YouTube Transcript API. Send a video link or ID.
Timed transcript from captions or audio. We handle the proxies, blocks and platform changes.
YouTube Transcript API at a glance
Returns the timed transcript of a public YouTube video, short or live replay, from its captions or, when it has none, its audio. Send the video's link or ID. Each segment has its start and end time, and text holds the whole transcript.
GET /v1/youtube/transcript
- 1 credit per request, up to 122 credits, $0.75–$1.97 per 1,000 requests
- 10 typed fields null when unknown
urlis all it needs, e.g.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ- 100 credits free when you sign up, no card, so you can build before you spend
Send one request. Get 10 fields back.
Copy the request in your language, or hand it to your agent. Sign up for an API key and your first 100 credits are free.
$ npm install socialtapurl = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQconst params = new URLSearchParams({
url: "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
});
const res = await fetch(`https://socialtap.dev/v1/youtube/transcript?${params}`, {
headers: { "x-api-key": process.env.SOCIALTAP_API_KEY ?? "" },
});
const body = await res.json();
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`${body.error.code}: ${body.error.message}`);
const { data, meta } = body;
console.log(data, meta.credits_charged);import os
import requests
res = requests.get(
"https://socialtap.dev/v1/youtube/transcript",
params={"url": "dQw4w9WgXcQ"},
headers={"x-api-key": os.environ["SOCIALTAP_API_KEY"]},
)
body = res.json()
if not res.ok:
raise RuntimeError(f"{body['error']['code']}: {body['error']['message']}")
data, meta = body["data"], body["meta"]
print(data, meta["credits_charged"])require "json"
require "net/http"
uri = URI("https://socialtap.dev/v1/youtube/transcript")
uri.query = URI.encode_www_form('url' => 'dQw4w9WgXcQ')
req = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri)
req["x-api-key"] = ENV.fetch("SOCIALTAP_API_KEY")
res = Net::HTTP.start(uri.host, uri.port, use_ssl: uri.scheme == "https") { |http| http.request(req) }
body = JSON.parse(res.body)
raise "#{body["error"]["code"]}: #{body["error"]["message"]}" unless res.is_a?(Net::HTTPSuccess)
pp body["data"]
puts body["meta"]["credits_charged"]<?php
$query = http_build_query([
'url' => 'dQw4w9WgXcQ',
]);
$ch = curl_init('https://socialtap.dev/v1/youtube/transcript?' . $query);
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => ['x-api-key: ' . getenv('SOCIALTAP_API_KEY')],
]);
$body = json_decode(curl_exec($ch), true);
if (curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_RESPONSE_CODE) >= 400) {
throw new RuntimeException($body['error']['code'] . ': ' . $body['error']['message']);
}
print_r($body['data']);
echo $body['meta']['credits_charged'], PHP_EOL;package main
import (
"encoding/json"
"fmt"
"log"
"net/http"
"net/url"
"os"
)
func main() {
q := url.Values{}
q.Set("url", "dQw4w9WgXcQ")
req, err := http.NewRequest("GET", "https://socialtap.dev/v1/youtube/transcript?"+q.Encode(), nil)
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
req.Header.Set("x-api-key", os.Getenv("SOCIALTAP_API_KEY"))
res, err := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
defer res.Body.Close()
var body struct {
Data json.RawMessage `json:"data"`
Meta map[string]any `json:"meta"`
Error *struct {
Code string `json:"code"`
Message string `json:"message"`
} `json:"error"`
}
if err := json.NewDecoder(res.Body).Decode(&body); err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
if body.Error != nil {
log.Fatalf("%s: %s", body.Error.Code, body.Error.Message)
}
fmt.Println(string(body.Data), body.Meta["credits_charged"])
}curl 'https://socialtap.dev/v1/youtube/transcript?url=dQw4w9WgXcQ' \
-H "x-api-key: $SOCIALTAP_API_KEY"{
"data": {
"available_languages": [
"en",
"de-DE",
"ja"
],
"duration_ms": 213000,
"id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
"is_auto_generated": false,
"language": "en",
"platform": "youtube",
"platform_specific": {},
"segments": [
{
"end_ms": 3040,
"start_ms": 1360,
"text": "[♪♪♪]"
},
{
"end_ms": 21880,
"start_ms": 18640,
"text": "♪ We're no strangers to love ♪"
},
{
"end_ms": 26960,
"start_ms": 22640,
"text": "♪ You know the rules and so do I ♪"
}
],
"source": "captions",
"text": "[♪♪♪] ♪ We're no strangers to love ♪ ♪ You know the rules and so do I ♪ ♪ A full commitment's what I'm thinking of ♪ ♪ You wouldn't get this from any other guy ♪ ♪ I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling ♪ ♪ Gotta make you understand ♪ ♪ Never gonna give you up ♪ ♪ Never gonna let …",
"url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
},
"meta": {
"request_id": "req_3f9c2a7d1e8b4c6a9f0e2d4b6a8c0e1f",
"platform": "youtube",
"source": "captions",
"is_cached": false,
"credits_charged": 1,
"latency_ms": 308,
"fetched_at": "2026-10-25T12:00:00Z",
"input": {
"kind": "video",
"id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
"url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
},
"credits_remaining": 9999,
"client_request_id": null,
"warnings": []
}
}import { SocialTap } from "socialtap";
const client = new SocialTap(); // apiKey defaults to process.env.SOCIALTAP_API_KEY
const res = await client.youtube.transcript.get({ url: "dQw4w9WgXcQ" });
console.log(res.data);
console.log(res.credits.charged, res.meta.request_id);import java.net.URI;
import java.net.URLEncoder;
import java.net.http.HttpClient;
import java.net.http.HttpRequest;
import java.net.http.HttpResponse;
import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
String query = "url=" + encode("dQw4w9WgXcQ");
HttpRequest request = HttpRequest.newBuilder()
.uri(URI.create("https://socialtap.dev/v1/youtube/transcript?" + query))
.header("x-api-key", System.getenv("SOCIALTAP_API_KEY"))
.GET()
.build();
HttpResponse<String> response = HttpClient.newHttpClient()
.send(request, HttpResponse.BodyHandlers.ofString());
// An error is {"error": {"code", "message", ...}}; success is {data, meta}, meta.credits_charged its price.
