A JSON API for YouTube Transcript with MCP Support

Hacker News

I built this because running yt-dlp in production (especially on serverless/Vercel) is a nightmare of IP blocks, cold starts, and binary dependencies. TranscriptAPI is a lightweight wrapper that handles the extraction, formatting, and proxy rotation. It prioritizes manual captions over auto-generated ones and returns clean JSON with timestamps, ready for RAG pipelines. The MCP (Model Context Protocol) Integration: I recently added native MCP support. If you use Claude Desktop or other MCP-compliant agents, you can add this API as a tool to 'watch' videos directly in your chat context without manually copying transcripts. Technical Stack: Backend: Python (FastAPI) on AWS Lambda (for burst scaling) Caching: Redis (to prevent hitting YouTube for the same video twice) Challenge: Handling 'drifting' timestamps in long livestreams where the auto-generated captions lose sync with the video frame. It has a free tier for hobbyists. I’m curious to hear how you’re handling the context-window limits when feeding full 3-hour transcripts to LLMs

Visit product View on Hacker NewsDec 23, 2025

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44%44% predicted probability of success on TrustMRR, based on ML models trained on real launch data.

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29%29% predicted probability of success on AppSumo, based on ML models trained on real launch data.

Acquire.comPre-revenue stage for this audience · Missing: arr, mrr, revenue

26%26% predicted probability of success on Acquire.com, based on ML models trained on real launch data.

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21%21% predicted probability of success on Hacker News, based on ML models trained on real launch data.

nativeThis product was originally launched on this platform.

BetaListMay not resonate with beta-testers · Strong signals: chat · Missing: web3, crypto, cryptocurrency

1%1% predicted probability of success on BetaList, based on ML models trained on real launch data.

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