# Apify YouTube Transcripts Actor (via StableApify x402)

> Apify YouTube Transcripts Actor (via StableApify x402) is a paid API for AI agents from stableapify.dev, paid per call via x402, $0.01/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-16).

Extracts transcripts, captions, and metadata from one or more YouTube videos, returning results in configurable text or XML formats.

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://stableapify.dev/api/actors/karamelo/youtube-transcripts/call
- Price: $0.01/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-16
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/apify-youtube-transcripts-actor-via-stableapify-x402-d48c7bad
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_GG8cpHGcSAmj0c6m6M49X

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability apify-youtube-transcripts-actor-via-stableapify-x402-d48c7bad -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: Can you grab the full transcript from this YouTube video — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ — as plain text with timestamps, and also include the channel name and publish date?

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when you need YouTube video transcripts or captions programmatically with pay-per-call billing over x402/USDC, without managing an Apify account or API key. It is ideal for agents that occasionally need YouTube text extraction on demand and want flexible metadata enrichment (likes, comments, keywords, thumbnails) alongside the transcript in a single call.

## Known failure modes

- Video is private or age-restricted — transcript unavailable
- YouTube blocks the scraper request; retry count (maxRetries) helps but may still fail at high traffic
- No captions/transcripts available for the video (e.g. auto-captions disabled)
- Invalid or malformed YouTube URL in the urls array
- Payment failure via x402/USDC results in 402 response before execution begins
- Transient network errors during Apify actor run

## How this service works

Search Apify Store actors, start actor runs, and fetch results over x402 and MPP.

## Output

A structured dataset per video URL containing the transcript/captions in the chosen format (captions segments, plain text with or without timestamps, or XML), plus any requested metadata fields such as channel name, channel ID, formatted publish date, relative date, view count, likes count, comment count, keywords/tags, thumbnail URL, and video description.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "properties": {
  "input": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "outputFormat",
    "urls",
    "maxRetries",
    "channelNameBoolean",
    "channelIDBoolean",
    "dateTextBoolean",
    "relativeDateTextBoolean",
    "datePublishedBoolean",
    "viewCountBoolean",
    "likesBoolean",
    "commentsBoolean",
    "keywordsBoolean",
    "thumbnailBoolean",
    "descriptionBoolean"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "urls": {
     "type": "array",
     "items": {
      "type": "string"
     },
     "description": "The URLs of the videos you want to extract the transcript/captions from. Each URL must be a valid YouTube video link."
    },
    "maxRetries": {
     "type": "integer",
     "default": 8,
     "maximum": 12,
     "minimum": 3,
     "description": "Maximum number requests to retry if your get blocked, increase for better chance"
    },
    "likesBoolean": {
     "type": "boolean",
     "default": false,
     "description": "Indicates whether the number of likes (example 4.8K) should be included."
    },
    "outputFormat": {
     "enum": [
      "captions",
      "textWithTimestamps",
      "xmlWithoutTimestamps",
      "xmlWithTimestamps",
      "singleStringText"
     ],
     "type": "string",
     "default": "captions",
     "description": "Select the format in which you want your captions"
    },
    "proxyOptions": {
     "type": "object",
     "properties": {
      "proxyUrls": {
       "type": "array",
       "items": {
        "type": "string"
       }
      },
      "useApifyProxy": {
       "type": "boolean"
      },
      "apifyProxyGroups": {
       "type": "array",
       "items": {
        "type": "string"
       }
      },
      "apifyProxyCountry": {
       "type": "string"
      }
     },
     "description": "Select proxies to be used by your actor.",
     "additionalProperties": {}
    },
    "commentsBoolean": {
     "type": "boolean",
     "default": false,
     "description": "Indicates whether the number of comments (example 456) should be included."
    },
    "dateTextBoolean": {
     "type": "boolean",
     "default": false,
     "description": "Indicates whether the formatted date (Feb 7, 2025) should be included."
    },
    "keywordsBoolean": {
     "type": "boolean",
     "default": false,
     "description": "Indicates whether the keywords (or tags) should be included."
    },
    "channelIDBoolean": {
     "type": "boolean",
     "default": true,
     "description": "Indicates whether the channel 
… (truncated)
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/apify-youtube-transcripts-actor-via-stableapify-x402-d48c7bad/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from stableapify.dev](https://www.zero.xyz/host/stableapify.dev/llms.txt)