FreeTranscriptAPI reference

FreeTranscriptAPI provides a REST API for fetching YouTube video transcripts. All requests are made to the base URL below and return JSON responses.

The API supports standard HTTP methods. Requests without an API key are limited to 20 requests per hour per IP address.With a free API key, you receive 1,000 credits on signup. Each transcript lookup costs 1 credit, including when no transcript is available.

Get your first transcript in two steps. No account, API key, or credit card required:

1. Send a GET request to the transcript endpoint with your video URL or video ID.
2. Parse the JSON response in your application.

Need more volume? Create a free account for an API key and signup credits, or buy credits when you need more.

curl "https://api.freetranscriptapi.com/v1/transcript?video_url=dQw4w9WgXcQ"

const response = await fetch(
  "https://api.freetranscriptapi.com/v1/transcript?video_url=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
);

const data = await response.json();
console.log(data.transcript);

import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://api.freetranscriptapi.com/v1/transcript",
    params={"video_url": "dQw4w9WgXcQ"},
)

data = response.json()
print(data["transcript"])

API keys are optional. Without one, you can make up to 20 requests per hour per IP address.Include an API key in the Authorization header to use your account credits. Signup includes 1,000 free credits:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer fta_live_sk_..." \
  "https://api.freetranscriptapi.com/v1/transcript?video_url=dQw4w9WgXcQ"

API keys are created in your dashboard. The full key is shown only once at creation. Store it securely and never expose it in client-side code.

Returns the full transcript for a YouTube video. Accepts a video URL or 11-character video ID.

curl "https://api.freetranscriptapi.com/v1/transcript?video_url=dQw4w9WgXcQ"

curl "https://api.freetranscriptapi.com/v1/transcript?video_url=dQw4w9WgXcQ&format=text"

{
  "language": "en",
  "title": "Example Video Title",
  "transcript": [
    {
      "text": "Hello world.",
      "start": 0.0,
      "duration": 2.1
    }
  ]
}

Returns all available caption languages for a video before fetching the transcript.

curl "https://api.freetranscriptapi.com/v1/languages?video_url=dQw4w9WgXcQ"

{
  "languages": [
    {
      "code": "en",
      "name": "English",
      "auto_generated": false
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "name": "Spanish",
      "auto_generated": true
    }
  ]
}

Returns the API status. No authentication required. Use this endpoint for uptime monitoring.

curl "https://api.freetranscriptapi.com/v1/health"

{
  "status": "ok",
  "version": "1.0.0"
}

FreeTranscriptAPI exposes a hosted MCP endpoint so AI assistants can fetch YouTube transcripts as tools. Connect it from Cursor, ChatGPT, Claude, Windsurf, or any client that supports remote MCP servers over HTTPS. No local package or npx install required.

Pass your API key in the Authorization header as Bearer fta_live_sk_.... Create a key in your dashboard. The same rate limits apply as the REST API.

Tools exposed on the endpoint:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "freetranscriptapi": {
      "url": "https://api.freetranscriptapi.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer fta_live_sk_..."
      }
    }
  }
}

In Cursor: Settings → MCP → Edit config. In Claude Desktop: edit your claude_desktop_config.json. Other editors with MCP support follow the same URL plus headers pattern.

Without an API key, unauthenticated MCP requests follow the same 20 requests per hour per IP limit as the REST API. With an API key, transcript requests use account credits.

Transcript responses include the detected language, video title, and an array of caption lines.

Errors return a JSON object with an error field containing a machine-readable code and human-readable message.

{
  "error": {
    "code": "video_not_found",
    "message": "No transcript available for this video."
  }
}

Usage depends on how you authenticate. Unauthenticated requests are tracked by IP address. Authenticated transcript requests use account credits:

Credits are charged when the lookup starts, not only when a transcript is returned. A 404 or 500 on /transcript still uses 1 credit if you sent a valid API key.

Anonymous traffic also shares a 100,000-request daily global cap (UTC). When it is exhausted, the API returns anonymous_daily_cap_exceeded with a message like "Daily global free requests have been used up. Try again in X hours."

Authenticated responses include a credit balance header:

Anonymous responses include rate limit headers:

When you run out of credits, the API returns a 402 status. Buy more credits on the checkout page.