# Video Transcript API: YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, X, Facebook (`amrameng/video-transcript-api`) Actor Get transcripts from YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, X (Twitter), Facebook, and media files. Always returns clean text, even for videos without subtitles. Plain text or timestamped chunks, in bulk or via a real-time API. A pay-as-you-go Supadata alternative. - **URL**: https://apify.com/amrameng/video-transcript-api.md - **Developed by:** [Amram Englander](https://apify.com/amrameng) (community) - **Categories:** Social media, AI, Videos - **Features:** Limited permissions, Single-tenant, Server interface - **Stats:** 52 total users, 18 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 1 bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing from $25.00 / 1,000 transcript extracteds This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event ## What's an Apify Actor? An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes. In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours, and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store. In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server. Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md. ## How to integrate an Actor? If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects. You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready. Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run. For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below. Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`). # README ![Video Transcript API — get transcripts from YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, X, and Facebook](https://i.imgur.com/yNa93B6.png) **Get a transcript from any YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, X (Twitter), Facebook video or media file — in one tool.** This **video transcript API** returns clean text — even for videos with no subtitles. Output as plain text or timestamped chunks, in bulk or via a real-time API. No API keys, no per-platform setup. It's a pay-as-you-go **Supadata alternative** on Apify that transcribes YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, X, and Facebook for about $0.025 per transcript — with no monthly subscription and video metadata included in the same call. Tired of juggling a separate YouTube transcript scraper, a TikTok caption tool, and an Instagram reel transcriber? This single Actor covers **all of them plus X/Twitter, Facebook, and direct file URLs (mp4, mp3, wav, m4a…)** and returns one consistent format. ### What does the YouTube, TikTok & Instagram transcript API do? You paste one or more video URLs and get a transcript for each — fast, accurate, and in one consistent format across every platform. It works even when a video has no subtitles, and it detects the language automatically. There's nothing to configure. It runs two ways: - **Batch** — paste a list of URLs, get a dataset of transcripts. - **Real-time API (Standby)** — call `GET /transcript?url=...` and get JSON back. A low-cost **Supadata alternative** on Apify. ### Which platforms and files are supported? The input comes **pre-loaded with a working example from every platform plus a direct media file** — just press **Start** to see it transcribe across all of them, then swap in your own links. | Platform | URL formats it accepts | | --------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | | **YouTube** | `youtube.com/watch?v=…`, `youtu.be/…`, `/shorts/…` | | **TikTok** | `tiktok.com/@user/video/…`, `vm.tiktok.com/…` | | **Instagram** | `instagram.com/reel/…`, `/p/…`, `/tv/…` | | **X / Twitter** | `x.com/user/status/…`, `twitter.com/…/status/…` | | **Facebook** | `facebook.com/…/videos/…`, `/reel/…`, `fb.watch/…` | | **File URLs** | `.mp4 .webm .mp3 .m4a .wav .flac .ogg` (direct links) | ### What data does the transcript scraper return? | Field | Description | | ---------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | | `transcript` | Full clean plain-text transcript | | `chunks` | Timestamped segments `{ text, offset, duration, lang }` | | `lang` | Detected language (ISO 639-1, e.g. `en`) | | `availableLangs` | Other languages the transcript is available in | | `platform` | youtube / tiktok / instagram / twitter / facebook / file | | `durationMs` | Media length in milliseconds | | `title` | Video title | | `channel` | Channel / author name | | `channelUrl` | Channel / author profile URL | | `viewCount` | View count (when the platform exposes it) | | `likeCount` | Like count (when the platform exposes it) | | `uploadDate` | Upload date (`YYYY-MM-DD`) | | `thumbnail` | Thumbnail image URL | | `description` | Video description / caption text | **Transcript *and* full video metadata in a single call** — title, channel, views, likes, upload date, and thumbnail come back with every transcript, at no extra charge. (Supadata makes you call a separate metadata endpoint for that.) ### Why use