YouTube Transcript | No API Key

Extract complete transcripts and subtitles from public YouTube videos. The Actor uses YouTube's public watch pages and caption tracks, so it requires no YouTube API key, paid proxy, or external transcript service.

Use the output for content analysis, accessibility workflows, research, search indexes, summaries, translations, and AI or RAG pipelines. Manual captions are preferred over auto-generated captions when both are available.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
videoUrls	string[]	Required	YouTube watch, Shorts, embed, live, or youtu.be video URLs.
language	string	"en"	Preferred YouTube caption language code. Falls back to the first available track, preferring manual captions.
includeTimestamps	boolean	true	Include timestamped caption segments. Set to false for transcript-only output.

{
  "videoUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ],
  "language": "en",
  "includeTimestamps": true
}

Output

Each video with an available, readable caption track produces one dataset record. Videos without captions are logged and skipped.

{
  "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "videoUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "language": "en",
  "isAutoGenerated": false,
  "segments": [
    {
      "text": "We're no strangers to love",
      "start": 18.64,
      "duration": 3.24
    }
  ],
  "transcriptText": "We're no strangers to love ...",
  "wordCount": 487
}

When includeTimestamps is false, the segments field is omitted. One result pay-per-event charge is emitted for every stored record.

Notes

• Public videos may have no captions or may restrict caption access by region, age, or consent state.
• If the preferred language is unavailable, the Actor returns another available track and reports its actual language code.
• If a web caption URL has expired or returns an empty response, the Actor refreshes it through YouTube's free public player endpoint.
• Requests use a 12-second timeout, two retries with backoff, and process up to five videos concurrently.

How to use YouTube Transcript

1. Open YouTube Transcript on Apify Store and click Try for free.
2. Fill in the input (the form is prefilled with a working example) and click Start.
3. Watch results appear in the Output tab, then download them as JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML, or read them through the API.
4. Optional: save the input as a task and add a schedule to run it automatically, or connect it to your tools with integrations and webhooks.

How much does YouTube Transcript cost?

This Actor uses pay-per-event pricing: you pay only for what it delivers, and platform usage is included.

Event	Price
Result (one dataset item)	$0.008 each ($8.00 per 1,000)

Set Maximum cost per run in the run options to cap your spend; the Actor stops when the limit is reached. Check the Pricing tab for current prices and plan discounts.

Use YouTube Transcript with AI agents (MCP)

Give Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code or any MCP client this Actor as a tool through the hosted Apify MCP server. The agent sees the input fields with descriptions and example values, runs the Actor, and reads the results.

MCP server URL (this Actor only):

https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=technicaldost/youtube-transcript-scraper

Claude Code:

$claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=technicaldost/youtube-transcript-scraper" --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN"

Cursor, VS Code, Claude Desktop and other clients (mcp.json or the client's MCP settings):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=technicaldost/youtube-transcript-scraper",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" }
    }
  }
}

Clients that support sign-in (such as Claude.ai connectors) can use the URL without a token and log in to Apify instead. Get your token in Apify Console → Settings → API & Integrations, or generate a ready config for your client at mcp.apify.com. In the agent the tool is named technicaldost--youtube-transcript-scraper; ask it, for example, to "run YouTube Transcript with {"videoUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"]}".

AI agents without an Apify account can also run and pay for this Actor per request with x402 agentic payments.

Run YouTube Transcript via API

Run the Actor and get its results in one call (replace YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN):

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/technicaldost~youtube-transcript-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"videoUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"]}'

Python (pip install apify-client):

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("technicaldost/youtube-transcript-scraper").call(run_input={"videoUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"]})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

JavaScript / TypeScript (npm install apify-client):

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN' });
const run = await client.actor('technicaldost/youtube-transcript-scraper').call({"videoUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"]});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Long runs: start them with POST /v2/acts/technicaldost~youtube-transcript-scraper/runs and fetch the dataset when the run finishes, or receive a webhook.

Integrations

YouTube Transcript works with Make, Zapier, n8n, LangChain, Google Sheets, Slack, GitHub and webhooks. Schedule runs in Apify Console and send new results straight to your apps, spreadsheets or AI pipelines.

Related Actors

• YouTube Transcript Scraper | $1/1K · SRT & VTT — Extract YouTube transcripts, captions and subtitles in bulk. Language selection, timestamps, SRT/VTT downloads
• YouTube Channel & Video Scraper — Given YouTube channels, return their recent videos with title, views, likes, publish date, thumbnails and desc
• YouTube Comment Analyzer: Content Briefs — Turn YouTube comments into evidence-linked content angles, recurring questions and brief outlines. Analyze exp
• YouTube Comments Scraper — Scrape comments from any YouTube video: text, author, likes, replies, pinned/hearted status. For social listen

FAQ

Can I use YouTube Transcript with AI agents like Claude or ChatGPT?

Yes. Connect the Apify MCP server with ?tools=technicaldost/youtube-transcript-scraper (see above) and the agent can run the Actor and read its results on its own.

Can I call YouTube Transcript from my own code?

Yes. Use the REST API, or the official Python and JavaScript clients shown above. Results are available as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or HTML.

How do I run it on a schedule?

Save your input as a task in Apify Console and add a schedule (for example, daily). Use webhooks or integrations to send each run's results onward.

Is it legal to use this Actor?

It works with publicly available data. Make sure your use complies with the source website's terms and with data protection laws such as GDPR, especially for personal data.

Something doesn't work or I need a feature. What should I do?

Open an issue in the Issues tab on this Actor's page with an example input, and we'll look into it.