# Audio Transcriber — Speech to Text (Whisper) (`viralanalyzer/audio-transcriber`) Actor

Transcribe audio to text with Whisper running locally — no API key. Give any media URL (podcast, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, or a direct audio file) and get text, timestamped segments, SRT subtitles and auto-detected language. Pay per minute transcribed.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/viralanalyzer/audio-transcriber.md
- **Developed by:** [viralanalyzer](https://apify.com/viralanalyzer) (community)
- **Categories:** AI, Videos
- **Stats:** 33 total users, 26 monthly users, 81.8% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$20.00 / 1,000 minute of audio transcribeds

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

## 🎧 Audio Transcriber — Speech to Text (Whisper) for Podcasts, Social & Uploads

> **$0.02 per minute transcribed** · 🔒 no API key needed · 🌍 any language (auto-detect) · 📝 text + SRT + timestamps
> 🔗 [View on Apify Store](https://apify.com/viralanalyzer/audio-transcriber) · 🇺🇸 English · [🇧🇷 Português](#-português)

Transcribe **audio to text** using OpenAI **Whisper running locally inside the Actor** (faster-whisper) — **no external API, no key, no rate limits**. Just give any media URL — a podcast, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, SoundCloud, or a direct link to an audio file — and get accurate **text, timestamped segments, SRT subtitles and auto-detected language**. Audio is extracted automatically from video links too.

**Who it's for:** podcasters & content teams, journalists, researchers, accessibility/SEO teams, and developers building search or summarization on top of spoken audio.

▶️ Click **Try for free** — your first run returns a real transcript in seconds.

### ✨ Features

- 🎯 **Real Whisper transcription** (not just captions) — works on audio that has no subtitles.
- 🌍 **99+ languages**, auto-detected (or force one with the `language` field).
- 🔗 **Any source** — social networks, podcast hosts, or a direct audio-file link (mp3/wav/m4a/…).
- 📝 **Rich output** — full text, timestamped segments, ready-to-use **SRT**, word count, language.
- 🔒 **Self-contained** — Whisper runs in the container; you never need an API key.
- 💸 **Fair pricing** — pay per minute of audio actually transcribed.

### 📥 Input

| Field | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| `mediaUrls` | array | ✅ | Audio/media URLs (social/podcast link or direct audio file) |
| `language` | string | ❌ | ISO code (`en`, `pt`, `es`…). Empty = auto-detect |
| `model` | string | ❌ | `tiny` | `base` (default) | `small` — speed vs. accuracy |
| `maxMinutesPerItem` | integer | ❌ | Safety cap on minutes per URL (default 120) |
| `proxyConfiguration` | object | ❌ | Datacenter by default; use RESIDENTIAL if a network blocks the download |

### 📤 Output (per item)

```json
{
  "url": "https://…",
  "title": "Episode 12 — …",
  "language": "en",
  "durationSeconds": 612.4,
  "billedMinutes": 11,
  "text": "Full transcript text …",
  "segments": [{ "start": 0.0, "end": 4.2, "text": "…" }],
  "srt": "1\n00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,200\n…",
  "wordCount": 1840
}
```

### 🎯 Use cases

- Turn podcasts/interviews into searchable, quotable text.
- Generate SRT subtitles for social clips.
- Feed spoken audio into summarization / RAG / analytics.
- Accessibility transcripts for compliance.

### ❓ FAQ

**Q: Do I need an API key (OpenAI, etc.)?** A: No. Whisper runs inside the Actor — you only provide URLs.

**Q: Which sources work?** A: Anything yt-dlp supports (1800+ sites) plus direct audio-file links. If a network blocks the download, enable RESIDENTIAL proxy.

**Q: How is it billed?** A: **$0.02 per minute** of audio transcribed (rounded up per item). A 10-minute podcast = $0.20.

**Q: What about accuracy?** A: `base` is a good default; switch to `small` for higher accuracy on tough audio.

### 💰 Pricing

**Pay-per-event: $0.02 per minute transcribed.** No platform-usage charges — a fixed price per minute of real audio. Examples: 5 min = $0.10 · 30 min = $0.60 · 60 min = $1.20.

### 🔗 Related actors

- [Video Transcriber](https://apify.com/viralanalyzer/video-transcriber) — transcribe video from any network.
- [YouTube Fast Scraper](https://apify.com/viralanalyzer/youtube-fast-scraper) — metadata + captions.

### 📝 Changelog

- **v1.0** — local Whisper (faster-whisper) transcription; text + segments + SRT; per-minute pricing.

