youtube-apify-transcript

Fetch YouTube transcripts via APIFY API (works from cloud IPs, bypasses YouTube bot detection).

Why APIFY?

YouTube blocks transcript requests from cloud IPs (AWS, GCP, etc.). APIFY runs the request through residential proxies, bypassing bot detection reliably.

Free Tier

$5/month free credits (~714 videos)
No credit card required
Perfect for personal use

Cost

$0.007 per video (less than 1 cent!)
Track usage at: https://console.apify.com/billing

Setup

Create free APIFY account: https://apify.com/
Get your API token: https://console.apify.com/account/integrations
Set environment variable:

# Add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc
export APIFY_API_TOKEN="apify_api_YOUR_TOKEN_HERE"
Install Python dependency
pip install requests
Or use .env file (never commit this!)
echo 'APIFY_API_TOKEN=apify_api_YOUR_TOKEN_HERE' >> .env

Usage

Basic Usage

# Get transcript as text (uses cache by default)
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"
Short URL also works

python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID"

Options

# Output to file
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "URL" --output transcript.txt
JSON format (includes timestamps)
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "URL" --json
Both: JSON to file
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "URL" --json --output transcript.json
Specify language preference

python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "URL" --lang de

Caching (saves money!)

Transcripts are cached locally by default. Repeat requests for the same video cost $0.

# First request: fetches from APIFY ($0.007)
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "URL"
Second request: uses cache (FREE!)
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "URL"
Output: [cached] Transcript for: VIDEO_ID
Bypass cache (force fresh fetch)
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py "URL" --no-cache
View cache stats
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py --cache-stats
Clear all cached transcripts

python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py --clear-cache

Cache location:

.cache/

in skill directory (override with

YT_TRANSCRIPT_CACHE_DIR

env var)

Batch Mode

Process multiple videos at once:

# Create a file with URLs (one per line)
cat > urls.txt << EOF
https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO1
https://youtu.be/VIDEO2
https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO3
EOF
Process all URLs
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py --batch urls.txt
Output:
[1/3] Fetching VIDEO1...
[2/3] [cached] VIDEO2
[3/3] Fetching VIDEO3...
Batch complete: 2 fetched, 1 cached, 0 failed
[Cost: ~$0.014 for 2 API call(s)]
Batch with JSON output to file
python3 scripts/fetch_transcript.py --batch urls.txt --json --output all_transcripts.json

Output Formats

Text (default):

Hello and welcome to this video.
Today we're going to talk about...

JSON (--json):

{
  "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "title": "Video Title",
  "transcript": [
    {"start": 0.0, "duration": 2.5, "text": "Hello and welcome"},
    {"start": 2.5, "duration": 3.0, "text": "to this video"}
  ],
  "full_text": "Hello and welcome to this video..."
}

Agent Instructions

When the user asks to summarize a YouTube video, first fetch the transcript using the script, then summarize the transcript text directly using your own model capabilities. Do NOT use --summarize flag.

Error Handling

The script handles common errors:

Invalid YouTube URL
Video has no transcript
API quota exceeded
Network errors

Metadata

metadata:
  clawdbot:
    emoji: "📹"
    requires:
      env: ["APIFY_API_TOKEN"]
      bins: ["python3"]
      python:
        packages: ["requests"]

Youtube Apify Transcript

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