YouTube Transcript & Subtitles Scraper API

YouTube transcript and subtitles scraper for URLs or plain 11-character video IDs: submit a batch and receive manual or automatic captions by language as VTT, SRT, JSON3, SRV1-3, or TTML files through temporary direct links or supported S3-compatible storage.

Powered by Titan Network via the Titan Apify Gateway · Not affiliated with YouTube or Google.

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What you can download

• This Actor is the Gateway version of the old youtube-subtitles actor: it is fixed to outputType=subtitles and delivers one kind=subtitle file per requested language (["all"] returns every available subtitle) in downloadFiles.
• Shorts & Standard Videos: Fully supports standard YouTube videos, YouTube Shorts, and youtu.be short links.
• Zero Memory Overhead (Ultra-Lightweight): Runs smoothly on Apify's minimal 128MB RAM tier.
• Direct High-Speed Delivery: Pre-signed download links (retained ~24h) — no slow double-transfers.
• Custom Cloud Storage Integration: Pipe outputs into your Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, or DigitalOcean Spaces bucket. Azure is not supported.
• Real-time Progress: Live status via Apify Console (fetching metadata / downloading / processing / uploading).
• Bounded Concurrency + Configurable Timeout: Default 20 concurrent worker units (1-50) and a configurable per-task timeout.

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📋 Input Configuration

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
startUrls	Array of strings	Yes	-	YouTube URLs or plain 11-char video IDs. Duplicates are processed once.
subtitleLanguages	Array of strings	Yes	-	1-10 language codes (e.g. en, zh-Hans) or ["all"] for every available subtitle.
subtitleFormat	String	No	"vtt"	srt, vtt, json3, srv1, srv2, srv3, ttml.
storageType	String	No	"apify"	apify (Titan platform storage / pre-signed links), aws, gcp, digitalocean. Azure is not supported.
s3Bucket	String	External	-	Bucket/container name for aws/gcp/digitalocean.
s3Region	String	No	-	Storage region (us-east-1, auto, nyc3). Required for DigitalOcean.
s3AccessKeyId	String	External	-	Access key ID for external storage.
s3SecretAccessKey	String	External	-	Secret access key for external storage.
maxWaitSec	Integer	No	mode default	Per-task SSE timeout in seconds.
maxConcurrency	Integer	No	20	Bounded concurrency (1-50) for submit + SSE worker units.

Example Input JSON

{
  "startUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"],
  "subtitleLanguages": ["en", "zh-Hans"],
  "subtitleFormat": "vtt"
}

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Use cases

• Collect manual and automatic captions for a batch of authorized YouTube videos, Shorts, or youtu.be links.
• Download requested subtitle languages as VTT, SRT, JSON3, SRV1-3, or TTML files.
• Request all available subtitles for each completed video.
• Deliver subtitle files to AWS, GCP, or DigitalOcean-compatible storage.
• Process language-specific requests with bounded concurrency and a configurable per-task timeout.

FAQ

Can I submit multiple YouTube URLs or video IDs?

Yes. Add URLs or plain 11-character IDs to startUrls; duplicates are processed once.

Where do the subtitles come from?

The Gateway attempts both manual subtitles and automatic captions. Availability depends on the captions available for each video.

Which subtitle formats are available?

Choose VTT, SRT, JSON3, SRV1, SRV2, SRV3, or TTML with subtitleFormat.

How long are direct subtitle links valid?

Titan platform pre-signed links are retained for approximately 24 hours. External storage uses the configured bucket instead.

Related YouTube Actors

• YouTube Video Downloader
• YouTube MP3 Audio Downloader
• YouTube Video Metadata Scraper
• YouTube Transcript & Subtitles Scraper

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💰 Pricing & Monetization (Pay-Per-Event)

• Billing event: subtitles-download-success — charged only when the Gateway returns completed, the requested output files exist, and the Dataset row was written successfully.
• Zero cost on failures, timeouts, cancellations, or missing output files.

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⚖️ Legal & Fair Use Disclaimer

This Actor is designed solely for archiving, offline viewing of authorized content, or educational and fair-use research. Please respect the copyright of creators and YouTube's Terms of Service.