# Lex Fridman Podcast Transcript Scraper — Speakers & Chapters (`scrapersdelight/lexfridman-transcript-scraper`) Actor

Extract full, speaker-attributed, timestamped transcripts of the Lex Fridman Podcast — no login, no ASR. By episode URL or crawl every episode: transcript text, {speaker, time, text} segments, chapters, guest & episode number. $2 per 1,000 episodes.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/scrapersdelight/lexfridman-transcript-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Scrapers Delight](https://apify.com/scrapersdelight) (community)
- **Categories:** Videos, AI, Automation
- **Stats:** 1 total users, 0 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.00 / 1,000 per record returneds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

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

## 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

## 🎙️ Lex Fridman Podcast Transcript Scraper

**Get full, speaker-attributed, timestamped transcripts of the Lex Fridman Podcast — no login, no AI transcription. The show publishes a complete transcript for every episode, and this actor reads it: clean text, `{speaker, time, text}` segments, chapter list, guest, and episode number. Scrape one episode, a list, or crawl the entire archive.**

Because the transcript is already published, there's no speech-to-text compute — it's fast and cheap.

***

### What does it do?

For each episode (by URL or via a full-archive crawl) it returns:

- 📝 **Full transcript** (plain text) — always included
- ⏲️ **Timestamped segments** — `{speaker, start, text}` (great for clipping/quoting)
- 📑 **Chapters**, 🎤 **guest**, 🔢 **episode number**

No ASR, no API key — it reads the published transcript.

***

### What data does it extract?

For every episode: `url`, `episode_number`, `guest`, `episode_title`, `chapters[]`, `transcript`, `segments[]`, `segment_count`, `is_new` (monitor), `scraped_at`.

***

### Who is it for?

- ✍️ **Writers, researchers & students** quoting and searching long-form interviews.
- 🤖 **AI / RAG builders** — these are dense, high-quality conversation transcripts, ideal training/retrieval data.
- ✂️ **Clippers & newsletter writers** pulling timestamped quotes.

***

### How to use it (step by step)

1. Click **Try for free**.
2. Paste an **episode transcript URL** (`https://lexfridman.com/{guest}-transcript`) — or enable **Crawl all** for the full archive.
3. *(Optional)* add `segments` to the formats.
4. Click **Start**, open the **Dataset** tab to view/export.
5. *(Optional)* set **Crawl all** + **monitorMode** + a **Schedule** to grab each new episode automatically.

#### Quick start

```json
{ "episodeUrls": ["https://lexfridman.com/jensen-huang-transcript"], "transcriptFormats": ["txt", "segments"] }
```

***

### Input

| Field | What it does |
|-------|--------------|
| `episodeUrls` | transcript URLs or `{guest}` slugs |
| `crawlAll` | crawl the whole podcast archive |
| `transcriptFormats` | `txt` · `segments` |
| `maxEpisodes` | hard cap per run (0 = all) |
| `monitorMode`, `alertOnNewEpisode` | recurring new-episode watcher + alerts |
| `webhookUrl`, `slackWebhookUrl`, `emailRecipients` | alert channels |
| `proxyConfiguration`, `requestConcurrency` | proxy + parallelism |

***

### Output

Each episode is one dataset record (fields above). Export to **JSON, CSV, Excel, HTML, or RSS**, or fetch via the **Apify API**.

***

### How much does it cost?

Pay-per-event — and with **no transcription compute**, it's cheap:

| Event | What it covers | Suggested price |
|-------|----------------|-----------------|
| `lot-scraped` | each episode returned | ~$0.005 / episode |
| `lot-detail-enriched` | each transcript fetched | ~$0.005 / episode |
| `monitor-run-completed` | each scheduled watch run | ~$0.05 / run |
| `new-lot-detected` | each new episode | ~$0.02 / episode |
| `alert-delivered` | each Slack/email/webhook push | ~$0.005 / alert |

*(Final per-event prices are set on the actor's pricing page.)*

***

### Is it legal to scrape these transcripts?

This actor reads **publicly published** transcripts on lexfridman.com. The content is the creator's (copyrighted). Scraping public pages is generally legal, but **you are responsible for your use — review the site's terms and respect the creator's rights; don't redistribute transcripts you're not licensed to.**

***

### FAQ

**Is there a Whisper/ASR step?**
No — it reads the published transcript, so it's fast and cheap.

**Can I get the whole back catalog?**
Yes — enable **Crawl all** to scrape every episode linked from the podcast page.

**Do I get speaker labels and timestamps?**
Yes — add `segments` for `{speaker, start, text}` per line.

**How do I export?**
JSON, CSV, Excel, HTML, or RSS from the Dataset tab, or via the Apify API.

***

### Feedback

Want chapter-aligned segments or per-guest filtering? Open an issue on the actor.

# Actor input Schema

## `episodeUrls` (type: `array`):

Lex Fridman transcript URLs (https://lexfridman.com/{guest}-transcript) or just the {guest} slug. Leave empty and enable 'Crawl all' to get every episode.

## `crawlAll` (type: `boolean`):

Crawl lexfridman.com/podcast and transcribe every episode found.

## `transcriptFormats` (type: `array`):

Plain text is always included; add timestamped segments.

## `maxEpisodes` (type: `integer`):

Hard cap per run (0 = all).

## `monitorMode` (type: `boolean`):

Recurring watcher with 'Crawl all': output/alert ONLY new episodes. Pair with a Schedule.

## `alertOnNewEpisode` (type: `boolean`):

In monitor mode, alert for each new episode.

## `webhookUrl` (type: `string`):

POST endpoint for new-episode alerts.

## `slackWebhookUrl` (type: `string`):

Slack incoming-webhook URL.

## `emailRecipients` (type: `array`):

Emails for the digest (via apify/send-mail).

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Proxy settings. Datacenter rotation is plenty.

## `requestConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

Max parallel episode fetches.

## `diagnose` (type: `boolean`):

Dev only. Logs the parsed first episode, then exits.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "episodeUrls": [
    "https://lexfridman.com/jensen-huang-transcript"
  ],
  "crawlAll": false,
  "transcriptFormats": [
    "txt"
  ],
  "maxEpisodes": 0,
  "monitorMode": false,
  "alertOnNewEpisode": true,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  },
  "requestConcurrency": 4,
  "diagnose": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `transcripts` (type: `string`):

The dataset of episode transcripts (one item per episode).

# 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 = {
    "episodeUrls": [
        "https://lexfridman.com/jensen-huang-transcript"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("scrapersdelight/lexfridman-transcript-scraper").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 = { "episodeUrls": ["https://lexfridman.com/jensen-huang-transcript"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("scrapersdelight/lexfridman-transcript-scraper").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 '{
  "episodeUrls": [
    "https://lexfridman.com/jensen-huang-transcript"
  ]
}' |
apify call scrapersdelight/lexfridman-transcript-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/5BLXJNdeOy4eOXMny/builds/90ONPYcC6VBVMUtol/openapi.json