---
title: "YouTube Shorts Transcript API"
method: GET
path: "/v1/youtube/shorts/transcript"
tags: ["YouTube"]
---

# YouTube Shorts Transcript API

`GET /v1/youtube/shorts/transcript`

## Request

- Base URL: `https://api.captapi.com`
- URL: `https://api.captapi.com/v1/youtube/shorts/transcript`
- Auth: one of:
  - HTTP bearer
  - API key in header `X-API-Key`

Transcript for a YouTube Short — rejects long-form videos (≤3 min only).

Same caption engine as YouTube Transcript (published captions only — not speech-to-text), scoped to Shorts. Pass a youtube.com/shorts/… URL (or a watch URL that is actually a Short). Videos longer than 3 minutes return HTTP 422 — use /v1/youtube/transcript for those. Caption-miss 404 uses the same diagnostic body and charges 0. Flat 1 credit on success.

Docs: https://captapi.com/apis/youtube-shorts-transcript

## Query parameters

- `url` string, required
- `language` string
- `cache` boolean

## Response `200`

Success. The data object for this endpoint.

- object
  - `success` unknown, required
  - `data` object, required
    - `platform` string: Platform identifier for this response (matches the endpoint's platform).
    - `url` string: Canonical URL of the item.
    - `videoId` string: Platform video ID.
    - `title` string: Title of the item.
    - `text` string: Text content.
    - `transcript` string: Complete text transcript (file-upload endpoints). Timed caption/ASR endpoints use text instead.
    - `segments` object[]
      - `text` string: Text content.
      - `startMs` integer: Start ms. Example: 0.
      - `endMs` integer: End ms. Example: 4080.
      - `start` number: Start time in seconds.
      - `end` number: End time in seconds.
      - `duration` number: Duration when present — prefer durationSeconds (number) and durationText on endpoints that expose both.
      - `timestamp` string: Human-readable timestamp (MM:SS format).
    - `transcriptSegments` object[]
      - `text` string: Text content.
      - `startMs` integer: Start ms. Example: 0.
      - `endMs` integer: End ms. Example: 4080.
      - `start` number: Start time in seconds.
      - `end` number: End time in seconds.
      - `duration` number: Duration when present — prefer durationSeconds (number) and durationText on endpoints that expose both.
      - `timestamp` string: Human-readable timestamp (MM:SS format).
    - `requestedLanguage` unknown
    - `returnedLanguage` string: Language of the caption track actually returned.
    - `isAutoGenerated` boolean: Whether the selected YouTube caption track is auto-generated (ASR). Null when source is not captions.
    - `isTranslated` boolean: Whether the transcript was machine-translated to the requested language. Null when unknown.
    - `availableLanguages` object[]
      - `languageCode` string: Language code. Example: "ar".
      - `languageName` string: Language name. Example: "Arabic (auto-generated)".
      - `isAutoGenerated` boolean: Whether the selected YouTube caption track is auto-generated (ASR). Null when source is not captions.
    - `hasAutoCaptions` boolean: Has auto captions. Example: true.
    - `source` unknown

## Other responses

- `400`: Bad request: wrong platform URL, unknown endpoint, or an invalid parameter value. Not billed.
- `401`: Missing, invalid or revoked API key. Not billed.
- `402`: Not enough credits for this request. Not billed.
- `404`: The resource does not exist or is not public. Not billed.
- `422`: A required parameter is missing or has the wrong type. Not billed.
- `429`: Rate limit reached. Wait for Retry-After seconds. Not billed.
- `502`: The platform could not be reached or returned nothing usable. Retryable, not billed. 503 and 504 use the same envelope.

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/captapi/apis/captapi-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/captapi/apis/captapi-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc.dev/captapi/apis/captapi-api/revisions/c9b9ac5ff1bd?raw)