# YouTube Transcripts & Captions Scraper (Subtitles at Scale) (`thirdwatch/youtube-transcripts-scraper`) Actor Extract transcripts and captions from YouTube videos at scale. Returns full text, per-segment timing, and all available languages (manual + auto-generated). For RAG, sentiment analysis, video summarization, and agent workflows. No API key. - **URL**: https://apify.com/thirdwatch/youtube-transcripts-scraper.md - **Developed by:** [Thirdwatch](https://apify.com/thirdwatch) (community) - **Categories:** AI, Videos, Social media - **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, NaN bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing from $3.50 / 1,000 results This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events. Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event ## 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 Transcripts & Captions Scraper (Subtitles at Scale) > Pull transcripts from any YouTube video — full text plus timestamps, every language track, no API key. Pull **transcripts and closed captions** from any YouTube video, at scale, with no API key. Returns the full transcript text plus timestamped segments, all available caption languages, and whether the captions are **human-written or auto-generated**. Built for **RAG pipelines over video libraries**, **sentiment analysis**, **video summarization**, **accessibility workflows**, and **agentic tools** that read video content. ### What you get A clean, structured transcript record per video. Choose a preferred language or let the actor fall back to whatever's available. Returns both the full joined `transcript_text` (ideal for vector stores) and a `segments` array with per-line timestamps (ideal for subtitle overlays and chapter generation). ### Output fields | Field | Description | |-------|-------------| | `video_id` | 11-character YouTube video ID | | `video_url` | Canonical watch URL | | `language_code` | Actual caption language returned (ISO 639-1) | | `language_name` | Human-readable language name | | `is_auto_generated` | `true` if auto-captions, `false` if human-written | | `auto_translated` | `true` if auto-translated into the requested language | | `available_languages` | Array of `{code, name, is_auto_generated}` for every track on the video | | `transcript_text` | Full transcript joined into one string | | `segments` | Array of `{text, start, duration}` per caption line | | `segment_count` | Number of caption lines | | `total_duration_seconds` | Total covered duration | | `data_source` | Origin tag | | `error` | Error code if captions were not retrievable (see below) | Possible `error` values: `no_captions_available`, `private_video`, `region_locked`, `age_restricted_or_login_required`, `video_unavailable`, `watch_page_unreachable`, `no_player_response`, `transcript_fetch_failed`, `empty_transcript`. ### Example output ```json { "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ", "video_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ", "language_code": "en", "language_name": "English", "is_auto_generated": false, "auto_translated": false, "available_languages": [ {"code": "en", "name": "English", "is_auto_generated": false}, {"code": "es", "name": "Spanish", "is_auto_generated": false}, {"code": "en", "name": "English (auto-generated)", "is_auto_generated": true} ], "transcript_text": "We're no strangers to love You know the rules and so do I ...", "segment_count": 58, "total_duration_seconds": 212.48, "segments": [ {"text": "We're no strangers to love", "start": 18.8, "duration": 7.0}, {"text": "You know the rules and so do I", "start": 25.8, "duration": 3.5}, {"text": "A full commitment's what I'm thinking of", "start": 29.3, "duration": 3.7} ], "data_source": "youtube_timedtext" } ```` #### Example error record (no captions published) ```json { "video_id": "abc123XYZ_0", "video_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abc123XYZ_0", "error": "no_captions_available", "available_languages": [], "data_source": "youtube_timedtext" } ``` ### Input parameters | Parameter | Required | Description | |-----------|----------|-------------| | `videoUrls` | One of | YouTube URLs. Supports `watch?v=`, `youtu.be/`, `shorts/`, `embed/`. | | `videoIds` | One of | Raw 11-character video IDs. Either `videoUrls` or `videoIds` must be provided. | | `languageCode` | No | Preferred caption language. Default `en`. | | `preferManual` | No | Prefer human-written captions over auto-generated. Default `true`. | | `includeTimestamps` | No | Include the `segments` array. Default `true`. Turn off for smaller RAG payloads. | | `includeAutoTranslate` | No | Fall back to YouTube auto-translate if the requested language isn't available. Default `false`. | | `useResidentialProxy` | No | Route through a residential proxy for more reliable access. Default `true`. | | `maxResults` | No | Cap on transcripts returned. Default 5, max 10000. | ### Use cases - **AI engineers (RAG)**: index thousands of talks, lectures, tutorials for semantic search. `transcript_text` drops straight into your vector store. - **Content marketers**: generate written blog posts, newsletters, and social clips from podcast and YouTube content at scale. - **Product & research teams**: run sentiment analysis across competitor channels and track topic drift over time. - **Accessibility & compliance**: build closed-caption corpora in bulk for ADA / WCAG compliance. - **Agent builders**: plug into Claude / GPT / MCP workflows so an agent can "read" a YouTube URL. - **Language learners & translators**: grab multilingual caption tracks side-by-side for study material. - **Video summarization tools**: feed full transcripts into an LLM to generate chapter markers, key takeaways, and tl;drs. ### Limitations - **Not all videos have transcripts** — some uploaders disable captions entirely. You'll get a `no_captions_available` error for these (comedy clips, silent videos, very new uploads). - **Auto-generated transcripts are lower quality** — especially for music, accents, and technical content. Set `preferManual: true` (default) to pick human-written tracks whenever available. - **Age-restricted and private videos are blocked** — they return structured `error` records (`age_restricted_or_login_required`, `private_video`) rather than transcripts. Region-locked videos behave the same way. - YouTube occasionally throttles heavy uninterrupted runs; the actor backs off automatically on rate limits. ### Compared to alternatives - **Apify's pintostudio/youtube-transcript-scraper** — similar scope, slightly higher per-result price on BRONZE, no structured error codes for failed videos. - **youtube-transcript-api (Python library)** — free to run yourself, but you handle the proxy, consent cookie, and retry logic. This actor is a hosted drop-in with built-in reliability. - **Official YouTube Data API** — captions endpoint requires OAuth and channel ownership; not usable for third-party videos. ### Pairs well with - [YouTube Scraper](https://apify.com/thirdwatch/youtube-scraper) — pull video metadata (title, description, views, likes, channel) first, then feed the IDs here for transcripts. - [Google News Scraper](https://apify.com/thirdwatch/google-news-scraper) — enrich news-video transcripts with source articles. - [Reddit Scraper](https://apify.com/thirdwatch/reddit-scraper) — cross-reference discussion threads with the video's transcript. ### FAQ **Does this work on YouTube Shorts?** Yes — `youtube.com/shorts/{id}` URLs work identically to regular videos. **Do I need an API key?** No. The actor uses YouTube's public caption endpoints — no OAuth, no Google Cloud project. **Can I get transcripts for private videos?** No. Private videos return a `private_video` error. Only publicly published videos are supported. **Which languages are supported?** Every language a video has published captions for. Use `languageCode` to pick your preferred track, or enable `includeAutoTranslate` to cross-translate. **What happens if captions are disabled?** You get a structured `error: "no_captions_available"` record with the video ID. Your pipeline can filter, retry, or skip cleanly. **Can I feed this straight into a vector DB?** Yes — the `transcript_text` field is a single joined string designed for RAG ingestion. Turn off `includeTimestamps` to drop the `segments` array and shrink payloads further. *** Built by [Thirdwatch](https://thirdwatch.dev). Questions? Open an issue or reach out on the Apify Store listing. Last verified: 2026-05 # Actor input Schema ## `videoUrls` (type: `array`): List of YouTube video URLs. Supports youtube.com/watch?v=..., youtu.be/..., youtube.com/shorts/..., and youtube.com/embed/... formats. ## `videoIds` (type: `array`): Alternative: pass raw 11-character YouTube video IDs directly. Either videoUrls or videoIds must be provided. ## `languageCode` (type: `string`): Preferred caption language (ISO 639-1, e.g. 