***

## 🇧🇷 Português

> **$0.02 por minuto transcrito** · 🔒 sem chave de API · 🌍 qualquer idioma (detecção automática) · 📝 texto + SRT + timestamps
> [🇺🇸 English](#-audio-transcriber--speech-to-text-whisper-for-podcasts-social--uploads) · 🇧🇷 Português

Transcreva **áudio em texto** com o **Whisper rodando localmente no Actor** (faster-whisper) — **sem API externa, sem chave, sem rate limit**. Passe qualquer URL de mídia — podcast, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, SoundCloud ou um link direto de arquivo de áudio — e receba **texto, segmentos com timestamps, legendas SRT e idioma detectado**. O áudio é extraído automaticamente também de links de vídeo.

**Para quem é:** podcasters e times de conteúdo, jornalistas, pesquisadores, times de acessibilidade/SEO e desenvolvedores que constroem busca ou resumo sobre áudio falado.

▶️ Clique em **Testar grátis** — sua primeira execução retorna uma transcrição real em segundos.

### ✨ Recursos

- 🎯 **Transcrição Whisper real** (não só legendas) — funciona em áudio sem legendas.
- 🌍 **99+ idiomas**, detectados automaticamente (ou force com `language`).
- 🔗 **Qualquer origem** — redes sociais, hosts de podcast ou link direto de arquivo.
- 📝 **Saída rica** — texto completo, segmentos com tempo, **SRT** pronto, contagem de palavras, idioma.
- 🔒 **Autossuficiente** — o Whisper roda no container; você nunca precisa de chave de API.
- 💸 **Preço justo** — pague por minuto de áudio realmente transcrito.

### 💰 Preço

**Pay-per-event: $0.02 por minuto transcrito.** Sem cobrança de uso de plataforma — preço fixo por minuto de áudio real. Exemplos: 5 min = $0.10 · 30 min = $0.60 · 60 min = $1.20.

### ❓ FAQ

**P: Preciso de chave de API?** R: Não. O Whisper roda dentro do Actor — você só fornece URLs.

**P: Como é cobrado?** R: **$0.02 por minuto** de áudio transcrito (arredondado por item). Um podcast de 10 min = $0.20.

### 📝 Changelog

- **v1.0** — transcrição local com Whisper (faster-whisper); texto + segmentos + SRT; preço por minuto.

# Actor input Schema

## `mediaUrls` (type: `array`):

Audio/media URLs to transcribe — a podcast/social/video link (audio is extracted automatically) or a direct link to an audio file (mp3, wav, m4a, ...).

## `language` (type: `string`):

ISO code (e.g. 'en', 'pt', 'es'). Leave empty to auto-detect.

## `model` (type: `string`):

Accuracy vs. speed. 'small' (default, more accurate), 'base' (faster) or 'tiny' (fastest). Larger models cost a bit more compute time.

## `maxMinutesPerItem` (type: `integer`):

Safety cap on how many minutes of audio to transcribe per URL.

## `youtubeCookies` (type: `string`):

Paste the contents of a Netscape cookies.txt exported from a logged-in YouTube session to reliably download YouTube (avoids the 'Sign in to confirm you're not a bot' gate). Leave empty for other networks / direct files.

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

Residential proxy by default — social networks (YouTube/TikTok/Instagram) block datacenter IPs when downloading media. Keep RESIDENTIAL unless your source is a plain audio file that accepts datacenter.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mediaUrls": [
    "https://github.com/openai/whisper/raw/main/tests/jfk.flac"
  ],
  "language": "",
  "model": "small",
  "maxMinutesPerItem": 120,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

Dataset with one transcript per input URL (text, segments, SRT, language).

# 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 = {
    "mediaUrls": [
        "https://github.com/openai/whisper/raw/main/tests/jfk.flac"
    ],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true,
        "apifyProxyGroups": [
            "RESIDENTIAL"
        ]
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("viralanalyzer/audio-transcriber").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 = {
    "mediaUrls": ["https://github.com/openai/whisper/raw/main/tests/jfk.flac"],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": True,
        "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"],
    },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("viralanalyzer/audio-transcriber").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 '{
  "mediaUrls": [
    "https://github.com/openai/whisper/raw/main/tests/jfk.flac"
  ],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}' |
apify call viralanalyzer/audio-transcriber --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/P8lwEoQhyndvKVTxi/builds/FVMZmiijIQuts6P0b/openapi.json