# Video transcript > What's said in a video or Short: its captions as timed segments and as one block of text. - **Request:** `GET https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/youtube/video/transcript` - **Auth:** `x-api-key` header ([get a free key](https://lurkapi.com/login?next=/dashboard)) - **Cost:** 1 credit per call. 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:** `youtube_transcript` on `https://api.lurkapi.com/mcp` - **Freshness:** responses are cached for up to 30 days - **Try it live:** https://lurkapi.com/docs/youtube/transcript#try (no signup; free tool: [YouTube transcript](https://lurkapi.com/free-tools/youtube-transcript)) - **Platform:** [YouTube](https://lurkapi.com/docs/youtube.md) (youtube.com) - **Web page:** https://lurkapi.com/docs/youtube/transcript ## When to use this Use it to turn a video into text for summaries, search, research or repurposing. It reads the video's captions: the creator's own or YouTube's auto-generated ones (`isGenerated` tells them apart). Pick a language with `language` (e.g. `es`); without it you get English when the video has it, else the video's main language. `availableLanguages` lists every caption track. YouTube's machine translation isn't available, so a language the video has no captions in returns 404. Videos without captions, and private or removed ones, return 404 `not_found`. ## Parameters All parameters go in the query string. | Name | Type | Required | Default | Allowed values | Description | Example | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | `url` | string | yes | | | The video's URL (watch, youtu.be, /shorts/, /live/ or /embed/ links all work) or its 11-character id, e.g. `https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ`. | `https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ` | | `language` | string | no | | | Language code, e.g. `en`, `es` or `pt-BR`. `pt` also matches `pt-BR`. Default: English if the video has it, else its main language. | | ## 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/v1/youtube/video/transcript?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DdQw4w9WgXcQ" \ -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" ``` JavaScript: ```js const params = new URLSearchParams({ url: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ", }); const res = await fetch(`https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/youtube/video/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.transcript); ``` Python: ```python import os import requests res = requests.get( "https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/youtube/video/transcript", params={ "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ", }, 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["transcript"]) ``` ## 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": 999983, "credits_charged": 1, "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ", "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ", "language": "English", "languageCode": "en", "isGenerated": false, "transcript": [ { "text": "♪ We're no strangers to love ♪", "startMs": 18640, "endMs": 21880, "startTimeText": "0:18" }, { "text": "♪ You know the rules and so do I ♪", "startMs": 22640, "endMs": 26960, "startTimeText": "0:22" } ], "transcript_only_text": "♪ We're no strangers to love ♪ ♪ You know the rules and so do I ♪", "availableLanguages": [ { "code": "en", "name": "English", "isGenerated": false }, { "code": "en", "name": "English", "isGenerated": true }, { "code": "de-DE", "name": "German (Germany)", "isGenerated": false }, { "code": "ja", "name": "Japanese", "isGenerated": false }, { "code": "pt-BR", "name": "Portuguese (Brazil)", "isGenerated": false }, { "code": "es-419", "name": "Spanish (Latin America)", "isGenerated": false } ] } ``` ## 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). | | `videoId` | `string` | Video id. | | `url` | `string` | Link to the video. | | `language` | `string` | Language of the transcript, e.g. "English". | | `languageCode` | `string` | Its code as YouTube names the track, e.g. `en` or `pt-BR`. | | `isGenerated` | `boolean` | Auto-generated by YouTube's speech recognition, rather than captions the creator uploaded. | | `transcript` | `object[]` | Timed segments, in order. | | `transcript[].text` | `string` | What's said in this segment. | | `transcript[].startMs` | `number` | Segment start, ms from the start of the video. | | `transcript[].endMs` | `number` | Segment end, ms; never past the next segment's start. | | `transcript[].startTimeText` | `string` | Segment start as a timestamp, e.g. "1:23". | | `transcript_only_text` | `string` | The whole transcript as one string, without timestamps. | | `availableLanguages` | `object[]` | Every caption track the video has. | | `availableLanguages[].code` | `string` | Language code; pass it as `language`. | | `availableLanguages[].name` | `string` | Language name, e.g. "English". | | `availableLanguages[].isGenerated` | `boolean` | Auto-generated rather than uploaded by the creator. | ## 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 | | --- | --- | --- | | 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. | | 404 | `not_found` | The endpoint, or the thing you asked for (ad, post, subreddit), doesn't exist. Charged when the platform was checked. | | 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 `youtube_transcript` tool. Ask in plain English, for example: Ask Claude: ```text Use LurkAPI's youtube_transcript with url "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" and summarize what you find. ``` Claude calls `youtube_transcript` with arguments like these, and each call costs 1 credit: Tool arguments: ```json { "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" } ``` Tool results skip nulls and empty lists to save tokens. --- Previous: [Video details](https://lurkapi.com/docs/youtube/video.md) · Next: [Video comments](https://lurkapi.com/docs/youtube/comments.md)