YouTube Transcript

Learn how to scrape transcripts from YouTube videos using Web Scraper API. Find out more about its parameters and practical examples.

You can get YouTube video transcripts by providing a YouTube video ID and a language_code to the youtube_transcript source.

Transcripts are separate from subtitles and closed captions (CC). To extract subtitles and closed captions, use the YouTube Subtitles source.

Request samples

The following examples demonstrate how to retrieve the English transcript of a YouTube video, specifically when the transcript was provided by the uploader.

cURL

curl 'https://realtime.oxylabs.io/v1/queries' \
--user 'USERNAME:PASSWORD' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{
        "source": "youtube_transcript",
        "query": "SLoqvcnwwN4",
        "context": [
            {
                "key": "language_code",
                "value": "en"
            },
            {
                "key": "transcript_origin",
                "value": "uploader_provided"
            }
        ]
    }'

Python

import requests
from pprint import pprint

# Structure payload.
payload = {
    'source': 'youtube_transcript',
    'query': 'SLoqvcnwwN4',
    'context': [
        {
            'key': 'language_code',
            'value': 'en'
        },
        {
            'key': 'transcript_origin',
            'value': 'uploader_provided'
        }
    ]
}

# Get response.
response = requests.request(
    'POST',
    'https://realtime.oxylabs.io/v1/queries',
    auth=('user', 'pass1'),
    json=payload,
)

# Print the JSON response with the result.
pprint(response.json())

Node.js

const https = require("https");

const username = "USERNAME";
const password = "PASSWORD";
const body = {
    source: "youtube_transcript",
    query: "SLoqvcnwwN4",
    context: [
        {
            key: "language_code",
            value: "en",
        },
        {
            key: "transcript_origin",
            value: "uploader_provided",
        },
    ],
};

const options = {
    hostname: "realtime.oxylabs.io",
    path: "/v1/queries",
    method: "POST",
    headers: {
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
        Authorization:
            "Basic " + Buffer.from(`${username}:${password}`).toString("base64"),
    },
};

const request = https.request(options, (response) => {
    let data = "";

    response.on("data", (chunk) => {
        data += chunk;
    });

    response.on("end", () => {
        const responseData = JSON.parse(data);
        console.log(JSON.stringify(responseData, null, 2));
    });
});

request.on("error", (error) => {
    console.error("Error:", error);
});

request.write(JSON.stringify(body));
request.end();

HTTP

# The whole string you submit has to be URL-encoded.

https://realtime.oxylabs.io/v1/queries?source=youtube_transcript&query=SLoqvcnwwN4&context=%5B%7B%22key%22%3A%22language_code%22%2C%22value%22%3A%22en%22%7D%2C%7B%22key%22%3A%22transcript_origin%22%2C%22value%22%3A%22uploader_provided%22%7D%5D&access_token=12345abcde

PHP

<?php

$params = array(
    'source' => 'youtube_transcript',
    'query' => 'SLoqvcnwwN4',
    'context' => array(
        array(
            'key' => 'language_code',
            'value' => 'en'
        ),
        array(
            'key' => 'transcript_origin',
            'value' => 'uploader_provided'
        )
    )
);

$ch = curl_init();

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "https://realtime.oxylabs.io/v1/queries");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, json_encode($params));
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERPWD, "USERNAME" . ":" . "PASSWORD");

$headers = array();
$headers[] = "Content-Type: application/json";
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);

$result = curl_exec($ch);
echo $result;

if (curl_errno($ch)) {
    echo 'Error:' . curl_error($ch);
}

curl_close($ch);

Golang

package main

import (
	"bytes"
	"encoding/json"
	"fmt"
	"io/ioutil"
	"net/http"
)

func main() {
	const Username = "USERNAME"
	const Password = "PASSWORD"

	// Define the payload with query and context parameters.
	payload := map[string]interface{}{
		"source": "youtube_transcript",
		"query":  "SLoqvcnwwN4",
		"context": []map[string]string{
			{
				"key":   "language_code",
				"value": "en",
			},
			{
				"key":   "transcript_origin",
				"value": "uploader_provided",
			},
		},
	}

	jsonValue, err := json.Marshal(payload)
	if err != nil {
		fmt.Println("Error marshalling JSON:", err)
		return
	}

	client := &http.Client{}
	request, err := http.NewRequest("POST", "https://realtime.oxylabs.io/v1/queries", bytes.NewBuffer(jsonValue))
	if err != nil {
		fmt.Println("Error creating request:", err)
		return
	}

