# YouTube Transcript Scraper - Videos, Playlists & Channels (`tidelark/youtube-transcript-scraper`) Actor

Extract YouTube transcripts/subtitles in any language from videos, Shorts, playlists and entire channels. Plain text, timestamps, SRT and VTT, auto-translation, plus video metadata. You only pay for transcripts actually found.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/tidelark/youtube-transcript-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Tidelark Data](https://apify.com/tidelark) (community)
- **Categories:** Videos, AI, Social media
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$2.00 / 1,000 transcripts

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 Transcript Scraper - Videos, Playlists & Channels

Get YouTube transcripts (subtitles / captions) from **single videos, Shorts, whole playlists and entire channels** in one run. Choose your languages, auto-translate with YouTube's built-in translation, and export as **plain text, timestamped segments, SRT or WebVTT**, together with video metadata. Use it from the Apify Console, the API, Make, Zapier, n8n, LangChain or any AI agent (MCP).

**You only pay for transcripts that are actually found.** Videos without captions are returned with `status: "no_transcript"` and are free.

### Why this YouTube transcript scraper?

- **Channels and playlists, not just videos.** Paste `@channelhandle` or a playlist URL and get transcripts for the latest N videos.
- **Any language + translation.** Set your preferred languages (e.g. `en`, `es`, `de`), fall back to whatever exists, or translate everything into one language.
- **Human captions first.** Creator-uploaded captions are preferred over auto-generated ones when both exist (configurable). Every result says whether it was auto-generated.
- **Every format you need.** Plain text for LLMs and summaries, `{start, duration, text}` segments, `[m:ss]` timestamped text, SRT and VTT subtitle files.
- **Reliable.** Automatic retries with fresh sessions and residential proxy fallback when YouTube rate-limits.
- **Fast and cheap.** Videos are processed in parallel; no browser is used.

### Use cases

- Summarise, translate or repurpose videos with ChatGPT/Claude (RAG, chatbots, newsletters, blog posts)
- Research and competitor analysis across entire channels
- Subtitles (SRT/VTT) for re-uploads, accessibility and localisation
- SEO: mine what top creators talk about in your niche
- Build datasets for NLP and AI training

### Input

| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| `videos` | Video URLs, Shorts URLs, video IDs, playlist URLs, channel URLs or `@handles` |
| `maxVideosPerChannel` | Max videos per playlist/channel (newest first for channels) |
| `languages` | Preferred language codes in order, e.g. `["en", "es"]` |
| `anyLanguageFallback` | Return another language if preferred ones are missing (default: on) |
| `preferManualCaptions` | Prefer human-made over auto-generated captions (default: on) |
| `translateTo` | Auto-translate to this language code (optional) |
| `includeText` / `includeSegments` / `includeTimestampedText` / `includeSrt` / `includeVtt` | Output formats |
| `includeMetadata` | Title, channel, duration, views, keywords, description, thumbnail |

Example:

```json
{
  "videos": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw",
    "@mkbhd",
    "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFgquLnL59alCl_2TQvOiD5Vgm1hCaGSI"
  ],
  "maxVideosPerChannel": 20,
  "languages": ["en"]
}
```

### Output

One item per video (real output, shortened):

```json
{
  "videoId": "jNQXAC9IVRw",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw",
  "title": "Me at the zoo",
  "channelName": "jawed",
  "channelId": "UC4QobU6STFB0P71PMvOGN5A",
  "durationSeconds": 19,
  "viewCount": 443010280,
  "availableLanguages": [
    { "languageCode": "en", "languageName": "English", "isAutoGenerated": false, "isTranslatable": true },
    { "languageCode": "de", "languageName": "German", "isAutoGenerated": false, "isTranslatable": true }
  ],
  "status": "ok",
  "language": "en",
  "isAutoGenerated": false,
  "translatedTo": null,
  "wordCount": 39,
  "segmentCount": 6,
  "text": "All right, so here we are, in front of the elephants the cool thing about these guys is that they have really... really really long trunks and that's cool (baaaaaaaaaaahhh!!) and that's pretty much all there is to say",
  "segments": [
    { "start": 1.2, "duration": 2.16, "text": "All right, so here we are, in front of the elephants" },
    { "start": 5.32, "duration": 2.66, "text": "the cool thing about these guys is that they have really..." }
  ]
}
```

Videos without captions (free, not charged):

```json
{ "videoId": "8c7KOGxeY3w", "status": "no_transcript", "error": "This video has no captions/transcript." }
```

`status` is one of `ok`, `no_transcript`, `unavailable` (private/removed/age-restricted) or `error`.

