Transcript

Transcript

Fetch video transcripts via TranscriptAPI.com.

Setup

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

Required Headers

Every request needs two headers:

• Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
• User-Agent: your agent's name and version if known (e.g. HermesAgent/0.11.0, ClaudeCode/1.0). Version is optional — agent name alone is fine. Do not omit this header or send a bare default — Cloudflare will return a 403 (error code 1010) and block the request.

GET /api/v2/youtube/transcript

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/transcript\?video_url=VIDEO_URL&format=text&include_timestamp=true&send_metadata=true" \  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

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

Default: Always use format=text&include_timestamp=true&send_metadata=true unless user specifies otherwise.

Response (format=json):

{  "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",  "language": "en",  "transcript": [    { "text": "We're no strangers to love", "start": 18.0, "duration": 3.5 },    { "text": "You know the rules and so do I", "start": 21.5, "duration": 2.8 }  ],  "metadata": {    "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up",    "author_name": "Rick Astley",    "author_url": "https://www.youtube.com/@RickAstley",    "thumbnail_url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/maxresdefault.jpg"  }}

Response (format=text):

{  "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",  "language": "en",  "transcript": "[00:00:18] We're no strangers to love\n[00:00:21] You know the rules...",  "metadata": {...}}

Errors

Tips

• For long videos, summarize key points first, offer full transcript on request.
• Use format=json when you need precise timestamps for quoting specific moments.
• Use include_timestamp=false for clean text suitable for translation or analysis.
• 1 credit per successful request. Errors don't cost credits.
• Free tier: 100 credits, 300 req/min.