Video Transcript Scraper

Extract transcripts from public YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook videos in one run. Send a mixed list of video URLs and receive normalized transcript text, timestamped segments, language, video metadata, and clear per-video status rows.

What you can export

• Full transcript text for public videos with accessible captions or speech
• Timestamped transcript segments
• Platform, canonical URL, video ID, title, author, duration, thumbnail, and caption when public
• Stable success/failure status and error details
• Original platform-specific fields in sourceData

Input example

{
  "videoUrls": [
    { "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" },
    { "url": "https://www.tiktok.com/@scout2015/video/6718335390845095173" }
  ],
  "preferredLanguage": "en",
  "includeTimestamps": true,
  "includeMetadata": true,
  "maxVideos": 2
}

Output example

{
  "inputUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "platform": "youtube",
  "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "title": "Video title",
  "authorName": "Channel name",
  "language": "en",
  "transcriptText": "Transcript text...",
  "segments": [{ "text": "Transcript text", "startSeconds": 0, "endSeconds": 2.4, "durationSeconds": 2.4 }],
  "durationSeconds": 213,
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/hqdefault.jpg",
  "caption": null,
  "status": "succeeded",
  "errorMessage": null,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-09-06T00:00:00.000Z",
  "sourceData": {}
}

Input settings

Who is it for?

• AI and data teams building RAG, semantic search, or media-monitoring pipelines
• Researchers comparing video narratives across social platforms
• Content teams creating summaries, subtitles, topic indexes, and editorial briefs
• Developers who need one stable schema instead of platform-specific integrations

Use cases

• Feed mixed social-video transcripts into RAG or search pipelines
• Monitor creators across several platforms
• Create subtitles, summaries, topic indexes, and content briefs
• Export timestamped quotes for research and editorial review

Tips and limits

• Use direct public video URLs, not profile or channel pages.
• Private, deleted, age-restricted, geo-restricted, or silent videos may return failed rows.
• Metadata and timestamp availability varies by platform and public source.
• Keep the first run small, then increase maxVideos after confirming the source URLs work.

API usage

cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/fetch_cat~video-transcript-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"videoUrls":[{"url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"}],"maxVideos":1}'

JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';
const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('fetch_cat/video-transcript-scraper').call({
  videoUrls: [{ url: 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ' }],
  maxVideos: 1,
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Python

import os
from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient(os.environ['APIFY_TOKEN'])
run = client.actor('fetch_cat/video-transcript-scraper').call(run_input={
    'videoUrls': [{'url': 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ'}],
    'maxVideos': 1,
})
items = client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).list_items().items
print(items)

MCP and AI agents

Connect through Apify MCP and expose fetch_cat/video-transcript-scraper to your agent.

claude mcp add apify --transport http "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch_cat/video-transcript-scraper"

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch_cat/video-transcript-scraper"
    }
  }
}

Example prompts:

• “Extract timestamped transcripts from these three public video URLs.”
• “Summarize the main themes and cite the source URL for each transcript.”

Support

Open an issue from the Actor's Apify Store page with a public example URL, expected result, and run ID. Do not include private videos, credentials, cookies, or personal data.