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YouTube Transcript Scraper

A powerful actor that extracts transcripts/captions from YouTube videos with built-in translation support for 100+ languages.

🌟 Features

• Extract YouTube Transcripts: Get captions/subtitles from any YouTube video
• Multi-Language Translation: Translate transcripts to 100+ languages using free Google Translate
• Batch Processing: Process multiple videos in a single run
• Smart Caption Selection: Automatically finds the best available captions
• Multiple Output Formats: Get results in JSON or plain text format
• Proxy Support: Built-in Apify proxy support to avoid IP blocking
• Fast Translation: Optimized batch translation for speed (5-10x faster than individual translation)
• Progress Tracking: Clean progress indicators to monitor translation status

📋 Input

The actor accepts the following input parameters:

Required Parameters

Optional Parameters

🚀 Usage

Input Example

{
"videos":[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
"https://youtu.be/jNQXAC9IVRw",
"dQw4w9WgXcQ"
],
"translate_to":"en",
"output_format":"json",
"delay_seconds":2
}

Output Example (JSON Format)

{
"video_id":"dQw4w9WgXcQ",
"video_url":"https://youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
"transcript":[
{
"text":"We're no strangers to love",
"start":0.0,
"duration":3.5
},
{
"text":"You know the rules and so do I",
"start":3.5,
"duration":4.2
}
],
"output_format":"json",
"metadata":{
"available_languages":[
{
"language":"English",
"code":"en",
"type":"auto-generated"
}
],
"selected_language":"en",
"translated_to":"es",
"translation_attempted":true,
"translation_success":true,
"translation_method":"Google Translate (deep-translator)"
},
"status":"success"
}

Output Example (Text Format)

{
"video_id":"dQw4w9WgXcQ",
"video_url":"https://youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
"transcript":"We're no strangers to love\nYou know the rules and so do I\nA full commitment's what I'm thinking of...",
"output_format":"txt",
"metadata":{ ... },
"status":"success"
}

And 80+ more languages!

[See full language list in the input schema]

🔧 How It Works

1. Video Processing: The actor extracts video IDs from URLs or accepts direct video IDs
2. Caption Discovery: Searches for available captions/transcripts in the video
3. Caption Retrieval: Fetches the best available caption (auto-generated or manual)
4. Translation (if enabled): Translates captions using Google Translate API
   • Uses batch translation for speed (20 segments per batch)
   • Progress tracking at 10%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 90%, 100%
   • Fallback to individual translation if batch fails
5. Output Formatting: Returns data in JSON or text format

⚡ Performance

• Without Translation: ~1-2 seconds per video
• With Translation:
  • Small videos (50-100 segments): ~5-10 seconds
  • Medium videos (500-1000 segments): ~30-60 seconds
  • Large videos (2000+ segments): ~2-3 minutes

Optimization: Batch translation makes it 5-10x faster than translating individual segments!

🛡️ Proxy Configuration

Recommended Settings (Default)

{
"useApifyProxy":true,
"apifyProxyGroups":["RESIDENTIAL"],
"apifyProxyCountry":"US"
}

Why use proxies?

• YouTube may block IP addresses making too many requests
• Residential proxies are recommended to avoid detection
• The actor rotates proxies between videos automatically

📊 Use Cases

• Content Analysis: Analyze video content at scale
• Accessibility: Create captions for videos that don't have them
• Translation: Translate video content to reach global audiences
• Research: Extract data from educational or documentary videos
• SEO: Generate text content from video for search optimization
• Subtitles: Create subtitle files for videos
• Data Mining: Extract information from video tutorials or courses

⚠️ Limitations

1. Caption Availability: Videos must have captions/subtitles available (auto-generated or manual)
2. Translation Quality: Uses Google Translate - quality varies by language pair
3. Rate Limiting: Free Google Translate may have rate limits for heavy usage
4. Video Access: Cannot access private or age-restricted videos
5. Disabled Captions: Some videos have captions disabled by the creator

🐛 Error Handling

The actor handles various error cases:

💡 Tips for Best Results

1. Use Residential Proxies: Prevents IP blocking from YouTube
2. Add Delay Between Videos: Set delay_seconds to 2-5 for better reliability
3. Batch Processing: Process multiple videos in one run for efficiency
4. Check Metadata: The output includes info about available languages and translation status
5. JSON Format: Use JSON format if you need timestamps and structured data
6. Text Format: Use text format for simple transcript reading