this transcript API? - **Every platform in one tool** — stop wiring up five different scrapers. - **Works without subtitles** — videos with no captions still return a transcript (when the audio has speech). - **Built for SEO, research, and AI** — feed transcripts to LLMs, summarize videos, repurpose content, build datasets, do accessibility captions, monitor competitors and influencers. - **Bulk or API** — process large batches of URLs in one run, or call it live from your app. - **Apify platform perks** — scheduling, integrations (Make, Zapier, n8n), API access, proxy rotation, and monitoring out of the box. ### LLM-ready transcripts for RAG and AI Every transcript comes back **clean and pre-segmented** — no scraping artifacts, no HTML, no timestamps baked into the text. Drop it straight into a **RAG pipeline**, a vector database, or an LLM prompt for summarization, Q\&A, sentiment analysis, or content repurposing. The timestamped `chunks` map one-to-one to embeddings when you need retrieval at the segment level, and the plain `transcript` string is ready to tokenize as-is. ### What can you build with it? - **Video-to-text & audio-to-text** — turn any video *or* audio file (mp4, mp3, wav, m4a) into clean text, including multilingual content auto-detected across 50+ languages. - **RAG & AI pipelines** — feed timestamped segments into a vector database for retrieval-augmented generation, semantic search, or an AI agent that reasons over video. - **Subtitles & accessibility** — generate timestamped captions (SRT/VTT-style) from videos that have no subtitles of their own. - **Content repurposing & SEO** — transcribe YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, X, and Facebook videos programmatically into articles, summaries, and show notes. - **Research & monitoring** — build cross-platform transcript datasets to track competitors, influencers, and topics at scale. ### How to get a transcript (step by step) 1. Open the Actor — the **Video / file URLs** field is already pre-filled with a working example from every platform. Click **Start** to try it, or replace them with your own URLs (one per line, mix any platforms). 2. Click **Start**. 3. Download the results as **JSON, CSV, Excel, or HTML** — one transcript per URL. That's it — no settings to configure. For real-time use, run the Actor in **Standby** mode and call `GET /transcript?url=&text=true`. ### How much does it cost to get a transcript? **About $0.025 per transcript**, any platform — one flat price whether the video has subtitles or not. Long videos (over ~20 minutes) add a small surcharge. **No monthly subscription** (unlike Supadata), and you only pay for transcripts you actually get back — failed or empty videos aren't charged. On the Apify **free plan** you get $5 in platform credits every month — enough to test the Actor on real videos before you commit to anything. ### Supadata alternative on Apify Looking for a **Supadata alternative**? This Actor covers the same platforms — YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, X (Twitter), Facebook, and direct media files — but as a **pay-as-you-go Apify Actor with no monthly subscription**. You pay about $0.025 per transcript and nothing while you're idle, instead of committing to a credit plan and losing unused credits at the end of each month. | | This Actor | Supadata | | --------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- | | **Pricing** | Pay-as-you-go, ~$0.025/transcript | Monthly subscription + credits (Free 100 → $5 → $17 → $47+) | | **Monthly minimum** | None — pay only for what you run | Paid tiers are monthly plans | | **Platforms** | YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, X, Facebook, files | YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, X, Facebook, files | | **Video metadata** | Included in the same call | Separate metadata endpoint | | **Works without subtitles** | Yes (speech-to-text fallback) | Yes | | **Integrations** | Make, Zapier, n8n via Apify | API only | Being upfront: Supadata's free tier (100 credits/month) is the cheaper choice if you only need a handful of transcripts, and its largest committed plans cost less per unit at very high volume. This Actor wins when you want **no subscription, no wasted credits, and metadata bundled in** — ideal for spiky, mid-volume, or pay-as-you-go workloads, or if you already run on Apify. ### Input ```json { "urls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ", "https://www.tiktok.com/@user/video/734...", "https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cxyz123/" ] } ``` Just URLs — that's the whole input. Every result comes back with **both** a clean transcript and timestamps, so there's nothing to configure. | Field | Description | | --------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `urls` (required) | Video/file URLs — any platforms mixed | | `lang` *(optional)* | Preferred language (ISO 639-1, e.g. `en`); best available is used otherwise | | `maxDurationMinutes` *(optional)* | Skip AI transcription above this length (default `30`); videos with captions are unaffected; `0` = no limit | ### Output example Every result includes **both** a clean `transcript` string and timestamped `chunks`: ```json { "url": "https://www.tiktok.com/@user/video/734...", "platform": "tiktok", "lang": "en", "availableLangs": [], "durationMs": 18000, "title": "How we shot this in one take", "channel": "user", "channelUrl": "https://www.tiktok.com/@user", "viewCount": 482000, "likeCount": 31000, "uploadDate": "2026-05-21", "thumbnail": "https://...", "description": "Behind the scenes 🎬 #filmmaking", "transcript": "Hello everyone, in this video...", "chunks": [{ "text": "Hello everyone", "offset": 0, "duration": 2140, "lang": "en" }] } ``` Read `transcript` for clean text, or use `chunks` for timestamps (subtitles, search, video sync). Download the dataset in JSON, CSV, Excel, or HTML. *(The real-time API lets you request just text or just chunks via the `text` parameter.)* ### Use it as an API (code examples) Run the Actor in **Standby** mode and it behaves like a real-time transcript API — one HTTP call per URL, JSON back, no run to start. Authenticate with your Apify token. *(Your Actor's exact Standby URL is shown in the Console under the **Standby** tab.)* **cURL** ```bash curl "https://video-transcript-api.apify.actor/transcript?url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ&text=true" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" ``` **Python** ```python import requests resp = requests.get( "https://video-transcript-api.apify.actor/transcript", params={"url": "https://www.tiktok.com/@cnn/video/7648387379912248589", "text": "true"}, headers={"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN"}, ) print(resp.json()["content"]) ``` **JavaScript (Node)** ```js const url = 'https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUgLJzyEWIC/'; const res = await fetch( `https://video-transcript-api.apify.actor/transcript?url=${encodeURIComponent(url)}&text=true`, { headers: { Authorization: 'Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN' } }, ); const { content, lang } = await res.json(); console.log(lang, content); ``` Pass `text=true` for plain text, or omit it to get timestamped `chunks`. Add `&lang=en` to prefer a language. The response is `{ content, lang, availableLangs, metadata }`, where `metadata` carries the video's title, channel, views, upload date, and thumbnail. ### FAQ **How do I get a YouTube transcript via API?** Paste the YouTube URL (or call the Standby endpoint `GET /transcript?url=...`) and you get the transcript text back. **Can I get a TikTok or Instagram reel transcript?** Yes — paste the TikTok or Instagram URL and you get the full transcript back. **Does it work on videos without subtitles?** Yes — that's the point. Videos with no subtitles are transcribed too, as long as the audio has speech. **Do I need any API keys or setup?** No — transcription is fully built in. Just paste URLs. **Is this a Supadata alternative?** Yes. It's a pay-as-you-go **Supadata alternative** on Apify: the same transcripts from YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, X, and Facebook, but with no monthly subscription, video metadata included in the same call, and native Make/Zapier/n8n integrations. You pay about $0.025 per transcript instead of committing to a credit plan. **What languages are supported?** 50+ languages, auto-detected and returned as ISO 639-1 codes. **Can I get timestamps?** Yes — every result includes a `chunks` array of timestamped segments `{ text, offset, duration, lang }`, alongside the clean `transcript` text. **How much does one transcript cost?** About **$0.025** per transcript, flat, on any platform — long videos (over ~20 minutes) add a small surcharge. No subscription, and you're only charged for transcripts you successfully get back. **Is the output ready for LLMs and RAG?** Yes — you get clean plain text plus timestamped chunks, with no HTML or scraping artifacts, so it's ready to embed in a vector database or feed straight to an LLM. **Can I transcribe an audio file, not just video?** Yes — pass a direct link to an mp3, wav, or m4a and you get the same output. It's a video- and audio-to-text API. **Does it support multiple languages?** Yes — 50+ languages, auto-detected (ISO 639-1). It's a multilingual transcript API; pass `lang` to prefer a specific one. **Can I generate subtitles?** Yes — every result includes timestamped segments you can turn into SRT/VTT-style captions, even for videos with no native subtitles. **How do I transcribe a video programmatically?** Call the Standby endpoint `GET /transcript?url=...