YouTube Transcript API

Authentication

Send your API token in the Authorization header of every request:

Authorization: Basic <your-api-token>
Content-Type: application/json

Confirm your email first. Until you click the verification link we sent you, every API call returns 403 with {"error":"email_unverified"}. This is the most common first-call failure on a new account.

Rate limits & credits

• The API is rate-limited to 5 requests per 10 seconds per token. Exceeding it returns 429 with a Retry-After header (seconds).
• Each successfully extracted transcript consumes 1 credit from your monthly allowance. Failed lookups (no captions, invalid id) are free.
• Videos with no captions at all are rescued by automatic speech-to-text on paid plans. That is far more expensive to run, so a fresh transcription costs 3 credits (1 base + a 2-credit surcharge) instead of 1. Replays of an already-transcribed video cost the usual 1.
• If a request would exceed your remaining credits it returns 402 and consumes nothing.

POST/api/transcripts

Fetch transcripts for up to 50 videos per request. ids accepts video IDs or full YouTube URLs. Optional lang sets the preferred caption language (falls back to whatever the video has).

curl -X POST https://vidwords.com/api/transcripts \
  -H "Authorization: Basic YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"ids": ["dQw4w9WgXcQ", "https://youtu.be/jNQXAC9IVRw"], "lang": "en"}'

const res = await fetch("https://vidwords.com/api/transcripts", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "Authorization": "Basic YOUR_API_TOKEN",
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({ ids: ["dQw4w9WgXcQ", "jNQXAC9IVRw"], lang: "en" }),
});
const data = await res.json();
console.log(data.results);

import requests

res = requests.post(
    "https://vidwords.com/api/transcripts",
    headers={
        "Authorization": "Basic YOUR_API_TOKEN",
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    json={"ids": ["dQw4w9WgXcQ", "jNQXAC9IVRw"], "lang": "en"},
)
print(res.json()["results"])

Response:

{
  "results": [
    {
      "id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
      "title": "…",
      "author": "…",
      "language": "English",
      "languageCode": "en",
      "isGenerated": false,
      "text": "full transcript as one string…",
      "segments": [{ "text": "…", "start": 1.36, "duration": 1.68 }, …]
    },
    { "id": "…", "error": "no_transcript", "message": "No transcript is available for this video" }
  ],
  "creditsRemaining": 23
}

POST/api/channels Starter & up

Resolve channels into their full upload list (newest first, capped at 500 videos). Available on Starter (up to 5 channels/request), Pro, and Advanced (up to 50). ids accepts @handles, channel URLs, or UC… channel IDs. Listing videos is free; extracting their transcripts via /api/transcripts costs credits as usual.

curl -X POST https://vidwords.com/api/channels \
  -H "Authorization: Basic YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"ids": ["@mkbhd"]}'

const res = await fetch("https://vidwords.com/api/channels", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "Authorization": "Basic YOUR_API_TOKEN",
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({ ids: ["@mkbhd"] }),
});
console.log((await res.json()).results);

import requests

res = requests.post(
    "https://vidwords.com/api/channels",
    headers={"Authorization": "Basic YOUR_API_TOKEN", "Content-Type": "application/json"},
    json={"ids": ["@mkbhd"]},
)
print(res.json()["results"])

Response:

{
  "results": [
    {
      "id": "@mkbhd",
      "channelId": "UCBJycsmduvYEL83R_U4JriQ",
      "title": "…",
      "videoCount": 500,
      "truncated": true,
      "videos": [{ "id": "…", "title": "…", "author": "…" }, …]
    }
  ]
}

Automation tools

Plug VidWords into no-code automation platforms — import a template, set your API token, and you're running.

Errors

Per-video errors inside results: invalid_id, no_transcript, transcripts_disabled, video_unavailable, age_restricted, video_unplayable, ip_blocked, request_blocked, fetch_failed, internal. Per-channel errors: invalid_id, channel_not_found, internal.