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YouTube Transcripts (via Apify)

@retracnMCP server · External

YouTube transcripts for AI agents: text and timestamps for any video, channel or playlist.

Transcriptionv1.0.0MIT
Freeno charge per call
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One address for any MCP client. Your key stays in your Odel vault.

What it does

  1. Reads
  2. Writes
  3. High impact

Not assessed yet.

What it costs

Free

Odel charges nothing per call. The publisher may charge for its own service.

What it asks for at sign-in

Access toReadChange
Full api accessNot stated: full_api_access

From the sign-in at console-backend.apify.com, as the endpoint publishes it. You approve it there.

Tools

None listed · checked 6 Oct 2026

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Try it in the Inspector
README4 min read

YouTube Transcript Scraper & API: captions and subtitles

Run on Apify

YouTube Transcript Scraper is an Apify Actor that returns the transcript of any YouTube video as plain text and timestamped segments, in any caption language, with the title, channel, views and duration. It accepts video, Shorts, channel and playlist URLs, costs $1.50 per 1,000 transcripts and charges nothing for videos without captions.

Price: $1.50 per 1,000 transcripts ($1.20 on Gold and above) · Run it: https://apify.com/automationnation/youtube-transcript-scraper · Guide: https://retracn.github.io/automationnation-actors/youtube-transcript-scraper/

Quick facts

  • One row per video: transcript text, timestamped segments, language, auto-generated flag, all caption languages, title, channel, views, duration, description and tags.
  • Using youtube-transcript-api? The open-source youtube-transcript-cloud package (github.com/retracn/youtube-transcript-cloud) keeps its interface and runs on this Actor, so it works from AWS, GCP and other servers without RequestBlocked errors.
  • Videos, Shorts, channels and playlists (latest 15 videos).
  • Manual captions first, then auto-generated; best-effort translation.
  • Price: $1.50 per 1,000 transcripts; videos without captions are free.

Example input

json
{
  "videos": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc"
  ],
  "language": "en"
}

Run it from code

REST API

bash
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/automationnation~youtube-transcript-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"videos": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc"], "language": "en"}'

Python — see examples/python_example.py

python
# pip install apify-client
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("automationnation/youtube-transcript-scraper").call(run_input={
  "videos": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc"
  ],
  "language": "en"
})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item.get("title"), item.get("channel"), item.get("wordCount"), item.get("transcriptLanguage"))

JavaScript — see examples/node_example.mjs

js
// npm install apify-client
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN' });
const run = await client.actor('automationnation/youtube-transcript-scraper').call({
  "videos": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc"
  ],
  "language": "en"
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
for (const item of items) console.log(item.title, item.channel, item.wordCount, item.transcriptLanguage);

Use it with AI agents (MCP)

Hosted MCP server URL (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other clients with remote MCP support):

https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automationnation/youtube-transcript-scraper

Local config for Claude Desktop / Cursor — mcp/claude_desktop_config.json:

json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-transcript-scraper": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@apify/actors-mcp-server",
        "--tools",
        "automationnation/youtube-transcript-scraper"
      ],
      "env": {
        "APIFY_TOKEN": "YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN"
      }
    }
  }
}

FAQ

Is there an official YouTube transcript API? The YouTube Data API only downloads captions for videos you own. YouTube Transcript Scraper returns public captions of any video.

Does it transcribe audio? No, it returns captions YouTube already has (manual or auto-generated); videos without captions come back as no_transcript and aren't charged.

More from AutomationNation

This repository holds usage examples. The scraper itself runs on the Apify platform; you need a free Apify account and API token. Examples are MIT licensed.

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