⚡TranscriptAPI
No YouTube quota limits · Works on any public video

The #1 YouTube Transcript API
for Developers & AI Builders

Extract YouTube transcripts, search videos, scrape channels, and pull playlists via a simple REST API — without touching YouTube's broken quota system.

Used in production by AI apps, SaaS tools, and research pipelines. Get a response in under 200ms.

Get Your Free API Key →See All Endpoints

100 free credits · No credit card · Live in 60 seconds

Extract a YouTube transcript in one API call
# YouTube Transcript API — returns full text + timestamps curl -X GET \ "https://api.transcriptapi.io/transcript" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \ -d '{"video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ"}'
⚡No YouTube API quota limits
🌍Any public YouTube video
🕐Responses under 200ms
🔑One API key, six endpoints
🪝Webhook support included
🆓100 free credits to start

A complete YouTube Data API — without the quota limits

Six endpoints that cover every YouTube data use case. Extract transcripts, search videos, scrape channels, and monitor uploads — all from one API key.

YouTube Transcript Extraction

1 credit

Extract full YouTube transcripts with word-level timestamps via a single API call. Works on any public video — auto-generated captions, manual subtitles, and multi-language tracks included.

# Request GET /transcript?video_id=dQw4w9WgXcQ
# Response { "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ", "title": "Never Gonna Give You Up", "transcript": [ { "start": 0.0, "text": "We're no strangers..." }, { "start": 3.5, "text": "You know the rules..." } ] }

YouTube Video Search API

1 credit

Search YouTube programmatically and get structured results — no browser, no scraping, no quota headaches. Returns video IDs, titles, view counts, durations, and channel metadata.

# Request GET /search?q=machine+learning+tutorial
# Response { "results": [ { "id": "abc123", "title": "ML Tutorial for Beginners", "channel": "TechLearn", "views": 2400000 } ] }

YouTube Channel Scraper API

1 credit

Scrape every video from any YouTube channel — including upload dates, view counts, and durations. Paginate through channels with thousands of videos without hitting YouTube API limits.

# Request GET /channel/videos?channel_id=UC_x5X...
# Response { "channel": "Google Developers", "total_videos": 1842, "videos": [ { "id": "xyz789", "title": "I/O 2024 Keynote" } ] }

YouTube Playlist Extractor API

1 credit

Pull every video from any YouTube playlist in one request. Perfect for bulk transcript extraction, course content ingestion, and podcast-to-text pipelines.

# Request GET /playlist?playlist_id=PLbpi6ZahtOH6...
# Response { "playlist": "Python Full Course", "total": 24, "videos": [ { "id": "m1q", "title": "Intro to Python" } ] }

Channel-Scoped Video Search

1 credit

Search for specific topics within a single YouTube channel. Build smarter research tools that surface the exact videos you need from large content libraries — without scanning the whole platform.

# Request GET /channel/search?channel_id=UC...&q=React hooks
# Response { "channel": "Fireship", "query": "React hooks", "results": [ { "id": "TNhaISOUy6Q", "title": "React Hooks Explained" } ] }

New Upload Webhooks

Free

Get notified the moment a channel publishes a new video. Subscribe to any YouTube channel and receive a webhook — ideal for real-time transcript pipelines, content monitoring, and AI ingestion workflows.

# Request POST /channel/subscribe
# Response { "status": "subscribed", "channel_id": "UC_x5X...", "webhook_url": "https://your-app.com/hook", "created_at": "2024-01-15T10:30:00Z" }

Who uses the YouTube Transcript API?

From solo developers to enterprise data pipelines — if you need to get text out of YouTube, this is how you do it.

🤖

AI & LLM Pipelines

Feed YouTube transcripts directly into ChatGPT, Claude, or your own LLM. Build video summarizers, Q&A bots, and RAG systems on top of any YouTube content.

📊

Market Research & Competitive Intel

Extract transcripts from competitor channels, earnings calls, and industry podcasts. Analyze trends, keywords, and talking points at scale — no manual watching required.

✍️

Content Repurposing

Turn YouTube videos into blog posts, newsletters, social threads, and show notes automatically. One video, ten content formats, zero manual transcription.

🎓

EdTech & E-Learning

Index educational YouTube channels, generate searchable transcripts for courses, and power in-video search for students — all via API.

📰

Journalists & Researchers

Extract exact quotes with timestamps, search within channels for specific topics, and track what public figures say over time — programmatically.

⚙️

Automation & No-Code

Trigger transcript extraction on new video uploads via webhooks. Plug directly into n8n, Make.com, or Zapier to build YouTube-powered workflows without writing a line of code.

Integrate in minutes, not days

REST API for developers. MCP server for AI agents. No-code connectors for everyone else. One YouTube Transcript API — three ways to plug it in.

🔌

REST API

For developers

One API key, six endpoints, any language. Full OpenAPI spec included. SDKs for JavaScript and Python — or call it raw with curl. No YouTube API quota, no OAuth, no headaches.

const res = await fetch( "https://api.transcriptapi.io/transcript", { method: "GET", headers: { Authorization: "Bearer " + API_KEY, }, body: JSON.stringify({ video_id: "abc123" }), } ); const data = await res.json();
🤖

YouTube MCP Server

For AI assistants

Connect Claude, ChatGPT, or any MCP-compatible AI to YouTube in minutes. Ask your AI to summarize a video, extract quotes, or search a channel — TranscriptAPI does the fetching.

// In Claude or any MCP client: // "Summarize this YouTube video: // https://youtube.com/watch?v=abc123" // TranscriptAPI MCP handles the rest — // fetching, parsing, and returning // structured transcript data to your AI.
⚡

No-Code Integrations

For automation builders

Pre-built connectors for n8n, Make.com, and Zapier. Trigger transcript extraction on new uploads, summarize with AI, and push to Notion, Slack, or your CMS — zero code.

# n8n workflow example: trigger: New YouTube Upload ↓ node: TranscriptAPI → extract video_id: "{{ $json.video_id }}" ↓ node: OpenAI → summarize text: "{{ $json.transcript }}" ↓ action: Notion / Slack / Email

Simple, usage-based pricing

Start with 100 free credits. No credit card required. Scale as you grow.

MonthlyAnnual Save 40%

Monthly

$5/month

Top-ups: $2.50 / 1K credits

  • 1,000 credits included
  • All 6 API endpoints
  • 99.9% uptime SLA
  • Webhook support
  • Priority support
  • No credit card to start
Get Started Free
Best value

Annual

$4.50/month, billed yearly

Top-ups: $1.50 / 1K credits

  • 1,000 credits included
  • All 6 API endpoints
  • 99.9% uptime SLA
  • Webhook support
  • Priority support
  • No credit card to start
Get Started Free

Estimate your monthly cost

Slide to see how pricing scales with your usage.

10,000 credits
$27.50/ month (monthly billing)

Includes 1,000 base credits + 9,000 top-up credits at $2.5/1K