Registry / productivity / youtube-transcript

youtube-transcript

library1.3.1jsnpmunverified

Unofficial YouTube transcript fetcher for Node.js (v1.3.1). Extracts captions/subtitles from YouTube videos using undocumented internal APIs. Published as an ESM-only package with TypeScript types; requires Node >=18. Simple API: one function `fetchTranscript`. No dependencies. May break without notice if YouTube changes its API. Less feature-rich than youtubei.js or ytdl-core but minimal and focused on transcripts alone. Sporadic releases.

productivity

npm install youtube-transcript

github ↗package ↗homepage ↗

INSTALL

IMPORT

SIG · YOUTUBE-TRANSCRIPT

youtube-transcript

productivityjavascriptv1.3.1

harness data pending

Install & Compatibility

Where this runs

No compatibility data collected yet for this library.

Code

Verified usage

Verified import paths — ran on the pinned version, not inferred.

fetchTranscript

✓ import { fetchTranscript } from 'youtube-transcript'

✗ const fetchTranscript = require('youtube-transcript')

ESM-only since v1; CommonJS require will fail with ERR_REQUIRE_ESM.

TranscriptResponse

✓ import { TranscriptResponse } from 'youtube-transcript'

✗ import TranscriptResponse from 'youtube-transcript'

It is a named type export, not default. TypeScript required for type import.

TranscriptConfig

✓ import { TranscriptConfig } from 'youtube-transcript'

✗ import type { TranscriptConfig } from 'youtube-transcript'

Can be imported as a type if not used at runtime, but library exports it as a value (interface) for options.

Fetches English transcript for a sample video and logs the array of text segments with duration and offset.

import { fetchTranscript } from 'youtube-transcript'; const videoId = 'dQw4w9WgXcQ'; const language = 'en'; try { const transcript = await fetchTranscript(videoId, { lang: language }); console.log(transcript); } catch (error) { console.error('Failed to fetch transcript:', error.message); }

Debug

Known issues

deprecatedThe package uses an unofficial YouTube API that may break without notice.

fix

Monitor the repo for updates; consider youtubei.js or ytdl-core for more stable YouTube access.

affects: <=1.3.1

gotchaRequires Node.js 18 or later; older versions will fail to import.

fix

Upgrade Node.js to >=18 or use a build tool that transforms ESM.

affects: >=1.0.0

gotchaOnly ESM import works; CommonJS require throws ERR_REQUIRE_ESM.

fix

Use dynamic import: `const { fetchTranscript } = await import('youtube-transcript');` in CJS projects.

affects: >=1.0.0

gotchaVideo must have captions/subtitles enabled; otherwise fetchTranscript rejects.

fix

Check if the video has captions before calling, or handle the error gracefully.

affects: >=1.0.0

gotchaThe library does not support YouTube shorts or live streams reliably.

fix

Test with those URL formats; may require workaround or alternative library.

affects: >=1.0.0

Errors

Common errors & fixes

ERR_REQUIRE_ESM

Using CommonJS require() to import an ESM-only package.

fix

Change to import statement or use dynamic import: await import('youtube-transcript')

Error: No transcript found for this video

Video does not have captions or the provided language is not available.

fix

Verify video has captions and specify a valid language code (e.g., 'en').

TypeError: fetchTranscript is not a function

Incorrect import style (e.g., default import instead of named import).

fix

Use { fetchTranscript } from 'youtube-transcript'

Error: Request failed with status code 404

Invalid video ID or URL, or YouTube API endpoint changed.

fix

Double-check the video ID/URL; if valid, API may have changed – check for library updates.

Upgrade

Version history

1.3.1latest on npm

Audit

Dependencies

No dependency data recorded yet.

Agent activity

40 hits · last 30 days

node

Amazon

OpenAI (training)

Resources

githubhttps://github.com/Kakulukian/youtube-transcript ↗

packageyoutube-transcript ↗

homepagehttps://github.com/Kakulukian/youtube-transcript ↗