YouTube Transcript Scraper: Subtitles, SRT and VTT

Get the full transcript of any YouTube video (plain text, timestamped segments, SRT or WebVTT) from a link or video ID, in the caption language you prefer, with optional translation into 100+ languages.

One example row from a real run, shortened:

{
  "id": "91562ec09954574c",
  "input": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8Wu4rSNJms",
  "videoId": "Y8Wu4rSNJms",
  "videoUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8Wu4rSNJms",
  "title": "How to set up BMW eDrive Modes in the New Generation of BMW Plug-In Hybrids",
  "transcriptAvailable": true,
  "language": "it",
  "originalLanguage": "en",
  "isTranslated": true,
  "translatedTo": "it",
  "isAutoGenerated": true,
  "segmentsCount": 30,
  "durationSeconds": 75.12,
  "wordCount": 185,
  "characterCount": 1234,
  "text": "Elettrifica la tua efficienza di guida. La tecnologia ibrida plug-in delle BMW con sistema operativo 8 ti offre il contr ...",
  "segments": [
    {
      "start": 1.12,
      "end": 6,
      "duration": 4.88,
      "text": "Elettrifica la tua efficienza di guida. La tecnologia"
    },
    {
      "start": 3.679,
      "end": 8.48,
      "duration": 4.801,
      "text": "ibrida plug-in delle BMW con"
    }
  ],
  "srt": "1\n00:00:01,120 --> 00:00:06,000\nElettrifica la tua efficienza di guida. La tecnologia\n\n2\n00:00:03,679 --> 00:00:08,480\nibrida plug-in delle BMW con\n...",
  "requestedLanguages": [
    "de",
    "en"
  ],
  "matchedLanguage": "en",
  "languageUnavailable": false,
  …
}

One row per video. The fields marked "when selected" depend on Output formats.

Always filled when transcriptAvailable is true: id, input, videoId, videoUrl, transcriptAvailable, isTranslated, segmentsCount (at least 1), durationSeconds, wordCount, characterCount, languageUnavailable, country, scrapedAt, and every format you selected (text, segments, srt, vtt). Can be null: title, language and originalLanguage (when the caption language is not reported), translatedTo (no translation), isAutoGenerated (fewer than 4 caption lines), requestedLanguages, matchedLanguage and requestedTranslation (when you did not set them, or no language on your list was available), and collectedAt.

Rows for videos without a transcript (only when Include videos without a transcript is on) contain id, input, videoId, videoUrl, title, transcriptAvailable: false, a reason, requestedLanguages, requestedTranslation and scrapedAt.

You pay per event, through your Apify account. Main price: $3.50 per 1,000 transcripts on every Apify plan. Every event and plan:

Every run is one HTTP request to the Apify API with your Apify token; the input below is the actor's own example. This actor usually runs for minutes, so start a run and fetch its dataset when it finishes (or use a webhook).

# start a run (this actor's standard queue takes minutes), then read its dataset
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/cheapapi~youtube-transcript-scraper/runs" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"videos":["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aircAruvnKk"],"outputFormats":["text","segments"],"processingSpeed":"standard"}'

With the JavaScript client:

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('cheapapi/youtube-transcript-scraper').call({
  "videos": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aircAruvnKk"
  ],
  "outputFormats": [
    "text",
    "segments"
  ],
  "processingSpeed": "standard"
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();

Price for 1,000 videos with captions on the Apify Free plan and on Gold (Platinum and Diamond pay the Gold price for this Actor). The alternatives' prices are as listed and add no platform usage on top. This Actor does: Apify platform usage is billed separately by Apify on top of the prices shown ("+ usage"; see Pricing for typical amounts). Features as described in each Actor's public input and README.

Prices from public Apify Store listings, checked September 2026 (the four most used Actors charge the same on Platinum and Diamond as on Gold). With the optional Fast processing add on this Actor costs $5.00 per 1,000 plus usage, which is not cheaper than the second most used Actor ($5.00) or the third one on Gold ($5.00).

To be clear: several smaller Actors are much cheaper per video than this one (the two in the table cost $0.02 to $1.00 per 1,000, and others with 1,000 to 2,500 users charge about $0.70 to $1.00 per 1,000, some plus a start fee), and three Actors in the table (the second most used one and both low cost ones) accept a channel link directly, which this Actor does not. What this Actor offers is an event fee 30% or more below the four most used transcript Actors ($3.50 vs $5.00 to $10.00 per 1,000; platform usage is extra here, so the real difference depends on your run), all four output formats in the same row, a language priority list with matchedLanguage / languageUnavailable on each row, translation into 100+ languages, up to 10,000 videos per run, and a clean stop at your maximum cost per run. Unlike two of the Actors above, videos without captions are not free here ($0.0033 per video checked): every lookup is a real, paid request for us whether or not captions exist, so it is charged at cost covering price instead of being hidden in a higher per transcript price. If you mainly need the lowest price per video or channel input in one step, a cheaper Actor may suit you better.

• AI and LLM pipelines: summarize videos, build RAG knowledge bases, generate notes or quizzes from lectures.
• Content repurposing: turn videos into blog posts, newsletters, show notes and social posts.
• SEO and research: analyze what competitors say in their videos, mine keywords and topics at scale.
• Subtitles and localization: export SRT/VTT files and translate captions into other languages.
• Media monitoring: track mentions of brands, products or people across many videos.
• Accessibility and archiving: keep searchable text copies of your own video library.

• No AI transcription for videos without captions. The Actor reads the captions YouTube already has (uploaded or automatic). Videos with no captions return no transcript; the lookup costs $0.0033 (video-checked).
• No video metadata beyond the title. Channel name, upload date, view, like and comment counts are not included. Get them with our YouTube Search Scraper.
• No channel, playlist or keyword input. This Actor can't list a channel's uploads or a playlist's videos by itself. Use the two step recipe under Transcripts for a channel, playlist or keyword.
• No comments. Use our YouTube Comments Scraper.
• No list of available caption languages without fetching a transcript.

• isAutoGenerated is detected from caption timing, not read from YouTube, and may be wrong for unusual caption files.
• Translations are machine translations provided by YouTube.
• The language list accepts up to 3 languages.
• Private, members only and removed videos can't be processed. Region restricted videos may need the right Country.
• Standard processing usually takes a few minutes and can take up to ~45 minutes at peak times (transcripts are saved as they arrive). Choose Fast processing (paid add on) if you need results in about a minute.
• Only new videos remembers up to 100,000 delivered videos per store and language setting; videos without a transcript are not remembered and are checked (and charged) again.