# Media transcript > Transcribe speech from a public Instagram video or reel. - **Request:** `GET https://api.lurkapi.com/v2/instagram/media/transcript` - **Auth:** `x-api-key` header ([get a free key](https://lurkapi.com/login?next=/dashboard)) - **Cost:** 1 credit per call; 5 if speech-to-text runs. Validation errors, `401`/`402`/`429` rejections and `5xx` failures are free; `not_found` is charged ([how charging works](https://lurkapi.com/docs.md#credits)). - **MCP tool:** `instagram_media_transcript` on `https://api.lurkapi.com/mcp` - **Freshness:** responses are cached for up to 30 days - **Try it live:** https://lurkapi.com/docs/instagram/media-transcript#try (no signup) - **Platform:** [Instagram](https://lurkapi.com/docs/instagram.md) (instagram.com) - **Web page:** https://lurkapi.com/docs/instagram/media-transcript ## When to use this Pass a public reel or video URL with a known duration of at most 120 seconds. Speech-to-text costs 5 credits when it succeeds; a cached transcript costs 1 credit because speech-to-text does not run again. Photos, videos without a known duration, longer videos, unavailable audio and private media cannot be transcribed. A video with no speech returns 404 transcript_unavailable for 1 credit, and that answer is cached. Transcription is machine-generated and can contain errors. ## Parameters All parameters go in the query string. | Name | Type | Required | Default | Allowed values | Description | Example | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | `code` | string | no | | | The post's shortcode, e.g. Ddl5eH-u4le. Required unless url is given. | | | `url` | string | no | | | An instagram.com/p/, /reel/ or /tv/ URL, or the shortcode. Required unless code is given. | `https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ddl5eH-u4le/` | ## Example request Replace `YOUR_API_KEY` with your key, or set `LURKAPI_KEY` for the code. [Get a free key](https://lurkapi.com/login?next=/dashboard). curl: ```bash curl "https://api.lurkapi.com/v2/instagram/media/transcript?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com%2Freel%2FDdl5eH-u4le%2F" \ -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" ``` JavaScript: ```js const params = new URLSearchParams({ url: "https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ddl5eH-u4le/", }); const res = await fetch(`https://api.lurkapi.com/v2/instagram/media/transcript?${params}`, { headers: { "x-api-key": process.env.LURKAPI_KEY }, }); const data = await res.json(); if (!data.success) throw new Error(`${data.code}: ${data.error}`); console.log(data.segments); ``` Python: ```python import os import requests res = requests.get( "https://api.lurkapi.com/v2/instagram/media/transcript", params={ "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ddl5eH-u4le/", }, headers={"x-api-key": os.environ["LURKAPI_KEY"]}, timeout=60, ) data = res.json() if not data["success"]: raise RuntimeError(f"{data['code']}: {data['error']}") print(data["segments"]) ``` ## Example response A real response from this endpoint, captured from the live API and trimmed to a couple of items. Strings over 96 characters (mostly signed media URLs) are cut short and end in `…`. 200 OK (application/json): ```json { "success": true, "credits_remaining": 999995, "credits_charged": 5, "code": "Ddl5eH-u4le", "url": "https://www.instagram.com/p/Ddl5eH-u4le/", "transcript": "Caitlin Clark is just a normal girl from Iowa, raised to do normal stuff…", "source": "speech_to_text", "language": "en", "duration_s": 30.0248125, "segments": [ { "start": 0.3, "end": 4.92, "text": "Caitlin Clark is just a normal girl from Iowa, raised to do normal stuff." }, { "start": 5.12, "end": 9.22, "text": "Cereal for breakfast, football on Sundays, golf on her days off." }, { "start": 9.46, "end": 11.72, "text": "Eventually, she grew up and got a job." }, { "start": 11.94, "end": 20.48, "text": "At this job, she sells out a variety of arenas, shoots from distances pr…" }, { "start": 20.72, "end": 25.84, "text": "The media finds all of this extremely interesting, but to her, this is all totally normal." }, { "start": 26.62, "end": 28.26, "text": "Nothing