# YouTube Transcript API + Summary & RAG (`dr_amp/youtube-transcript-intelligence-api`) Actor

Extract YouTube captions with timestamps, SRT/VTT, summaries, chapters, action items, citations, and RAG chunks. No API key or external LLM required.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/dr\_amp/youtube-transcript-intelligence-api.md
- **Developed by:** [Diego Jurado Garcia](https://apify.com/dr_amp) (community)
- **Categories:** AI, Social media, Videos
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per usage

This Actor is paid per platform usage. The Actor is free to use, and you only pay for the Apify platform usage, which gets cheaper the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-usage

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## YouTube Transcript API + Summary & RAG

Extract captions from public YouTube videos and return timestamped JSON, plain text, SRT, WebVTT, and deterministic intelligence artifacts. No YouTube API key, browser, Whisper, or external LLM is required.

### What it returns

One dataset item per input URL:

- normalized YouTube URL and video ID
- caption language and whether captions were auto-generated
- timestamped JSON segments
- optional plain text, SRT, and WebVTT
- stable diagnostics for unavailable videos, disabled/missing captions, translation failures, and blocked requests
- optional intelligence pack:
  - multi-sentence extractive summary
  - timeline-wide chapters with evidence
  - explicit action items with owner, due hint, priority, and timestamp
  - selective notable claims with citations
  - keywords
  - segment-aligned RAG chunks

The intelligence pack is deterministic. It does not invent facts or send transcript data to an AI provider.

### Input example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aircAruvnKk"
  ],
  "languages": ["en", "es"],
  "analysis_mode": "intelligence",
  "formats": ["json", "text", "srt", "vtt"],
  "proxy_mode": "auto",
  "chunk_chars": 1200
}
```

Supported URL forms include `youtube.com/watch?v=`, `youtu.be/`, `/shorts/`, and `/embed/`.

### Proxy strategy

- `none`: direct access only.
- `auto`: direct first; retry through Apify Residential Proxy only when YouTube reports IP blocking.
- `residential`: use Apify Residential Proxy from the first request.

Blocked residential exits are retried up to three times with a fresh HTTP client. Missing captions, private/unavailable videos, and other terminal errors are never retried.

A proxy is not retried for videos that are private, unavailable, age-restricted, or genuinely have no captions.

### Pay-per-event

- `transcript-extracted`: one event per successfully extracted video.
- `intelligence-pack`: one additional event per successful video in `intelligence` mode.
- Invalid URLs and failed extractions are not charged.

### Limits

- 1–100 URLs per run.
- Caption-first V1: no audio download or speech-to-text fallback.
- Uses YouTube's undocumented caption endpoint through `youtube-transcript-api`; upstream changes can require maintenance.

### Local verification

```bash
uv run --with-requirements requirements.txt --with pytest python -m pytest tests -q
uv run --with-requirements requirements.txt python -m src.main \
  --input samples/input.json \
  --output /tmp/youtube-transcript-output.json
apify validate-schema
```

# Actor input Schema

## `urls` (type: `array`):

One to 100 public YouTube watch, youtu.be, Shorts, or embed URLs.

## `languages` (type: `array`):

ISO language codes in priority order.

## `translate_to` (type: `string`):

Optional ISO language code supported by YouTube captions.

## `analysis_mode` (type: `string`):

Raw returns transcript formats. Intelligence also adds summary, chapters, action items, claims, keywords, and RAG chunks.

## `formats` (type: `array`):

Formats embedded in each successful dataset item.

## `proxy_mode` (type: `string`):

Auto tries direct access first and uses Apify residential proxy only when YouTube blocks the cloud IP.

## `chunk_chars` (type: `integer`):

Approximate maximum characters per segment-aligned RAG chunk.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aircAruvnKk"
  ],
  "languages": [
    "en",
    "es"
  ],
  "analysis_mode": "intelligence",
  "formats": [
    "json"
  ],
  "proxy_mode": "auto",
  "chunk_chars": 1200
}
```

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "urls": [
        "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aircAruvnKk"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("dr_amp/youtube-transcript-intelligence-api").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "urls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aircAruvnKk"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("dr_amp/youtube-transcript-intelligence-api").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aircAruvnKk"
  ]
}' |
apify call dr_amp/youtube-transcript-intelligence-api --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=dr_amp/youtube-transcript-intelligence-api",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/xFArY02fHFTv9PTcX/builds/Ac2mVz025bng5QD4m/openapi.json