YouTube Transcript API

One endpoint for videos, playlists and channels

POST up to 50 YouTube URLs (videos, Shorts, playlists or channels) and ChannelText lists the videos, fetches every transcript and charges your prepaid balance only for the ones delivered, up to 500 videos per job. Poll the job, then read the text as JSON or download the files.

curl

# Start a job (the most it can cost is reserved from your balance)
curl -X POST https://channeltext.com/api/v1/jobs \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ct_live_…" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: my-first-job" \
  -d '{"urls": ["https://www.youtube.com/@channelname"], "maxVideos": 20, "formats": ["text", "srt"]}'

# Poll it until "state" is finished
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer ct_live_…" https://channeltext.com/api/v1/jobs/JOB_ID

# Read the transcripts as JSON, or download everything as one ZIP
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer ct_live_…" "https://channeltext.com/api/v1/jobs/JOB_ID/results?limit=50"
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer ct_live_…" -o transcripts.zip https://channeltext.com/api/v1/jobs/JOB_ID/files/zip

Python

import time, requests

API = "https://channeltext.com/api/v1"
H = {"Authorization": "Bearer ct_live_…"}

job = requests.post(f"{API}/jobs", headers=H, json={"urls": ["https://www.youtube.com/@channelname"], "maxVideos": 20}).json()
while job["state"] in ("queued", "running", "cancelling"):
    time.sleep(5)
    job = requests.get(job["links"]["self"], headers=H).json()

results = requests.get(job["links"]["results"], headers=H, params={"limit": 50}).json()
for video in results["videos"]:
    print(video["title"], video["status"], (video["text"] or "")[:80])

Endpoints

Full reference with every field and error code: API docs and the OpenAPI 3.1 document. Create an API key on your account page after signing in; send it as Authorization: Bearer ct_live_….

Or run the open-source library yourself

The free youtube-transcript-api Python library fetches a video's transcript from your own machine. Its README says YouTube blocks most IP addresses of cloud providers and recommends rotating residential proxies when you deploy it. ChannelText does the fetching for you, lists whole channels and playlists, and charges only for transcripts delivered.

Pay per transcript, not per month

Prices listed on these sites on 2026-09-26:

Limits

• Up to 50 URLs and 500 videos per job; every job is also capped by your balance, which never goes negative.
• Rate limit per API key: 60 requests in a burst, refilled at 60 per minute.
• Send an Idempotency-Key with POST /jobs so a retry never starts or charges a second job.