LurkAPI

YouTube transcript

Paste a YouTube video or Shorts link and get its transcript: every line with its timestamp, plus the full text ready to copy into a doc, a brief or Claude. Works with auto-generated captions and other languages.

Free, 5 runs a day with no signup. Table view, JSON and CSV download.

Examples

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.

More options (1)

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.

5 free tries a day, no signup

Press Run to fetch live data

Results come back as a table you can download as CSV, or as the raw JSON.

Runs on the LurkAPI Video transcript endpoint. Use it from your own code or inside Claude.

Questions

How do I get the transcript of a YouTube video?

Paste the video's link (a youtube.com/watch link, a youtu.be link or a Shorts link) and press Run. You get each caption line with its start time, and the whole transcript as plain text underneath.

Is this YouTube transcript tool free?

Yes. You get 5 free requests a day without an account. Sign up free for 100 credits, plus a top-up to 25 every day. No card needed. One transcript costs 1 credit.

Does it work on videos without subtitles?

It works on any video with captions, including the auto-generated ones YouTube makes for most videos. If a video has no captions at all, there's nothing to read and you'll see a not-found message.

Can I get the transcript in another language?

Yes. Set language to a code like es, de or fr. If the video has captions in that language you get them; if not, you get YouTube's own translation of the original captions.

Can I download the transcript?

Yes. Press Download CSV for one line per row with its timestamps, or copy the plain text from the JSON view.

Can I get transcripts for many videos at once?

Use the API: list a channel's uploads with the Channel videos endpoint, then call /v1/youtube/video/transcript for each one. It also works inside Claude as an MCP connector.

The API behind this tool

Video transcript

What's said in a video or Short: its captions as timed segments and as one block of text.

One request · 1 credit
curl "https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/youtube/video/transcript?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Darj7oStGLkU" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

Works in your own code, in a spreadsheet script or inside Claude as a connector.

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