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YouTube video transcript

Beta GET /v1/youtube/video/transcript

GET /v1/youtube/video/transcript

The video's own captions: the language you ask for (or the original audio's), typed by the uploader or recognised by YouTube (source), with the languages on offer. A video without captions answers transcript_unavailable and costs nothing; AI transcription of YouTube audio is not available yet.

  • Cost: 1 credit for captions; AI transcription 1 up to 2 minutes, then 1 per started minute
  • Status: Beta. Built and tested against recorded responses; the shape may still gain fields.
  • Cache: Results are kept up to 30 days; send max_age_days to reuse them for free.
  • Timeout: A request still running after about 25 seconds answers 202 with a job to poll (Batch and jobs).

Parameters#

NameTypeRequiredDescription
urlURLone ofVideo or Short URL (watch, youtu.be, shorts, live, embed). Accepted hosts: youtube.com, youtu.be.
idstringone of11-character video id. Also accepted as videoId, video_id.
languagestringnoLanguage code ("en", "es", "en-US"). Overrides the default track unless original_audio is set. Also accepted as lang.
original_audiobooleannoOnly return captions in the video's original spoken language. Takes precedence over language. Default false.

Send at least one of url, id. If you send several, the first listed is used and the rest are ignored.

Every request also accepts:

  • trim: true for a smaller response without null fields and extra.
  • raw: true to also get the platform's original object as raw.
  • max_age_days: accept a cached result up to this many days old, for 0 credits (Caching).

Example request#

Set your key in the environment first (see Authentication).

curl
curl -G "https://api.socialscrape.io/v1/youtube/video/transcript" \
  -H "x-api-key: $SOCIALSCRAPE_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "id=dQw4w9WgXcQ" \
  --data-urlencode "language=de"
Python
import os
import requests

params = {
    "id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "language": "de",
}
res = requests.get(
    "https://api.socialscrape.io/v1/youtube/video/transcript",
    headers={"x-api-key": os.environ["SOCIALSCRAPE_API_KEY"]},
    params=params,
)
body = res.json()

if body["ok"]:
    print(body["data"])
else:
    print(body["error"]["code"], body["error"]["message"])
TypeScript
const url = new URL("https://api.socialscrape.io/v1/youtube/video/transcript");
url.search = new URLSearchParams({
  "id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "language": "de"
}).toString();
const res = await fetch(url, {
  headers: { "x-api-key": process.env.SOCIALSCRAPE_API_KEY! },
});
const body = await res.json();

if (body.ok) {
  console.log(body.data);
} else {
  console.error(body.error.code, body.error.message);
}
n8n
{
  "nodes": [
    {
      "name": "SocialScrape YouTube video transcript",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.httpRequest",
      "typeVersion": 4.2,
      "position": [
        0,
        0
      ],
      "parameters": {
        "method": "GET",
        "url": "https://api.socialscrape.io/v1/youtube/video/transcript",
        "sendQuery": true,
        "queryParameters": {
          "parameters": [
            {
              "name": "id",
              "value": "dQw4w9WgXcQ"
            },
            {
              "name": "language",
              "value": "de"
            }
          ]
        },
        "sendHeaders": true,
        "headerParameters": {
          "parameters": [
            {
              "name": "x-api-key",
              "value": "={{ $env.SOCIALSCRAPE_API_KEY }}"
            }
          ]
        }
      }
    }
  ],
  "connections": {}
}

Example response#

This is a sample from a recorded response, lists and long text are shortened. Status 200.

{
  "ok": true,
  "credits_charged": 1,
  "credits_remaining": 4999,
  "cached": false,
  "cached_at": null,
  "request_id": "req_e45a821caf0eddcb356f1b98",
  "data": {
    "object": "transcript",
    "platform": "youtube",
    "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "language": "de-DE",
    "source": "captions",
    "duration_seconds": 213.0,
    "text": "Uns beiden ist die Liebe nicht fremd Du kennst die Regeln genau wie ich Für mich zählst nur du Das kriegst du sonst von keinem hier Ich will dir sagen, wie ich fühle Damit du es auch verstehst Ich geb dich niemals auf Lass dich niemals im S...",
    "segments": [
      {
        "start": 18.64,
        "end": 21.880000000000003,
        "text": "Uns beiden ist die Liebe nicht fremd"
      },
      {
        "start": 22.64,
        "end": 26.96,
        "text": "Du kennst die Regeln genau wie ich"
      },
      {
        "start": 27.04,
        "end": 31.04,
        "text": "Für mich zählst nur du"
      }
    ],
    "available_languages": [
      "de-DE",
      "en",
      "es-419"
    ],
    "extra": {
      "language_name": "German (Germany)",
      "tracks": [
        {
          "auto": false,
          "code": "en",
          "name": "English"
        },
        {
          "auto": true,
          "code": "en",
          "name": "English (auto-generated)"
        },
        {
          "auto": false,
          "code": "de-DE",
          "name": "German (Germany)"
        }
      ]
    }
  },
  "cursor": null,
  "has_more": null
}

Response#

A Transcript object in data.

See Data models for every field. The envelope around data is described in Responses.

Errors#

Failures are free: credits_charged is 0. Branch on error.code, never on the message.

CodeHTTPRetryMeaning
invalid_params400noA parameter is missing, unknown or has the wrong type.
unsupported_url400noThe URL is not one this endpoint accepts (wrong platform or form).
not_found404noThe platform says this profile, post or item does not exist.
transcript_unavailable404noNo captions exist and AI transcription is not possible for this media.

Every request can also fail with the account and platform errors listed on the Errors page.

Example error:

{
  "ok": false,
  "error": {
    "code": "transcript_unavailable",
    "message": "No captions exist and AI transcription is not possible for this media.",
    "retryable": false
  },
  "credits_charged": 0,
  "request_id": "req_7ca19846caca02fcdc1f4606"
}