TranscriptFetch
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Video Transcript API

One Video Transcript API for YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and podcasts

Get the transcriptCheck the docs
100 free credits · no card
POST/api/v2/transcripts/video200 · 1.24s
{"ok": true,"data": {"kind": "transcript","platform": "web","video_id": "bNpx7gpSqbY","duration": 401,"segments": [{ "start": 41.0, "text": "I studied hundreds of companies" },{ "start": 46.2, "text": "Five factors shaped their outcomes" },{ "start": 52.3, "text": "One factor stood above the rest" },… 43 more]},"usage": { "credits_spent": 1, "balance": 4812 }}
46 segments · 14.2 KB1 credit

What the endpoint returns

YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, podcasts and direct media files, through one endpoint that returns the same JSON for all of them. Captions when the source has them, transcription when it does not. One credit per successful response, nothing at all when a fetch fails.

Get the transcript

Transcript segments

segments[]text

Timing data

startduration

Source metadata

titleplatform

Request metadata

request_idusage

Features that make the API easier to ship

One response shape across every supported platform

Captions when the source has them, AI transcription when it does not

Per-segment timestamps: start and duration

Batch endpoint for up to 50 mixed URLs per call

Plain text and segmented JSON in one response

Channels, playlists and keyword search on YouTube

Who it is for, and how they use it

Three ways in, depending on how you work. Same endpoint, same credit, same response shape underneath all of them.

Engineers building a product

Your users paste links from anywhere, and you do not want a branch in your code for each platform.

Teams building on retrieval

Half your source material is spoken, and none of it is searchable until it becomes text with timestamps.

Teams building with assistants

Your agent gets handed a link and should not need to know which platform it came from.

Call the endpoint

One POST with any supported URL. Same JSON for all of them.

Drop it in a workflow

An official n8n node. Run it on a schedule or a trigger.

Let an assistant do it

Connect once and Claude or ChatGPT fetches transcripts mid-chat.

Team fit

Built for every way your team works

Bring the same structured response into the tools and workflows your team already uses.

DevelopersRAG and pipelinesAI and agentsRESTNO CODEMCPWebhooks or polling for transcription jobsAn MCP server, plus Python and JavaScript SDKs

Start sending requests in minutes

The first successful response needs one account, one key, and one source URL.

  1. 1

    Create your account

    Start with 100 free credits. No payment card is required.

  2. 2

    Copy an API key

    Generate a key in the dashboard and send it as a Bearer token.

  3. 3

    Send one source URL

    POST the public video, episode, or media URL without parsing it first.

  4. 4

    Receive structured text

    Store the transcript, timestamps, source metadata, and usage result.

Transparent monthly pricing

Start with 100 free credits each month. Upgrade when the API becomes part of your workflow.

Basic
$5/mo

1,000 transcripts

For side projects and light pipelines.

Start with Basic
Pro
$15/mo

10,000 transcripts

For production apps, agents, and RAG pipelines.

Go Pro
Mega
$45/mo

50,000 transcripts

For high-volume pipelines and whole-channel workloads.

Go Mega
Scale
$229/mo

300,000 transcripts

For serious volume: pipelines, platforms, and data teams.

Scale up
Compare every plan →

Every platform breaks differently.

One integration covers all of them. Adding a source is a different URL, not a new library, a new auth flow and a new set of failures.

One library per platform

A caption package for YouTube, a scraper for TikTok, the Graph API for Instagram, and something else again for podcast audio. Four failure modes, four sets of proxies, and four response shapes to normalise before your own code can start.

With TranscriptFetch

One endpoint, one bearer token, one envelope. Captions where they exist, transcription where they do not, and the same segments array either way. Platform changes are ours to chase, and failed requests are never charged.

No code required

Let the assistant fetch the video itself.

Add the MCP server once and Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor can pull a transcript mid-conversation, from any supported platform. Same key, same credit, no glue code and nothing to deploy.

