YouTube Transcript API

The simplest YouTube transcript API there is: add .txt to a video ID, send your API key, and get the full transcript back as a clean, readable document. The key is free for 10 requests a day. No SDK: one HTTPS request you can run from cURL or any language.

Quick start

First, create your free API key. It takes a Google sign-in and about a minute.

Then take the 11-character video ID and request this URL with the key:

That's the whole API. For youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ the ID is dQw4w9WgXcQ, so:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_KEY" \
  https://youtube-transcript.ai/transcript/dQw4w9WgXcQ.txt

Get your free API key Or use the web tool

Setting this up in a tool? The API quick start has copy-paste steps for Python, JavaScript, n8n and Make.

Authentication

Every request needs your API key. Send it in either of two ways:

Where	Example
Header	Authorization: Bearer YOUR_KEY
Query string	/transcript/{VIDEO_ID}.txt?key=YOUR_KEY

The query string form is for tools that can only take a URL. Each response carries X-RateLimit-Limit and X-RateLimit-Remaining for today's quota. A missing or unknown key returns 401; a used-up quota returns 429 with Retry-After.

Endpoint reference

Method	Endpoint	Returns
GET	/transcript/{VIDEO_ID}.txt	Full transcript as a clean, timestamped Markdown document.

Query parameters

Parameter	Endpoint	Description
key	/transcript/{VIDEO_ID}.txt	Your API key, if you are not sending it in the Authorization header.
lang	/transcript/{VIDEO_ID}.txt	Optional. A YouTube language code such as en, es, or zh-Hant. Falls back to a human-uploaded track, then the auto-generated track.

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_KEY" \
  "https://youtube-transcript.ai/transcript/dQw4w9WgXcQ.txt?lang=en"

Response format

Content type is text/markdown; charset=utf-8. A short metadata header (title, source URL, language, duration, word count, and the other available caption languages) is followed by the transcript, grouped into short paragraphs with [m:ss] timestamps:

# Transcript: Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Video) (4K Remaster)

Source video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
Language: en · Duration: 3:27 · Words: 481
Other available languages: a-en (en) [auto], de-DE (de-DE), ja (ja), pt-BR (pt-BR), es-419 (es-419)
To request a specific language: https://youtube-transcript.ai/transcript/dQw4w9WgXcQ.txt?lang=LANG_CODE

[0:00] We're no strangers to love. You know the rules and so do I...

[0:19] I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling. Gotta make you understand...

The output is Markdown, so it renders cleanly in chats, docs, and agents while staying readable as plain text.

Code examples

JavaScript (fetch)

const id = 'dQw4w9WgXcQ'
const res = await fetch(`https://youtube-transcript.ai/transcript/${id}.txt`, {
  headers: { Authorization: 'Bearer YOUR_KEY' },
})
const transcript = await res.text()
console.log(transcript)

Python (requests)

import requests

video_id = "dQw4w9WgXcQ"
url = f"https://youtube-transcript.ai/transcript/{video_id}.txt"
transcript = requests.get(url, headers={"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_KEY"}).text
print(transcript)

Shell (cURL)

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_KEY" \
  "https://youtube-transcript.ai/transcript/dQw4w9WgXcQ.txt"

Why this YouTube transcript API is the fastest path

• One request, one key. No OAuth flow, no SDK install. The video ID and your key are the request.
• Edge-cached for 24 hours. Responses are served from Cloudflare's global edge; repeat calls for the same video and language return in milliseconds.
• Agent- and LLM-friendly. The .txt path makes the response a readable document, so agents and pipelines can drop it straight into a prompt — no JSON parsing, no headless browser.
• Open CORS. Call it straight from front-end JavaScript without a proxy.
• Clean, structured output. Caption cues are merged into readable paragraphs with light timestamps and a metadata header — ready to drop into a prompt, a summary pipeline, or a document.

Pricing & limits

Both plans use the same key. Create your key to start on Free, and upgrade from the same page. Every request counts as one, including repeats of the same video; the quota resets at 00:00 UTC. Need more than 1,000 a day? Email hello@youtube-transcript.ai.

FAQ

Get your free API key Use the web tool instead