YouTube Video Transcript — Bulk Captions with Timestamps

What does YouTube Video Transcript do?

Paste public YouTube video URLs → get one transcript per video with start and end timestamps. The default uses existing manual or auto-generated captions. Paste one link or a list; no YouTube API key is needed.

Input example

{"videos":["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw"]}

Output example

One successful row (shortened illustration based on the original YouTube Transcript Scraper's real caption sample, checked on 2026-10-03):

{
  "success": true,
  "videoUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw",
  "title": "Me at the zoo",
  "language": "en",
  "text": "All right, so here we are ...",
  "segments": [{"start": 1.2, "end": 3.36, "text": "All right, so here we are, in front of the elephants"}],
  "charged": true
}

Pricing

Successful caption transcripts cost $0.002 per video ($2 per 1,000, FREE/BRONZE rate), with no start fee. The optional speech-to-text fallback is off by default and costs $0.006 per started audio minute when it returns a transcript. Larger Apify plans have the same discounts as the original YouTube Transcript Scraper. Failed videos, including videos without captions, are free.

How to use

The input form starts with Video URLs. Three public videos with captions observed in our 2026-10-02 sample are prefilled; caption availability can change. Use Advanced options to change timestamps, output shape, or turn on speech-to-text for a video without captions. A short youtu.be/ID link also works. For channel or playlist monitoring, use the full YouTube Transcript Scraper.

Each video gives one row. With the default settings, successful rows contain videoUrl, title, language, text, segments (start, end, text), and charged. A video with no caption track returns success: false, failureReason: "captions_unavailable", charged: false and an explanation. When speech-to-text is enabled, it is a separate asr-minute event; a successful caption row uses one video event.

Limitations

This Actor reads public videos only. It does not sign in, solve human verification challenges, or use stealth tools. YouTube may block caption requests (its robots.txt disallows the relevant endpoints); when blocked, the Actor reports a free failure row rather than bypassing the block. Respect creators' copyright when using transcripts.

FAQ

Do videos without captions incur a charge? No. With the default settings, they produce a free error row. You can enable the optional speech-to-text fallback for those videos.

Can I use a short YouTube URL? Yes. Paste a youtu.be/ID link in Video URLs.

Can it monitor channels or playlists? Use the full YouTube Transcript Scraper for those inputs.