YouTubeTranscript.dev - YouTube Transcript API

Real-time API for extracting YouTube transcripts and captions. Supports 100+ languages, batch processing, timestamped segments, and word-level timing. Proxies to the YouTubeTranscript.dev backend.

Standby Mode Endpoints

This Actor runs in Standby mode — use it like a real-time API. No need to click Start; just send HTTP requests to the Actor hostname.

Endpoint	Method	Description
/	GET	Health check. Returns service status.
/transcribe	POST	Transcribe a single YouTube video
/batch	POST	Transcribe multiple videos (batch)
/batch/{batch_id}	GET	Poll batch status (when POST /batch returns processing)

Authentication

Include your Apify API token in one of two ways:

1. Query parameter: ?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN
2. Authorization header (recommended): Authorization: Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN

Request Examples

Single video (cURL)

curl -X POST "https://YOUR_ACTOR.apify.actor/transcribe?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"video":"dQw4w9WgXcQ","language":"en"}'

Single video (JavaScript)

const response = await fetch('https://YOUR_ACTOR.apify.actor/transcribe', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'Authorization': `Bearer ${process.env.APIFY_TOKEN}`,
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    video: 'dQw4w9WgXcQ',
    language: 'en',
    format: { timestamp: true },
  }),
});
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data.data.transcript.text);

Single video (Python)

import requests

response = requests.post(
    'https://YOUR_ACTOR.apify.actor/transcribe',
    headers={
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
        'Authorization': f'Bearer {os.environ["APIFY_TOKEN"]}',
    },
    json={'video': 'dQw4w9WgXcQ', 'language': 'en'},
)
data = response.json()
print(data['data']['transcript']['text'])

Batch (cURL)

curl -X POST "https://YOUR_ACTOR.apify.actor/batch?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"video_ids":["dQw4w9WgXcQ","jNQXAC9IVRw"],"language":"en"}'

When POST /batch returns status: "processing", poll until completed:

$curl -X GET "https://YOUR_ACTOR.apify.actor/batch/BATCH_ID?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN"

Request Body

POST /transcribe

Field	Type	Required	Description
video	string	Yes	YouTube URL or 11-character video ID
language	string	No	Preferred language code (e.g. en, es). Default: en
source	string	No	auto (auto-generated) or manual (creator-provided). Default: auto
format	object	No	{ timestamp: true, paragraphs: true, words: true }

POST /batch

Field	Type	Required	Description
video_ids	array	Yes	Array of video URLs or IDs (max 100)
language	string	No	Preferred language code
source	string	No	auto or manual
format	object	No	Output format options

Response

Successful responses return JSON with:

• request_id / batch_id — Request identifier
• status — completed, partial, processing, or failed (for batch: poll GET /batch/{batch_id} when processing)
• data — Transcript with text, language, source, optional segments, paragraphs, words
• credits_used — Credits consumed

Pricing

This Actor uses pay-per-event pricing on Apify. You are charged per successfully processed transcript. Check the Apify Store for the current event price.

FAQ

Which videos are supported?
Public YouTube videos with captions (manual or auto-generated). Private, unlisted, or age-restricted videos are not supported.

What if a video has no captions?
The API returns 404 with "No captions available for this video." If you run the actor from the Apify UI with input, the run completes and stores that error in the dataset instead of crashing.

Which languages are supported?
All languages available on YouTube (100+). Set the language parameter to any ISO 639-1 code (e.g. en, es, de, ja, ko).

Is ASR (audio transcription) available?
No. This Actor supports captions only. Videos without captions cannot be transcribed.