if (response.statusCode() >= 400) throw new RuntimeException(response.body());
System.out.println(response.body());
}
static String encode(String value) {
return URLEncoder.encode(value, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
}
}using System.Text.Json;
using var http = new HttpClient();
http.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("x-api-key", Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("SOCIALTAP_API_KEY"));
var query = string.Join("&",
"url=" + Uri.EscapeDataString("dQw4w9WgXcQ"));
var res = await http.GetAsync("https://socialtap.dev/v1/youtube/transcript?" + query);
using var body = JsonDocument.Parse(await res.Content.ReadAsStringAsync());
if (!res.IsSuccessStatusCode)
{
var error = body.RootElement.GetProperty("error");
throw new Exception($"{error.GetProperty("code")}: {error.GetProperty("message")}");
}
Console.WriteLine(body.RootElement.GetProperty("data"));
Console.WriteLine(body.RootElement.GetProperty("meta").GetProperty("credits_charged"));// Cargo.toml: reqwest = { version = "0.12", features = ["blocking", "json"] }, serde_json = "1"
use std::env;
fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
let res = reqwest::blocking::Client::new()
.get("https://socialtap.dev/v1/youtube/transcript")
.query(&[("url", "dQw4w9WgXcQ")])
.header("x-api-key", env::var("SOCIALTAP_API_KEY")?)
.send()?;
let ok = res.status().is_success();
let body: serde_json::Value = res.json()?;
if !ok {
return Err(format!("{}: {}", body["error"]["code"], body["error"]["message"]).into());
}
println!("{} {}", body["data"], body["meta"]["credits_charged"]);
Ok(())
}200 OK · GET https://socialtap.dev/v1/youtube/transcriptLong arrays and strings are shortened here. Real responses are complete.Docs One schema on 9 platforms.
The response reference lists every field, its type and when it is null. See the full schema.
Null means unknown
A field YouTube doesn't show is null, never zero or an empty string, so a real zero always means zero.
What it accepts
YouTube video URL (watch, youtu.be, shorts, live, embed, m./music. hosts) or an 11-character video ID.
Write one parser
YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and 6 more platforms answer in these fields, so the code that reads one reads them all.
platformstring- Platform the media is hosted on.
idstring- Platform-native ID of the post (equals post.id); of an ad library entry, its library ID (equals ad.id).
urlstring- Canonical URL of the post (of an ad library entry, its library page).
languagestring- BCP-47 language of the returned transcript; null when unknown.
sourcestring- captions = platform caption track; asr = speech-to-text on the audio. New values may be added.
is_auto_generatedboolean- True when the track was machine-generated (platform auto-captions or ASR).
available_languagesstring[]- BCP-47 caption languages the platform offers for this post; [] if none or not listed.
duration_msinteger- Media duration in milliseconds; null when unknown.
Live data from 33 platforms.
What teams build with the YouTube Transcript API.
Summarize or search videos with AI
Build subtitle and translation tools
Index a channel's back catalog for RAG
Repurpose videos into articles and posts
Good to know before you build.
- The creator's captions win over auto-generated ones, and is_auto_generated tells you which you got.
- Speech-to-text runs only for a video with no captions, up to a length limit, and returns no_transcript when YouTube withholds the audio.
- Private, members-only, rental and age-restricted videos return private_or_unavailable.
From 1 credit per request. Failed requests are free.
Buy credits once and spend them on any endpoint, on any platform.
| Source | Price per successful request | Per 1,000 requests |
|---|---|---|
Captions captions | 1 credit | $0.75–$1.97 |
Speech-to-text asr | 2 credits + 2 per started minute of media up to 122 credits (60 started minutes of media) | $1.50–$3.93 + $1.50–$3.93 per started minute of media |
- Cache hits are free.
- Credits from packs and top-ups never expire.
- A monthly plan's credits are spent first, and what is left of them ends at each renewal.
- Prices exclude tax: sales tax is added at checkout where it applies.
- Outside the US, plans and packs are sold to businesses: checkout asks for your VAT, GST or other business tax ID.
Questions about the YouTube Transcript API.
More in the API reference.
Can I get the transcript in another language?
How much does the YouTube Transcript API cost?
Try it on a link you already have.
Paste it in the playground, or copy the request into your code.
- No credit card
- Failed requests are free
- Works on all 218 endpoints