TranscriptOut

Reach for this whenever a task touches YouTube, said or unsaid: pasted video/channel/playlist links, IDs and @handles, summaries, quotes, translations, topic research through talks and tutorials, creator monitoring. The full TranscriptOut surface: transcripts in five formats, search, channels, playlists and batch jobs. Skip it for uploads and account chores.

Full YouTube data toolkit via TranscriptOut.com. Transcripts, search, channels, playlists, bulk jobs: one API key.

Setup

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

Required Header

Every request needs one header:

• Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY

Every response is one JSON envelope. Success: {"ok": true, "request_id": "...", "data": {...}}. Error: {"ok": false, "code": "...", "detail": "...", "request_id": "..."}. Branch on the machine-readable code, not on the human text. The remaining credit balance rides in the X-Credits-Remaining response header.

API Reference

Base URL: https://api.transcriptout.com/v1. Full reference with the latest parameters and schemas: transcriptout.com/docs.

Transcript · 1 credit

Fetch the transcript of any YouTube video.

bash

curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/transcript?video=VIDEO_URL_OR_ID&format=text" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

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

Default for agents: use format=text unless you need timestamps. Plain text is the cheapest form to reason over. Use format=json to cite or seek to exact moments. Add video_metadata=true when the title/channel is also wanted: same call, same 1 credit.

Param	Required	Default	Values
video	yes	-	YouTube URL (full/short/shorts) or 11-char video ID
lang	no	en	language code of the track (en, de, ...)
format	no	json	json, text, srt, vtt, srv3
kind	no	manual if present	manual, auto
segment	no	auto tracks: 180 (80 for srt/vtt). Manual tracks keep the author's lines	20-5000, max characters per segment
video_metadata	no	false	true adds data.metadata (title, channel, duration, views) for the same 1 credit
download	no	false	true returns the raw file instead of the JSON envelope (text/srt/vtt/srv3 only)

segment controls the size of the pieces: 500-1500 characters makes chunks with enough context for embeddings and retrieval. Left out, an auto-generated track is cut into ~180-character segments and a manual track is returned exactly as its author broke it.

Response for format=json. With format=text/srt/vtt/srv3 the transcript field is one string in that format:

json

{
  "ok": true,
  "request_id": "req_...",
  "data": {
    "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "language": "en",
    "kind": "manual",
    "transcript": [
      { "text": "Never gonna give you up", "start": 18.0, "duration": 4.12 },
      { "text": "Never gonna let you down", "start": 22.12, "duration": 3.85 }
    ],
    "available_langs": [
      { "code": "en", "kind": "manual", "name": "English" },
      { "code": "en", "kind": "auto", "name": "English (auto-generated)" }
    ]
  }
}

GET /v1/video · 1 credit

Metadata for one video (title, channel, duration, views, thumbnails) plus the list of available transcript languages, WITHOUT downloading the subtitles.

bash

curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/video?id=VIDEO_URL_OR_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

Credit hygiene: if the transcript is wanted anyway, call /v1/transcript with video_metadata=true instead. One call and one credit against two.

GET /v1/search · 1 credit/page

Search YouTube for videos or channels.

bash

# Videos
curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/search?q=QUERY&type=video&limit=20" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

# Channels
curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/search?q=QUERY&type=channel&limit=10" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

# Next page
curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/search?next_page_token=TOKEN" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

Param	Required	Default	Validation
q	yes*	-	the query (*or pass next_page_token)
type	no	video	video, channel
limit	no	20	1-50
next_page_token	no	-	token from a previous page

The response carries next_page_token and has_more. Video entries have video_id, title, channel, duration ("M:SS"), view_count, published, url, thumbnails.

GET /v1/channel/latest · 1 credit

The ~15 most recent videos of a channel, served from its RSS feed: the fastest and cheapest way to check what a creator published recently.

bash

curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/channel/latest?name=@kurzgesagt" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

name accepts an @handle, a channel name, a UC... channel ID or a channel URL. No resolve step needed: pass the handle directly.

GET /v1/channel/videos · 1 credit/page

Every video from a channel's Videos tab, newest first.

bash

# First page (100 videos)
curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/channel/videos?name=@3blue1brown" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

# Next pages
curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/channel/videos?next_page_token=TOKEN" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

# IDs only, 500 per page (feed these into the bulk job)
curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/channel/videos?name=@3blue1brown&ids_only=true" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

Provide name on the first call and only next_page_token afterwards. limit goes up to 100, or up to 500 with ids_only=true (the response is then video_ids[] instead of full video objects). The response carries next_page_token and has_more.

