fetchworks

YouTube transcripts for Python — timestamped segments, plain text, SRT, and VTT from videos, Shorts, channels, playlists, and search results.

This is a thin, pure-stdlib client (no dependencies, Python 3.9+) for the Fetchworks YouTube Transcript Scraper on Apify. The extraction runs on Apify's infrastructure; you bring your own Apify token. Pricing is $2 per 1,000 transcripts — only delivered transcripts are billed. Failed videos (no captions, blocked, unavailable) cost nothing.

Install

pip install fetchworks

Quickstart

import os
from fetchworks import FetchworksClient

client = FetchworksClient(os.environ["APIFY_TOKEN"])
item = client.get_transcript("https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw")
print(item["status"])  # "ok"
print(item["text"])    # "All right, so here we are…"

Get a token by signing up at apify.com (free tier included), then copy it from console.apify.com/settings/integrations.

API

All methods return dataset items in the exact shape the actor emits — including an honest per-video status (ok, no_captions, blocked, live_stream, age_restricted, unavailable, translation_unavailable, po_token_required, error). A video without captions comes back as an item with status: "no_captions", never a silent empty transcript.

# One video (URL, Shorts/youtu.be/embed URL, or bare 11-char ID)
item = client.get_transcript("jNQXAC9IVRw", languages=["en", "de"])

# A batch of videos
items = client.get_transcripts(["url1", "url2"], output_formats=["text", "srt"])

# A channel's uploads, newest first
uploads = client.get_channel_transcripts("@3blue1brown", max_videos_per_channel=25)

# A playlist
playlist = client.get_playlist_transcripts("PLZHQObOWTQDMsr9K-rj53DwVRMYO3t5Yr")

# Top results for a YouTube search
results = client.search("neural networks explained", max_search_results=10)

Jobs expected to cover fewer than 60 videos run on Apify's synchronous endpoint and return in seconds. Larger jobs (big batches, whole channels, playlists) start an actor run and poll until it finishes — no code change needed on your side.

Options

Every method accepts keyword options mirroring the actor input:

Client-level options: base_url, poll_interval (default 3.0 s), max_wait (default 30 min).

Result shape

{
    "videoId": "jNQXAC9IVRw",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw",
    "status": "ok",
    "language": "en",
    "isAutoGenerated": False,
    "availableLanguages": [{"languageCode": "en", "kind": "manual", "name": "English"}],
    "segments": [{"start": 1.3, "dur": 3.4, "text": "All right, so here we are"}],
    "text": "All right, so here we are…",
    "srt": "…",   # when requested
    "vtt": "…",   # when requested
    "metadata": {"title": "Me at the zoo", "author": "jawed", "lengthSeconds": 19},
}

Links

• Actor page and pricing: https://apify.com/fetchworks/youtube-transcript-scraper
• Apify API tokens: https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations

License

MIT