Short answer: Apify actors are a good fit when you already run scrapers on Apify and want transcripts in the same datasets. Pick an API like Transcript Dock when you want one supported contract, typed errors, TikTok and videos without captions covered, and subtitle files out of the box.
Checked on October 9, 2026 against apify.com/pricing and the most used YouTube transcript actors, such as pintostudio/youtube-transcript-scraper ($10 per 1,000 results) and karamelo/youtube-transcripts (from $5 per 1,000). Each actor sets its own price and output.
Side by side#
| Feature | Transcript Dock | Apify actors |
|---|---|---|
| Who runs it | Transcript Dock, one supported API | Independent developers, one actor each |
| Sources | YouTube, TikTok, file uploads, direct media links | YouTube (separate actors for other sites) |
| No captions | AI transcription on paid plans | Not supported by the popular actors |
| How you call it | REST jobs, batches, webhooks, MCP | Start a run, poll it, read the dataset |
| Exports | TXT, SRT, VTT, JSON | Varies by actor; datasets as JSON, CSV or Excel |
| Price | 1 credit per transcript, from about $7.45 per 1,000 on Scale | About $5 to $10 per 1,000 results on popular actors |
| Free | 50 credits every month | $5 of platform usage every month |
When Apify is the better fit#
- Your scraping already lives on Apify and you want everything in one place.
- You need data a transcript API does not return, such as comments, from another actor.
When Transcript Dock is the better fit#
- You want one documented contract with an OpenAPI spec, not a different output per actor.
- Some of your videos have no captions; the popular actors skip them.
- You need TikTok and YouTube through the same request.
- You want an agent to do it: the MCP server works in Claude, Cursor and Windsurf.
See every option on the alternatives page.