YouTube Transcript API

YouTube Transcript API

Extract accurate, timestamped transcripts from YouTube videos in multiple languages.
Perfect for accessibility, content analysis, AI training, and search functionality.

Multiple Languages
Millisecond Precision
Real-time Processing
YouTube Transcript API Demo
curl -X GET "https://api.vcyon.com/v1/youtube/transcript?videoId=dQw4w9WgXcQ&language=English" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

# Response
{
  "language": "English",
  "segments": [
    {"start": 0, "end": 3000, "text": "We're no strangers to love"}
  ]
}

Overview

The YouTube Transcript API lets you programmatically extract accurate, timestamped transcripts from public YouTube videos. It supports multiple languages when available, returns stable JSON, and is designed for integration into accessibility tools, content analysis pipelines, and AI/ML workflows.

Requests are simple GET calls with a Bearer token. When rate limits apply, responses include appropriate HTTP status codes so you can implement retries gracefully. See the documentation below for parameters and response formats.

Powerful YouTube Transcript
Extraction Features

Our YouTube Transcript API provides comprehensive features for extracting, processing, and utilizing video transcripts at scale.

Multi-Language Support

Extract transcripts in multiple languages (based on available languages).

Auto-detect language
Manual language selection
Fallback options

Precise Timestamps

Get accurate millisecond-level timestamps for each transcript segment, perfect for video synchronization and navigation.

Millisecond precision
Start/end times
Segment boundaries

YouTube Transcript API
Code Examples

Get started quickly with our comprehensive code examples in multiple programming languages.

Implementation Examples

Ready-to-use code snippets for YouTube transcript extraction
// Extract YouTube transcript with JavaScript
const response = await fetch('https://api.vcyon.com/v1/youtube/transcript?videoId=dQw4w9WgXcQ&language=English', {
  headers: {
    'Authorization': 'Bearer YOUR_API_KEY',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
  }
});

const transcript = await response.json();

// Process transcript segments
transcript.segments.forEach(segment => {
  if (segment.text) {
    const startTime = segment.start / 1000; // Convert to seconds
    console.log(`[${startTime}s] ${segment.text}`);
  }
});

// Available languages
console.log('Available languages:', transcript.transcriptLanguages);

YouTube Transcript API
Use Cases

Discover how businesses and developers are using our YouTube Transcript API to build innovative applications and solve real-world problems.

🎓

Educational Platforms

Create searchable course content, generate study materials, and improve accessibility for online learning.

Common Applications

Course transcription
Study guides
Lecture notes
Accessibility compliance
✍️

Content Creation

Transform video content into blog posts, social media content, and written materials automatically.

Common Applications

Blog generation
Social posts
Content repurposing
SEO articles
📊

Research & Analytics

Analyze video content at scale for market research, trend analysis, and competitive intelligence.

Common Applications

Market research
Trend analysis
Competitor monitoring
Content insights
📺

Media & Broadcasting

Generate closed captions, subtitles, and transcripts for broadcast content and streaming platforms.

Common Applications

Closed captions
Subtitles
Broadcast transcripts
Streaming content
🤖

AI & Machine Learning

Train language models, build chatbots, and create AI applications using high-quality transcript data.

Common Applications

Model training
Chatbot development
NLP applications
Voice recognition
⚖️

Legal & Compliance

Create accurate transcripts for legal proceedings, compliance documentation, and regulatory requirements.

Common Applications

Legal transcripts
Compliance docs
Meeting records
Documentation

YouTube Transcript API
Documentation

Complete API reference, parameters, response formats, and integration guides for the YouTube Transcript API.

GET/v1/youtube/transcript

Extract timestamped transcripts from YouTube videos

Parameters

videoId
Required

YouTube video ID (11 characters)

language
Optional

Language name (e.g., "English", "Spanish")

Response Format

{
  "language": "English",
  "transcriptLanguages": [
    "English",
    "Spanish",
    "French"
  ],
  "segments": [
    {
      "start": 0,
      "end": 3000,
      "text": "Welcome to our video"
    },
    {
      "start": 3000,
      "end": 6000,
      "text": "Today we'll discuss..."
    }
  ]
}

YouTube Transcript API
FAQ

Common questions about our YouTube Transcript API service

The YouTube Transcript API is a professional service that extracts accurate, timestamped transcripts from YouTube videos in multiple languages. It provides developers with easy access to video transcript data for applications like accessibility, content analysis, and AI training.

Our YouTube Transcript API provides high-accuracy transcripts with millisecond-level timestamps. The accuracy depends on the original video's audio quality and whether auto-generated or manual captions are available. We support both auto-generated and human-created transcripts.

We support multiple languages based on availability of languages in the video.

Auto-generated transcripts are created automatically by YouTube's speech recognition technology, while manual transcripts are created by humans. Manual transcripts are typically more accurate but not available for all videos. Our API provides access to both types when available.

Our YouTube Transcript API can only extract transcripts from publicly available videos that have captions enabled. Private, unlisted, or videos without captions cannot be processed through our service.

Rate limits depend on your subscription plan: Free tier allows 60 requests/minute, Professional plan allows 300 requests/minute, and Enterprise plans offer custom rate limits. All plans include generous monthly credit allowances.

If a video doesn't have transcripts available, our API will return an appropriate error message. You can check the 'transcriptLanguages' field in the video info endpoint first to see what transcript languages are available before making a transcript request.

Yes, our YouTube Transcript API operates within YouTube's terms of service by accessing only publicly available transcript data. We don't scrape or violate any platform policies, ensuring your applications remain compliant.

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YouTube Transcript API — Accurate, Timestamped, Multi-Language Transcripts