# YouTube Subtitles Extractor (`red.cars/youtube-subtitles`) Actor

Extract subtitles from YouTube videos in multiple formats (JSON, SRT, VTT, TXT) with support for playlists, channels, and advanced features like multi-language extraction and text cleaning.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/red.cars/youtube-subtitles.md
- **Developed by:** [AutomateLab](https://apify.com/red.cars) (community)
- **Categories:** Videos, Automation, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 49 total users, 2 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 1 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $6.00 / 1,000 verified video transcript intelligences

This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## YouTube Subtitles Pro - Advanced Content Intelligence

### 🔥 $19/Month + 14-Day FREE Trial

#### 🚀 Test with actual transcripts for 14 days (usage costs apply)

**Video is the dominant medium for brand mentions and market trends, but analyzing it manually is impossible. We built YouTube Subtitles Pro to automate high-volume transcript extraction and content analysis. Capture full subtitles, high-res metadata, and brand mentions directly into your RAG or monitoring pipeline. Optimized for speed and stealth, this tool provides the raw text intelligence you need at scale.**

### 🚀 Key Features

- **🔓 No API Key Required** - Access manual and auto-generated captions in any language without official YouTube API quotas or restrictions.
- **✨ AI-Ready Output** - Native Markdown support for seamless integration with RAG pipelines, LLMs, and content AI assistants.
- **🛡️ Residential Proxy Support** - Integrated rotation to bypass aggressive bot detection and ensure stable, high-volume extraction.
- **📈 Brand Monitoring & Sentiment** - Analyze audience reactions and identify brand mentions across thousands of videos in real-time.
- **🔍 Deep Metadata Discovery** - Capture high-res thumbnails, view counts, and channel intelligence for comprehensive market research.
- **⚡ Vertical Scaling** - Multi-core concurrent processing handles high-volume video portfolios with high efficiency.

### 🎯 Perfect For

- **Brand Managers**: Track brand mentions and monitor reputation across video platforms.
- **Content Creators**: Repurpose video transcripts into blog posts and social media content.
- **Market Researchers**: Analyze trending topics and competitor video performance.
- **Academic Researchers**: Collect large-scale video transcripts for linguistic and social studies.

### 📥 Input Configuration

```json
{
  "urls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"],
  "languages": ["en"],
  "maxResults": 10,
  "formatTranscript": true,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "groups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}
```

### 📤 Output Data

Each video report includes comprehensive content intelligence:

```json
{
  "id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "title": "Never Gonna Give You Up",
  "channel": { "name": "Rick Astley", "subscribers": 15000000 },
  "transcript": [
    { "text": "We're no strangers to love...", "start": 0.5, "duration": 4.2 }
  ],
  "metadata": {
    "viewCount": 1200000000,
    "isLive": false
  }
}
```

### 📊 Export Formats

- **JSON** - Full structured data for technical integration.
- **✨ LLM-Ready Markdown** - Token-efficient content for AI assistants.
- **SRT/VTT** - Standard subtitle formats for video players.
- **CSV** - Spreadsheet analysis and reporting.

***

### 🔗 Explore the `red.cars` Intelligence Fleet

Maximize your data potential with our professional suite of extraction tools:

#### 📱 Social & Audience Intelligence

- **[Instagram Scraper Pro](https://apify.com/red.cars/instagram-scraper-pro)** - Enterprise-grade Instagram extraction
- **[X (Twitter) Intelligence Pro](https://apify.com/red.cars/x-business-intelligence-pro)** - Advanced sentiment & trend analysis
- **[Threads Scraper](https://apify.com/red.cars/threads-scraper)** - Meta's Threads platform data
- **[Bluesky Scraper](https://apify.com/red.cars/bluesky-scraper)** - Decentralized social network research

#### 🏢 B2B & Lead Generation

- **[Google Maps Scraper Pro](https://apify.com/red.cars/google-maps-scraper-pro)** - Local business leads & market research
- **[LinkedIn Company Intel Pro](https://apify.com/red.cars/linkedin-company-intelligence-pro)** - Corporate research & investment analysis
- **[Business Contact Intel Pro](https://apify.com/red.cars/business-contact-intelligence-pro)** - Contact enrichment & validation

#### 🏠 Real Estate & Travel

- **[Airbnb Scraper](https://apify.com/red.cars/airbnb-scraper)** - Vacation rental market research
- **[Zillow Real Estate Intel Pro](https://apify.com/red.cars/zillow-real-estate-intelligence-pro)** - Property investment & FSBO leads

#### 📑 Content & Media

- **[YouTube Subtitles Pro](https://apify.com/red.cars/youtube-subtitles-pro)** - Video content analysis & transcripts ⭐ **You are here**
- **[Substack Scraper](https://apify.com/red.cars/substack-newsletter-scraper)** - Creator economy & newsletter analytics
- **[Universal Content Extractor](https://apify.com/red.cars/universal-content-extractor)** - Multi-platform video & metadata downloader

🚀 **[View the Full 24-Actor Portfolio →](https://apify.com/red.cars)**

***

*Enterprise Data Excellence • Built for AI Agents • Optimized for ROI*

# Actor input Schema

## `urls` (type: `array`):

Array of YouTube video URLs to extract subtitles from. Supports youtube.com, youtu.be, youtube.com/embed, youtube.com/shorts, and music.youtube.com formats. Note: Some videos may have transcripts disabled by creators.

## `languages` (type: `array`):

Array of ISO 639-1 language codes to prioritize (e.g., \['en', 'es', 'fr']). Will fallback to available languages if preferred not found.

## `formatTranscript` (type: `boolean`):

Generate multiple subtitle formats (SRT, WebVTT, TXT) in addition to raw segments

## `includeMetadata` (type: `boolean`):

Extract video title, channel, duration, and thumbnail information

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of videos to process from the input URLs

## `concurrency` (type: `integer`):

Number of videos to process simultaneously (1-10). Higher values are faster but use more resources.

## `enableCache` (type: `boolean`):

Cache transcript data to improve performance for repeated requests (currently not implemented)

## `proxyType` (type: `string`):

Choose your preferred balance of cost vs reliability. Standard (Datacenter) is faster; Premium (Residential) is most reliable for high-security targets.

## `debugMode` (type: `boolean`):

Enable minimal extraction for health checks and testing. Guarantees success within 300s.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ],
  "languages": [
    "en"
  ],
  "formatTranscript": true,
  "includeMetadata": true,
  "maxResults": 1,
  "concurrency": 1,
  "enableCache": false,
  "proxyType": "RESIDENTIAL",
  "debugMode": false
}
```

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("red.cars/youtube-subtitles").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("red.cars/youtube-subtitles").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{}' |
apify call red.cars/youtube-subtitles --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=red.cars/youtube-subtitles",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/3RQ2Xvain3AXyb5hR/builds/7X4fWDb3Fz2dJuHbz/openapi.json