	request.SetBasicAuth(Username, Password)
	request.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")

	response, err := client.Do(request)
	if err != nil {
		fmt.Println("Error making request:", err)
		return
	}
	defer response.Body.Close()

	responseText, err := ioutil.ReadAll(response.Body)
	if err != nil {
		fmt.Println("Error reading response:", err)
		return
	}

	fmt.Println(string(responseText))
}

C#

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Net.Http.Json;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace OxyApi
{
    class Program
    {
        static async Task Main()
        {
            const string Username = "USERNAME";
            const string Password = "PASSWORD";

            var parameters = new
            {
                source = "youtube_transcript",
                query = "SLoqvcnwwN4",
                context = new[]
                {
                    new { key = "language_code", value = "en" },
                    new { key = "transcript_origin", value = "uploader_provided" }
                }
            };

            var client = new HttpClient();

            Uri baseUri = new Uri("https://realtime.oxylabs.io");
            client.BaseAddress = baseUri;

            var requestMessage = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Post, "/v1/queries");
            requestMessage.Content = JsonContent.Create(parameters);

            var authenticationString = $"{Username}:{Password}";
            var base64EncodedAuthenticationString = Convert.ToBase64String(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(authenticationString));
            requestMessage.Headers.Add("Authorization", "Basic " + base64EncodedAuthenticationString);

            try
            {
                var response = await client.SendAsync(requestMessage);
                response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();

                var contents = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
                Console.WriteLine(contents);
            }
            catch (HttpRequestException e)
            {
                Console.WriteLine($"Request error: {e.Message}");
            }
        }
    }
}

Java

package org.example;

import okhttp3.*;
import org.json.JSONArray;
import org.json.JSONObject;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;

public class Main implements Runnable {
    private static final String AUTHORIZATION_HEADER = "Authorization";
    public static final String USERNAME = "USERNAME";
    public static final String PASSWORD = "PASSWORD";

    public void run() {
        // Construct JSON payload with context parameters
        JSONObject jsonObject = new JSONObject();
        jsonObject.put("source", "youtube_transcript");
        jsonObject.put("query", "SLoqvcnwwN4");

        JSONArray contextArray = new JSONArray();
        contextArray.put(new JSONObject().put("key", "language_code").put("value", "en"));
        contextArray.put(new JSONObject().put("key", "transcript_origin").put("value", "uploader_provided"));

        jsonObject.put("context", contextArray);

        Authenticator authenticator = (route, response) -> {
            String credential = Credentials.basic(USERNAME, PASSWORD);
            return response
                    .request()
                    .newBuilder()
                    .header(AUTHORIZATION_HEADER, credential)
                    .build();
        };

        var client = new OkHttpClient.Builder()
                .authenticator(authenticator)
                .readTimeout(180, TimeUnit.SECONDS)
                .build();

        var mediaType = MediaType.parse("application/json; charset=utf-8");
        var body = RequestBody.create(jsonObject.toString(), mediaType);
        var request = new Request.Builder()
                .url("https://realtime.oxylabs.io/v1/queries")
                .post(body)
                .build();

        try (var response = client.newCall(request).execute()) {
            if (response.body() != null) {
                try (var responseBody = response.body()) {
                    System.out.println(responseBody.string());
                }
            }
        } catch (Exception exception) {
            System.out.println("Error: " + exception.getMessage());
        }

        System.exit(0);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        new Thread(new Main()).start();
    }
}

JSON

{
    "source": "youtube_transcript",
    "query": "SLoqvcnwwN4",
    "context": [
        {
            "key": "language_code",
            "value": "en"
        },
        {
            "key": "transcript_origin",
            "value": "uploader_provided"
        }
    ]
}

We use synchronous Realtime integration method in our examples. If you would like to use Proxy Endpoint, or asynchronous Push-Pull integration, refer to the Integration Methods section.

47KB

YT_transcript_output.json

Request parameter values

Generic

Parameter	Description	Default Value
source	Sets the scraper.	youtube_transcript
query	YouTube video ID.	-
context: language_code	Specifies the language of the transcript. Find available values here. NOTE: If the provided language_code has no matching transcript in the YouTube video, the result returns a 404 status.	-
context: transcript_origin (optional)	Specifies whether to retrieve transcripts that are auto_generated or uploader_provided.	auto_generated
callback_url	URL to your callback endpoint. More info.	-

- mandatory parameter