📝 Transcript Downloader - YouTube Transcript & Metadata Scraper Extractor This Apify actor fetches full transcripts, timestamps, video metadata, and optionally comments from public YouTube videos using the Transcript Downloader API. Ideal for content repurposing, accessibility, SEO enrichment, or video analysis at scale. --- ## ✨ Features * 🔁 Batch processing: Handle multiple YouTube videos at once * 🌍 Language support: Use ISO codes or auto for detection * 💬 Comment extraction: Fetch most relevant and most recent comments * 📊 Metadata included: Title, description, view count, likes, channel info, etc. * ⚙️ Concurrency control: Adjust maxConcurrency for optimized performance * 🔄 Automatic retries: Handles API errors and retryable failures * 🧠 Error tracking: All failures logged in output --- ## 🔧 Input Parameters The actor accepts the following input: | Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Description | | ----------------- | ------- | -------- | ------- | --------------------------------------------------------- | | videoIds | array | ✅ Yes | - | List of YouTube video IDs (11 characters each) | | apiToken | string | ✅ Yes | - | Your Transcript Downloader API bearer token | | language | string | No | auto | ISO language code for transcript (e.g., en, es, fr) | | includeComments | boolean | No | false | Whether to fetch video comments | | maxConcurrency | number | No | 5 | Max concurrent requests (range: 1-10) | ### 📥 Sample Input json { "videoIds": ["dQw4w9WgXcQ", "jNQXAC9IVRw"], "apiToken": "your-api-token", "language": "en", "includeComments": true, "maxConcurrency": 5 } --- ## 📤 Output Format Each video will produce a dataset item with the following structure: json { "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ", "videoMetadata": { "title": "Example Title", "description": "Video description...", "publishedAt": "2023-08-20T15:32:00Z", "duration": "5:12", "viewCount": 120456, "likeCount": 3456, "commentCount": 123, "channelName": "Channel Name", "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/abc123" }, "transcriptsWithTimeStamps": [ { "dur": "3.5", "text": "Welcome to this tutorial...", "start": "0.0" } ], "fullTranscript": "Welcome to this tutorial...", "comments": { "mostRelevant": [ { "author": "User123", "text": "This helped me so much!" } ], "mostRecent": [ { "author": "User456", "text": "Just watched it!" } ] }, "downloadInfo": { "id": "123DDJNRUND", "youtube_video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ", "type": "captions", "cost": "1.600", "status": "success", "created_at": "2025-06-16T21:34:43.000Z" } } --- ## 🚀 How to Use 1. Get your API token from Transcript Downloader 2. Open the actor in the Apify Console 3. Add YouTube video IDs and required input 4. Run the actor and access results in the dataset --- ## ❌ Error Handling The actor gracefully handles common API errors: | Status Code | Meaning | | ----------- | ------------------------------- | | 401 | Insufficient credits | | 403 | Invalid API token | | 404 | Video or transcript not found | | 429 | Rate limit exceeded | | 503 | Service temporarily unavailable | Failed attempts are captured in the dataset with error info. --- ## ❓ Common Issues Transcript did not appear in the metadata * If the channel’s title is in a different language than the actual content, sometimes the auto language detection does not work. * ✅ Try setting the language parameter explicitly to the language being spoken. * ⚠️ Also note: some videos may not have a native transcript available at all. --- ## ⚠️ Limitations * 🔁 API rate limit: 75 requests per minute * 📼 YouTube video IDs must be exactly 11 characters * 🔄 Retries up to 3 times per failed request * ⚙️ maxConcurrency must be 1–10 --- ## 🧪 Example Run json { "videoIds": ["AyOjAEn36b8"], "apiToken": "your-api-token", "language": "auto", "includeComments": false } --- ## 💳 Pricing & Billing The Transcript Downloader API used by this actor requires a valid API token. API usage is billed separately and is based on processing time and file size. 📊 We charge on a per transcript/metadata basis. Visit our site to checkout pricing. View full details and subscription plans on our pricing page --- ## 🙋 Support Need help? Visit Transcript Downloader Support. We respond within 24 business hours. --- ## 📄 License This project is licensed under the ISC License.