Developers

BulkTranscripts API & MCP

YouTube transcripts, search, channel and playlist listings — over a plain REST API, an MCP server for AI assistants, and an installable agent skill. No signup: start keyless on the free tier, and your license key becomes your API key when you buy credits.

REST API · MCP server · Agent skill · Auth · Credits · Errors · OpenAPI

Try it — live, from your browser

This calls the real production API. The default video is already in the shared cache, so the request is free and comes back in milliseconds — exactly what your users hit.

// The JSON response will appear here.

Quickstart — no key required

Every caller gets 50 free transcript credits (per public IP). This works right now, in your terminal:

curl "https://bulktranscripts.co/api/v1/transcript?video=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw"

Response:

{
  "video_id": "jNQXAC9IVRw",
  "title": "Me at the zoo",
  "channel": "jawed",
  "duration": 19,
  "language": "en",
  "source": "auto_caption",
  "cached": true,
  "word_count": 43,
  "text": "All right, so here we are in front of the elephants...",
  "paragraphs": ["All right, so here we are in front of the elephants..."],
  "segments": [{"text": "All right, so here we are...", "start": 0.0, "duration": 5.4}],
  "billing": {"enabled": true, "remaining": 24, "creditsCharged": 0}
}

Authentication

Your license key is your API key. Buy any credit pack and the key is issued instantly at checkout — there is no account, password, or dashboard to set up. Send it as a Bearer token:

curl "https://bulktranscripts.co/api/v1/transcript?video=VIDEO_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_LICENSE_KEY"

The X-License-Key header (used by the web app) is accepted too. Keyless requests draw from the free per-IP allowance.

Credits & caching

Credits are one-time purchases that never expire — no subscription. One credit buys one successful live operation; failures are never charged, and neither are cache hits:

The transcript cache is shared across all callers, so popular videos are usually free and instant. Every response carries a billing block with creditsCharged and remaining so you can meter usage without extra calls. Packs: $4.99 → 200 · $14.99 → 1,200 · $29 → 3,500 credits.

REST API reference

Base URL https://bulktranscripts.co. All endpoints are plain GET requests returning JSON (machine-readable spec: /openapi.json).

curl "https://bulktranscripts.co/api/v1/transcript?video=VIDEO_ID&format=json"

curl "https://bulktranscripts.co/api/v1/search?q=machine+learning&limit=5"

curl "https://bulktranscripts.co/api/v1/channel/search?channel=@TED&q=AI&limit=10"

curl "https://bulktranscripts.co/api/v1/channel/videos?channel=@TED&limit=100"

curl "https://bulktranscripts.co/api/v1/channel/latest?channel=@TED"

curl "https://bulktranscripts.co/api/v1/playlist/videos?playlist=PLAYLIST_ID"

curl "https://bulktranscripts.co/api/v1/account" -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_LICENSE_KEY"

MCP server — YouTube for your AI assistant

Connect https://bulktranscripts.co/mcp and Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT, and 20+ other MCP clients can fetch transcripts, search YouTube, list channels and playlists, and track new uploads — inside the conversation. The free tier works with zero setup; add your license key for purchased credits.

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http bulktranscripts https://bulktranscripts.co/mcp

With a license key:

claude mcp add --transport http bulktranscripts https://bulktranscripts.co/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_LICENSE_KEY"

Claude (web / desktop)

Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector → paste https://bulktranscripts.co/mcp. No account or authorization step — it connects on the free tier immediately. Bought credits? Paste https://bulktranscripts.co/mcp?key=YOUR_LICENSE_KEY as the connector URL instead (the connectors UI cannot send headers).

Cursor

One-click install for Cursor, or add the universal config below to ~/.cursor/mcp.json.

ChatGPT

Settings → Connectors → Advanced → Developer mode, then add https://bulktranscripts.co/mcp as a new connector (no authentication → free tier). For purchased credits use https://bulktranscripts.co/mcp?key=YOUR_LICENSE_KEY as the connector URL.

VS Code

{
  "mcp": {
    "servers": {
      "bulktranscripts": {
        "type": "http",
        "url": "https://bulktranscripts.co/mcp"
      }
    }
  }
}

Any other MCP client

{
  "url": "https://bulktranscripts.co/mcp"
}

If your client cannot send headers, append the key to the URL instead:

https://bulktranscripts.co/mcp?key=YOUR_LICENSE_KEY

Step-by-step guides with screenshots-level detail: Claude Code · Codex · Cursor · ChatGPT · VS Code · n8n · Make

Tools exposed

Try asking: "Summarize this video: [URL]" · "What did @TED upload this week?" · "Get transcripts for every video in this playlist and build study notes."

Agent skill (Claude Code, Cursor & friends)

Prefer a skill over a server? One command installs a skill that teaches your agent the whole API — it works keyless on the free tier immediately:

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/youtube-transcripts
curl -fsSL https://bulktranscripts.co/skill.md -o ~/.claude/skills/youtube-transcripts/SKILL.md

Set BULKTRANSCRIPTS_API_KEY in your environment once you have a license key. The skill source lives at /skill.md and on GitHub; capabilities, example prompts, and per-agent notes are on the agent skill page.

Errors

Errors are JSON with a stable code you can branch on:

{
  "error": {"code": "no_transcript", "message": "No captions available for this video..."}
}

Fair use

Bulk jobs run behind server-side concurrency control; there is no hard rate limit on cached reads. If you are building something high-volume (100k+ transcripts/month), email us for a custom pack.