Why YouTubeTranscript.dev?
Most YouTube transcript tools break when videos don't have captions. We don't. Our API extracts existing captions and transcribes directly from audio using AI speech recognition — covering 100% of YouTube videos.
- ⚡ Lightning fast — Cached transcripts return in under 2 seconds
- 🎙 Audio transcription (ASR) — No captions? We transcribe from the audio track
- 🌍 100+ languages — Multilingual support with on-demand translation
- 📤 Multiple formats — Timestamps, paragraphs, word-level output
- 📚 Batch processing — Up to 3,000 videos per request (depends on plan)
- 🔔 Webhooks — Async processing with delivery to your endpoint
- 💰 Predictable pricing — 1 credit per transcript, no surprises
- 🔒 Production ready — 99.9% uptime SLA
→ Get your free API key
API V2 Overview
V2 is the streamlined, user-owned transcript model. It prioritizes fast cache hits, consistent responses, and no surprise translations unless you explicitly request a language.
How V2 Works
- Check your owned transcripts (0 credits) — if you've already fetched it, it's free
- Fetch captions (1 credit) — if not owned yet
- Translate (1 credit per 2,500 chars) — only when you request a specific language
- ASR transcription (1 credit per 90 seconds) — async via webhook, for videos without captions
Endpoints
| Method | Endpoint | Description |
|---|
POST | /api/v2/transcribe | Extract transcript from a single video |
POST | /api/v2/batch | Extract transcripts from many videos (Free 10, Basic 500, Pro 1,500, Business 3,000) |
GET | /api/v2/jobs/{job_id} | Check status of an ASR job |
GET | /api/v2/batch/{batch_id} | Check status of a batch request |
Credit Costs
| Method | Cost | Speed | Notes |
|---|
| Native Captions | 1 credit | 5–10 seconds | Best quality, exact language |
| Translation | 1 credit per 2,500 chars | 5–10 seconds | Only when language is requested |
| ASR (Audio) | 1 credit per 90 seconds | 2–20 minutes | Async via webhook |
Quick Start
1. Get Your API Key
Sign up at youtubetranscript.dev and grab your API key from the Dashboard.
2. Extract a Transcript
curl -X POST https://www.youtubetranscript.dev/api/v2/transcribe \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"video": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"}'
3. With Timestamps and a Language
curl -X POST https://www.youtubetranscript.dev/api/v2/transcribe \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"video": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
"language": "es",
"format": {"timestamp": true}
}'
What you get back
{
"request_id": "80230632-…",
"status": "completed",
"data": {
"video_id": "UF8uR6Z6KLc",
"video_title": "Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address",
"transcript": {
"text": "This program is brought to you by Stanford University. …",
"language": "en",
"source": "manual",
"segments": [
{ "text": "This program is brought to you by Stanford University.", "start": 7470, "end": 10369 }
]
}
},
"credits_used": 1
}
- The transcript lives at
data.transcript. It's an object, not a list.
data.transcript.text is the full text, always included.data.transcript.segments is only included when you send "format": {"timestamp": true}.- ⚠️
start and end are in milliseconds. Divide by 1000 for seconds (7470 → 0:07).
transcript.language is the language you actually got. transcript.source is manual, auto, or asr.status is completed, processing (async ASR: poll job_id), failed, or requires_asr_confirmation.
4. Batch Request
Up to 10 videos per request on Free, 500 on Basic, 1,500 on Pro, and 3,000 on Business.
curl -X POST https://www.youtubetranscript.dev/api/v2/batch \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"video_ids": [
"dQw4w9WgXcQ",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID_2",
"VIDEO_ID_3"
]
}'
5. ASR with Webhook (videos without captions)
curl -X POST https://www.youtubetranscript.dev/api/v2/transcribe \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"video": "VIDEO_ID",
"mode": "speech_to_text_only",
"webhook_url": "https://yoursite.com/webhook"
}'
Returns immediately with status: "processing" and a job_id. Results are POSTed to your webhook when ready. No webhook? Leave out webhook_url and poll GET /api/v2/jobs/{job_id}.
Request Reference
Headers
| Header | Required | Value |
|---|
Authorization | Yes | Bearer YOUR_API_KEY |
Content-Type | Yes | application/json |
Request Fields
| Field | Required | Description |
|---|
video | Yes (single) | YouTube URL or 11-character video ID |
video_ids | Yes (batch) | Array of IDs or URLs. Per request: Free 10 · Basic 500 · Pro 1,500 · Business 3,000 |
language | No | ISO 639-1 code (e.g., "es", "fr"). Omit to get the original language. Check transcript.language for what you got |
format | No | Object of switches: {"timestamp": true, "paragraphs": true, "words": true}. timestamp adds segments |
mode | No | auto (captions, then ASR if none), captions_only, human_captions_only, or speech_to_text_only (always ASR). When omitted, your account default from the dashboard applies |
webhook_url | No | URL that receives ASR results. Optional with mode: you can poll GET /jobs/{job_id} instead |
source / allow_asr | No | Legacy, still supported. Use mode instead (don't combine them) |
Webhook Behavior
- Requests with
webhook_url return immediately with status: "processing"
- Batch requests return cached results immediately and queue only the missing items. Poll
GET /api/v2/batch/{batch_id} until status is no longer processing
- Each batch item in
results has the same data shape as a single /transcribe response
- Your webhook receives the final results when processing completes
Error Codes
Errors return JSON like {"error": "invalid_api_key", "message": "…"}.
