API Documentation

Getting Started

GetYTSubtitles lets you download YouTube subtitles in seconds. No account, no API key, no setup required for basic use. For programmatic access, use the REST API described below.

Step 1: Find a YouTube Video

Copy the URL of any YouTube video that has subtitles or auto-generated captions.

Step 2: Call the API

Send a POST request to the subtitle endpoint:

POST https://getytsubtitles.com/api/subtitle
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID",
  "format": "txt"
}

Step 3: Get the Response

You receive a JSON response with the subtitles. See the API Reference for details.

Code Examples

Working examples in popular languages. All examples use the same endpoint.

cURL

curl -X POST https://getytsubtitles.com/api/subtitle \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID","format":"txt"}'

JavaScript (fetch)

const response = await fetch('/api/subtitle/', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    url: 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID',
    format: 'json'
  })
});
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data.subtitles);

Python (requests)

import requests

resp = requests.post('https://getytsubtitles.com/api/subtitle', json={
    'url': 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID',
    'format': 'txt'
})
data = resp.json()
print(data['formatted'])

Node.js

const https = require('https');

const body = JSON.stringify({
  url: 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID',
  format: 'srt'
});

const req = https.request('https://getytsubtitles.com/api/subtitle', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' }
}, (res) => {
  let data = '';
  res.on('data', chunk => data += chunk);
  res.on('end', () => console.log(JSON.parse(data)));
});

req.write(body);
req.end();

API Reference

Endpoint

POST /api/subtitle
Content-Type: application/json

Parameters

Success Response

{
  "success": true,
  "videoId": "VIDEO_ID",
  "language": "en",
  "subtitles": [
    { "text": "Hello world", "start": 0.5, "duration": 2.1 }
  ],
  "formatted": "Hello world..."
}

Error Response

{
  "success": false,
  "error": "No subtitles found for this video"
}

Rate Limits

No enforced rate limits for normal usage. Please avoid more than 10 requests per second.

Output Formats

Frequently Asked Questions