YouTube Transcript API

A FastAPI service to fetch YouTube transcripts with automatic language detection and fallback support.

Note: The hosted transcript API (https://youtube-transcript-api-tau-one.vercel.app/) has a rate limit of 5 requests per minute. For heavy usage or production applications, consider hosting your own instance.

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🚀 Quick Start

# Make a POST request to fetch transcript
curl -X POST "https://youtube-transcript-api-tau-one.vercel.app/transcript" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"video_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrsmFxEIp5k"}'

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📡 API Endpoints

🎬 Fetch Transcript

Retrieves the transcript for any YouTube video with available captions.

Endpoint: POST /transcript

Headers:

Content-Type: application/json

Request Body:

{
  "video_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"
}

Request Example

cURL

curl -X POST "http://localhost:8000/transcript" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "video_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrsmFxEIp5k"
  }'

Python

import requests

url = "https://youtube-transcript-api-tau-one.vercel.app/transcript"
payload = {"video_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrsmFxEIp5k"}

response = requests.post(url, json=payload)
print(response.json())

JavaScript

fetch('https://youtube-transcript-api-tau-one.vercel.app/transcript', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/json'},
  body: JSON.stringify({
    video_url: 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrsmFxEIp5k'
  })
})
.then(res => res.json())
.then(data => console.log(data));

Response Example

Success (200 OK):

{
  "video_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrsmFxEIp5k",
  "transcript": "Full transcript text with all the spoken content from the video..."
}

Error (404):

{
  "detail": "No transcript available for this video"
}

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⚠️ Rate Limiting

Important: The hosted API enforces a rate limit of 5 requests per minute for security and to prevent concurrent request abuse.

• Limit: 5 requests/minute per IP
• Reset: Every 60 seconds
• Exceeded Response: 429 Too Many Requests
• Recommendation: Implement caching or host your own instance

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💡 What is the Use of This API?

1. Video Summarization & AI Chat

Extract transcripts to create AI-powered video summaries or enable chat interfaces where users can ask questions about video content using LLMs like GPT, Claude, or Gemini.

# Example: Summarize with OpenAI
transcript = get_youtube_transcript(video_url)
summary = openai.ChatCompletion.create(
    model="gpt-4",
    messages=[{
        "role": "user",
        "content": f"Summarize this video: {transcript}"
    }]
)

2. Multi-Language Video Translation

Create translated versions of videos by extracting the original transcript and translating it to multiple languages for global audiences.

3. AI Training Data Collection

Gather large-scale transcription data from educational, tutorial, or documentary videos to train machine learning models, especially for NLP tasks.

4. Instant Script Formatting

Convert video content into readable, searchable text format for documentation, blog posts, or accessibility purposes.

Note: This API allows commercial use but does not promise 99.99% uptime or guarantee 100% accuracy for all videos.

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✅ Pros

• 🎯 Easy to Use - Simple REST API with minimal setup
• 💰 Free - No cost for basic usage (rate-limited)
• 🌐 Multilingual Support - Works with transcripts in multiple languages
• ⚡ Better Than Old Libraries - Modern FastAPI implementation with better error handling
• 🚫 No Language Barrier - Automatically detects and retrieves available languages

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❌ Cons

• ⏰ Not Always Uptime - Hosted version may experience downtime
• 📹 Limited Video Support - Doesn't work on private, age-restricted, or videos without transcripts
• 🐌 Rate Limited - Only 5 requests/minute on hosted version
• 🎯 Accuracy Varies - Auto-generated transcripts may have errors
• 🔒 No Authentication - Public API without user-specific quotas

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📚 Use Cases

Use Case	Description
📝 Content Analysis	Extract and analyze video content for SEO, research, or insights
🔍 Search & Discovery	Make video libraries searchable by transcript content
🌐 Translation	Generate multilingual subtitles and translations
📊 Data Collection	Build datasets for AI/ML training from video content
♿ Accessibility	Provide text alternatives for hearing-impaired users
🤖 Chatbots	Create AI assistants that can answer questions about videos
📖 Documentation	Convert tutorial videos into written guides

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🔒 Limitations

• Only works with videos that have transcripts (manual or auto-generated)
• Cannot access private, unlisted (without link sharing), or age-restricted videos
• Subject to YouTube's Terms of Service
• Rate limited on hosted version (5 req/min)
• Auto-generated transcripts may contain errors
• No guarantee of 99.99% uptime on free hosted version

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to:

• Report bugs or issues
• Suggest new features
• Submit pull requests
• Improve documentation

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📄 License

This project is provided as-is for educational and personal use. Ensure compliance with YouTube's Terms of Service when using this API.

Disclaimer: This API does not store or redistribute YouTube content. It simply provides programmatic access to publicly available transcript data.

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🔗 Links

• Hosted API: https://youtube-transcript-api-tau-one.vercel.app/
• API Docs: https://youtube-transcript-api-tau-one.vercel.app/docs

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