Terms of Service

1Who you are contracting with

The service is provided by Artem Chuikin, an individual seller based in Serbia, trading as TranscriptOut. "We" and "us" below mean that person; "you" means the account holder.

The purchase itself is a separate contract with someone else. Paddle is the merchant of record and the seller on your invoice, so their company details, their address and their terms govern the payment. See "Credits, payment and refunds" below.

2The service

TranscriptOut is a REST API that returns transcripts of YouTube videos, along with video metadata, search results, and channel and playlist listings. The same endpoints are also reachable through our MCP server.

We may add, change or retire endpoints. For a change that breaks a documented contract we will give reasonable notice at the address on your account.

3Accounts and API keys

• You sign in either with Google or with a one-time link we email you. Keep whichever you use secure: whoever controls that Google account or that inbox controls yours.
• Your API key is a bearer credential: anyone holding it can spend your credits. Keep it server-side and out of client applications, repositories and screenshots.
• A key is shown once. We store only its hash, so we cannot recover it for you. Create a new one instead.
• If a key leaks, revoke it in the dashboard. Revocation is immediate.
• Calls made with your key are your responsibility, whether or not you made them.

4Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Use the service unlawfully, or to infringe anyone else’s rights.
• Work around rate limits or the credit system, by opening multiple accounts to multiply the free grant, for example.
• Resell or redistribute the API itself as a competing transcript API.
• Probe, overload or attempt to disrupt the service or the infrastructure behind it.
• Use the service to build a dataset whose distribution would infringe the rights of the video creators.

Security research is welcome and is not a breach of these terms. See the Privacy Policy for how to report a finding.

5Content and third-party rights

Transcripts, titles, thumbnails and every other field the API returns originate from YouTube and belong to their rights holders. We grant you no license in them, because we hold none to grant.

You are responsible for making sure your use of that content complies with copyright law, with YouTube’s terms, and with any other rules that apply to you. If you are unsure whether your use is permitted, get advice before building on it.

The service itself (the website, the dashboard, the documentation and the software behind the API) is ours.

6Credits, payment and refunds

• Calls are metered in credits. Each call costs one credit unless the documentation says otherwise for that endpoint. A call that reaches YouTube is charged whether or not the answer is the one you wanted, subject to the refunds below.
• Every account gets a one-time free allowance when it is created. It is not renewed. Once it is spent, further calls need paid credits.
• Under a paid plan, each month of the plan starts with the plan’s allowance. That allowance does not carry over either.
• Failures we cause or reject before reaching YouTube are refunded automatically: 400, 401, 413, 422, 429 and 503. Answers that required a fetch are charged, including 404 and 410. "This video has no subtitles" is an answer, not a fault.
• Running out of credits returns 402 and performs no call.
• Paid plans are billed through Paddle, who act as merchant of record. The contract for the payment itself is with them, not with us: their terms and their refund policy govern it, they issue the invoice, and any sales tax or VAT is theirs to charge and to remit. Credits are a prepaid allowance and are not exchangeable for money.

Our order process is conducted by our online reseller Paddle.com. Paddle.com is the Merchant of Record for all our orders. Paddle provides all customer service inquiries and handles returns.

That covers the payment. Questions about the API itself (a call that behaved oddly, a key, a limit) still come to us. Send the request_id from your Logs page and we will look at that specific call.

7Availability

We work to keep the API up and fast, but we offer no service level guarantee, and we do not promise that any particular video will be available or that any particular call will succeed. Upstream sources change, videos are deleted and made private, and some have no subtitles at all.

Build for failure: check the ok field, branch on the machine-readable code rather than on the wording of detail, and honor Retry-After.

8Suspension and termination

You can stop using the service at any time and ask us to delete your account.

We may suspend or close an account that breaches these terms, that is being used to attack or degrade the service, or where we are required to by law. Where circumstances allow, we will tell you why and give you a chance to put it right first.

9Disclaimers and liability

The service is provided "as is". To the extent the law permits, we exclude implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.

We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for lost profits, revenue or data. Where liability cannot be excluded, it is limited to the amount you paid us in the three months before the event that caused it.

Nothing here limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited.

10Changes to these terms

We update this page when the terms change, along with the date at the top. Material changes are announced by email to the address on your account before they take effect. Continuing to use the service afterwards means you accept the new terms.

11Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of Serbia, and the courts of Serbia have exclusive competence, save for any mandatory protection you enjoy as a consumer where you live.

12Contact

Questions about these terms: support@transcriptout.com.