yt-caption-grabber

Extract YouTube video transcripts directly via player endpoints without needing developer API keys or oauth scopes.

Features

• Fetches transcript XML data directly from public YouTube endpoints.
• Parses timeline checkpoints, matching transcripts to accurate start times and durations.
• Zero oauth configurations, quick performance.

Installation

npm install yt-caption-grabber

Usage

import { getSubtitles } from 'yt-caption-grabber';

// Grab captions using a YouTube Video ID
try {
  const subtitles = await getSubtitles('dQw4w9WgXcQ');
  console.log(`Fetched ${subtitles.length} caption parts:`);
  console.log(subtitles[0]);
  /*
  Output:
  {
    text: 'Never gonna give you up',
    start: 0.45,
    duration: 2.1
  }
  */
} catch (error) {
  console.error('Failed to grab captions:', error);
}

API Reference

getSubtitles(videoId)

Retrieves parsed timeline-annotated subtitles for a YouTube video.

Parameters:

• videoId: string (e.g., dQw4w9WgXcQ)

Returns: Promise<Array<{ text: string; start: number; duration: number }>>

License

MIT