GET /v1/channel/search · 1 credit/page

Search inside one channel using YouTube's native relevance search. A result whose title lacks the query word is normal: it is relevance, not substring match.

bash

curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/channel/search?name=@kurzgesagt&q=QUERY&limit=30" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

Param	Required	Default	Validation
name	yes*	-	@handle, channel name, UC... ID or URL (*or next_page_token)
q	yes*	-	query to search within the channel
limit	no	30	1-100
next_page_token	no	-	token from a previous page

Cheaper and better-ranked than downloading the catalogue and grepping it.

GET /v1/playlist/videos · 1 credit/page

Every video of a playlist, in playlist order.

bash

# First page (100 videos)
curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/playlist/videos?id=PL_ID_OR_URL" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

# Next pages
curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/playlist/videos?next_page_token=TOKEN" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

# IDs only, 500 per page (feed these into the bulk job)
curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/playlist/videos?id=PL_ID_OR_URL&ids_only=true" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

id accepts a PL... playlist ID or any URL with list=. limit goes up to 100, or up to 500 with ids_only=true. The response carries playlist, title, count, videos[] (or video_ids[]), next_page_token and has_more.

GET /v1/playlist/search · 1 credit

Find videos inside a playlist by a substring of the title (case-insensitive). YouTube has no native playlist search, so this scans up to 500 playlist items.

bash

curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/playlist/search?id=PL_ID_OR_URL&q=QUERY&limit=30" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

truncated: true in the response means the scan window ended before the playlist did, so there may be more matches.

Bulk transcripts: POST /v1/transcripts · 1 credit per video

One asynchronous job for up to 4,000 videos. Use it instead of looping over /v1/transcript for more than a handful of videos: same price per video, same options (lang, format, kind, segment, video_metadata), and it paces itself inside the account's rate limit instead of bouncing off 429s.

bash

# Submit. Charged 1 credit per unique video, returns 202 immediately
curl -s -X POST "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/transcripts" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"videos":["VIDEO_ID_1","VIDEO_ID_2"],"lang":"en","format":"text"}'

The 202 response carries job_id, status, count and credits: {charged, refunded}. Duplicates collapse BEFORE billing. Add an Idempotency-Key header when a retry is possible: resubmitting the same body with the same key returns the SAME job and does not charge twice.

bash

# Progress (free)
curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/transcripts/JOB_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

# Results, readable before the job is done (free)
curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/transcripts/JOB_ID/results?limit=100" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

# Cancel. Refunds only videos not started yet (free)
curl -s -X POST "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/transcripts/JOB_ID/cancel" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

Requires a user key (sk_...). Results come in submission order, page by page (limit 1-500, next_page_token). Each entry is exactly what /v1/transcript returns for that video, plus its status. Videos that could not be delivered through the service's fault are refunded automatically.

Credit Costs

Endpoint	Cost
transcript	1
video (metadata)	1
search	1/page
channel/latest	1
channel/videos	1/page
channel/search	1/page
playlist/videos	1/page
playlist/search	1
transcripts (bulk job)	1 per video
job status / results / cancel	free

Credits are refunded automatically when a call fails before reaching YouTube (validation, rate limit, service capacity). A definitive "this video has no captions" (404) is an answer and is billed like one.

Errors

Code	Meaning	Action
400/422	Bad parameter	Fix the request. Credit refunded automatically
401	Bad or missing API key	Check the key. It must start with sk_
402	Out of credits	transcriptout.com/billing
404	No captions on that language/track, or bad ID	Definitive answer, do not retry. Try another lang or kind=auto. Billed
410	Video removed	Do not retry
451	Age-restricted or members-only	Do not retry
429	Rate limit (200 req/min per key)	Wait, respect Retry-After. Refunded
502	Failed on YouTube's side	One retry is reasonable. Billed
503	Service at capacity	Retry after Retry-After. Refunded

Every error body carries a machine-readable code and a request_id. Include the request_id when contacting support.

Tips

• format=text is the cheapest form to reason over. Ask for json only when timestamps matter.
• Transcript AND title/channel wanted? One call: video_metadata=true. Never a separate /v1/video first.
• Transcribe last: search and listings are for choosing, and pulling transcripts for a whole results page nobody asked to read is the fastest way to burn a balance.
• More than ~5 transcripts? Submit ONE bulk job with IDs from ids_only=true listings.
• channel/latest is the cheapest channel question. Reach for it before channel/videos.
• Stop paginating once the user has enough: has_more: true is an offer, not an obligation.

Free tier: 100 credits on signup, 200 req/min. Starter ($4.49/mo): 1,000 credits/month, slider up to 100,000/month. Failed calls that never reached YouTube are refunded.