YouTube2Text - Video Transcription API

A text extraction service that converts YouTube video content into clean, timestampless transcripts for content analysis, research, and processing workflows. Available as a REST API and as an MCP server for AI agents.

Overview

YouTube2Text transforms YouTube videos into readable text by removing subtitle timing markers and metadata, delivering pure content suitable for:

• Content analysis and insights

• Text summarization workflows

• Research and documentation

• Content generation pipelines

• AI agent and RAG pipelines

Related MCP server: YouTube Transcript MCP Server

Quick Start

# Get the free shared demo key (no account, 5 videos/month per IP)
curl -s https://youtube2text.org/api/demo-key
# -> {"success":true,"apiKey":"yt_..."}

# Fetch a transcript
curl -s "https://youtube2text.org/api/transcribe?url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID&maxChars=5000" \
  -H "x-api-key: yt_YOUR_KEY"

For your own key and higher limits, sign in with Google at youtube2text.org/app/keys.

API Reference

Base URL: https://youtube2text.org Transcription Endpoint: /api/transcribe (GET or POST)

Complete machine-readable reference: youtube2text.org/api.md (index: /llms.txt). Existing integrations using https://api.youtube2text.org continue to work.

Request Format

Authentication

Include your API key in the request header:

x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY

Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY is also accepted.

HTTP Status Codes

Error Types

• VALIDATION_ERROR: Parameter validation failed

• UNAUTHORIZED: Invalid API credentials

• VIDEO_NOT_FOUND: YouTube video unavailable

• TRANSCRIPT_UNAVAILABLE: No captions available

• INVALID_URL: Malformed video URL

• RATE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED: Quota or rate limit reached (retryAfterSeconds included)

• YOUTUBE_ERROR: Upstream YouTube failure, retry later

• INTERNAL_ERROR: Server-side issue

All error responses include a docsUrl field pointing at the API reference.

MCP Server (AI agents)

The MCP server at https://youtube2text.org/mcp (streamable HTTP) exposes a transcribe_video(url, maxChars?) tool. OAuth 2.1 is supported, so clients like claude.ai connect without manual key handling; an API key header works for everything else.

• claude.ai: Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector → https://youtube2text.org/mcp → sign in with Google and click Allow.

• Claude Code: claude mcp add --transport http youtube2text https://youtube2text.org/mcp

• Claude API: add {"type": "url", "url": "https://youtube2text.org/mcp", "name": "youtube2text", "authorization_token": "YOUR_API_KEY"} to mcp_servers.

• OpenAI Responses API: add {"type": "mcp", "server_label": "youtube2text", "server_url": "https://youtube2text.org/mcp", "headers": {"x-api-key": "YOUR_KEY"}, "require_approval": "never"} to tools.

Integration guides and recipes: youtube2text.org/blog.

Examples

This directory contains examples of how to use the YouTube2Text API with different AI models and in different programming languages.

Python

• Anthropic Claude Integration

• OpenAI Integration

• Google Gemini Integration

JavaScript

• Anthropic Claude Integration

• OpenAI Integration

TypeScript

• Anthropic Claude Integration

• OpenAI Integration