'en', 'es', 'fr', 'de', 'ja'). Falls back to the first available track if this language is not published for the video. ## `preferManual` (type: `boolean`): Prefer human-written captions over auto-generated captions when both exist. Manual captions are more accurate. ## `includeTimestamps` (type: `boolean`): Include the segments array with per-line text, start time, and duration. Turn off to return only the joined transcript text (smaller output, ideal for RAG ingestion). ## `includeAutoTranslate` (type: `boolean`): If the preferred language is not directly available, try YouTube's auto-translate from another available track. May reduce accuracy. ## `useResidentialProxy` (type: `boolean`): Route requests through a residential proxy. Recommended on — improves reliability for region-locked and login-required videos. ## `maxResults` (type: `integer`): Maximum number of transcripts to return. Start small; raise once you've verified the output. ## Actor input object example ```json { "videoUrls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" ], "videoIds": [], "languageCode": "en", "preferManual": true, "includeTimestamps": true, "includeAutoTranslate": false, "useResidentialProxy": true, "maxResults": 5 } ``` # 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 '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "videoUrls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" ], "maxResults": 5 }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("thirdwatch/youtube-transcripts-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 = { "videoUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"], "maxResults": 5, } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("thirdwatch/youtube-transcripts-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 '{ "videoUrls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" ], "maxResults": 5 }' | apify call thirdwatch/youtube-transcripts-scraper --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=thirdwatch/youtube-transcripts-scraper", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "YouTube Transcripts & Captions Scraper (Subtitles at Scale)", "description": "Extract transcripts and captions from YouTube videos at scale. Returns full text, per-segment timing, and all available languages (manual + auto-generated). For RAG, sentiment analysis, video summarization, and agent workflows. No API key.", "version": "0.1", "x-build-id": "2A7pdhZ57SiO8kB5K" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/thirdwatch~youtube-transcripts-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-thirdwatch-youtube-transcripts-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": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/thirdwatch~youtube-transcripts-scraper/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-thirdwatch-youtube-transcripts-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$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": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/thirdwatch~youtube-transcripts-scraper/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-thirdwatch-youtube-transcripts-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$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", "properties": { "videoUrls": { "title": "Video URLs", "type": "array", "description": "List of YouTube video URLs. Supports youtube.com/watch?v=..., youtu.be/..., youtube.com/shorts/..., and youtube.com/embed/... formats.", "default": [], "items": { "type": "string" } }, "videoIds": { "title": "Video IDs", "type": "array", "description": "Alternative: pass raw 11-character YouTube video IDs directly. Either videoUrls or videoIds must be provided.", "default": [], "items": { "type": "string" } }, "languageCode": { "title": "Preferred Language Code", "type": "string", "description": "Preferred caption language (ISO 639-1, e.g. 'en', 'es', 'fr', 'de', 'ja'). Falls back to the first available track if this language is not published for the video.", "default": "en" }, "preferManual": { "title": "Prefer Manual Captions", "type": "boolean", "description": "Prefer human-written captions over auto-generated captions when both exist. Manual captions are more accurate.", "default": true }, "includeTimestamps": { "title": "Include Timestamped Segments", "type": "boolean", "description": "Include the segments array with per-line text, start time, and duration. Turn off to return only the joined transcript text (smaller output, ideal for RAG ingestion).", "default": true }, "includeAutoTranslate": { "title": "Include Auto-Translate Fallback", "type": "boolean", "description": "If the preferred language is not directly available, try YouTube's auto-translate from another available track. May reduce accuracy.", "default": false }, "useResidentialProxy": { "title": "Use Residential Proxy", "type": "boolean", "description": "Route requests through a residential proxy. Recommended on — improves reliability for region-locked and login-required videos.", "default": true }, "maxResults": { "title": "Max Results", "minimum": 1, "maximum": 10000, "type": "integer", "description": "Maximum number of transcripts to return. Start small; raise once you've verified the output.", "default": 5 } } }, "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 } } } } } } } } } } ```