# Video transcription (/docs/recipes/video-transcription-api) Video transcription [#video-transcription] Build a podcast / video-research tool that takes any social video URL and returns its spoken content, regardless of which platform it lives on. How do you get a transcript of a social media video? [#how-do-you-get-a-transcript-of-a-social-media-video] Pass the video URL to the platform's transcript endpoint — `GET /v1/tiktok/post/transcript`, `/v1/youtube/video/transcript`, `/v1/instagram/media/transcript`, and four more. The YouTube transcript costs **3 credits** (standard tier); the other transcript endpoints are 10 credits (premium). Each returns the spoken content as text. A small adapter normalises the per-platform response shapes into one string, so your application code stays platform-agnostic. The problem [#the-problem] Transcripts are the highest-density signal in social video — captions lie, thumbnails bait, but the spoken word is what the creator actually said. Each platform exposes (or hides) transcripts differently, and the response shapes don't match: YouTube returns timestamped segments, TikTok returns a plain string, Instagram returns a plural `transcripts` array. The solution [#the-solution] Seven transcript endpoints behind one auth model, plus a 20-line adapter: * `GET /v1/tiktok/post/transcript` — TikTok video transcript * `GET /v1/instagram/media/transcript` — Instagram reel / video transcript * `GET /v1/youtube/video/transcript` — YouTube / Shorts transcript * `GET /v1/facebook/post/transcript` — Facebook post / reel transcript * `GET /v1/twitter/tweet/transcript` — X video tweet transcript * `GET /v1/reddit/post/transcript` — Reddit video-post transcript * `GET /v1/rumble/video/transcript` — Rumble video transcript The YouTube transcript is standard tier (**3 credits** — re-sourced to a cheaper upstream); the other six are premium tier (10 credits each). Transcript endpoints are upstream-pass-through (the canonical `Transcript` archetype keeps the upstream shape so you don't lose platform-specific fields). The three shapes verified live: * **YouTube** — `data.transcript[]` (array of `{text, startMs, endMs, startTimeText}` segments) + `data.transcript_only_text` (string) + `data.language` (string) * **TikTok** — `data.transcript` is a **string** (the full text directly) * **Instagram** — `data.transcripts[]` (note the plural) of `{id, shortcode, text}` The other four platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Rumble) follow the same upstream-pass-through pattern. The `extractText()` adapter in the snippet below handles the variance. ```typescript // recipe-transcribe.ts // Returns the transcript of any social video URL. // Run with: SOCIALCRAWL_KEY=sc_... npx tsx recipe-transcribe.ts const KEY = process.env.SOCIALCRAWL_KEY; if (!KEY) throw new Error("Set SOCIALCRAWL_KEY"); type Platform = | "tiktok" | "instagram" | "youtube" | "facebook" | "twitter" | "reddit" | "rumble"; const ENDPOINT: Record = { tiktok: "tiktok/post/transcript", instagram: "instagram/media/transcript", youtube: "youtube/video/transcript", facebook: "facebook/post/transcript", twitter: "twitter/tweet/transcript", reddit: "reddit/post/transcript", rumble: "rumble/video/transcript", }; // Adapter that normalises the per-platform shape into a single text string. // Each branch reflects the upstream's actual response (verified live). function extractText( platform: Platform, data: Record, ): string { if (platform === "youtube") { return (data.transcript_only_text as string) ?? ""; } if (platform === "tiktok") { return (data.transcript as string) ?? ""; } if (platform === "instagram") { const t = data.transcripts as Array<{ text?: string }> | undefined; return t?.[0]?.text ?? ""; } // Facebook / Twitter / Reddit / Rumble: same upstream-pass-through pattern. // Inspect the response on first call and extend this switch as needed. return ( (data.transcript_only_text as string) ?? (data.transcript as string) ?? "" ); } async function transcribe(platform: Platform, videoUrl: string) { const url = new URL(`https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/${ENDPOINT[platform]}`); url.searchParams.set("url", videoUrl); const res = await fetch(url, { headers: { "x-api-key": KEY! } }); const json = (await res.json()) as { success: boolean; data?: Record; credits_remaining: number; error?: { message: string }; }; if (!json.success) throw new Error(json.error?.message ?? "transcript failed"); return { platform, text: extractText(platform, json.data!), credits_remaining: json.credits_remaining, }; } // Same input shape, same output shape, three different platforms. const a = await transcribe( "youtube", "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erLbbextvlY", ); const b = await transcribe( "tiktok", "https://www.tiktok.com/@mrbeast/video/7283145247503961371", ); const c = await transcribe( "rumble", "https://rumble.com/v5o1eum-the-rubin-report-with-elon-musk.html", ); for (const t of [a, b, c]) { console.log(`[${t.platform}] ${t.text.length} chars`); console.log(t.text.slice(0, 200), "…"); console.log("---"); } ``` What you get back [#what-you-get-back] ```jsonc // YouTube — segments + full string + ISO language code { "data": { "transcript": [ // <-- array of segments { "text": "we are now stranded on this deserted", "startMs": "80", "endMs": "4000", "startTimeText": "0:00" } // ... 620 more ], "transcript_only_text": "we are now stranded on this deserted island...", // <-- concatenated string "language": "en-US" } } // TikTok — transcript is the string directly { "data": { "id": "7647161577057258775", "url": "https://www.tiktok.com/@...", "transcript": "claude is shockingly good at refactors..." // <-- full text as string } } // Instagram — note the PLURAL key { "data": { "transcripts": [ // <-- plural, array { "id": "DY7SXBFtEpC", "shortcode": "DY7SXBFtEpC", "text": "..." } ] } } ``` Credits cost [#credits-cost] > **Cost per run:** 3 credits for a YouTube video (standard tier), 10 credits per video on the other six platforms (premium tier). Fanning out a single video across all seven platforms would cost 63 credits — in practice you call exactly one of these per video because each platform only hosts its own content. Take it further [#take-it-further] * See [Computed fields](/docs/computed-fields) for the language-detection logic that backs `transcript.language` when upstream doesn't tag it. * Swap `youtube` for any of the seven platform keys above — the function signature doesn't change. * Next: [Hybrid search-then-enrich](/docs/recipes/search-then-enrich) wires `transcribe()` to the [pulse-check recipe's](/docs/recipes/social-listening-pulse-check) search output. * Platform references: [TikTok API](/platforms/tiktok), [YouTube API](/platforms/youtube), [Instagram API](/platforms/instagram). New here? [Quickstart](/docs/quickstart).