# Youtube Transcript Scraper (`happitap/youtube-transcript-scraper`) Actor

High-performance YouTube transcript scraper to fetch video transcripts, metadata, and channel content without an API key.
Extract full transcripts, video metadata, and channel listings from YouTube with ease. Supports multiple languages, automatic fallback logic, and highconcurrency scraping.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/happitap/youtube-transcript-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [HappiTap](https://apify.com/happitap) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, Automation, Other
- **Stats:** 51 total users, 3 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.80 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## YouTube Transcript Scraper

**High-performance YouTube transcript scraper to fetch video transcripts, metadata, and channel content without an API key.**

Extract full transcripts, video metadata, and channel listings from YouTube with ease. Supports multiple languages, automatic fallback logic, and highconcurrency scraping.

### What can YouTube Transcript Scraper do?

- ✅ **Extract Transcripts** - Get full text with timestamps in any available language.
- ✅ **Video Metadata** - Scrape titles, descriptions, upload dates, and channel info.
- ✅ **Channel Crawling** - Automatically discover and scrape all videos from a channel.
- ✅ **Multi-language Support** - Specify your preferred language (e.g., 'en', 'es', 'fr').
- ✅ **No API Key Required** - Works directly with the YouTube website.
- ✅ **Export formats** - JSON, CSV, Excel, HTML.

### Why scrape YouTube data?

YouTube contains a wealth of operational and content data valuable for:

- 🎯 **Content Analysis** - Analyze trends, keywords, and topics across thousands of videos.
- 📊 **Sentiment Analysis** - Process transcripts to understand viewer sentiment and feedback.
- 📍 **SEO Research** - Optimize your own content by analyzing top-performing videos.
- 📚 **Educational Archives** - Create searchable databases of lecture or tutorial transcripts.

### What data can you extract from YouTube?

| Data Field | Description | Example |
|------------|-------------|---------|
| **title** | Video title | "How to Code in 2026" |
| **videoId** | Unique YouTube ID | "jNQXAC9IVRw" |
| **channelName** | Name of the uploader | "TechDaily" |
| **fullTranscript** | Complete text of the video | "Hello everyone, welcome back..." |
| **transcript** | Array of segments with timestamps | `[{"start": 0, "text": "Hello"}]` |
| **views** | View count (where available) | "1,023,450 views" |

### How to scrape YouTube data

1. **Click "Try for free"** to start using this Actor.
2. **Enter your input** - Add video URLs or channel URLs.
3. **Configure options** - Select preferred language and max items.
4. **Start the scraper** - Click the "Start" button.
5. **Download results** - Export your data in JSON, CSV, or Excel format.

### Input

Detailed input configuration is available in the **Input** tab.

Key settings:

- **startUrls**: List of Video or Channel URLs to scrape.
- **language**: Preferred transcript language code (default: 'en').
- **maxVideosPerChannel**: Limit the number of videos scraped per channel.
- **proxyConfiguration**: Recommended to use residential proxies for high volume.

### Output

You can download data in multiple formats:

- **JSON** - For developers and API integrations.
- **CSV** - For simpler analysis in spreadsheets.
- **Excel** - Ready-to-use spreadsheet format.

#### Output example

```json
{
  "title": "Amazing Video Title",
  "videoId": "abc12345",
  "channelName": "Channel Name",
  "uploadDate": "2025-01-01",
  "transcriptFound": true,
  "transcriptLanguage": "en",
  "fullTranscript": "This is the full text of the video content...",
  "transcript": [
    {
      "start": 0,
      "duration": 5.2,
      "text": "This is the first sentence."
    }
  ]
}
```

### How much does it cost to scrape YouTube?

**Pricing Model: Pay-Per-Event (PPE)**

- **Initialization**: $0.00005 per run (includes 5s compute).
- **Per Transcript**: $0.0028 per video scraped.

**Cost estimates**:

- **100 videos**: ~$0.28
- **1,000 videos**: ~$2.80

**Tips to reduce costs**:

- Use specific video URLs instead of crawling huge channels.
- Set `maxVideosPerChannel` to limit scope.

### Is it legal to scrape YouTube?

Yes, scraping publicly available data is legal. This Actor only extracts public information such as metadata and auto-generated captions that are accessible to any viewer.

**Best practices**:

- Use ethically and respect content creators.
- Do not use scraped data for copyright infringement.
- Review YouTube's Terms of Service regarding data usage.

### Troubleshooting

#### No transcript found

- Ensure the video actually has captions (CC button).
- Try a different language code if the video is not in English.
- Some auto-generated captions may not be immediately available for new videos.

#### Proxy errors

- YouTube has strict bot detection. Ensure you are using high-quality residential proxies if you encounter blocking.

### Use cases

#### Content Strategy Optimization

Analyze thousands of transcripts from competitors to identify content gaps and winning keywords for your own strategy.

#### Automated Summarization

Feed extracted transcripts into an LLM (like GPT-4) to generate concise summaries, study notes, or newsletters from video content.

### Support and feedback

- 📧 **Issues?** Use the Issues tab to report bugs.
- 💬 **Questions?** Check the troubleshooting section first.
- 🔧 **Custom solution?** Contact us for custom features.

# Actor input Schema

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

Direct URLs to YouTube videos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...) or channels (https://www.youtube.com/@...).

## `language` (type: `string`):

Preferred transcript language code (e.g., 'en', 'es'). Defaults to video default.

## `maxVideosPerChannel` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of videos to process when a channel URL is provided.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Residential proxies are recommended for high-volume scraping.

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of concurrent browser instances.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw"
    }
  ],
  "language": "en",
  "maxVideosPerChannel": 10,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  },
  "maxConcurrency": 2
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `dataset` (type: `string`):

Dataset containing video metadata and transcripts

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "startUrls": [
        {
            "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw"
        }
    ],
    "language": "en",
    "maxVideosPerChannel": 10,
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true,
        "apifyProxyGroups": [
            "RESIDENTIAL"
        ]
    },
    "maxConcurrency": 2
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("happitap/youtube-transcript-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "startUrls": [{ "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw" }],
    "language": "en",
    "maxVideosPerChannel": 10,
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": True,
        "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"],
    },
    "maxConcurrency": 2,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("happitap/youtube-transcript-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw"
    }
  ],
  "language": "en",
  "maxVideosPerChannel": 10,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  },
  "maxConcurrency": 2
}' |
apify call happitap/youtube-transcript-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=happitap/youtube-transcript-scraper",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/FQMFiDe0amIjthbzz/builds/5ilPkaoW5g7gpGotY/openapi.json