Short answer: for the lowest price per YouTube caption, look at ScrapeCreators or TranscriptAPI. For many social platforms in one account, Supadata. For free and self hosted, youtube-transcript-api or yt-dlp, if you can live with YouTube blocking cloud servers. If you already have the audio, AssemblyAI or OpenAI. Transcript Dock is not the cheapest per transcript; it is the one that puts captions, AI fallback, TikTok, uploads, SRT and VTT exports, signed webhooks and a hosted MCP server with OAuth sign in behind one key.
Quick picks#
- Cheapest captions at volume, no subscription: ScrapeCreators.
- Cheapest YouTube captions with a hosted MCP server: TranscriptAPI.
- Many social platforms plus web scraping: Supadata.
- Already paying for search data: SearchAPI.
- No code batch jobs: Apify actors.
- Free, on your own machine: youtube-transcript-api (YouTube) or yt-dlp (many sites).
- You have the media files: AssemblyAI or OpenAI.
- Captions with an AI fallback, TikTok and uploads, subtitle exports, webhooks and MCP in one API: Transcript Dock.
Features side by side#
| Product | Kind | Sources | Existing captions | AI transcription | Exports | MCP server |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transcript Dock | Hosted API | YouTube, TikTok, Instagram Reels (AI transcription), file uploads, direct media links | Yes | Yes, when a video has no captions (paid plans) | JSON, SRT, VTT, TXT | Hosted (OAuth sign in) and npx package |
| Supadata | Hosted API | YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, X, Facebook, media file URLs | Yes | Yes (auto mode) | JSON, plain text | Hosted and npm package |
| TranscriptAPI | Hosted API | YouTube | Yes | No | JSON, plain text | Hosted |
| youtube-transcript.io | Web app and API | YouTube | Yes | No | Not stated for the API | None listed |
| ScrapeCreators | Social scraping API | YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Reddit and more | Yes | TikTok only | JSON (TikTok cues as WebVTT) | Hosted |
| SearchAPI | Search scraping API | YouTube | Yes | No | JSON | Hosted |
| Apify actors | Scraping platform | YouTube and TikTok through community actors | Yes | One TikTok actor, text without timing | JSON, CSV, Excel | Platform server |
| youtube-transcript-api | Python library | YouTube | Yes | No | JSON, text, SRT, WebVTT | No |
| yt-dlp | Command line tool | YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and hundreds of sites | Yes | No | Site formats, or converted to SRT, VTT, ASS, LRC | No |
| AssemblyAI | Speech to text API | Your audio or video file (no YouTube links) | No | Yes, always | JSON, SRT, VTT, text | Server in its GitHub organization |
| OpenAI | Speech to text API | Uploaded audio files up to 25 MB | No | Yes, always | JSON; SRT and VTT on whisper-1 only | Not stated |
Prices side by side#
Per caption transcript is the entry plan price divided by its allowance. AI transcription is per minute of video at the same plan. All prices in US dollars.
| Product | Free tier | Entry plan | Per caption transcript | AI transcription per minute |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transcript Dock | 50 credits every month | $19 a month, 2,000 credits | $0.0095 | $0.019 (Starter); $0.0149 (Scale) |
| Supadata | 100 credits every month | $17 a month, 3,000 credits ($5 a month billed yearly for 300) | $0.0057 | About $0.011 on Pro |
| TranscriptAPI | 100 credits, once | $5 a month, 1,000 credits | $0.005 | No AI transcription |
| youtube-transcript.io | 25 transcripts | $9.99 a month, 1,000 transcripts | About $0.01 | No AI transcription |
| ScrapeCreators | 100 credits | $47 for 25,000 credits, no subscription, no expiry | $0.0019 | About $0.019 for long TikTok videos |
| SearchAPI | 100 requests | $40 a month, 10,000 searches | $0.004 if one transcript is one search (not stated) | No AI transcription |
| Apify actors | $5 of platform usage a month | $5 to $10 per 1,000 YouTube transcripts, by actor | $0.005 to $0.01 | $0.027 to $0.048 (one TikTok actor) |
| youtube-transcript-api | Free, open source | Free, plus a proxy on cloud servers | Free | No AI transcription |
| yt-dlp | Free, open source | Free | Free | No AI transcription |
| AssemblyAI | $50 of credit | $0.21 an hour (Universal-3.5 Pro); $0.15 (Universal-2) | Not applicable | $0.0035; $0.0025 |
| OpenAI | Not stated | Pay per minute | Not applicable | $0.003 to $0.006 by model |
Transcript Dock#
A hosted API for YouTube and TikTok links, file uploads and direct media links. A caption transcript costs 1 credit; when a video has no captions, mode auto transcribes the audio for 2 credits per started minute on paid plans. Every transcript exports to JSON with timed segments, SRT, VTT and TXT. Batches of 10 to 50 links, YouTube search, channel and playlist discovery, TikTok profiles, signed webhooks, and an MCP server that Claude connects to with OAuth sign in instead of a pasted key.
