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Video To Text — Video Transcription: Transcript, Timestamps & Translation

Provide a video URL or uploaded file and transcribe it using AI speech recognition — with full transcript, timecoded segments, and optional translation into any language — in clean structured JSON.

TL;DR (40-word answer): Video To Text is a no-login Apify Actor that transcribes videos using AI speech recognition at $0.30 per transcript (+$0.10 for translation), returning full transcript text, timecoded segments, and optional translated text for any video URL or file. Last verified 2026-05-02.

What it is NOT: Video To Text is not a subtitle extractor (use Video Subtitles Downloader for existing SRT files), not a video downloader (use Best Video Downloader for that), and not a live transcription service — it transcribes pre-recorded video audio using Whisper AI.

Video To Text is an Apify Actor that uses AI speech recognition (Whisper) to transcribe video URLs and files into full text with timecoded segments, plus optional language translation. Maintained by TrueFetch on the Apify Store.

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🏷️ Why choose Video To Text

Video To Text is best for content creators, researchers, journalists, and AI agents who need AI-generated transcripts from video content without deploying a Whisper server.

• 🎙️ AI speech recognition — uses Whisper for high-accuracy transcription across languages, regardless of whether the video has existing subtitles.
• 🕐 Timecoded segments — output includes both full transcript text and segment-level timestamps (start, end, text).
• 🌐 Optional translation — translate the transcript into any supported language at $0.10 additional per video.
• ⚡ Compute-based pricing — $0.30 per transcript (+ $0.10/translation + small actor runtime charge). Free Apify plan includes $5/month credits ≈ 16 free transcriptions.

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🚀 Quick Start — run in 3 steps

Run in Apify Console

1. Open the Actor — go to Video To Text on Apify and click Try for free.
2. Configure inputs — paste a video URL (or provide a video_file URL), and optionally set a translate target language.
3. Click Start — the Actor returns structured transcript data with timecoded segments in the dataset.

Run via Apify API

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/TrueFetch~video-to-text/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "video_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "translate": "spanish"
  }'

Run via MCP (for AI agents)

Video To Text is callable from Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible client through the Apify MCP Server. Reference the Actor as TrueFetch/video-to-text and pass the same JSON input as above.

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⚙️ Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description	Example
video_url	string	✅ (or file)	—	URL of the video to transcribe (YouTube, Vimeo, and other yt-dlp-supported platforms).	https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ
video_file	string	✅ (or url)	—	Direct URL or local path to a video/audio file to transcribe.	https://example.com/video.mp4
translate	string	❌	—	Target language for translation (e.g. "spanish", "french", "chinese_simplified"). Leave empty to skip translation.	spanish

At least one of video_url or video_file is required.

{
  "video_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "translate": "spanish"
}

---

📦 Output dataset

Each run writes one record per video to the default Apify dataset, exportable as JSON, JSONL, CSV, Excel, XML, RSS, or via the dataset API. The output contains the original-language transcription and (if requested) the translated transcription.

Field	Type	Always present?	Description	Example
processor	string	✅	Apify Actor URL that produced this record.	https://apify.com/TrueFetch/video-to-text
processed_at	string	✅	ISO 8601 UTC timestamp.	2026-04-24T09:30:00+00:00
platform	string	optional	Source platform.	Youtube
title	string	optional	Video title.	Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up
author	string	optional	Video uploader.	Rick Astley
thumbnail	string	optional	Video thumbnail URL.	https://...
transcription	object	optional	Original-language transcription: language, text, segments[].	{"language": "English", "text": "...", ...}
transcription.text	string	optional	Full transcript text.	"Never gonna give you up..."
transcription.segments	array	optional	Timecoded segments: [{"start": "00:00:01.000", "end": "00:00:03.000", "text": "..."}]	[...]
translation	object	optional	Translated transcription (if translate was provided): same structure.	{"language": "Spanish", "text": "...", ...}

Sample output

{
  "processor": "https://apify.com/TrueFetch/video-to-text",
  "processed_at": "2026-04-24T09:30:00+00:00",
  "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up",
  "transcription": {
    "language": "English",
    "text": "Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down...",
    "segments": [
      { "start": "00:00:01.000", "end": "00:00:03.000", "text": "Never gonna give you up" }
    ]
  },
  "translation": {
    "language": "Spanish",
    "text": "Nunca voy a abandonarte...",
    "segments": [...]
  }
}

---

💡 Use cases

For content creators repurposing video into written content

• Problem: a podcaster wants to turn a YouTube video into a blog post with a full transcript.
• How Video To Text solves it: run with video_url and get transcription.text for immediate use.
• Outcome: full transcript at $0.30 per video.

