TranscriptOut

Full YouTube data toolkit via TranscriptOut.com. Transcripts, search, channels, playlists, bulk jobs: one API key.

Setup

If $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY is not set, read references/auth-setup.md and follow the instructions there to get and store the key.

Required Header

Every request needs one header:

• Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY

Every response is one JSON envelope. Success: {"ok": true, "request_id": "...", "data": {...}}. Error: {"ok": false, "code": "...", "detail": "...", "request_id": "..."}. Branch on the machine-readable code, not on the human text. The remaining credit balance rides in the X-Credits-Remaining response header.

API Reference

Base URL: https://api.transcriptout.com/v1. Full reference with the latest parameters and schemas: transcriptout.com/docs.

Transcript · 1 credit

Fetch the transcript of any YouTube video.

curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/transcript?video=VIDEO_URL_OR_ID&format=text" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

Accepts full URLs (youtube.com/watch?v=ID), short URLs (youtu.be/ID), shorts (youtube.com/shorts/ID), or bare video IDs.

Default for agents: use format=text unless you need timestamps. Plain text is the cheapest form to reason over. Use format=json to cite or seek to exact moments. Add video_metadata=true when the title/channel is also wanted: same call, same 1 credit.

segment controls the size of the pieces: 500-1500 characters makes chunks with enough context for embeddings and retrieval. Left out, an auto-generated track is cut into ~180-character segments and a manual track is returned exactly as its author broke it.

Response for format=json. With format=text/srt/vtt/srv3 the transcript field is one string in that format:

{
  "ok": true,
  "request_id": "req_...",
  "data": {
    "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "language": "en",
    "kind": "manual",
    "transcript": [
      { "text": "Never gonna give you up", "start": 18.0, "duration": 4.12 },
      { "text": "Never gonna let you down", "start": 22.12, "duration": 3.85 }
    ],
    "available_langs": [
      { "code": "en", "kind": "manual", "name": "English" },
      { "code": "en", "kind": "auto", "name": "English (auto-generated)" }
    ]
  }
}

GET /v1/video · 1 credit

Metadata for one video (title, channel, duration, views, thumbnails) plus the list of available transcript languages, WITHOUT downloading the subtitles.

curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/video?id=VIDEO_URL_OR_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

Credit hygiene: if the transcript is wanted anyway, call /v1/transcript with video_metadata=true instead. One call and one credit against two.

GET /v1/search · 1 credit/page

Search YouTube for videos or channels.

# Videos
curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/search?q=QUERY&type=video&limit=20" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

# Channels
curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/search?q=QUERY&type=channel&limit=10" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

# Next page
curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/search?next_page_token=TOKEN" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

The response carries next_page_token and has_more. Video entries have video_id, title, channel, duration ("M:SS"), view_count, published, url, thumbnails.

GET /v1/channel/latest · 1 credit

The ~15 most recent videos of a channel, served from its RSS feed: the fastest and cheapest way to check what a creator published recently.

curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/channel/latest?name=@kurzgesagt" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

name accepts an @handle, a channel name, a UC... channel ID or a channel URL. No resolve step needed: pass the handle directly.

GET /v1/channel/videos · 1 credit/page

Every video from a channel's Videos tab, newest first.

# First page (100 videos)
curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/channel/videos?name=@3blue1brown" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

# Next pages
curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/channel/videos?next_page_token=TOKEN" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

# IDs only, 500 per page (feed these into the bulk job)
curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/channel/videos?name=@3blue1brown&ids_only=true" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

Provide name on the first call and only next_page_token afterwards. limit goes up to 100, or up to 500 with ids_only=true (the response is then video_ids[] instead of full video objects). The response carries next_page_token and has_more.

GET /v1/channel/search · 1 credit/page

Search inside one channel using YouTube's native relevance search. A result whose title lacks the query word is normal: it is relevance, not substring match.

curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/channel/search?name=@kurzgesagt&q=QUERY&limit=30" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

Cheaper and better-ranked than downloading the catalogue and grepping it.

GET /v1/playlist/videos · 1 credit/page

Every video of a playlist, in playlist order.

# First page (100 videos)
curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/playlist/videos?id=PL_ID_OR_URL" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

# Next pages
curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/playlist/videos?next_page_token=TOKEN" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

# IDs only, 500 per page (feed these into the bulk job)
curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/playlist/videos?id=PL_ID_OR_URL&ids_only=true" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

id accepts a PL... playlist ID or any URL with list=. limit goes up to 100, or up to 500 with ids_only=true. The response carries playlist, title, count, videos[] (or video_ids[]), next_page_token and has_more.

GET /v1/playlist/search · 1 credit

Find videos inside a playlist by a substring of the title (case-insensitive). YouTube has no native playlist search, so this scans up to 500 playlist items.

curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/playlist/search?id=PL_ID_OR_URL&q=QUERY&limit=30" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

truncated: true in the response means the scan window ended before the playlist did, so there may be more matches.

Bulk transcripts: POST /v1/transcripts · 1 credit per video

One asynchronous job for up to 4,000 videos. Use it instead of looping over /v1/transcript for more than a handful of videos: same price per video, same options (lang, format, kind, segment, video_metadata), and it paces itself inside the account's rate limit instead of bouncing off 429s.

# Submit. Charged 1 credit per unique video, returns 202 immediately
curl -s -X POST "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/transcripts" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"videos":["VIDEO_ID_1","VIDEO_ID_2"],"lang":"en","format":"text"}'

The 202 response carries job_id, status, count and credits: {charged, refunded}. Duplicates collapse BEFORE billing. Add an Idempotency-Key header when a retry is possible: resubmitting the same body with the same key returns the SAME job and does not charge twice.

# Progress (free)
curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/transcripts/JOB_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

# Results, readable before the job is done (free)
curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/transcripts/JOB_ID/results?limit=100" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

# Cancel. Refunds only videos not started yet (free)
curl -s -X POST "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/transcripts/JOB_ID/cancel" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

Requires a user key (sk_...). Results come in submission order, page by page (limit 1-500, next_page_token). Each entry is exactly what /v1/transcript returns for that video, plus its status. Videos that could not be delivered through the service's fault are refunded automatically.

Credit Costs

Credits are refunded automatically when a call fails before reaching YouTube (validation, rate limit, service capacity). A definitive "this video has no captions" (404) is an answer and is billed like one.

Errors

Every error body carries a machine-readable code and a request_id. Include the request_id when contacting support.

Tips

• format=text is the cheapest form to reason over. Ask for json only when timestamps matter.
• Transcript AND title/channel wanted? One call: video_metadata=true. Never a separate /v1/video first.
• Transcribe last: search and listings are for choosing, and pulling transcripts for a whole results page nobody asked to read is the fastest way to burn a balance.
• More than ~5 transcripts? Submit ONE bulk job with IDs from ids_only=true listings.
• channel/latest is the cheapest channel question. Reach for it before channel/videos.
• Stop paginating once the user has enough: has_more: true is an offer, not an obligation.

Free tier: 100 credits on signup, 200 req/min. Starter ($4.49/mo): 1,000 credits/month, slider up to 100,000/month. Failed calls that never reached YouTube are refunded.