` from your code (see the cURL/Python/JS examples above), or run it in batch over a list of URLs. ### Related actors Looking for other scrapers and APIs? **[Browse all Actors by this developer →](https://apify.com/amrameng)** ### Disclaimer & support Only transcribe public content you're permitted to use, and respect each platform's Terms of Service. Private, age-restricted, or login-gated videos may be inaccessible, and clips with no speech (music/silent) return no transcript rather than fabricated text. Found a bug or need another platform? Open an **Issue** — feedback is welcome. *** *Common search terms: video transcript API, video-to-text API, speech-to-text, YouTube / TikTok / Instagram / X / Facebook transcript API, multilingual transcript API, timestamped transcript, transcribe video programmatically, RAG transcript pipeline, Supadata alternative.* # Actor input Schema ## `urls` (type: `array`): The videos or media files to transcribe — paste as many as you like, mixing any platforms. One result per URL, and each includes both a clean transcript and timestamped chunks. The examples below show one of every supported source — edit or replace them. ## `lang` (type: `string`): Optional ISO 639-1 code (e.g. "en", "es", "he"). If that language isn't available, the actor returns the best available one and lists the rest in availableLangs. Leave blank to auto-detect. ## `maxDurationMinutes` (type: `integer`): Skip AI transcription for videos longer than this many minutes. Videos that already have captions are never affected. 0 = no limit. ## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`): Residential proxy is used by default and is required for YouTube/TikTok/Instagram (they block datacenter IPs). No need to change this. ## Actor input object example ```json { "urls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ", "https://www.tiktok.com/@cnn/video/7648387379912248589", "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUgLJzyEWIC/", "https://x.com/historyinmemes/status/1790637656616943991", "https://www.facebook.com/cnn/videos/10155529876156509/", "https://archive.org/download/NasaAudioHighlightReels/Sound-Bite_One-Small-Step.mp3" ], "maxDurationMinutes": 30, "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": [ "RESIDENTIAL" ] } } ``` # Actor output Schema ## `transcripts` (type: `string`): No description # API You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup. ## JavaScript example ```javascript import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client'; // Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token // Replace the '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "urls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ", "https://www.tiktok.com/@cnn/video/7648387379912248589", "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUgLJzyEWIC/", "https://x.com/historyinmemes/status/1790637656616943991", "https://www.facebook.com/cnn/videos/10155529876156509/", "https://archive.org/download/NasaAudioHighlightReels/Sound-Bite_One-Small-Step.mp3" ] }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("amrameng/video-transcript-api").call(input); // Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any) console.log('Results from dataset'); console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`); const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems(); items.forEach((item) => { console.dir(item); }); // 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs ``` ## Python example ```python from apify_client import ApifyClient # Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token # Replace '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = { "urls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ", "https://www.tiktok.com/@cnn/video/7648387379912248589", "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUgLJzyEWIC/", "https://x.com/historyinmemes/status/1790637656616943991", "https://www.facebook.com/cnn/videos/10155529876156509/", "https://archive.org/download/NasaAudioHighlightReels/Sound-Bite_One-Small-Step.mp3", ] } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("amrameng/video-transcript-api").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}") for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items(): print(item) # 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start ``` ## CLI example ```bash echo '{ "urls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ", "https://www.tiktok.com/@cnn/video/7648387379912248589", "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUgLJzyEWIC/", "https://x.com/historyinmemes/status/1790637656616943991", "https://www.facebook.com/cnn/videos/10155529876156509/", "https://archive.org/download/NasaAudioHighlightReels/Sound-Bite_One-Small-Step.mp3" ] }' | apify call amrameng/video-transcript-api --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "type": "http", "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,amrameng/video-transcript-api" } } } ``` The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer ` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations). ## OpenAPI specification Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/wxyd0HjeB6iJhyYBB/builds/WWqPlOXL5sCNlS0El/openapi.json