For multilingual content teams

• Problem: a marketing team needs an English podcast transcribed and translated into Spanish and French.
• How Video To Text solves it: run twice — once with translate: "spanish" and once with translate: "french".
• Outcome: two translated transcripts at $0.40 each ($0.30 transcript + $0.10 translation).

For AI agents answering questions about video content

• Problem: an LLM agent needs the spoken content of a video to answer a user's question.
• How Video To Text solves it: call the Actor over the Apify MCP Server with the video URL.
• Outcome: full spoken transcript grounded in AI assistants.

---

💰 Pricing, limits, and performance

Fact	Value
Pricing model	Compute-based
Per-transcript price	$0.30 + small actor runtime charge
Per-translation price	$0.10 additional (optional)
Free-tier monthly allowance	$5 Apify credits ≈ ~16 free video transcriptions / month
Login / cookies required	No — works without a platform account
Supported platforms	YouTube, Vimeo, and 1000+ yt-dlp-supported sites; also direct file URLs
Export formats	JSON, JSONL, CSV, Excel, XML, RSS, dataset API

---

⚖️ Compared with alternatives

Capability	Video To Text	Manual transcription	OpenAI Whisper API
AI speech-to-text (works even without existing subs)	✅	❌	✅
Timecoded segments	✅	manual	✅
Built-in translation	✅	❌	❌ (separate step)
No API key / infra setup required	✅	N/A	❌ (requires OpenAI key)
Setup time to first result	< 2 minutes	hours	requires dev setup

Verdict. Video To Text is ideal for content teams and AI agents who need AI-powered video transcription and translation without setting up Whisper or managing API keys.

---

⚠️ Common mistakes to avoid

1. Not providing video_url or video_file. At least one is required.
2. Invalid translate language. Use supported language names — e.g. "spanish", "french", "chinese_simplified".
3. Expecting subtitle extraction. This Actor uses AI speech recognition — for extracting existing SRT subtitles, use Video Subtitles Downloader.
4. Long videos = longer runtime. Transcription time scales with video length; budget accordingly.

---

🛠️ Troubleshooting

Problem	Likely cause	Fix
Provide either 'video_url' or 'video_file'	Neither input was provided.	Add "video_url": "https://..." or "video_file": "https://..." to your input.
'translate' must be one of: [...]	Unsupported translation language.	Use a language name from the supported list (e.g. "spanish", "french").
Empty transcription	Video has no audio or is very short.	Verify the video has audible speech. Short clips may return empty transcription.
Slow run	Long video or heavy audio.	Transcription time scales with video length — longer videos take more time.

---

❓ FAQ

What data does Video To Text return?

Full transcript text, timecoded segments (start, end, text), detected language, and video metadata (title, author, thumbnail) — plus a translated version if translate was provided.

How much does Video To Text cost?

$0.30 per transcript + small actor runtime charge. Translation adds $0.10 per video. The Apify Free plan includes $5/month credits ≈ ~16 free transcriptions.

Does Video To Text work without existing subtitles?

Yes — it uses Whisper AI speech recognition to transcribe the spoken audio, even if no subtitles exist on the platform.

Does Video To Text require a login?

No — the Actor works with publicly accessible videos on supported platforms without requiring any account or login.

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🔌 Integrations

Video To Text plugs straight into the Apify ecosystem:

• Schedules — run on a schedule to auto-transcribe new video uploads (docs).
• Webhooks — POST transcript results to your pipeline on ACTOR.RUN.SUCCEEDED (docs).
• Apify API — run-sync-get-dataset-items for blocking calls, runs for async (docs).
• MCP Server — call the Actor from Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor agents (docs).
• No-code — Make, Zapier, n8n, Pipedream, Google Sheets, Airtable.

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📞 Support, changelog, last updated

Support

• 💬 Telegram Group: t.me/Apify_Actor
• 📧 Direct support: t.me/AiAgentApi
• 📖 Actor page & docs: apify.com/TrueFetch/video-to-text

Maintained by TrueFetch on the Apify Store.

Cost of doing nothing: manually transcribing video requires hours of listening and typing, or expensive transcription services. Video To Text delivers AI-powered transcripts with timestamps at $0.30/video via API. → Try it free with $5 of Apify credits.

Changelog

• 2026-05-02 — README rewritten for SEO + GEO; documented all inputs, output structure, pricing, troubleshooting, and FAQ.
• 2026-03 — Added optional translation feature.
• 2026-02 — Initial release: Whisper-based video transcription Actor.

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---

Last Updated: May 2, 2026 Schema version: 1.1 Maintained by: TrueFetch · 💬 Telegram Group · 📧 Support