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TikTok Transcript API

Turn any TikTok video URL into clean, timestamped text with real AI speech recognition.

Run it now — free credit includedAPI docs

Most “TikTok transcript” tools scrape captions — which means they return nothing on the majority of videos that have no captions at all. This API runs real automatic speech recognition (ASR) on the video's audio track, so it works on every TikTok video with spoken words, captioned or not.

You send a TikTok video URL; you get back the full transcript, sentence-level timestamps, plus the video's metadata (author, description, play count, duration). Output is clean JSON, ready for LLM pipelines, content research, or subtitle generation.

Languages: English, Chinese (Mandarin), Japanese, Korean, Spanish, French, German, Russian

Call it from code

The API runs on Apify's platform — one HTTP call starts a run and returns the dataset. Get a free API token by signing up (includes $5/month free usage).

# curl — synchronous run, returns transcript items directly
curl -X POST \
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/ethereal_wool~tiktok-transcript-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"videoUrls": ["https://www.tiktok.com/@tiktok/video/7649091368656194847"]}'
# Python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("ethereal_wool~tiktok-transcript-scraper").call(run_input={
    "videoUrls": ["https://www.tiktok.com/@tiktok/video/7649091368656194847"],
})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item["transcript"])
    for s in item["sentences"]:
        print(s["beginTime"], s["text"])

Pricing

$0.025per minute of video transcribed

No subscription, no minimum. Runs that return nothing are never billed.

Frequently asked questions

Does it work on TikTok videos without captions?

Yes. The API transcribes the audio track with AI speech recognition — it does not depend on captions or subtitles existing on the video.

What does a TikTok transcript cost?

Pricing is per minute of video transcribed: $0.025/min. A typical 30-second TikTok costs about $0.0125. There is no subscription and no minimum.

What input does the API take?

Any public TikTok video URL (including short vm.tiktok.com share links) or a bare video ID.

Do I get timestamps?

Yes — the response includes the full transcript string plus a sentences array with beginTime/endTime in milliseconds for each sentence, ready for subtitle (SRT/VTT) generation.

Which languages are supported?

8 languages: English, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, French, German, and Russian. Language is detected automatically.

Other platforms

Douyin (抖音)

Turn any Douyin (抖音) video into text — best-in-class Mandarin speech recognition.

Xiaohongshu (小红书 / RedNote)

Turn any 小红书 video note into text — Mandarin-optimized speech recognition.

Bilibili (B站)

Turn any B站 video into text — handles long-form content, BV/av IDs, and b23.tv links.

Instagram Reels

Turn any Instagram Reel into text with real AI speech recognition.

YouTube

Fetch YouTube transcripts at scale — by URL, video ID, or search keyword.

Any URL

One endpoint for TikTok, Douyin, Xiaohongshu, Bilibili, and Instagram Reels — paste any link, get text.