# YouTube Transcript Scraper (`devscrapper/youtube-transcript-scraper`) Actor

YouTube Transcript Scraper – Fast, Clean & Reliable

- **URL**: https://apify.com/devscrapper/youtube-transcript-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Oussama Production](https://apify.com/devscrapper) (community)
- **Categories:** Automation, AI, Social media
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 0 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 1 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$5.99/month + usage

To use this Actor, you pay a monthly rental fee to the developer. The rent is subtracted from your prepaid usage every month after the free trial period. You also pay for the Apify platform usage, which gets cheaper the higher Apify subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#rental-actors

## 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 (Python)

![Apify](https://img.shields.io/badge/Apify-Actor-blue?logo=apify)
![Python](https://img.shields.io/badge/Python-3.13-yellow?logo=python)
![License](https://img.shields.io/badge/License-MIT-green)

Extract **video transcripts with timestamps** from any YouTube video by providing its **Video ID**.\
This Actor scrapes captions and returns them in structured JSON format, perfect for **SEO, research, AI pipelines, or content repurposing**.

***

### ✨ Features

- 📜 Extracts transcript text **with clean timestamps** (HH:MM:SS).
- ⚡ Super easy: just provide a YouTube **Video ID**.
- 📂 Outputs structured **JSON, CSV, Excel, or API endpoint**.
- 🔎 Removes UI artifacts (like timestamp badges).
- 🛠 Built with **Python + Apify SDK**.

***

### 🛠 Input

Provide a simple input JSON:

```json
{
  "video_id": "-n9-peovGvk"
}
```

Field	Type	Required	Description
video\_id	string	✅	The YouTube Video ID (example: -n9-peovGvk)

📤 Output
The Actor returns structured transcript data:

```json
{
  "video_id": "-n9-peovGvk",
  "segments": [
    {
      "timestamp": "00:00:01",
      "text": "Hello everyone"
    },
    {
      "timestamp": "00:00:05",
      "text": "Welcome to the video"
    }
  ],
  "count": 25
}
```

▶️ How to Run on Apify
Open the Actor in Apify Console.

Click Run.

In the Input tab, provide your video\_id.

After the run, go to the Dataset tab and download results.

💻 Local Development
You can also run this Actor locally using Apify CLI:

bash

## Install Apify CLI (if not installed)

```bash
npm install -g apify-cli
```

## Create a new Actor project

apify create youtube-transcript-scraper
cd youtube-transcript-scraper

## Run Actor with example input

apify run --input='{"video\_id": "-n9-peovGvk"}'
💡 Use Cases
✍️ Content creators → Repurpose YouTube videos into blog posts.

📊 Researchers → Collect and analyze spoken content.

🌍 SEO specialists → Index transcripts for better search visibility.

🤖 AI / NLP engineers → Feed transcripts into chatbots and language models.

🧑‍💻 Tech Stack
Python 3.13

Apify SDK for Python

Requests + BeautifulSoup4

📌 Notes
Works only if the video has available transcripts/subtitles.

Does not work on private, restricted, or age-gated videos.

📝 License
MIT © 2025 – Built for the Apify ecosystem 🚀

# Actor input Schema

## `video_id` (type: `string`):

Enter the YouTube Video ID (example: -n9-peovGvk)

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "video_id": "-n9-peovGvk"
}
```

# 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 = {
    "video_id": "-n9-peovGvk"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("devscrapper/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 = { "video_id": "-n9-peovGvk" }

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

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

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

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "video_id": "-n9-peovGvk"
}' |
apify call devscrapper/youtube-transcript-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,devscrapper/youtube-transcript-scraper"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/ZolRIg3D3FGFWXlHK/builds/zrQC1eLgfhUKpZP9y/openapi.json