Getting Transcripts

Overview

VidNavigator is the ultimate video to text solution for extracting subtitles and captions from online videos, giving you all the essential information at your fingertips! Need full transcripts, timestamps, or video metadata? We’ve got it all. The JSON output is ready for instant integration into AI-powered applications.

Transcript Endpoint

VidNavigator provides a single transcript endpoint for every supported platform, including YouTube. The /transcript endpoint auto-detects the platform from the URL and routes internally.

This replaces the old, separate /youtube/transcript endpoint — YouTube URLs now go through the same /transcript endpoint as everything else. For Instagram, use /transcribe (speech-to-text) instead.

Billing

Billing depends on the URL:

YouTube transcript retrieval (or metadata_only: true) consumes residential_request usage — the fetch routes through the residential proxy.
Non-YouTube transcript retrieval consumes standard_request usage (some platforms internally require residential and are billed accordingly).

Pass include_usage=true to receive a usage block disclosing exactly what was charged.

Prerequisites

A valid VidNavigator API key.
The Python or JavaScript SDK installed in your project.

Retrieving a Transcript

Use get_transcript for any platform — YouTube, TikTok, X/Twitter, Facebook, Vimeo, and more.

Retrieving a YouTube Transcript

Using the Python SDK

from vidnavigator import VidNavigatorClient, VidNavigatorError

client = VidNavigatorClient()

try:
    result = client.get_transcript(
        video_url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
    )
    print("Video Title:", result.data.video_info.title)
    print("Available Languages:", result.data.video_info.available_languages)
    # Each item in the transcript is a segment with text, start, and end times
    for segment in result.data.transcript:
        print(f"[{segment.start:.2f}s - {segment.end:.2f}s] {segment.text}")
except VidNavigatorError as e:
    print(f"An error occurred: {e.message}")

Using the JavaScript SDK

const { VidNavigatorClient, VidNavigatorError } = require('vidnavigator');

const client = new VidNavigatorClient({
  apiKey: process.env.VIDNAVIGATOR_API_KEY,
});

async function getTranscript() {
  try {
    const { video_info, transcript } = await client.getTranscript({
      video_url: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
    });
    console.log("Video Title:", video_info.title);
    console.log("Available Languages:", video_info.available_languages);
    // Each item in the transcript is an object with text, start, and end properties
    transcript.forEach(segment => {
      console.log(`[${segment.start.toFixed(2)}s - ${segment.end.toFixed(2)}s] ${segment.text}`);
    });
  } catch (error) {
    if (error instanceof VidNavigatorError) {
      console.error(`An error occurred: ${error.message}`);
    } else {
      console.error("An unexpected error occurred:", error);
    }
  }
}

getTranscript();

Retrieving Transcripts from Other Platforms

The exact same method works for non-YouTube platforms (TikTok, X/Twitter, Facebook, Vimeo, etc.):

Using the Python SDK

from vidnavigator import VidNavigatorClient, VidNavigatorError

client = VidNavigatorClient()

try:
    result = client.get_transcript(
        video_url="https://twitter.com/user/status/123456789"
    )
    print("Video Title:", result.data.video_info.title)
    for segment in result.data.transcript:
        print(f"[{segment.start:.2f}s - {segment.end:.2f}s] {segment.text}")
except VidNavigatorError as e:
    print(f"An error occurred: {e.message}")

Using the JavaScript SDK

const { VidNavigatorClient, VidNavigatorError } = require('vidnavigator');

const client = new VidNavigatorClient({
  apiKey: process.env.VIDNAVIGATOR_API_KEY,
});

async function getTranscript() {
  try {
    const { video_info, transcript } = await client.getTranscript({
      video_url: "https://twitter.com/user/status/123456789"
    });
    console.log("Video Title:", video_info.title);
    transcript.forEach(segment => {
      console.log(`[${segment.start.toFixed(2)}s - ${segment.end.toFixed(2)}s] ${segment.text}`);
    });
  } catch (error) {
    if (error instanceof VidNavigatorError) {
      console.error(`An error occurred: ${error.message}`);
    } else {
      console.error("An unexpected error occurred:", error);
    }
  }
}

getTranscript();

Getting Metadata Only

If you only need video information without the transcript, use the metadata_only parameter. This is faster and still counts as usage:

# YouTube (metadata_only still routes through the residential proxy → residential_request)
result = client.get_transcript(
    video_url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    metadata_only=True
)

# Other platforms → standard_request
result = client.get_transcript(
    video_url="https://twitter.com/user/status/123456789",
    metadata_only=True
)

Graceful Fallback to Metadata

If you want to get metadata even when a transcript isn’t available (instead of receiving a 404 error), use the fallback_to_metadata parameter:

result = client.get_transcript(
    video_url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    fallback_to_metadata=True
)

# If transcript is unavailable, you'll still get video_info
# but transcript will be empty

The metadata_only parameter takes precedence over fallback_to_metadata. If both are set, only metadata will be returned.

When a Transcript Isn’t Available

Sometimes a platform doesn’t expose captions we can fetch directly (e.g., many Instagram Reels). In that case, the transcript endpoint will return an error such as 404 transcript_not_available. When this happens you can fall back to the /transcribe endpoint, which runs speech-to-text to generate a fresh transcript.

Python SDK – `transcribe_video`

from vidnavigator import VidNavigatorClient

client = VidNavigatorClient()

result = client.transcribe_video(
    video_url="https://www.instagram.com/reel/C86ZvEaqRmo/"
)
print("Transcript length:", len(result.data.transcript))
print("First line:", result.data.transcript[0].text)

JavaScript SDK – `transcribeVideo`

const { VidNavigatorClient } = require('vidnavigator');

const client = new VidNavigatorClient({
  apiKey: process.env.VIDNAVIGATOR_API_KEY,
});

async function transcribe() {
  const { transcript } = await client.transcribeVideo({
    video_url: "https://www.instagram.com/reel/C86ZvEaqRmo/",
  });
  console.log(`Transcript has ${transcript.length} segments`);
  console.log("First line:", transcript[0].text);
}

transcribe();

Next Steps

Now that you have the transcript, you can:

Analyze the video for deeper insights.
Search the video’s content with natural language queries.

Get Started

User Guides

Overview

Transcript Endpoint

Billing

Prerequisites

Retrieving a Transcript

Retrieving a YouTube Transcript

Using the Python SDK

Using the JavaScript SDK

Retrieving Transcripts from Other Platforms

Using the Python SDK

Using the JavaScript SDK

Getting Metadata Only

Graceful Fallback to Metadata

When a Transcript Isn’t Available

Python SDK – `transcribe_video`

JavaScript SDK – `transcribeVideo`

Next Steps

​Overview

​Transcript Endpoint

​Billing

​Prerequisites

​Retrieving a Transcript

​Retrieving a YouTube Transcript

​Using the Python SDK

​Using the JavaScript SDK

​Retrieving Transcripts from Other Platforms

​Using the Python SDK

​Using the JavaScript SDK

​Getting Metadata Only

​Graceful Fallback to Metadata

​When a Transcript Isn’t Available

​Python SDK – transcribe_video

​JavaScript SDK – transcribeVideo

​Next Steps

Overview

Transcript Endpoint

Billing

Prerequisites

Retrieving a Transcript

Retrieving a YouTube Transcript

Using the Python SDK

Using the JavaScript SDK

Retrieving Transcripts from Other Platforms

Using the Python SDK

Using the JavaScript SDK

Getting Metadata Only

Graceful Fallback to Metadata

When a Transcript Isn’t Available

Python SDK – `transcribe_video`

JavaScript SDK – `transcribeVideo`

Next Steps