# YouTube Transcript Extractor — AI-Ready Subtitles (`wsgcjj/youtube-transcript`) Actor Extracts subtitles/transcripts from YouTube videos. Input a video URL or ID, get clean text output with metadata. Ideal for AI training data collection, content analysis, and LLM training pipelines. - **URL**: https://apify.com/wsgcjj/youtube-transcript.md - **Developed by:** [陈俊杰](https://apify.com/wsgcjj) (community) - **Categories:** AI, Developer tools - **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 0.0% runs succeeded, NaN bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing Pay per usage This Actor is paid per platform usage. The Actor is free to use, and you only pay for the Apify platform usage, which gets cheaper the higher subscription plan you have. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-usage ## What's an Apify Actor? Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases. In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours, and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store. In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server. Actors are written with capital "A". ## How to integrate an Actor? If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects. You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready. The best way to integrate Actors is as follows. In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js.md): ```bash npm install apify-client ``` In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.md): ```bash pip install apify-client ``` In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): ````bash # MacOS / Linux curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash # Windows irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex ```bash In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp.md). If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md). For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below. For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt). # README ## YouTube Transcript Extractor — AI-Ready Subtitles Extract clean subtitle/transcript text from any YouTube video with subtitles. Designed for **AI training data pipelines, content analysis, and LLM training**. ### Features - 🎯 Input a YouTube **URL** or bare **video ID** - 🌐 Supports **manual** and **auto-generated** captions - 🌍 Multi-language — specify any ISO 639-1 language code (default: `en`) - ⏱ Optional `[MM:SS]` timestamps in output - 🧹 Clean, join-transcript format - 📊 Rich metadata: video_id, duration, word count, language - 🛡️ Robust error handling with descriptive error messages ### Input | Field | Type | Required | Default | Description | |-------|------|----------|---------|-------------| | `video_url` | string | ✅ | — | YouTube URL (any format) or bare video ID | | `language` | string | ❌ | `en` | ISO 639-1 language code | | `include_timestamps` | bool | ❌ | `false` | Add `[MM:SS]` before each subtitle line | ### Output (one item per run) | Field | Type | Description | |-------|------|-------------| | `video_id` | string | 11-char YouTube video ID | | `title` | string | Video title (if retrievable) | | `duration` | int | Approximate duration in seconds | | `language` | string | Language code of the transcript | | `transcript_type` | string | `"manual"` or `"auto-generated"` | | `transcript` | string | Full clean text of the subtitles | | `word_count` | int | Word count of the transcript | | `url` | string | Full YouTube URL | ### Supported URL formats - `https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID` - `https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID` - `https://www.youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID` - `https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VIDEO_ID` - Bare `VIDEO_ID` (11 characters) ### Use Cases - **AI/LLM Training Data** — collect natural language text from millions of YouTube videos - **Content Analysis** — analyze video content at scale for SEO, research, or moderation - **Accessibility** — extract captions for further processing or translation - **Dataset Building** — build large text corpora from video subtitles --- Built with [youtube_transcript_api](https://github.com/jdepoix/youtube-transcript-api) ❤️ # Actor input Schema ## `video_url` (type: `string`): Full YouTube video URL (e.g., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ) or bare video ID (e.g., dQw4w9WgXcQ). ## `language` (type: `string`): ISO 639-1 language code for the transcript (e.g., 'en', 'zh', 'es'). Falls back to auto-generated if manual not available. ## `include_timestamps` (type: `boolean`): Whether to include [MM:SS] timestamps in the transcript output. ## Actor input object example ```json { "video_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=", "language": "en", "include_timestamps": false } ```` # Actor output Schema ## `video_id` (type: `string`): The extracted 11-character YouTube video identifier. ## `title` (type: `string`): Title of the YouTube video (may be empty if unobtainable). ## `duration` (type: `string`): Total duration of the video in seconds, derived from transcript timestamps. ## `language` (type: `string`): ISO 639-1 language code of the extracted transcript. ## `transcript_type` (type: `string`): Whether the transcript was manually created or auto-generated by YouTube (values: manual or auto-generated). ## `transcript` (type: `string`): The full transcript text. Includes \[MM:SS] timestamps if requested. ## `word_count` (type: `string`): Number of words in the transcript text. ## `url` (type: `string`): Full YouTube URL pointing to the video. # API You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup. ## JavaScript example ```javascript import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client'; // Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token // Replace the '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "video_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=", "language": "en" }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("wsgcjj/youtube-transcript").call(input); // Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any) console.log('Results from dataset'); console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`); const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems(); items.forEach((item) => { console.dir(item); }); // 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs ``` ## Python example ```python from apify_client import ApifyClient # Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token # Replace '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = { "video_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=", "language": "en", } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("wsgcjj/youtube-transcript").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"]) for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items(): print(item) # 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start ``` ## CLI example ```bash echo '{ "video_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=", "language": "en" }' | apify call wsgcjj/youtube-transcript --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=wsgcjj/youtube-transcript", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "YouTube Transcript Extractor — AI-Ready Subtitles", "description": "Extracts subtitles/transcripts from YouTube videos. Input a video URL or ID, get clean text output with metadata. Ideal for AI training data collection, content analysis, and LLM training pipelines.", "version": "0.0", "x-build-id": "3dm1Ta7fifJGpICNT" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/wsgcjj~youtube-transcript/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-wsgcjj-youtube-transcript", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/wsgcjj~youtube-transcript/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-wsgcjj-youtube-transcript", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK", "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/wsgcjj~youtube-transcript/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-wsgcjj-youtube-transcript", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } } }, "components": { "schemas": { "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "required": [ "video_url" ], "properties": { "video_url": { "title": "YouTube Video URL or ID", "type": "string", "description": "Full YouTube video URL (e.g., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ) or bare video ID (e.g., dQw4w9WgXcQ)." }, "language": { "title": "Language code", "type": "string", "description": "ISO 639-1 language code for the transcript (e.g., 'en', 'zh', 'es'). Falls back to auto-generated if manual not available.", "default": "en" }, "include_timestamps": { "title": "Include timestamps", "type": "boolean", "description": "Whether to include [MM:SS] timestamps in the transcript output.", "default": false } } }, "runsResponseSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "data": { "type": "object", "properties": { "id": { "type": "string" }, "actId": { "type": "string" }, "userId": { "type": "string" }, "startedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "finishedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "status": { "type": "string", "example": "READY" }, "meta": { "type": "object", "properties": { "origin": { "type": "string", "example": "API" }, "userAgent": { "type": "string" } } }, "stats": { "type": "object", "properties": { "inputBodyLen": { "type": "integer", "example": 2000 }, "rebootCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "restartCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "resurrectCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "computeUnits": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "options": { "type": "object", "properties": { "build": { "type": "string", "example": "latest" }, "timeoutSecs": { "type": "integer", "example": 300 }, "memoryMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 1024 }, "diskMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 2048 } } }, "buildId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultKeyValueStoreId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultDatasetId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultRequestQueueId": { "type": "string" }, "buildNumber": { "type": "string", "example": "1.0.0" }, "containerUrl": { "type": "string" }, "usage": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 1 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "usageTotalUsd": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "usageUsd": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } } } } } } } } } ```