Transcript

GET /v1/youtube/video/transcript

Retrieves the captions, subtitles, or transcript of a YouTube video or short. Returns both a timestamped transcript array with start/end times and a plain-text version in transcript_only_text. Supports specifying a language code. Note: the video must be under 2 minutes for transcript extraction to work.

Authentication

All requests require the x-api-key header. Get your key at scrapecreators.com.

Query Parameters

Name	Type	Required	Description	Example
url	string	yes	YouTube video or short URL	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjVIDXPP7Uk
language	string	no	2 letter language code, ie 'en', 'es', 'fr' etc. If the transcript is not available in the language you specify, the transcript will be null.	en

Example Request

curl

curl 'https://api.scrapecreators.com/v1/youtube/video/transcript?url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjVIDXPP7Uk' \
  -H 'x-api-key: $SCRAPECREATORS_API_KEY'

Node / TypeScript

const params = new URLSearchParams({ url: 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjVIDXPP7Uk' });
const res = await fetch(`https://api.scrapecreators.com/v1/youtube/video/transcript?${params}`, {
  headers: { 'x-api-key': process.env.SCRAPECREATORS_API_KEY }
});
const data = await res.json();
console.log(data);

Python

import os, requests
r = requests.get(
    'https://api.scrapecreators.com/v1/youtube/video/transcript',
    headers={'x-api-key': os.environ['SCRAPECREATORS_API_KEY']},
    params={'url': 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjVIDXPP7Uk'},
)
r.raise_for_status()
print(r.json())

CLI

scrapecreators youtube video-transcript --help

Example Response

{
  "videoId": "bjVIDXPP7Uk",
  "type": "video",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjVIDXPP7Uk",
  "transcript": [
    {
      "text": "welcome back to the hell farm and the",
      "startMs": "160",
      "endMs": "1920",
      "startTimeText": "0:00"
    }
  ],
  "transcript_only_text": "welcome back to the hell farm and the backyard trails we built these jumps two years ago and last year we just kind of rebuilt them and this year......",
  "language": "English"
}

Credits

Most ScrapeCreators endpoints consume 1 credit per successful response. Some heavier endpoints (transcripts, AI-driven enrichment, ad detail lookups) may cost more. Check GET /v1/credit-balance for your remaining balance.

Errors

Status	Meaning	Action
200	Success.	Use the JSON payload.
400	Invalid or missing parameter.	Verify required parameters and value format.
401	Missing or invalid x-api-key.	Pass a valid API key in the header.
402	Out of credits.	Top up at scrapecreators.com or wait for plan reset.
404	Resource not found or private.	Confirm the handle, URL, or id and that the resource is public.
429	Rate limited.	Backoff and retry with exponential delay.
500	Server error or upstream platform failure.	Retry with backoff; report persistent errors to support.