Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains what information the YouTube Transcripts API (“the Service”, “we”, “us”) collects, how we use it, and the choices you have. By creating an account or using the API you agree to this policy.

Information we collect

• Account data: your email address, an optional display name, and a securely hashed password (we never store your password in plaintext).
• Authentication: if you sign in with Google, we receive your email and basic profile from Google; we do not receive your Google password.
• Usage data: API requests you make (e.g. the YouTube URLs or IDs you submit), credits consumed, timestamps, and the API key used, for billing, rate limiting, and abuse prevention.
• Billing data: subscription plan and status. Card details are handled entirely by our payment processor (Lemon Squeezy, our merchant of record); we never see or store full card numbers.
• Technical data: IP address and request metadata, used for security and rate limiting.

How we use your information

• To provide the Service: fetch, transcribe, translate, and cache transcripts.
• To operate accounts, API keys, credits, and billing.
• To prevent abuse, fraud, and excessive use (rate limiting).
• To send transactional email (verification, password reset, billing notices).

Third-party services

We share the minimum data necessary with providers that power the Service:

• Lemon Squeezy — payment processing, subscriptions, and merchant of record (handles sales tax/VAT).
• OpenAI — speech-to-text (Whisper) and machine translation.
• YouTube / Google — to retrieve video captions and metadata.
• Email and infrastructure providers — to deliver email and host the Service.

We do not sell your personal information.

Caching and transcripts

Transcripts and video metadata are cached to improve speed and reduce cost. Cached transcripts are derived from publicly available YouTube content and are not tied to your personal identity. Cache entries expire automatically.

Data retention

We keep account and usage records for as long as your account is active and as required for billing, legal, and security purposes. You can request deletion of your account at any time.

Your rights

You may access, correct, or delete your account data, and request a copy of the personal data we hold. To exercise these rights, contact us using the details below.

Contact

Questions about this policy? Email accounts@youtubetranscripts.co.