YouTube Transcript API

Extract YouTube video transcripts instantly with our YouTube Transcript API. No need for proxies, IP rotation, or complex infrastructure — just a simple API call. Get accurate transcripts for any public video or playlist, ready for analysis, AI models, or automation.

Transcripts

This API allows you to fetch the transcripts of a set of YouTube video IDs.

POST /api/transcripts

Headers

Authorization required

Basic API token generated in your profile. Check the pricing page to see the cost of this API.

Content-Type required

application/json

Parameters

ids required

Array of strings that contains the ids of all the video's you want the transcripts of. Limited to 50 at a time!

Rate Limit

The API is rate-limited to 5 requests per 10 seconds. If you exceed this limit, you will receive a 429 Too Many Requests response.

A Retry-After header will be included in the response when you hit the rate limit. It indicates how many seconds you should wait before making another request.

curl -X POST https://www.youtube-transcript.io/api/transcripts \
  -H "Authorization: Basic <your-api-token>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"ids": ["jNQXAC9IVRw"]}'

Automation Tools

n8n Workflow

Ready-to-use n8n workflow template for automated transcript extraction. Simply import and configure with your API token.

Make Blueprint

Ready-to-use Make blueprint for automated transcript extraction. Simply import and configure with your API token.

Channels

Plus

This API allows you to fetch the channels of a set of YouTube channel external IDs. This API is only available for Plus or Pro users.

POST /api/channels

Headers

Authorization required

Basic API token generated in your profile. Check the pricing page to see the cost of this API.

Content-Type required

application/json

Parameters

ids required

Array of strings that contains the ids of all the channels you want the info of. Limited to 50 at a time! The IDs you pass are the public ids of the channels without the @. For example, for the channel https://www.youtube.com/@jawed, the ID is jawed.

Limited to 5 channels per request on Plus plans.

Limited to 50 channels per request on Pro plans or higher.

includePlaylistData optional

If set to true, the API will include additional data about the channel's playlists (video title, id, and thumbnail).

If there are a lot of videos in the channel, this can take a bit longer to fetch.

Rate Limit

The API is rate-limited to 5 requests per 10 seconds. If you exceed this limit, you will receive a 429 Too Many Requests response.

A Retry-After header will be included in the response when you hit the rate limit. It indicates how many seconds you should wait before making another request.

curl -X POST https://www.youtube-transcript.io/api/channels \
  -H "Authorization: Basic <your-api-token>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"ids": ["jawed"]}'

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