### Pricing

Pay per transcript: you are charged only for videos where a transcript was returned. Listing playlists/channels and videos without captions are free. Platform usage and proxies are included. You can set a maximum cost per run in the run options.

### FAQ

**Does it work for videos without subtitles?** It returns YouTube's captions (human or auto-generated). Videos where YouTube has no captions at all return `no_transcript` and are not charged.

**Can I get a transcript in a language the video doesn't have?** Yes: set `translateTo` and YouTube's machine translation is used.

**Is it legal?** This Actor only reads publicly available captions and video metadata, without logging in. You are responsible for how you use the content, including copyright.

### Support

Missing a feature or found a bug? Open an issue on the Issues tab - issues are answered quickly.

# Actor input Schema

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

Video URLs, Shorts URLs, video IDs, playlist URLs or channel URLs/handles (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd or @mkbhd). Playlists and channels are expanded into their videos.

## `maxVideosPerChannel` (type: `integer`):

For playlist and channel inputs: how many videos (newest first for channels) to process.

## `languages` (type: `array`):

Language codes in order of preference, e.g. en, es, de, nl, pt-BR.

## `anyLanguageFallback` (type: `boolean`):

If none of the preferred languages exist, return the transcript in whatever language is available.

## `preferManualCaptions` (type: `boolean`):

Prefer captions uploaded by the creator over YouTube's auto-generated ones when both exist.

## `translateTo` (type: `string`):

Language code to auto-translate the transcript into using YouTube's built-in translation, e.g. en, es, de. Leave empty for the original language.

## `includeText` (type: `boolean`):

Full transcript as one plain-text string (ideal for AI/LLM use).

## `includeSegments` (type: `boolean`):

Array of {start, duration, text} segments.

## `includeTimestampedText` (type: `boolean`):

Readable text with \[m:ss] timestamps on every line.

## `includeSrt` (type: `boolean`):

Transcript as an SRT subtitle file string.

## `includeVtt` (type: `boolean`):

Transcript as a WebVTT subtitle file string.

## `includeMetadata` (type: `boolean`):

Title, channel, duration, views, keywords, description and thumbnail.

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

How many videos to process in parallel.

## `maxRetries` (type: `integer`):

Retries with a fresh session/IP when YouTube blocks a request.

## `residentialFallback` (type: `boolean`):

Automatically switch to residential proxies if YouTube keeps blocking. Recommended.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Apify Proxy is recommended.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "videos": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ],
  "maxVideosPerChannel": 50,
  "languages": [
    "en"
  ],
  "anyLanguageFallback": true,
  "preferManualCaptions": true,
  "includeText": true,
  "includeSegments": true,
  "includeTimestampedText": false,
  "includeSrt": false,
  "includeVtt": false,
  "includeMetadata": true,
  "maxConcurrency": 5,
  "maxRetries": 6,
  "residentialFallback": true,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `overview` (type: `string`):

Table of videos with status, language and word count.

## `results` (type: `string`):

Full results incl. transcripts (JSON/CSV/Excel via format parameter).

## `runSummary` (type: `string`):

Counts of transcripts found, videos without captions and errors.

# 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=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
    ],
    "languages": [
        "en"
    ],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("tidelark/youtube-transcript-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 '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "videos": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"],
    "languages": ["en"],
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": True },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("tidelark/youtube-transcript-scraper").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=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ],
  "languages": [
    "en"
  ],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}' |
apify call tidelark/youtube-transcript-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

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/fsOFZVTkXmvaH6IeP/builds/rGG8KddURtmhon44L/openapi.json