/youtube-video-chapters").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 '{
  "videos": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifI_fwg55k8"
  ]
}' |
apify call steadydata/youtube-video-chapters --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

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/4NEaxwXPEb4BkC8zu/builds/2QhxHE8VkWEENS4r3/openapi.json