Supadata API

Use the Supadata API via direct curl calls to extract video transcripts and scrape web content for AI applications.

Official docs: https://docs.supadata.ai/

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When to Use

Use this skill when you need to:

• Extract transcripts from YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, X (Twitter), Facebook videos
• Scrape web pages to markdown format for AI processing
• Get video/channel metadata from social platforms
• Crawl websites to extract content from multiple pages

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Prerequisites

1. Sign up at Supadata Dashboard
2. API key is automatically generated on signup (no credit card required)
3. Store your API key in environment variable

export SUPADATA_API_KEY="your-api-key"

Pricing

• Transcript fetch (existing): 1 credit
• Transcript generation (AI): 2 credits/minute
• Free tier available

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Important: When using $VAR in a command that pipes to another command, wrap the command containing $VAR in bash -c '...'. Due to a Claude Code bug, environment variables are silently cleared when pipes are used directly.

bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.example.com" -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY"' | jq .

How to Use

All examples below assume you have SUPADATA_API_KEY set.

The base URL for the API is:

• https://api.supadata.ai/v1

Authentication uses the x-api-key header.

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1. Get YouTube Video Transcript

Extract transcript from a YouTube video:

bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.supadata.ai/v1/transcript" -H "x-api-key: ${SUPADATA_API_KEY}" -G --data-urlencode "url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" -d "text=true"' | jq .

Parameters:

• url: Video URL (required)
• text: Return plain text (true) or timestamped chunks (false, default)
• lang: Preferred language (ISO 639-1 code, e.g., en, zh)
• mode: native (existing only), generate (AI), auto (default)

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2. Get Transcript with Timestamps

Get transcript with timing information:

bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.supadata.ai/v1/transcript" -H "x-api-key: ${SUPADATA_API_KEY}" -G --data-urlencode "url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" -d "text=false"' | jq '.content[:3]

Response format:

{
  "content": [
  {"text": "Hello", "offset": 0, "duration": 1500, "lang": "en"}
  ],
  "lang": "en",
  "availableLangs": ["en", "es", "zh"]
}

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3. Get TikTok/Instagram/X Transcript

Extract transcript from other platforms:

# TikTok
bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.supadata.ai/v1/transcript" -H "x-api-key: ${SUPADATA_API_KEY}" -G --data-urlencode "url=https://www.tiktok.com/@user/video/1234567890" -d "text=true"' | jq .

# Instagram Reel
bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.supadata.ai/v1/transcript" -H "x-api-key: ${SUPADATA_API_KEY}" -G --data-urlencode "url=https://www.instagram.com/reel/ABC123/" -d "text=true"' | jq .

Supported platforms: YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, X (Twitter), Facebook

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4. Native Transcript Only (Save Credits)

Fetch only existing transcripts without AI generation:

bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.supadata.ai/v1/transcript" -H "x-api-key: ${SUPADATA_API_KEY}" -G --data-urlencode "url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" -d "text=true" -d "mode=native"' | jq .

Use mode=native to avoid AI generation costs (1 credit vs 2 credits/min).

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5. Get YouTube Channel Metadata

Get channel information:

bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.supadata.ai/v1/youtube/channel" -H "x-api-key: ${SUPADATA_API_KEY}" -G --data-urlencode "id=@mkbhd"' | jq '{name, subscriberCount, videoCount}

Accepts channel URL, channel ID, or handle (e.g., @mkbhd).

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6. Get YouTube Video Metadata

Get video information:

bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.supadata.ai/v1/youtube/video" -H "x-api-key: ${SUPADATA_API_KEY}" -G --data-urlencode "url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"' | jq '{title, viewCount, likeCount, duration}

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7. Get Social Media Metadata

Get metadata from any supported platform:

bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.supadata.ai/v1/metadata" -H "x-api-key: ${SUPADATA_API_KEY}" -G --data-urlencode "url=https://www.tiktok.com/@user/video/1234567890"' | jq .

Works with YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, X, Facebook posts.

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8. Scrape Web Page to Markdown

Extract web page content:

bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.supadata.ai/v1/web/scrape" -H "x-api-key: ${SUPADATA_API_KEY}" -G --data-urlencode "url=https://example.com"' | jq .

Returns page content in Markdown format, ideal for AI processing.

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9. Map Website Links

Get all links from a website:

bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.supadata.ai/v1/web/map" -H "x-api-key: ${SUPADATA_API_KEY}" -G --data-urlencode "url=https://example.com"' | jq '.urls[:10]'

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10. Crawl Website (Async)

Start a crawl job for multiple pages.

Write to /tmp/supadata_request.json:

{
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "maxPages": 10
}

Then run:

# Start crawl
JOB_ID="$(bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.supadata.ai/v1/web/crawl" -X POST -H "x-api-key: ${SUPADATA_API_KEY}" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/supadata_request.json' | jq -r '.jobId')"

echo "Job ID: ${JOB_ID}"

# Check status
bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.supadata.ai/v1/web/crawl/${JOB_ID}" -H "x-api-key: ${SUPADATA_API_KEY}"' | jq '{status, pagesCompleted}'

Status values: queued, active, completed, failed

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11. Translate Transcript

Translate a YouTube transcript to another language:

bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.supadata.ai/v1/youtube/transcript/translate" -H "x-api-key: ${SUPADATA_API_KEY}" -G --data-urlencode "url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" -d "lang=zh" -d "text=true"' | jq .

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Response Handling

Synchronous (HTTP 200): Direct result returned.

Asynchronous (HTTP 202): Returns jobId for polling:

{"jobId": "abc123"}

Poll the job endpoint until status is completed.

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Guidelines

1. Use mode=native to save credits: Only fetches existing transcripts
2. URL encode parameters: Use --data-urlencode for URLs
3. Check available languages: Response includes availableLangs array
4. Handle async responses: Some requests return job IDs for polling
5. Max file size: 1GB for direct file URLs
6. Supported formats: MP4, WEBM, MP3, FLAC, MPEG, M4A, OGG, WAV