50 free credits · no card

Instagram Transcript API, every Reel in one call.

Clean text with timestamped segments, for any public Reel, feed video or whole profile: over REST, an MCP server, or the Python and JavaScript SDKs.

No card required. Failed fetches are free.

@creator · 0:38transcribed · en · 6 segments
00:00People keep asking which camera I use and it is genuinely the least important part.
00:05The thing that changed my retention was cutting the first three seconds entirely.
00:11Start on the sentence that would make someone stop, not on the setup for it.
00:18I rewrote thirty old reels that way and the median watch time nearly doubled.
00:26Same footage, same audio, same edit, just a different first line.
00:33So write the hook last, once you know what the interesting part turned out to be.
<2s
median caption fetch
99.88%
API uptime

Independently monitored

500+
developers served
3
Platforms covered

YouTube, TikTok, Instagram

One call, one shape.

Send a Reel or video URL. Most Instagram videos carry no caption track at all, so the usual answer is the transcribed one on the right. Same request, same fields, same parser either way. Only source tells them apart.

The request, either way
curl -X POST https://transcriptfetch.com/api/v2/transcripts/video \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTFETCH_KEY" \
  -d '{"video": "<any public reel or video url>"}'
The rare Reel with captions
{
  "ok": true,
  "data": {
    "kind": "transcript",
    "platform": "instagram",
    "channel": "@creator",
    "duration": 41,
    "language": "en",
    "source": "captions",
    "segments": [
      { "start": 0, "duration": 4.6,
        "text": "People keep asking which camera I use" },
      … 6 more
    ]
  },
  "usage": { "credits_spent": 1, "balance": 49 }
}

200 · 1 credit

The usual Reel, transcribed
{
  "ok": true,
  "data": {
    "kind": "transcript",
    "platform": "instagram",
    "channel": "@creator",
    "duration": 38,
    "language": "en",
    "source": "audio",
    "segments": [
      { "start": 0, "duration": 5.1,
        "text": "People keep asking which camera I use" },
      … 5 more
    ]
  },
  "usage": { "credits_spent": 1, "balance": 48 }
}

200 · 1 credit · transcribed

Nothing in your code branches on which path ran, which matters more here than anywhere else: on Instagram the audio path is the normal one, not the exception. Transcription is billed by audio duration, which at Reel lengths is usually a single credit and shows up in usage rather than in the shape. Every field, with types

Try it on a real Reel.

Paste any public Instagram link and run it against the live API. No account, no key, no card: you get the same JSON your code would.

6 free transcripts a month, no account needed.
Instagram transcriptEnglish · timestamps · clean text

Beyond one Reel

Resolve a profile or a search into a list, then transcribe what you want. Every row's url is accepted by the transcript and batch endpoints as-is. Costs are stamped on each tile.

  • POST/transcripts/video

    Fetch a transcript

    One Reel or video URL. Captions when they exist, AI Fallback Transcription when they do not.

    1 credit

  • POST/transcripts/batch

    Batch fetch

    Up to 50 URLs per call, 500 on Mega and Scale. Per-item outcomes.

    1 credit per delivered

  • POST/transcripts/channel

    List a profile

    Latest posts from a public profile, newest first, cursor-paged.

    1 credit per page

  • POST/transcripts/search

    Search videos

    Keyword search, results ready to transcribe.

    1 credit per page

  • GET/transcripts/jobs/{jobId}

    Poll a job

    State of an AI Fallback Transcription started by a 202.

    Free

  • GET/me

    Check balance

    Validate the key and read remaining credits.

    Free

  • GET/health

    Health check

    Public liveness probe for uptime monitoring.

    Free

Three ways to connect

The same fetch, the same credit, whichever way you reach it. Write code, let an assistant call it, or run it from a workflow tool without writing any.

01

Call the endpoint

One POST with a public Reel URL, from any language. Typed SDKs for Python and Node if you want them, plain REST if you do not.

Read the API reference

Endpoint

POST /api/v2/transcripts/video

02

Let an assistant fetch it

Add the MCP server once and Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor pulls a transcript mid-conversation. OAuth on first use, nothing to deploy, no key to paste.

Set up MCP

Server URL

https://transcriptfetch.com/mcp

03

Run it in a workflow

The official n8n node, or an authenticated HTTP step in Make and Zapier. Fetch on a schedule, on a webhook, or whenever a row lands in a sheet.