special to see here." } ] } ``` ## Response fields Every field of a successful response. `[]` marks a list: `a[].b` is the `b` of each item in `a`. **nullable** fields can be `null`; **optional** fields can be missing. | Field | Type | Description | | --- | --- | --- | | `success` | `true` | Always true here; errors have `success: false`. | | `credits_remaining` | `number` | Your balance after this call. On anonymous playground calls: free tries left today. | | `credits_charged` | `number` | Credits this call cost; 0 on free endpoints. On anonymous playground calls: tries used (1). | | `code` | `string` | The video's Instagram shortcode. | | `url` | `string` | Canonical Instagram post URL. | | `transcript` | `string` | Recognized speech as plain text; machine transcription may contain mistakes. | | `language` | `string`, nullable | Detected spoken language, ISO 639-1; null when not returned. | | `duration_s` | `number`, nullable | Audio duration in seconds; null when not shown or returned. A null count is not zero. | | `segments` | `object[]` | Timed transcript segments returned by speech-to-text; empty when unavailable. | | `segments[].start` | `number` | Segment start offset in seconds. | | `segments[].end` | `number` | Segment end offset in seconds. | | `segments[].text` | `string` | Recognized speech in this segment. | | `source` | `"speech_to_text"` | How the transcript was produced: speech_to_text. | ## Caching and freshness Responses are cached for up to 30 days, so a repeat call within that window can return the same data. It still costs 1 credit. ## Errors Errors return `{ success: false, error, code, docs }` with the HTTP status below. Validation errors, `401`/`402`/`429` rejections and `5xx` failures are free; `not_found` is charged ([how charging works](https://lurkapi.com/docs.md#credits)). [All error codes](https://lurkapi.com/docs.md#errors). | Status | Code | Meaning | | --- | --- | --- | | 400 | `invalid_params` | A parameter is missing or invalid. `issues` names each one. | | 401 | `missing_api_key` | No API key. Send it in the `x-api-key` header. | | 401 | `invalid_api_key` | The key is unknown or was revoked. | | 402 | `insufficient_credits` | Not enough credits for this call. Buy a pack or wait for tomorrow's top-up. | | 403 | `not_public` | The platform confirmed this account or content isn't available to logged-out visitors. Use a publicly visible target. Charged when the platform was checked. | | 404 | `not_found` | The endpoint, or the thing you asked for (ad, post, subreddit), doesn't exist. Charged when the platform was checked. | | 404 | `transcript_unavailable` | The video has no captions and speech-to-text heard no speech in it. Charged the base credit, never the speech-to-text extra; the answer is cached. | | 405 | `method_not_allowed` | Endpoints take GET with query params. | | 429 | `rate_limited` | Too many calls at once. Wait for the `retry-after` seconds, then retry. | | 500 | `internal_error` | Something broke on our side. Retry; 5xx errors are free. | | 502 | `upstream_error` | The platform didn't give a usable answer. Retry; 5xx errors are free. | | 503 | `upstream_busy` | All our connections to the platform are busy. Retry in a few seconds; 5xx errors are free. | | 504 | `upstream_timeout` | The platform took over 30 seconds to answer. Retry; timeouts are free. | ## Use it in Claude Once LurkAPI is [connected to Claude](https://lurkapi.com/docs.md#claude), this endpoint is the `instagram_media_transcript` tool. Ask in plain English, for example: Ask Claude: ```text Use LurkAPI's instagram_media_transcript with url "https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ddl5eH-u4le/" and summarize what you find. ``` Claude calls `instagram_media_transcript` with arguments like these, and each call costs 1 credit; 5 if speech-to-text runs: Tool arguments: ```json { "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ddl5eH-u4le/" } ``` Tool results skip nulls and empty lists to save tokens. --- Previous: [User reels](https://lurkapi.com/docs/instagram/user-reels.md) · Next: [LinkedIn company page](https://lurkapi.com/docs/linkedin/company.md)