YouTube transcript API

Quick start

1. Create a key on your account page. API access is part of the Pro plan.
2. Copy the key right away. It starts with qt_live_ and is shown only once.
3. Store it in an environment variable and send it as a Bearer token.

curl -X POST https://querytube.com/api/v1/transcript \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $QUERYTUBE_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"}'

// Node.js 18 or newer. Run this on your server, never in browser code.
const response = await fetch("https://querytube.com/api/v1/transcript", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.QUERYTUBE_API_KEY}`,
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({ url: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" }),
});

const body = await response.json();

if (!response.ok) {
  // body.error.code is stable: handle it in code. body.error.message is for people.
  throw new Error(`${body.error.code}: ${body.error.message} (${body.error.requestId})`);
}

for (const line of body.data.segments) {
  console.log(`[${line.start}s] ${line.text}`);
}
console.log(`${body.quota.used} of ${body.quota.limit} requests used this month`);

Python example

Coming from the open-source youtube-transcript-api package? The request is a plain HTTPS call, so all you need is requests. The response has the same fields as in the JavaScript example.

# Python 3 with the requests package (pip install requests).
import os
import requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://querytube.com/api/v1/transcript",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['QUERYTUBE_API_KEY']}"},
    json={"url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"},
    timeout=60,
)
body = response.json()

if not response.ok:
    # body["error"]["code"] is stable: handle it in code.
    raise RuntimeError(f"{body['error']['code']}: {body['error']['message']}")

for line in body["data"]["segments"]:
    print(f"[{line['start']}s] {line['text']}")

Authentication

Send your key in the Authorization header as Bearer qt_live_.... Keys are never accepted in the URL or the body. We store only a hash of each key, so we cannot show it again: if you lose a key, revoke it and create a new one. You can have up to 5 active keys, for example one per application, and revoking a key stops it working immediately.

Get a transcript

POST https://querytube.com/api/v1/transcript with a JSON body that has one field, url: a YouTube video link (watch, youtu.be, Shorts, live or embed). The answer is JSON. Times are seconds from the start of the video.

{
  "data": {
    "platform": "youtube",
    "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "title": "Video title",
    "durationSec": 212,
    "language": "en",
    "source": "captions",
    "isAutoGenerated": false,
    "segments": [
      { "start": 0, "end": 3.2, "text": "First caption line" },
      { "start": 3.2, "end": 6.8, "text": "Second caption line" }
    ]
  },
  "quota": { "used": 1, "limit": 10000, "resetsAt": "2026-12-01T00:00:00.000Z" },
  "requestId": "req_..."
}

language is the language of the captions. isAutoGenerated is true when YouTube made the captions with speech recognition. Titles and caption text come from YouTube: treat them as untrusted text and never insert them into a page as HTML.

Rate limit and monthly quota

• Rate limit: 60 requests per minute for each key, and 120 per minute for your whole account. Over a limit you get 429 rate_limited and a Retry-After header with the seconds to wait.
• Monthly quota: 10,000 requests per calendar month (UTC), shared by all the keys of your account. Over the quota you get 429 quota_exceeded, the quota object and a Retry-After until the quota resets on the 1st.
• Every successful answer has X-Quota-Limit, X-Quota-Remaining and X-Quota-Reset headers, and the same numbers in quota.
• A request that fails on our side or at YouTube (502, 503, 504, 500) is given back, up to 50 a day. A video without captions or an unavailable video still counts, because we had to look it up.
• Sending more than 300 requests with bad keys in a minute from one address makes us answer 429 for that address for a minute.

Errors

Every error has the same shape. Branch on error.code, which will not change; the message is for people. Quote requestId when you contact support.

HTTP/1.1 429 Too Many Requests
Retry-After: 86400

{
  "error": {
    "code": "quota_exceeded",
    "message": "The monthly request quota is used up.",
    "requestId": "req_...",
    "retryAfterSec": 86400,
    "quota": { "used": 10000, "limit": 10000, "resetsAt": "2026-12-01T00:00:00.000Z" }
  }
}

Keep your key safe

• Call the API from your server only. It sends no CORS headers, on purpose.
• Keep keys in environment variables or a secrets manager, not in source code.
• If a key may have leaked, revoke it on your account page. It stops working immediately.

Frequently asked questions