YouTube Transcript Extractor
Paste a YouTube link and get the full video transcript as clean text. Works with auto-generated and manual captions in any language. Developers: fetch transcripts programmatically through a stable hosted API — no scraping, no IP blocks, no proxy maintenance.
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PDF, DOCX, XLSX, images, audio, video, and more
Free — 3 requests/day, no signup. for 300 credits/month free.
How it works
Paste a YouTube URL
Drop in any YouTube video link — regular videos, Shorts, or youtu.be short links all work.
Extract the transcript
ParseJet fetches the video captions — auto-generated or manually uploaded — and assembles them into readable, continuous text.
Copy or fetch via API
Copy the transcript for notes or summaries, or call the API to pull transcripts for entire channels and playlists programmatically.
Key features
What makes this youtube transcript stand out.
Any language
Extract transcripts in the language of the captions — English, Spanish, Japanese, and dozens more. Request a specific language with the API language parameter.
Auto-generated captions supported
Works even when the creator never uploaded subtitles — auto-generated captions are extracted and cleaned into readable text.
Clean, readable output
Caption fragments are merged into flowing text — no timestamp clutter, no duplicate lines, ready to read or feed to an LLM.
Stable API, no IP blocks
Scraping libraries like youtube-transcript-api often stop working when YouTube blocks your server IP. ParseJet handles the infrastructure — your requests keep working.
Video metadata included
Each response includes the video title, channel name, video ID, and duration alongside the transcript.
Scale to playlists and channels
Loop over video URLs and fetch every transcript with the same API call — build datasets from entire channels.
Use cases
Common scenarios where this tool saves you time.
Summarize videos with AI
Pull the transcript and pass it to Claude or ChatGPT for a summary, key points, or Q&A — skip watching the full video.
RAG over video content
Index transcripts from tutorials, talks, and podcasts in your vector database so your AI product can answer questions from video sources.
Content repurposing
Turn your videos into blog posts, show notes, social threads, and documentation — the transcript is the raw material.
Research and citation
Search interviews and lectures for exact quotes with timestamps in the source video — no scrubbing through hours of footage.
Automate with the API
Use the same tool programmatically. Works with any language — just HTTP.
# Get the transcript of a YouTube video
curl -X POST https://api.parsejet.com/v1/parse/youtube \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"url": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID", "language": "en"}'
# Response: { "text": "Full transcript...", "title": "Video Title",
# "source_type": "youtube", "metadata": { "video_id": "...", "channel": "...", "duration": ... } } import httpx
# Before (youtube-transcript-api — breaks when YouTube blocks your IP):
# from youtube_transcript_api import YouTubeTranscriptApi
# transcript = YouTubeTranscriptApi.get_transcript(video_id)
# After (ParseJet — hosted, no IP blocks or proxies to manage):
resp = httpx.post(
"https://api.parsejet.com/v1/parse/youtube",
headers={"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"},
json={"url": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID", "language": "en"},
)
data = resp.json()
print(data["title"]) # Video title
print(data["text"]) # Full transcript text // Fetch a YouTube transcript
const res = await fetch("https://api.parsejet.com/v1/parse/youtube", {
method: "POST",
headers: {
Authorization: "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY",
"Content-Type": "application/json",
},
body: JSON.stringify({
url: "https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID",
language: "en",
}),
});
const { text, title, metadata } = await res.json();
console.log(title, metadata.channel);
console.log(text); // Full transcript Want to automate this?
ParseJet API gives you the same parsing power via a single HTTP endpoint. No ffmpeg, no poppler, no tesseract — just one API call.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get the transcript of a YouTube video?
Paste the video URL in the tool above. ParseJet extracts the captions and returns the full transcript as clean text you can copy. For automation, POST the URL to /v1/parse/youtube.
Does it work with auto-generated captions?
Yes. If the video has no manually uploaded subtitles, ParseJet extracts the auto-generated captions and cleans them into readable text.
Is there a YouTube transcript API?
Yes. POST /v1/parse/youtube with the video URL and an optional language code. The response includes the transcript, video title, channel, and duration. Free API keys include 300 credits per month.
The youtube-transcript-api Python library stopped working — why?
YouTube aggressively blocks datacenter IPs, so scraping libraries like youtube-transcript-api often fail with IP-ban errors on servers and cloud functions. ParseJet runs the extraction on managed infrastructure, so your API calls keep working without proxies or workarounds.
What languages are supported?
Any language the video has captions in. Pass the language parameter (ISO 639-1 code like "en", "es", "ja") to request a specific caption track.
Is it free?
YouTube transcript extraction requires a free account and costs 5 credits per video — the free tier includes 300 credits per month (60 videos). Paid plans start at $19/month for higher volumes.
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