# YouTube Channel Transcripts — Bulk Extract by Influship (`influship/youtube-channel-transcripts`) Actor

Extract transcripts from all recent videos on a YouTube channel in a single run. Returns full text with timestamps per video. Ideal for content research and AI training. No login required.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/influship/youtube-channel-transcripts.md
- **Developed by:** [Influship](https://apify.com/influship) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media, Videos
- **Stats:** 204 total users, 25 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 3 bookmarks
- **User rating**: 5.00 out of 5 stars

## Pricing

Pay per event

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/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#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 Channel Transcripts — Bulk Extractor

Extract full transcripts from any YouTube channel's videos in bulk. Provide a channel handle, choose how many videos to process and how to sort them, and get back complete transcript text for each video — ready for analysis, content repurposing, or building datasets.

### What is YouTube Channel Transcripts?

YouTube Channel Transcripts lets you extract the spoken content from a YouTube creator's videos at scale. Instead of manually opening each video and copying subtitles, this actor fetches transcripts for up to 20 videos from any public channel in a single run. It supports multiple languages and can return timestamped segments for precise time-based analysis.

### What can this actor do?

- **Bulk extraction** — Fetch transcripts for up to 20 videos from any YouTube channel in one run
- **Sort control** — Choose which videos to transcribe by sorting by popularity (most views), newest uploads, or oldest uploads
- **Multi-language support** — Request transcripts in a specific language with automatic fallback to whatever is available
- **Timestamped segments** — Optionally include granular timestamped segments alongside the full transcript text
- **Partial success handling** — If some videos lack transcripts (disabled captions, live streams, etc.), the actor still returns results for the videos that succeeded, reporting how many failed
- **Rich metadata** — Each transcript includes the video title, URL, video ID, view count, publish date, word count, and transcript source (auto-generated or manual)

### What data can you extract?

| Field | Description |
|-------|-------------|
| title | Video title |
| url | Full YouTube video URL |
| video\_id | YouTube video ID |
| full\_text | Complete transcript as plain text |
| transcript | Timestamped segments (when includeSegments is enabled) |
| language | Transcript language code |
| source | Transcript source (auto-generated, manual, etc.) |
| view\_count | Number of views on the video |
| published\_text | Human-readable publish date |
| word\_count | Total word count of the transcript |
| error | Error message if transcript extraction failed for this video |

### How to use

1. Enter the YouTube channel handle (e.g. `@mkbhd`)
2. Set the video limit (default 5, max 20)
3. Choose how to sort videos — popular, newest, or oldest
4. Optionally set a language preference and enable timestamped segments
5. Run the actor
6. Download results as JSON, CSV, or Excel

### Input example

```json
{
  "handle": "@mkbhd",
  "videoLimit": 10,
  "sortBy": "newest",
  "language": "en",
  "includeSegments": false
}
```

### Output example

```json
{
  "title": "The Best Smartphones of 2025!",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abc123",
  "video_id": "abc123",
  "full_text": "Hey guys, MKBHD here. Today we're going to talk about the best smartphones...",
  "language": "en",
  "source": "auto-generated",
  "view_count": 5200000,
  "published_text": "2 weeks ago",
  "word_count": 3450,
  "error": null
}
```

### Use cases

- **Content strategy** — Analyze what topics a competitor or industry leader covers most frequently across their video catalog
- **Competitor analysis** — Extract and compare messaging, product mentions, and talking points across multiple channels
- **Building training data** — Collect large volumes of spoken-word text for fine-tuning language models or building search indices
- **SEO research** — Discover keywords and phrases that top-performing videos naturally use in their spoken content
- **Content repurposing** — Convert video content into blog posts, social media threads, or newsletter material

### Pricing

This actor uses **pay-per-event** pricing:

- **Actor start**: Small fee per run
- **Per transcript**: Fee for each video transcript returned

Platform usage costs are included — you only pay the per-event fees.

### FAQ

**What if a video doesn't have captions?**
Videos without any captions (auto-generated or manual) will be skipped. The actor reports how many transcripts failed so you know the coverage.

**Does it work with auto-generated captions?**
Yes. Most YouTube videos have auto-generated captions which the actor can extract. The `source` field tells you whether captions were auto-generated or manually added.

**Can I get transcripts in other languages?**
Set the `language` field to your preferred language code (e.g. `es` for Spanish, `fr` for French). If a transcript in that language isn't available, the actor falls back to whatever language is available.

**What's the difference between full\_text and transcript segments?**
`full_text` is the complete transcript as a single string. When `includeSegments` is enabled, you also get the `transcript` array with individual segments including start times and durations — useful for building chapter markers or syncing text to video.

# Actor input Schema

## `handle` (type: `string`):

The YouTube channel handle (e.g. @mkbhd). Include the @ prefix.

## `videoLimit` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of videos to fetch transcripts for (1-20)

## `sortBy` (type: `string`):

How to sort videos before selecting which ones to transcribe

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

Preferred transcript language code (e.g. en, es, fr). Falls back to available languages if not found.

## `includeSegments` (type: `boolean`):

Include timestamped transcript segments in addition to the full text. Useful for precise time-based analysis.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "handle": "@mkbhd",
  "videoLimit": 5,
  "sortBy": "popular",
  "language": "en",
  "includeSegments": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `transcripts` (type: `string`):

No description

# 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 = {
    "handle": "@mkbhd"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("influship/youtube-channel-transcripts").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 = { "handle": "@mkbhd" }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("influship/youtube-channel-transcripts").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 '{
  "handle": "@mkbhd"
}' |
apify call influship/youtube-channel-transcripts --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

```

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/lZYVUIib5hOjnkElV/builds/VThFoMhRTRVswPwcs/openapi.json