| HTTP Status | Error Code | Description |
|---|
| 400 | invalid_request | Invalid JSON or missing required fields |
| 400 | invalid_parameter | Invalid video ID or parameter value |
| 401 | invalid_api_key | Missing or invalid API key |
| 402 | payment_required | Insufficient credits |
| 404 | no_captions | No captions available and ASR not used |
| 429 | rate_limit_exceeded | Too many requests, check Retry-After |
| 500 | internal_error | Server error, retry with backoff |
→ Full API Documentation & OpenAPI Spec
Examples
Install the SDK (Node.js / TypeScript)
npm install youtube-audio-transcript-api
Node.js / TypeScript (SDK)
import { YouTubeTranscript } from "youtube-audio-transcript-api";
const yt = new YouTubeTranscript({ apiKey: "your_api_key" });
// Simple — one line
const result = await yt.getTranscript("dQw4w9WgXcQ");
console.log(result.data?.transcript.text);
// With options
const translated = await yt.transcribe({
video: "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
language: "es",
format: { timestamp: true },
});
// Batch — many videos in one request
const batch = await yt.batch({
video_ids: ["dQw4w9WgXcQ", "jNQXAC9IVRw", "9bZkp7q19f0"],
});
// ASR for videos without captions
const asr = await yt.transcribe({
video: "VIDEO_ID",
source: "asr",
allow_asr: true,
webhook_url: "https://yoursite.com/webhook",
});
→ Full SDK documentation
Python
import requests
API_KEY = "your_api_key"
# Single video
response = requests.post(
"https://www.youtubetranscript.dev/api/v2/transcribe",
headers={
"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}",
"Content-Type": "application/json",
},
json={"video": "dQw4w9WgXcQ", "format": {"timestamp": True}},
)
transcript = response.json()["data"]["transcript"]
for segment in transcript["segments"]:
seconds = segment["start"] / 1000 # start is in milliseconds
print(f"[{seconds:.1f}s] {segment['text']}")
JavaScript / Node.js (without SDK)
const response = await fetch("https://www.youtubetranscript.dev/api/v2/transcribe", {
method: "POST",
headers: {
"Authorization": `Bearer ${API_KEY}`,
"Content-Type": "application/json",
},
body: JSON.stringify({ video: "dQw4w9WgXcQ" }),
});
const { data } = await response.json();
console.log(data.transcript.text);
More Examples
Check the /examples directory for complete, runnable scripts:
Use Cases
🤖 AI & LLM Pipelines
Feed video transcripts into GPT, Claude, or any LLM. Build RAG systems, knowledge bases, and AI assistants powered by YouTube content.
🎯 Content Repurposing
Turn YouTube videos into blog posts, social media content, newsletters, and more.
🔬 Research & Analysis
Analyze video content at scale — sentiment analysis, topic modeling, trend detection across thousands of videos.
📊 SEO & Marketing
Extract competitor video strategies, generate SEO-optimized content from videos, and analyze trends across your niche.
🎓 Education
Transcribe lectures, courses, and tutorials. Make video content searchable and accessible.
♿ Accessibility
Generate accurate captions and subtitles for videos that don't have them, in 100+ languages.
🎁 Free AI skills built on this API
No coding needed. These open-source Claude skills turn any YouTube video into something you can present, study, or share:
Install any of them in Claude Code with one line, e.g. /plugin install youtube-to-course --marketplace tstfully/youtube-to-course. More at youtubetranscript.dev/open-source.
Comparison with youtube-transcript-api (Python)
The open-source youtube-transcript-api Python package is a great tool, but it has limitations:
| YouTubeTranscript.dev | youtube-transcript-api |
|---|
| Videos without captions | ✅ ASR audio transcription | ❌ Fails |
| Translation | ✅ On-demand, any language | ⚠️ Limited to YouTube's translations |
| Batch processing | ✅ Up to 3,000 videos/request | ❌ One at a time |
| Caching | ✅ Owned transcripts, 0 credits on re-fetch | ❌ Fetches every time |
| Webhooks | ✅ Async delivery | ❌ Not available |
| Infrastructure | ✅ Managed API, 99.9% uptime | ❌ Self-hosted, you handle rate limits |
| Rate limit handling | ✅ Managed for you | ❌ YouTube blocks you |
Issues & Feedback
This is the public repository for YouTubeTranscript.dev. The API is proprietary, but we use this repo to collect feedback from our developer community.
How you can help:
- 🐛 Bug Reports — Found an issue with the API? Open an issue
- 💡 Feature Requests — Have an idea? Start a discussion
- 📖 Documentation Errors — Spot something wrong in the docs? Let us know
- ⭐ Star this repo — Help other developers find us
Links
License
The code examples and documentation in this repository are licensed under the MIT License.
The YouTubeTranscript.dev API is a proprietary service. See Terms of Service.
