YouTube Video Transcript

YouTube Video or Channel Transcript and Metadata Extractor

Overview

Unlock the power of YouTube video data with this Apify Actor! Effortlessly fetch transcript/subtitles and rich metadata (title, channel, view count, and more) for any YouTube video or videos from a channel. Perfect for researchers, content creators, and analysts who need structured video data without the hassle of direct scraping. Save time and get reliable, structured data straight to your Apify dataset!

Input

Provide either a YouTube video URL (for single video) or a channel URL (to fetch multiple videos). The Actor requires the following fields, defined in input_schema.json. Provide exactly one of youtube_url or channel_url; the backend will validate and ignore inapplicable fields:

Field	Type	Description	Required
youtube_url	String	The URL of the YouTube video (e.g., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ). Use for single video fetch, paired with language.	No (mutually exclusive with channel_url)
language	String	The transcript language (e.g., en). Only applicable with youtube_url.	No
channel_url	String	The URL of the YouTube channel (e.g., https://www.youtube.com/@taostats or https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx). Use to fetch videos from the channel, paired with max_videos, start_date, and end_date.	No (mutually exclusive with youtube_url)
max_videos	Integer	Maximum number of videos to fetch from the channel (default: 10, range: 5-15). Only applicable with channel_url.	No
start_date	String	Start date for filtering channel videos (format: YYYY-MM-DD). Only applicable with channel_url; backend uses 30 days ago if blank. Ensure end_date >= start_date.	No
end_date	String	End date for filtering channel videos (format: YYYY-MM-DD). Only applicable with channel_url; backend uses today if blank. Ensure end_date >= start_date.	No

Example Input (Single Video):

{
  "youtube_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EeDKyS7pV8",
  "language": "en"
}

Example Input (Channel Videos):

{
  "channel_url": "https://www.youtube.com/@taostats",
  "max_videos": 10,
  "start_date": "2025-08-17",
  "end_date": "2025-09-16"
}

Output

The Actor saves data to the Apify dataset in a structured JSON format, as defined in dataset_schema.json. For single video, output is an array with one item; for channel, it's an array of video items. The output includes:

Field	Type	Description
video_id	String	The unique identifier of the YouTube video.
title	String	The title of the YouTube video.
channel_name	String	The name of the YouTube channel.
channel_id	String	The unique identifier of the YouTube channel.
timestamp	Integer	The Unix timestamp of when the video was published.
published_at	String	The UTC date and time of video upload (format: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SSZ).
view_count	Integer	The number of views the video has received.
transcript	Array	An array of transcript segments, each with text, start, duration, language, and language_code.
url	String	The URL of the YouTube video.
language	String	The primary language of the transcript (e.g., en for English).
duration_seconds	Integer	The total duration of the video in seconds.

Sample Output (TED Talk Video in English):

[
{
"channel_id": "UCAuUUnT6oDeKwE6v1NGQxug",
"channel_name": "TED",
"comment_count": 10953,
"duration_seconds": 1159,
"language": "en",
"like_count": 388218,
"timestamp": 1559575676,
"title": "Sleep Is Your Superpower | Matt Walker | TED",
"transcript": [
{
"duration": 1.5,
"language": "English (auto-generated)",
"language_code": "en",
"start": 0.83,
"text": "Thank you very much."
},
{
"duration": 4,
"language": "English (auto-generated)",
"language_code": "en",
"start": 2.37,
"text": "Well, I would like\nto start with testicles."
},
    ...
{
"duration": 1.17,
"language": "English (auto-generated)",
"language_code": "en",
"start": 1141.58,
"text": "Great job, Matt."
},
{
"duration": 2.21,
"language": "English (auto-generated)",
"language_code": "en",
"start": 1142.75,
"text": "MW: You're very welcome.\nThank you very much."
}
],
"published_at": "2019-06-03T15:27:56Z",
"url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MuIMqhT8DM",
"video_id": "5MuIMqhT8DM",
"view_count": 15062630,
"geo_restrict": null,
"status": "success",
"message": "Successfully fetched the transcript for the video with ID '5MuIMqhT8DM'"
}
]

Why Use This Actor?

• Efficiency: Get YouTube video or channel data in seconds via your internal API.
• Flexibility: Works with any API endpoint that returns structured JSON data, supporting single videos or channel fetches.
• Reliability: Built-in validation and logging ensure robust performance.
• Scalability: Easily integrate with Apify's ecosystem for data processing and export.