The Best YouTube Transcript APIs in 2026: 7 Options Compared

If you need the text of YouTube videos in code, you have seven realistic options. Three are hosted transcript APIs, one is a marketplace of scrapers, two are open-source tools you run yourself, and one is Google's official API, which turns out not to do this job.

We make one of the hosted APIs, YTAPI, so read the comparison with that in mind. Where we measured something, the method is linked; where a number comes from another provider's site, we say when we checked it.

The short answer

1. YTAPI

A REST API for YouTube transcripts, plus search, channels, playlists and video details. You send a video ID or URL and get the captions back as JSON segments, plain text, Markdown, SRT or VTT, with word-level timestamps on auto-generated tracks.

• Speed. In our test on uncached videos (recent uploads nobody had requested), the median was 644 ms and the P99 2.34 s, with every request succeeding on the first try. Method and results.
• Pricing. One-time credit packs: $9 for 2,000, $29 for 10,000, $79 for 50,000. That is $4.50 down to $1.58 per 1,000 transcripts. Credits never expire. 200 free credits on signup, no card.
• Billing. Only HTTP 200 responses use a credit. Videos without captions, private or members-only videos, and rate-limit responses are free.
• For agents. An MCP server, agent skills for Claude Code and OpenClaw, and an API that agents can use to create their own account.
• Limits. YouTube only. No speech-to-text: a video without captions returns 404. Before you buy a pack, a key can make 1 request per second and 100 a day.

2. TranscriptAPI

A hosted YouTube API with a large cache, covering transcripts, search, channels and playlists, with an MCP server.

• Speed. Very fast when its cache already has the video. In our uncached test the median was 2.41 s, and 15% of first requests returned 408 and needed the documented retry.
• Pricing (checked September 26, 2026). $5 a month or $54 a year for 1,000 credits a month, with top-ups at $2.50 per 1,000 (monthly) or $1.50 (annual). 100 free credits.
• Good fit for steady volume on popular videos, at a low price per credit.

3. Supadata

A video-to-text API for YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, X, Facebook and uploaded files. It can also generate a transcript with AI when a video has no captions.

• Speed. Reliable in our test (100% first-try success) but slow in the tail: median 4.76 s, P90 15 s.
• Pricing (checked October 6, 2026). Monthly plans: $5 for 300 credits, $17 for 3,000, $47 for 30,000, and larger tiers. Credits do not roll over. A transcript from existing captions is 1 credit; an AI-generated one is 2 credits per minute of video. 100 free credits a month.
• Good fit if you need more than YouTube, or transcripts for videos with no captions, and can wait a few seconds per video. It also has Python and JavaScript SDKs and Zapier, Make and n8n integrations.

4. Apify actors

Apify is a marketplace of scrapers ("actors"), and it lists dozens for YouTube transcripts, built by different developers. Prices we saw in October 2026 range from about $0.70 to $10 per 1,000 results, plus your Apify plan.

• Good fit if you already schedule scraping jobs on Apify and want transcripts in the same pipeline.
• Watch out for quality and upkeep. Both depend on the actor's maintainer. Actors run as jobs, which suits batches better than a user waiting for a response.

5. youtube-transcript-api (open source, Python)

The youtube-transcript-api library fetches captions directly from YouTube, with no API key. It is free, well maintained, and works well on your own machine.

• The catch. YouTube blocks most IP addresses that belong to cloud providers. Its README warns that on AWS, Google Cloud, Azure and similar hosts you will most likely get RequestBlocked or IpBlocked, and it suggests paying for rotating residential proxies. We wrote up what that looks like on AWS, Google Cloud and Vercel, Render and Railway.
• Good fit for local scripts, notebooks and one-off research.

6. yt-dlp

The command-line downloader can save captions without the video: yt-dlp --write-subs --write-auto-subs --skip-download URL. It is free and handles almost any video.

• The catch. It hits the same blocks as the Python library, plus HTTP Error 429: Too Many Requests on subtitles when you fetch many in a row. See yt-dlp HTTP 429 on subtitles and "Sign in to confirm you're not a bot".
• Good fit for downloading captions by hand or from a script on a home connection.

7. YouTube Data API (official)

Google's API has a captions.download method, but it only works for videos you are allowed to edit, through OAuth. It cannot fetch captions of other people's videos, and each download costs 200 units of the default 10,000-unit daily quota. Details in Why the YouTube Data API can't download captions of other channels.

• Good fit for managing captions on your own channel. For other channels, use one of the options above.

Cost per 1,000 transcripts

Uneven volume changes the picture. A backfill of 40,000 videos in one month and 2,000 a month afterwards costs very differently on a monthly plan than on credits that do not expire. Pricing compared works through those cases.

How to choose

1. Where does your code run? On a laptop, start with the free tools. On a server, serverless function or AI agent sandbox, expect YouTube to block direct requests, and use a hosted API.
2. Which videos? Popular videos are fast almost everywhere, because some provider has them cached. New and low-view videos are where hosted APIs differ, so test with those.
3. How many, and how evenly? Steady monthly volume suits a subscription. Bursts suit credits that never expire.
4. Only YouTube? If you also need TikTok or Instagram, or speech-to-text for videos without captions, Supadata covers that.

Every hosted option above has a free allowance. Run the same 50 videos through two or three of them, including some uploaded this week, and compare.

FAQ

Is there a free YouTube transcript API?

Yes, if you run it yourself: youtube-transcript-api and yt-dlp are free, but YouTube often blocks them on cloud servers. The hosted APIs all have a free allowance: 200 credits on signup for YTAPI, 100 for TranscriptAPI, and 100 a month on Supadata's free plan.

Why does youtube-transcript-api work locally but fail on my server?

YouTube blocks most IP addresses that belong to cloud providers, so the same code that works at home gets RequestBlocked or IpBlocked on AWS, Google Cloud, Vercel and similar hosts. Rotating residential proxies or a hosted API get around it.

Can I get transcripts for videos without captions?

Not from captions, since there are none. Supadata can generate a transcript with AI for an extra charge. YTAPI returns 404 without charging.

Which API works best with ChatGPT, Claude or other AI agents?

YTAPI, TranscriptAPI and Supadata all offer an MCP server. YTAPI also has agent skills, a public OpenAPI file at ytapi.dev/openapi.json for custom GPT actions and other tools, and Markdown output that drops straight into a prompt.