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YouTube Transcribes
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REST API v2

API reference

Build on top of YouTube Transcribes. Authenticate with an API key, submit YouTube URLs, and get back transcripts and AI insights programmatically.

Manage API keysOpen Swagger

Swagger UI

Interactive reference — try every endpoint directly from your browser with live responses.

Open Swagger

ReDoc

Long-form reference organized by tag and method — ideal for reading, linking, and sharing.

Open ReDoc

OpenAPI schema

Raw OpenAPI 3 JSON spec. Generate clients in any language — Python, TypeScript, Go, and more.

Download schema

Authentication

Sign in and visit your profile to generate a key in the “API keys” section. Send it on every request as:

Authorization: Api-Key yt_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Keys are per-account and rate-limited. Rotate them from your profile at any time.

Manage keys

Quickstart

Submit a YouTube URL and get back a transcript in seconds. Caption-based transcripts cost 1 credit; AI (Whisper) transcription costs ~1 credit per minute of audio. Re-fetching a transcript you already extracted is free; one cached for someone else still costs 1 credit.

Request — curl
curl -X POST https://youtubetranscribes.com/api/v2/transcripts/ \
  -H "Authorization: Api-Key yt_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "caption_type": "auto",
    "language": "en"
  }'
Response — 200 OK
{
  "job_id": "01960000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
  "status": "completed",
  "video": {
    "title": "Example Video",
    "duration_seconds": 212,
    "language": "en"
  },
  "transcript": {
    "text": "Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down...",
    "format": "text",
    "caption_type": "subtitles",
    "credits_charged": 1
  }
}
AI transcription — 202 Accepted
curl -X POST https://youtubetranscribes.com/api/v2/transcripts/ \
  -H "Authorization: Api-Key yt_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "caption_type": "ai_transcribe",
    "language": "en"
  }'
{
  "job_id": "01960000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
  "status": "pending",
  "created_at": "2026-10-21T09:30:00Z",
  "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Video)",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "language": "en",
  "caption_type": "ai_transcribe",
  "estimated_credits": 4,
  "video_duration_seconds": 212,
  "used_credits": 0,
  "available_credits": 100,
  "poll_url": "/api/v2/jobs/01960000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/"
}
Poll until completed or failed
curl https://youtubetranscribes.com/api/v2/jobs/01960000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/ \
  -H "Authorization: Api-Key yt_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

A new ai_transcribe request returns 202 with a job to poll every 1-2 seconds via GET /api/v2/jobs/{job_id}/ until status is completed (transcript in segments) or failed. Credits are charged only when the job completes, never when it fails.

The caption_type field accepts auto, subtitles, automatic_captions, or ai_transcribe. See the full parameter reference in Swagger or ReDoc.