See the n8n node

Community node

n8n-nodes-transcriptfetch

Works with
  • ChatGPT
  • Claude
  • Cursor
  • n8n
  • Make
  • Zapier

In your language

curl -X POST https://transcriptfetch.com/api/v2/transcripts/video \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTFETCH_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"video": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/CxxxxxxxxxX/"}'
Shared response
{
  "ok": true,
  "request_id": "req_…",
  "data": {
    "kind": "transcript",
    "video_id": "CxxxxxxxxxX",
    "platform": "instagram",
    "channel": "@creator",
    "duration": 38,
    "language": "en",
    "source": "audio",
    "segments": [
      { "start": 0,   "duration": 5.1,
        "text": "People keep asking which camera I use" },
      { "start": 5.1, "duration": 6.2,
        "text": "It is genuinely the least important part" }
    ]
  },
  "usage": { "credits_spent": 1, "balance": 49 }
}

What people build with it

What did they say actually moved retention?

get_transcript(video="…")

00:18Rewriting the first line of thirty old reels nearly doubled median watch time.

AI apps and agents

Ground an assistant in what was actually said to camera. Segments carry start times, so an answer can cite the second rather than paraphrase a Reel it never watched.

segments

00:05
00:11
00:18

chunked, cited, retrievable

Search and RAG indexing

Turn a profile's back catalogue into text your index can reach. Chunk on timestamps and every retrieved passage keeps a link back to the moment.

mentions · 12 weeks

Creator and brand analytics

Track a claim, a hook or a product mention across more Reels than anyone can sit through, then query the text instead of the grid.

Pricing

One credit per delivered transcript, whether it came from captions or from the audio. Failed or empty results are free. Unused credits roll over up to twice your monthly allowance.

How much will my volume cost?

10,000transcripts / month

50250,000

Best plan

Pro

You pay

$25 / mo

Per 1,000

$2.50

Choose Pro
PlanPriceCredits / monthPer 1,000
Free$0/mo50FreeGet started
Basic$5/mo1,000$5.00Start with Basic
ProPopular$15/mo7,500$2.00Go Pro
Mega$45/mo35,000$1.30Go Mega
Scale$229/mo250,000$0.92Scale up

Top-ups are billed at your plan's per-1,000 rate and never expire. AI Fallback Transcription is billed by audio duration rather than per transcript, which at Reel lengths usually lands at one credit a video. Full pricing

Three ways to get Instagram text

Compared by approach rather than by vendor, because the real choice is whether you want to own the infrastructure.

CapabilityTranscriptFetchThe Instagram Graph APIYour own scraper
Works onAny public Reel or video URLOnly accounts you own or manageWhatever survives the login wall
SetupGet a key, make a requestApp review, a business account, tokens that expireHeadless browser, proxies, an STT pipeline
Transcript textCaptions, or AI Fallback Transcription on the same callNo transcript field existsYour own transcription step to build
TimestampsPer-segment start and durationNot availableDepends on your STT setup
Blocks and rotationHandled for youNot applicableYour IP, blocked at scale
Profiles and searchBuilt in, paginatedYour own accounts onlyMore parsers
BatchUp to 50 per callNot availableYour queue
Cost of a failureNothingNot applicableYou pay for the compute either way
When Instagram changesWe fix itTokens and review, againYou fix it, tonight

The Graph API deserves the sentence people expect it to earn: even with app review passed and a business account connected, it returns no transcript text for any video, including your own. A public Reel URL is enough here, and captions.download has no Instagram equivalent to argue about.

Questions people ask first

What happens when a Reel has no captions?

The audio is transcribed automatically on the same call: no second endpoint and no change to your code. On Instagram this is the common path rather than the fallback, since most videos carry no caption track. Reels are short, so it almost always returns inline. Transcription is billed by audio duration, one credit per started 5 minutes, and only on delivery, so almost every Reel is one credit.

Which languages does it return?

Whatever caption track the video carries, with the language stamped on the response. When none exists and the audio is transcribed, which is usually the case here, the language is detected automatically rather than assumed.

What are the rate limits?

Per-plan request rates, returned on every response as standard rate-limit headers so a client can back off without guessing. Batch is the cheaper path for volume: one call carries up to 50 videos on the free tier, Basic and Pro, and up to 500 on Mega and Scale.

Can I fetch many videos in one request?

Yes. POST /transcripts/batch takes up to 50 URLs per call, 500 on Mega and Scale, and returns a per-item outcome rather than failing the whole request. You are charged one credit per successfully delivered transcript; failures cost nothing.

What is in the free tier?

50 credits a month, no card. Every endpoint is included, not a reduced subset, so you can build the real integration before deciding to pay for it.

Is a credit the same as a request?

No. A credit is a delivered result. A transcript is one credit, a profile or search page is one credit, and polling a job, checking your balance and the health probe are free. Failed and empty results are never charged.

Are there SDKs?

Python and JavaScript, both thin wrappers over the same REST endpoints with typed models. There is also an official n8n community node, and an MCP server if you would rather let an assistant make the call.

What happens when Instagram changes something?

We fix it. Extraction runs through several methods behind one endpoint, so a change that breaks one path usually falls through to another before anyone notices, and the response shape your code parses does not move either way.

Put the spoken web to work

50 free credits a month. No card required. Failed fetches are never billed.