YouTube Transcript API

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~youtube-transcript-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"videoUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"]}'

# Python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("ethereal_wool~youtube-transcript-scraper").call(run_input={
    "videoUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"],
})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item["transcript"])
    for s in item["sentences"]:
        print(s["beginTime"], s["text"])

Pricing

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

Frequently asked questions

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