YouTube Playlist

Browse playlists and fetch transcripts via TranscriptAPI.com.

Setup

If $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY is not set, read references/auth-setup.md and follow the instructions there to get and store the key.

Required Headers

Every request needs two headers:

• Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
• User-Agent: your agent's name and version if known (e.g. HermesAgent/0.11.0, ClaudeCode/1.0). Version is optional — agent name alone is fine. Do not omit this header or send a bare default — Cloudflare will return a 403 (error code 1010) and block the request.

API Reference

Full OpenAPI spec: transcriptapi.com/openapi.json — consult this for the latest parameters and schemas.

GET /api/v2/youtube/playlist/videos — 1 credit/page

Paginated playlist video listing (100 per page). Accepts playlist — a YouTube playlist URL or playlist ID.

# First page
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/playlist/videos?playlist=PL_PLAYLIST_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

# Next pages
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/playlist/videos?continuation=TOKEN" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

Param	Required	Validation
playlist	conditional	Playlist URL or ID (PL/UU/LL/FL/OL prefix)
continuation	conditional	non-empty string

Provide exactly one of playlist or continuation, not both.

Accepted playlist ID prefixes:

• PL — user-created playlists
• UU — channel uploads playlist
• LL — liked videos
• FL — favorites
• OL — other system playlists

Response:

{
  "results": [
    {
      "videoId": "abc123xyz00",
      "title": "Playlist Video Title",
      "channelId": "UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw",
      "channelTitle": "Channel Name",
      "channelHandle": "@handle",
      "lengthText": "10:05",
      "viewCountText": "1.5M views",
      "thumbnails": [{ "url": "...", "width": 120, "height": 90 }],
      "index": "0"
    }
  ],
  "playlist_info": {
    "title": "Best Science Talks",
    "numVideos": "47",
    "description": "Top science presentations",
    "ownerName": "TED",
    "viewCount": "5000000"
  },
  "continuation_token": "4qmFsgKlARIYVVV1...",
  "has_more": true
}

Pagination flow:

1. First request: ?playlist=PLxxx — returns first 100 videos + continuation_token
2. Next request: ?continuation=TOKEN — returns next 100 + new token
3. Repeat until has_more: false or continuation_token: null

Workflow: Playlist → Transcripts

# 1. List playlist videos
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/playlist/videos?playlist=PL_PLAYLIST_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

# 2. Get transcript from a video in the playlist
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/transcript\
?video_url=VIDEO_ID&format=text&include_timestamp=true&send_metadata=true" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

Don't know a playlist ID? Find it from the channel

To browse a channel's playlists first (1 credit/page), then list videos in one of them:

# 1. List the channel's playlists
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/playlists?channel=@TED" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

# 2. List videos in the chosen playlist (playlistId from step 1)
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/playlist/videos?playlist=PLAYLIST_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

Extract playlist ID from URL

From https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOeiKm4sgNOknGvNjby9efdf, the playlist ID is PLrAXtmErZgOeiKm4sgNOknGvNjby9efdf. You can also pass the full URL directly to the playlist parameter.

Errors

Code	Meaning	Action
400	Both or neither params	Provide exactly one of playlist or continuation
402	No credits	transcriptapi.com/billing
403/1010	Cloudflare block	Add or fix User-Agent header
404	Playlist not found	Check if playlist is public
408	Timeout	Retry once
422	Invalid playlist format	Must be a valid playlist URL or ID

1 credit per page. Free tier: 100 credits, 300 req/min.