YouTube Data

Reach for this when structured YouTube data is the goal: video metadata, transcripts for analysis, channel upload history, search results or playlist contents, with no Google Cloud project and no quota units. Triggers on YouTube links, creator names and topic research even when unstated. Skip it for uploads and text-only research.

YouTube data access via TranscriptOut.com: a lightweight alternative to Google's YouTube Data API.

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.

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.

Transcript data · 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/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/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/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.

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.