Instagram Transcript API - Reels & Video to Text

50 free credits · no card
Clean text with timestamped segments, for any public Reel, feed video or whole profile: over REST, an MCP server, or the Python and JavaScript SDKs.
No card required. Failed fetches are free.
Most Reels carry no caption track, so the audio is transcribed automatically on the same call. No second endpoint and no change to your code.
Resolve a profile or keyword search into a list, then transcribe what you want. Up to 50 Reels 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 Reel or video URL, from your code, from Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor over MCP, or from n8n, Make and Zapier.
Captions when a Reel has them, AI transcription when it does not, which is most of the time. 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 to camera. Segments carry start times, so an answer can cite the second rather than paraphrase a Reel it never watched.
Turn a profile's back catalogue into text your index can reach. Chunk on timestamps and every retrieved passage keeps a link back to the moment.
Track a claim, a hook or a product mention across more Reels than anyone can sit through, then query the text instead of the grid.
Paste any public Instagram 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 analytics on accounts you own or manage.
Best when you need full control and have time to maintain it.
The Graph API deserves the sentence people expect it to earn: even with app review passed and a business account connected, it returns no transcript text for any video, including your own. A public Reel URL is enough here, and captions.download has no Instagram equivalent to argue about.
One credit per delivered transcript, whether it came from captions or from the audio. 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, which at Reel lengths usually lands at one credit a video. 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. On Instagram this is the common path rather than the fallback, since most videos carry no caption track. Reels are short, so it almost always returns inline. Transcription is billed by audio duration, one credit per started 5 minutes, and only on delivery, so almost every Reel is one credit.
Whatever caption track the video carries, with the language stamped on the response. When none exists and the audio is transcribed, which is usually the case here, the language is detected automatically rather than assumed.
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 URLs 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 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 transcript is one credit, a profile 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 public Reel URL, 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 and profile listings.
Drop transcripts into a workflow without writing code.
The transcript API for YouTube, TikTok and Instagram.