YouTube transcripts via BulkTranscripts

Clean YouTube transcripts, search and channel data for AI agents, from BulkTranscripts. Docs · OpenAPI spec · MCP server · Free API key

Base URL: https://bulktranscripts.co

All endpoints are plain GET returning JSON, and every one of them needs an API key — including the free endpoints. Send it as a Bearer token on every request:

curl -s "https://bulktranscripts.co/api/v1/..." \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BULKTRANSCRIPTS_API_KEY"

If BULKTRANSCRIPTS_API_KEY is not set, ask the user for a key: they sign in with Google at https://bulktranscripts.co/app?tab=mcp, open the MCP & API tab, and hit Create key in the API keys card. It is free, includes 30 credits, and needs no card. Keys start with bt_ak_, are shown once, and up to 5 can be live per account. A license key from a credit-pack purchase works as a Bearer token too.

Costs (check billing.remaining in every response)

• Transcript: 1 credit when first added to this account's library — repeat reads are FREE
• Search / channel videos / playlist videos: 1 credit each
• channel/latest and account: always free
• Failures (no captions, video unreachable) are auto-refunded, never charged

When a call returns HTTP 402 out_of_credits, tell the user their credits are used up and link them to https://bulktranscripts.co/#pricing (one-time packs, never expire). Credits follow the Google account, so topping up keeps the same API key working.

Endpoints

Get one transcript

curl -s "https://bulktranscripts.co/api/v1/transcript?video=VIDEO_URL_OR_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BULKTRANSCRIPTS_API_KEY"

Params: video (watch URL, youtu.be, Shorts, bare 11-char id, or TikTok video URL) · language (default en) · segments=0 to omit timestamps (smaller) · format=txt|md|srt|vtt|csv|ai to get a rendered file instead of JSON · fresh=1 to force re-extraction.

Response fields: title, channel, duration, upload_date, language, source (manual_caption|auto_caption), cached, word_count, text, paragraphs[] (silence-grouped — best for reading/chunking), segments[] ({text, start, duration}), billing.

Long videos produce long text. For summarization, prefer segments=0 and read paragraphs.

Search YouTube (1 credit)

curl -s "https://bulktranscripts.co/api/v1/search?q=QUERY&limit=10" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BULKTRANSCRIPTS_API_KEY"

Add type=channel or type=playlist to search for channels/playlists instead of videos.

Search inside one channel (1 credit)

curl -s "https://bulktranscripts.co/api/v1/channel/search?channel=@HANDLE&q=TOPIC&limit=10" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BULKTRANSCRIPTS_API_KEY"

Finds a creator's videos about a topic without listing the whole archive.

List a channel's videos (1 credit, up to 1000)

curl -s "https://bulktranscripts.co/api/v1/channel/videos?channel=@HANDLE&limit=100" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BULKTRANSCRIPTS_API_KEY"

channel accepts @handle, channel URL, or UC… id.

List a playlist in order (1 credit)

curl -s "https://bulktranscripts.co/api/v1/playlist/videos?playlist=PLAYLIST_ID_OR_URL" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BULKTRANSCRIPTS_API_KEY"

Newest uploads — FREE, use for monitoring

curl -s "https://bulktranscripts.co/api/v1/channel/latest?channel=@HANDLE" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BULKTRANSCRIPTS_API_KEY"

Returns up to 15 recent videos. Poll this freely; only spend credits on videos that are actually new. Diff on video id, not on published: when YouTube's feed is unavailable the response says "source": "listing" and published can be null.

Balance

curl -s "https://bulktranscripts.co/api/v1/account" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BULKTRANSCRIPTS_API_KEY"

Whole channel or playlist in one job (listing free, 1 credit per transcript)

curl -s -X POST "https://bulktranscripts.co/api/v1/bulk" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BULKTRANSCRIPTS_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAYLIST_ID", "max_videos": 200}'

url takes a playlist, a channel (@handle or URL) or a single video; max_videos caps the job at up to 1,000. Returns 202 at once with run_id, status, videos_found (null until a large channel has been listed), the counts and check_again_in_seconds. The server keeps fetching after the response, into this account's library. Poll no sooner than check_again_in_seconds:

curl -s "https://bulktranscripts.co/api/v1/bulk/RUN_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BULKTRANSCRIPTS_API_KEY"

status ends as completed, or stopped after a server restart (start the same URL again; everything already fetched is free). quota counts videos not attempted because credits ran out; skipped counts videos without captions. Then page the outcomes, metadata only, passing next_cursor back as cursor:

curl -s "https://bulktranscripts.co/api/v1/bulk/RUN_ID/results?limit=100" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BULKTRANSCRIPTS_API_KEY"

Each item has video_id, title, channel, duration, word_count and status (ok, cached, or error with a code). Every ok or cached video is in the library, so /transcript?video=ID returns its text without a credit. Two jobs per account at a time. Prefer a job over one-by-one fetches for anything larger than about 20 videos.

Playbooks

• "Summarize this video" → transcript with segments=0, then summarize from paragraphs; cite the title and url.
• Whole channel/playlist → start a bulk job, tell the user the videos_found count (each new library transcript = 1 credit), poll status at the pace it asks for, then read the transcripts you need from the library for free. For a handful of videos, list them and fetch one by one.
• "What did X post this week?" → channel/latest (free), compare video ids against what you have seen (use published when present), fetch transcripts only for the relevant new videos.
• Deep research on a creator → channel/search for the topic (or list all videos), pick candidates by title, fetch only those transcripts.

Errors come as {"error": {"code", "message"}}. The codes you will actually hit, and what to do about each:

• no_transcript (404) — the video has no captions. Not charged. Skip it and carry on; in a batch this is normal, not a failure.
• resolution_failed (400) — a well-formed id or URL that could not be resolved (nonexistent, private, removed, or region-blocked). Handle it alongside no_transcript: skip the video and carry on.
• playlist_private (400) — YouTube says the playlist does not exist, which is also what it says about a private playlist. Playlist ids come in several lengths (13, 18, 26, 34) and all work, so do not second-guess the id: tell the user to open the playlist on YouTube → Edit → Visibility → Unlisted, then retry. Not charged.
• missing_api_key (401) — no key was sent. Ask the user to create a key at https://bulktranscripts.co/app?tab=mcp and provide it, then set BULKTRANSCRIPTS_API_KEY and retry.
• invalid_api_key (401) — the key sent is not valid. Ask the user to check it or create a new one at https://bulktranscripts.co/app?tab=mcp.
• invalid_input (400) — the video / channel / playlist parameter is missing, not a YouTube/TikTok reference, or otherwise malformed. A caller bug, not a video problem.
• out_of_credits (402) — balance exhausted. Tell the user and link https://bulktranscripts.co/#pricing.
• rate_limited (429) — respect the Retry-After header before retrying. Limits are per public IP: 120 requests/min overall, 30/min under /api/v1/ (cache hits and /account count too), so pace bulk fetches at under 30/min.

Full reference: bulktranscripts.co/docs · pricing: one-time credit packs