Full transcript
A clean, readable transcript of the video returned as a single text field, ready to feed straight into an LLM.
POST /v1/scrape
Get a YouTube transcript in one call.
Pass any YouTube URL, get back the full transcript plus structured video metadata.
Feed a YouTube link to your LLM or agent and get a clean, ready-to-read transcript instead of raw captions. Send a watch, shorts, or youtu.be URL to /v1/scrape and webclaw returns a structured youtube block with title, channel, and duration, plus a top-level transcript field, alongside the standard payload.
What you get
Everything in one call.
Structured video block
A typed youtube object with title, channel, duration, and other metadata so you don't parse markdown to find them.
One endpoint, any URL
Watch, shorts, and youtu.be links all route to the same /v1/scrape call with no extra params or per-format handling.
LLM-ready by default
You get the words, not the page, so you skip the player chrome and recommendations and save around 90% of the tokens versus raw HTML.
How it works
From URL to output in four steps.
01
Send the URL
POST any youtube.com/watch, /shorts, or youtu.be link to /v1/scrape with your API key.
02
Auto-detect the video
webclaw recognizes the YouTube URL and pulls the captions and metadata instead of running the generic page extractor.
03
Build the payload
The transcript is assembled into one text field and the video details are shaped into a structured youtube block.
04
Transcript returned
You get back the youtube object and a top-level transcript field next to the standard scrape response in one JSON reply.
API
One request, structured back.
POST /v1/scrape
Video
Channel: 3Blue1Brown · Duration: 19 min
This is a three. It's sloppily writtenand rendered at an extremely lowresolution of 28x 28…
Full transcript returned in the transcript field.
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
How do I get a YouTube transcript via API?
Send the video URL to POST /v1/scrape with your API key. webclaw detects the YouTube link, pulls the captions, and returns a top-level transcript field plus a structured youtube block in one JSON response. No separate transcript endpoint or video ID parsing needed.
Does the YouTube transcript API work with shorts and youtu.be links?
Yes. Watch URLs, /shorts links, and youtu.be short links all go to the same /v1/scrape call and return the same shape. You don't change params based on the URL format.
What does the response include besides the transcript?
Alongside the transcript text you get a typed youtube block with the video id, title, channel, duration, and language, and the standard scrape payload is returned in the same reply.
Can I self-host the YouTube transcript API?
The core extraction engine is open source and can be self-hosted for free. The hosted API at api.webclaw.io runs it for you with auth, billing, and managed infrastructure so you don't operate anything.
Am I billed for failed requests?
No. Credits are only consumed on successful responses. A standard page is 1 credit; heavier work like JS rendering or protected-site access costs a few extra credits.
Ship an agent that actually sees the web.
One credit pool, every endpoint. Cancel anytime, or self-host the open-source core for free.