Media Caption API v1

Quickstart

Create an API key, call your first transcript endpoint, then review billing, errors, and retention before production use.

1. Create a key

Open the platform dashboard, create a live API key, and store the secret securely. It is shown once.

2. Make a request

curl https://api.mediacaption.io/v1/transcripts \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer mc_live_xxx" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "language": "en"
  }'

3. Read the response

{
  "transcriptionId": "tr_3f6e5c6a-0d31-4f8c-9b1d-7f3b9e6a2c11",
  "source": "public",
  "language": "en",
  "durationSec": 184,
  "expiresAt": "2026-05-14T10:00:01.000Z",
  "transcript": [
    { "startSec": 0, "durationSec": 2.4, "text": "Example transcript text" }
  ],
  "creditsFrozen": 1,
  "creditsCharged": 1
}

4. Production checklist

Retry 429 responses after the Retry-After interval.
Avoid automatic POST retries after network timeouts; duplicate retries can start new work and spend additional credits.
Use bulk jobs for high-volume transcript work.
Store transcripts you need longer than 3 days.

Next: Authentication