Set up MCPOr browse the n8n node →

https://transcriptfetch.com/mcp

ClaudeTool: transcriptfetch
Summarise this video and quote the part about retrieval.
CALLING get_transcript(video="youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4…")
At 00:23 she says retrieval moved the numbers, not model size.
99.79%
Independently monitored uptime
100
Free credits every month
$0
Charged for a failed request
1
Response shape across sources

Check live status, incident history, API stability, and public package records yourself.

Live status ↗Trust center →

Questions people ask first

Guides from the blog

How to transcribe a video: every method, honestly comparedFive ways to turn any video into text: platform captions, free online tools, AI transcription APIs, offline Whisper, and when manual is stil…Read the guide →How to repurpose TikTok videos, starting from the transcriptMost repurposing advice tells you to repost the video somewhere else. The higher-leverage move is to pull the words out first: one TikTok tr…Read the guide →How to Transcribe TikTok Videos: Manual, Python, and API MethodsMost TikToks have no caption track, so getting a transcript takes more than a download. Three working approaches - manual, yt-dlp + Whisper,…Read the guide →

Turn videos into structured text at scale

Our Video Transcript API gives you a reliable way to extract spoken content from video files and hosted media, then turn it into clean, usable transcript data for your product, workflow, or internal tools.

Whether you are building search, summaries, captions, compliance systems, or content intelligence pipelines, the API is designed to help you move from raw video to structured text with minimal integration work.

What you can do with the API

  • Extract transcripts from video content for downstream analysis, archiving, or accessibility workflows
  • Process video at scale with an API-first workflow built for automation
  • Convert spoken dialogue into machine-readable text that can be indexed, searched, or transformed
  • Use transcript output in your own applications for analytics, moderation, support, media operations, or knowledge management
  • Integrate transcription directly into existing systems without building speech processing infrastructure yourself

Core features

Video-to-text transcription

Submit video content and receive transcript output that represents the spoken audio as text. This makes it easier to work with interviews, webinars, training videos, product demos, meetings, lectures, and other spoken-content formats.

Structured output for developers

Transcript results are designed to be easy to parse and use in applications. You can feed output into search systems, summarization pipelines, subtitle generators, internal dashboards, or document stores.

API-first integration

The service is built for developers who want a straightforward way to add transcription capabilities to products and automations. Use the API as part of batch pipelines, user-facing features, or backend media processing workflows.

Scalable processing

Handle anything from individual files to larger transcription workloads. The API supports teams that need a repeatable, programmatic way to process video content without manual intervention.

Useful for many product workflows

Transcript data can support a wide range of use cases, including:

  • Search and discovery across video libraries
  • Summaries and highlights for long-form content
  • Captions and accessibility experiences
  • Compliance and recordkeeping for regulated environments
  • Knowledge extraction from internal or customer-facing media
  • Content moderation and review workflows
  • Training and documentation generation from spoken material

Built for production use

For teams shipping real products, transcript infrastructure needs to be dependable and easy to operationalize. The Video Transcript API helps reduce the complexity of handling speech extraction so your team can focus on product logic, user experience, and downstream intelligence.

Common use cases

  • Media platforms that need searchable video libraries
  • Edtech products converting lessons into readable study material
  • Enterprise teams indexing internal recordings and training content
  • Support organizations extracting insights from recorded calls or walkthroughs
  • Research and analysis teams turning video archives into queryable text
  • Accessibility workflows that need transcript generation for end users

Why developers use it

  • Fast to integrate
  • Useful across many video formats and workflows
  • Easy to connect to existing pipelines
  • Designed for applications that need transcript data as a building block

If you need to transform video content into text that your systems can understand and use, the Video Transcript API provides a simple foundation for doing it programmatically.

Start with 100 free credits

Paste any supported link or copy the curl, whichever suits you. No card, no sales call.

Get started freeRead the docs