Pick it when you want one API for captions and AI transcription across YouTube, TikTok and your own files, with subtitle exports and webhooks. It costs more per caption than the cheapest scrapers. See pricing and the quickstart.
Supadata#
A hosted API for transcripts and metadata from YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, X, Facebook and media file URLs, plus web scraping and crawling. Mode auto uses existing captions and falls back to AI. Results come as JSON chunks with offsets or plain text. YouTube batches (video lists, playlists, channels) need the Pro plan or above and are polled; no webhooks are documented. Hosted MCP server with OAuth and an npm package.
Pick it for X or Facebook today, or web scraping in the same account. Pick Transcript Dock for SRT and VTT exports and webhooks. Detail: Transcript Dock vs Supadata.
Checked on October 31, 2026: pricing, transcript docs, batch, MCP.
TranscriptAPI#
A hosted API and remote MCP server for YouTube captions, search, channels and playlists. It reads human and auto generated captions only: a video without captions returns 404 no_captions. JSON or text with segment timing. $5 a month buys 1,000 credits at 1 credit per transcript; failed requests are free.
Pick it for the cheapest YouTube captions on a subscription, when every video you need has captions. Detail: Transcript Dock vs TranscriptAPI.
Checked on October 31, 2026: pricing, docs, MCP.
youtube-transcript.io#
A YouTube transcript web app with a Chrome extension and a REST API. It fetches captions YouTube already has and says it does not generate transcripts. The API takes up to 50 video IDs per call at 5 requests per 10 seconds; paid plans add a Channels API, watchlists and bulk extraction in the web app. Plus is $9.99 a month for 1,000 transcripts.
Pick it when people on your team want a web app for bulk YouTube captions, with light API use on the side.
Checked on October 31, 2026: pricing, API, refund policy.
ScrapeCreators#
A pay as you go API for scraping social media, with transcript endpoints for YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Reddit, Rumble and Twitch and Kick clips. YouTube returns public captions; TikTok can fall back to AI with use_ai_as_fallback (videos over 120 seconds cost 10 credits per minute). JSON with segment timing. Credits never expire: $47 for 25,000, and calls that return no transcript are free. Hosted MCP server.
Pick it for the lowest price per call across many social platforms, with no subscription.
Checked on October 31, 2026: pricing, YouTube transcript, TikTok transcript, MCP.
SearchAPI#
A real time search scraping API whose YouTube Transcripts engine returns a video's manual or auto generated captions as JSON with segment timing, and can translate auto captions. One video per request. The Developer plan is $40 a month for 10,000 searches; the transcript page does not say whether one transcript counts as one search. Hosted MCP server.
Pick it when you already use SearchAPI for search results and want YouTube captions on the same key.
Checked on October 31, 2026: YouTube Transcripts, pricing, MCP.
Apify actors#
A scraping platform where community authors publish actors. The most used YouTube transcript actors charge $5 to $10 per 1,000 results and return existing captions with segment timing; TikTok actors start at $1 per 1,000, and one offers AI transcription as plain text without timing. Datasets export to JSON, CSV or Excel. The platform has webhooks, an MCP server, and $5 of free usage a month. Quality and upkeep depend on each actor's author.
Pick it for batch or no code jobs inside Apify. Detail: Transcript Dock vs Apify scrapers.
Checked on October 31, 2026: pricing, YouTube actor, TikTok actor, MCP.
youtube-transcript-api#
An MIT licensed Python library (version 1.2.4) that downloads the transcript YouTube already has, with no API key. It ships JSON, text, SRT and WebVTT formatters and can ask YouTube for a translation. Its README says YouTube blocks most IPs that belong to cloud providers, recommends rotating residential proxies, and notes that proxies do not guarantee you will not be blocked. YouTube only, no AI transcription.
Pick it for free caption pulls from your own machine. Detail: Transcript Dock vs youtube-transcript-api.
