YouTube Transcript & Captions Scraper Extract transcripts, captions, and subtitles from any YouTube video. Supports auto-generated and manual captions in 100+ languages with multiple output formats. ## Features - Universal Transcript Extraction: Works with any YouTube video that has captions enabled - 100+ Languages: Supports all languages available on YouTube - Auto-Generated Fallback: Falls back to YouTube's auto-generated captions when manual captions unavailable - Translation: Translate transcripts to any supported language - Multiple Output Formats: Plain text, timestamped, SRT, VTT, or JSON - Video Metadata: Optional extraction of title, channel, views, duration - Batch Processing: Process multiple videos in a single run - High Success Rate: API-based extraction (no browser needed) ## Use Cases - Content Repurposing: Turn video content into blog posts, articles, or social media - SEO Optimization: Extract text for video descriptions and metadata - Accessibility: Generate captions for accessibility compliance - AI Training Data: Build datasets from YouTube content - Research: Analyze video content at scale - Translation: Get transcripts in your preferred language - Note Taking: Quickly extract key points from educational videos ## Input json { "videoUrls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ", "https://youtu.be/jNQXAC9IVRw", "dQw4w9WgXcQ" ], "preferredLanguages": ["en", "en-US"], "includeAutoGenerated": true, "outputFormat": "text", "includeVideoMetadata": true, "translateTo": null, "maxVideos": 0 } ### Input Fields | Field | Type | Default | Description | |-------|------|---------|-------------| | videoUrls | array | required | YouTube URLs or video IDs | | preferredLanguages | array | ["en"] | Language codes in order of preference | | includeAutoGenerated | boolean | true | Include auto-generated captions as fallback | | outputFormat | string | "text" | Output format (text, timestamped, srt, vtt, json) | | includeVideoMetadata | boolean | true | Fetch video title, channel, views, etc. | | translateTo | string | null | Translate to this language code | | maxVideos | integer | 0 | Limit videos to process (0 = unlimited) | ### 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 - VIDEO_ID (direct 11-character ID) ## Output json { "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ", "video_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ", "success": true, "transcript_text": "We're no strangers to love. You know the rules and so do I...", "formatted_transcript": "We're no strangers to love. You know the rules...", "output_format": "text", "language": "English", "language_code": "en", "is_auto_generated": false, "is_translated": false, "available_languages": ["en", "es", "fr", "de", "ja"], "word_count": 423, "character_count": 2156, "segment_count": 87, "duration_seconds": 212.5, "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up", "channel_name": "Rick Astley", "view_count": 1400000000, "thumbnail_url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/maxresdefault.jpg", "error": null, "extraction_time_ms": 1234 } ### Output Fields | Field | Description | |-------|-------------| | video_id | YouTube video ID | | success | Whether extraction was successful | | transcript_text | Plain text transcript | | formatted_transcript | Transcript in requested format | | language_code | Language code of transcript | | is_auto_generated | True if using YouTube's auto-generated captions | | is_translated | True if transcript was translated | | word_count | Number of words in transcript | | segment_count | Number of caption segments | | available_languages | All available transcript languages | ## Output Formats | Format | Description | Use Case | |--------|-------------|----------| | text | Continuous plain text | Reading, AI processing | | timestamped | Text with [MM:SS] timestamps | Note taking, navigation | | srt | SubRip subtitle format | Video editors, media players | | vtt | WebVTT format | Web video players, HTML5 | | json | Detailed segments with timing | Custom processing, analysis | ## Language Codes Common language codes: en, en-US, es, fr, de, it, pt, ja, ko, zh-Hans, zh-Hant, ru, ar, hi For a full list, see YouTube's supported languages. ## Error Handling The scraper handles various error conditions gracefully: | Error Type | Description | |------------|-------------| | transcripts_disabled | Video owner has disabled captions | | no_transcript_found | No transcript in requested language | | video_unavailable | Video is private, deleted, or region-restricted | | no_transcript_available | Video has no captions at all | ## Limitations - Captions Required: Cannot extract from videos without captions - Rate Limits: YouTube may rate-limit excessive requests - Private Videos: Cannot access private or unlisted videos without authorization - Live Streams: May not work with ongoing live streams ## Pricing $3 per 1,000 transcripts extracted. ## Examples ### Extract single video transcript json { "videoUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"] } ### Get Spanish transcript with translation json { "videoUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"], "preferredLanguages": ["es"], "translateTo": "en" } ### Generate SRT subtitles json { "videoUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"], "outputFormat": "srt" } ### Batch process without metadata json { "videoUrls": ["VIDEO_ID_1", "VIDEO_ID_2", "VIDEO_ID_3"], "includeVideoMetadata": false, "maxVideos": 100 } ## Support For questions or issues, contact the developer or open an issue in the repository.