YouTube Transcript API - Channels, Search, Playlists

50 free credits · no card
Clean text with timestamped segments, for any public video, whole channel, playlist or keyword search: over REST, an MCP server, or the Python and JavaScript SDKs.
No card required. Failed fetches are free.
When a video has no caption track, the audio is transcribed automatically on the same call. No second endpoint and no change to your code.
Resolve a channel, playlist or keyword search into a list, then transcribe what you want. Up to 50 videos in one batch, 500 on Mega and Scale.
A credit is a delivered result. Failed and empty results are never charged, and unused credits roll over.
Extraction runs through several methods behind one endpoint, so a change that breaks one path usually falls through to another before anyone notices.
The same fetch, the same credit, whichever way you reach it.
Any public video URL or id, from your code, from Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor over MCP, or from n8n, Make and Zapier.
Captions when the video has them, AI transcription when it does not. Clean text with timestamped segments.
Summaries, search, RAG, research or automations. The response has the same shape every time.
Ground an assistant in what was actually said. Segments carry start times, so an answer can cite the second rather than paraphrase a video it never watched.
Turn a video corpus into text your index can reach. Chunk on timestamps and every retrieved passage keeps a link back to the moment.
Track a channel, a course, or a topic across more hours of video than anyone can sit through, then query the text.
Paste any YouTube link and run it. No account, no key, no card.
Your transcript appears here, with timestamps.
Like it?Start with 50 free credits
Compared by approach rather than by vendor, because the real choice is whether you want to own the infrastructure.
Best when you want transcripts, not infrastructure.
Best for a few videos from a Python script.
Best when you need full control and have time to maintain it.
One approach people expect to see here and will not: the YouTube Data API. It does not return caption text for videos you do not own: captions.download requires the owner's OAuth credentials, so for third-party videos it is not an option at any quota.
One credit per delivered caption transcript. Failed or empty results are free. Unused credits roll over up to twice your monthly allowance.
How much will my volume cost?
10,000transcripts / month
Top-ups are billed at your plan's per-1,000 rate and never expire. AI Fallback Transcription is billed by audio duration rather than per transcript. Full pricing
Anything else is in the docs.
The audio is transcribed automatically on the same call: no second endpoint and no change to your code. Media under 20 minutes usually returns inline; longer media returns a 202 with a job you can poll or receive by callback. Transcription is billed by audio duration, one credit per started 5 minutes, and only on delivery.
Whatever caption track the video carries, with the language stamped on the response. When several tracks exist you can ask for one; when none exists and the audio is transcribed, the language is detected automatically.
Per-plan request rates, returned on every response as standard rate-limit headers so a client can back off without guessing. Batch is the cheaper path for volume: one call carries up to 50 videos on the free tier, Basic and Pro, and up to 500 on Mega and Scale.
Yes. POST /transcripts/batch takes up to 50 ids per call, 500 on Mega and Scale, and returns a per-item outcome rather than failing the whole request. You are charged one credit per successfully delivered caption transcript; failures cost nothing.
50 credits, no card. Every endpoint is included, not a reduced subset, so you can build the real integration before deciding to pay for it.
No. A credit is a delivered result. A caption transcript is one credit, a channel, playlist or search page is one credit, and polling a job, checking your balance and the health probe are free. Failed and empty results are never charged.
Python and JavaScript, both thin wrappers over the same REST endpoints with typed models. There is also an official n8n community node, and an MCP server if you would rather let an assistant make the call.
We fix it. Extraction runs through several methods behind one endpoint, so a change that breaks one path usually falls through to another before anyone notices, and the response shape your code parses does not move either way.
One POST with a URL or a bare video id, from any language. Same response shape every time.
Call it from any stack, or use the typed Python and Node SDKs.
Give Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor transcripts, search and channel listings.
Drop transcripts into a workflow without writing code.
The transcript API for YouTube, TikTok and Instagram.