Checked on October 31, 2026: README, PyPI.
yt-dlp#
An open source command line downloader that also saves the subtitles a video already has: --write-subs, --write-auto-subs and --skip-download, converted to SRT, VTT, ASS or LRC. It covers YouTube videos, playlists and channels, TikTok, Instagram and hundreds of other sites, and does no speech recognition. Full YouTube support recommends its JavaScript helper and a runtime such as Deno.
Pick it for self hosted bulk subtitle downloads when you can run and update the tool yourself.
Checked on October 31, 2026: README, supported sites.
AssemblyAI#
A speech to text API for audio and video files you send by URL or upload; its FAQ says YouTube URLs are not supported, so you download the audio first. Word timestamps with confidence and speakers, and SRT and VTT export endpoints. The default Universal-3.5 Pro model is $0.21 an hour and Universal-2 is $0.15; new accounts get $50 of credit. Files up to 10 hours.
Pick it when you already have the media and want accurate AI transcription with word timing.
Checked on October 31, 2026: pricing, YouTube FAQ, SRT and VTT.
OpenAI#
The /v1/audio/transcriptions endpoint transcribes uploaded audio files up to 25 MB. gpt-transcribe is $0.0045 a minute, gpt-4o-mini-transcribe $0.003 and gpt-4o-transcribe and Whisper $0.006. Word and segment timestamps and SRT or VTT output come from whisper-1 only; the gpt-4o models return JSON. OpenAI has announced that whisper-1, gpt-4o-transcribe and gpt-4o-mini-transcribe shut down on February 26, 2027.
Pick it for cheap AI transcription of short files you upload yourself, and plan the move to gpt-transcribe.
Checked on October 31, 2026: pricing, speech to text guide, deprecations.
Also considered#
- Deepgram: speech to text for files you send, Nova-3 at $0.0043 a minute pay as you go, word timestamps, callbacks, a local MCP server and $200 of free credit. No video platform links. (pricing)
- SerpApi: a YouTube Video Transcript engine with JSON, HTML or Markdown output and a hosted MCP server. 250 free searches a month; Starter is $25 for 1,000, about $0.025 each. (docs)
How we compared#
We read each provider's own pricing page and documentation on October 31, 2026 and wrote down only what they state. Where a page does not say something, the tables say so instead of guessing. Per transcript prices divide the cheapest monthly or one time plan by its allowance; AI prices are per minute of audio. We ran no benchmarks, so there are no accuracy or speed claims here. For a narrower take, see Transcript Dock compared with the alternatives.
Questions#
What is the cheapest YouTube transcript API?#
For captions that already exist, ScrapeCreators is the cheapest of the hosted options we checked: $47 buys 25,000 credits, about $0.0019 per transcript, with no subscription. TranscriptAPI is $0.005 per transcript on its $5 plan. youtube-transcript-api and yt-dlp are free if you can run them yourself and handle YouTube blocking cloud server IPs.
Which APIs can transcribe a video that has no captions?#
Transcript Dock and Supadata fall back to AI transcription on YouTube and TikTok links. ScrapeCreators does it for TikTok only, and one Apify TikTok actor returns plain text. AssemblyAI and OpenAI always transcribe the audio, but you have to download the media and send the file yourself.
Which transcript APIs have an MCP server for Claude or Cursor?#
Transcript Dock (hosted with OAuth sign in, plus an npx package), Supadata, TranscriptAPI, ScrapeCreators and SearchAPI run hosted MCP servers, and Apify has one for its whole platform. AssemblyAI has a server in its GitHub organization. youtube-transcript.io, youtube-transcript-api, yt-dlp and OpenAI do not list one.
Can I get TikTok transcripts through an API?#
Yes. Transcript Dock, Supadata and ScrapeCreators accept TikTok links, and Apify has community TikTok actors. yt-dlp can save the subtitles a TikTok video already has. TranscriptAPI, youtube-transcript.io, SearchAPI and youtube-transcript-api are YouTube only.
Why does youtube-transcript-api stop working on a server?#
Its README says YouTube has started blocking most IPs that belong to cloud providers such as AWS, Google Cloud and Azure. It recommends rotating residential proxies and notes that even proxies do not guarantee you will not be blocked. Hosted APIs handle this on their side.
Which options export SRT and VTT subtitles?#
Transcript Dock exports SRT and VTT for every transcript. youtube-transcript-api ships SRT and WebVTT formatters, yt-dlp converts subtitles to SRT or VTT, and AssemblyAI has SRT and VTT endpoints. OpenAI returns them from whisper-1 only. Supadata, TranscriptAPI and SearchAPI return JSON or plain text.