YouTube Transcript Scraper | Extract Captions & Subtitles

Extract accurate transcripts from any YouTube video in seconds. Supports auto-generated captions, manual subtitles, timestamps, and outputs in both JSON and plain text formats.

⭐ 5.0 Rating | 👥 129 Users | ⚡ Fast & Reliable

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What Data Can You Extract?

Field	Description
videoUrl	Source YouTube video URL
title	Video title
transcript	Full transcript text
timestamp	Timestamp for each segment
language	Caption language

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Why Extract YouTube Transcripts?

• ✍️ Content Repurposing — Turn videos into blogs, articles & social posts
• 🔍 SEO — Create searchable, indexable content from video
• 🧠 AI & NLP — Feed transcripts into LLMs, sentiment analysis & summarization
• 📚 Research — Analyse speech patterns, topics & trends at scale
• ♿ Accessibility — Generate readable transcripts for hearing-impaired users
• 🎓 Education — Collect lecture & tutorial transcripts for study

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How to Use Carefully

1. Single Video

{
  "videoUrl": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"]
}

2. Multiple Videos

{
  "videoUrl": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzEbj3w8bDY"
  ]
}

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Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description	Default
videoUrl	Array	YouTube video URL(s)	Required
includeTimestamps	Boolean	Include timestamps in output	true

⚠️ The video must have captions enabled (auto-generated or manual).

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Output Example

JSON:

{
  "videoUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "title": "Never Gonna Give You Up",
  "transcript": [
    { "timestamp": "0:00", "text": "We're no strangers to love" },
    { "timestamp": "0:05", "text": "You know the rules and so do I" },
    { "timestamp": "0:10", "text": "A full commitment's what I'm thinking of" }
  ]
}

Plain Text:

We're no strangers to love
You know the rules and so do I
A full commitment's what I'm thinking of

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Supported Video Types

✅ Regular YouTube videos
✅ Auto-generated captions
✅ Manually uploaded subtitles
✅ Multiple languages
❌ Live streams (no transcript available)
❌ Private or age-restricted videos

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FAQ

Can I scrape multiple videos at once?
Yes — pass multiple URLs in the videoUrl array.

What languages are supported?
Any language that YouTube provides captions for.

What if the transcript is empty?
The video likely has no captions enabled. Try another video or check if captions are available on YouTube directly.

Can I use the output with ChatGPT or other AI tools?
Yes — the plain text and JSON outputs are ready to feed directly into any AI or NLP pipeline.

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Troubleshooting

Issue	Cause	Solution
Transcript not found	No captions available	Try a different video
Invalid URL	Incorrect format	Use full YouTube URL
Empty transcript	YouTube restricted access	Try another region

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Need Help?

Open an issue on the Apify platform — we respond within 24 hours. ⚡