Extract Timestamped YouTube Video Transcript & Full RAG Text

GET/v1/youtube/transcript

Fetches full plain-text transcript (fullTranscriptText), word count, available subtitle languages, and millisecond-accurate timestamped segments (segments) for any YouTube video or Short. Cost: 10 Credits ($0.001) per video.

Query Parameters

video_idstringrequired
11-character YouTube video ID (dQw4w9WgXcQ) or full YouTube watch/Shorts URL (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ). Also accepts id, videoId, or url.
langstring
Preferred ISO 639-1 language code (en, es, de, fr, ja, zh-Hans, etc.). Defaults to en with automatic fallback to the primary available track.
include_segmentsboolean
Set to false to omit the segments array and return only fullTranscriptText for lightweight LLM context windows.

Example Request (cURL / Python / JavaScript)

curl "https://api.youtubeapi.io/v1/youtube/transcript?video_id=dQw4w9WgXcQ" \
  -H "x-api-key: yt_live_your_api_key"

Live Response Preview

{
  "code": 0,
  "provider": "https://youtubeapi.io",
  "status": "ok",
  "msg": "success",
  "data": {
    "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Video) (4K Remaster)",
    "channelId": "UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw",
    "channelTitle": "Rick Astley",
    "language": "en",
    "languageLabel": "English",
    "isAutoGenerated": false,
    "isTranslatable": true,
    "availableLanguages": [
      {
        "code": "en",
        "name": "English",
        "isAutoGenerated": false
      },
      {
        "code": "es",
        "name": "Spanish",
        "isAutoGenerated": false
      }
    ],
    "segmentsCount": 8,
    "totalDurationSec": 53.6,
    "wordCount": 68,
    "fullTranscriptText": "We're no strangers to love You know the rules and so do I A full commitment's what I'm thinking of You wouldn't get this from any other guy I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling Gotta make you understand Never gonna give you up Never gonna let you down Never gonna run around and desert you Never gonna make you cry Never gonna say goodbye",
    "segments": [
      {
        "text": "We're no strangers to love",
        "startSec": 18.6,
        "durationSec": 3.72,
        "endSec": 22.32
      },
      {
        "text": "You know the rules and so do I",
        "startSec": 22.32,
        "durationSec": 4.44,
        "endSec": 26.76
      }
    ]
  },
  "meta": {
    "request_id": "9f8c2b10-6112-4a2b-9d1a-8f42ed904989",
    "endpoint": "/v1/youtube/transcript",
    "cached": true,
    "source": "pg",
    "items_count": 1,
    "credits_charged": 10,
    "latency_ms": 6
  }
}

Response Fields

Successful transcript response

Field	Type	Sample / Notes
`code`	integer	Example: 0
`provider`	string	Example: https://youtubeapi.io
`status`	string	Example: ok
`msg`	string	Example: success
`data`	TranscriptData
`videoId`	string	11-character YouTube video ID.
`url`	string	Canonical YouTube watch URL.
`title`	string	Video title.
`channelId`	string	YouTube channel ID (`UC...`).
`channelTitle`	string	Channel display name.
`language`	string	Selected transcript language code (e.g. `en`).
`languageLabel`	string	Human-readable language name (e.g. `English`).
`isAutoGenerated`	boolean	True if auto-generated ASR track.
`isTranslatable`	boolean	Whether YouTube supports auto-translation for this track.
`availableLanguages`	array of object
`code`	string
`name`	string
`isAutoGenerated`	boolean
`segmentsCount`	integer	Total number of timed caption segments.
`totalDurationSec`	number	Total duration covered by transcript in seconds.
`wordCount`	integer	Word count of `fullTranscriptText`.
`fullTranscriptText`	string	Concatenated plain-text transcript ready for LLM/RAG ingestion.
`segments`	array of TranscriptSegment
`text`	string	Decoded plain-text caption segment.
`startSec`	number	Segment start timestamp in seconds.
`durationSec`	number	Segment duration in seconds.
`endSec`	number	Segment end timestamp in seconds.
`meta`	ResponseMeta
`request_id`	string	Unique UUID for tracing and support.
`endpoint`	string	Canonical endpoint path.
`cached`	boolean	True if served from L1 Redis or L2 PostgreSQL 16 asset sink.
`source`	string	Data source tier (`redis`, `pg`, `upstream_primary`, `upstream_fallback`, `oembed`).
`items_count`	integer	Number of records returned in `data`.
`credits_charged`	integer	Credits deducted for this request ($1 = 10,000 Credits).
`has_more`	boolean	Whether additional pages are available via `next_cursor`.
`next_cursor`	stringnull	Continuation cursor for the next page.
`latency_ms`	integer	End-to-end gateway latency in milliseconds.

Status Codes

200: Successful transcript response