YouTube Transcripts

YouTube Transcripts gets the transcript of a YouTube video, that is, the text of what is said in it. It takes it from the video’s subtitles, both those uploaded by the author and those YouTube generates automatically.

It is useful when you want to work with the content of a video without watching it: summarize it, search in it, translate it with another component or give it to an agent so it can answer questions about what is explained.

When to use it

• Summarize your company’s webinars and email them to people who could not attend.
• Turn training videos into reference texts for your team.
• Analyze what competitors’ videos say about a product.
• Give an agent the transcript of a tutorial so it can answer customers’ questions.

Configuration

This component does not need a credential.

Field	What it does
Video URL	The link to the YouTube video, for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=... or https://youtu.be/....
Transcript Format	text returns the whole transcript as a single text; chunks splits it into time segments. Default: text.
Language	The subtitle languages you prefer, as codes separated by commas and in order of preference, for example es,en. If you leave it empty, English subtitles are used, or the video’s own subtitles when there are none in English.

Advanced options

Field	What it does
Chunk Size (seconds)	Only with chunks. The length of each segment, in seconds. Default: 60.

Output

The Data output returns the transcript:

• With text, a single item with the whole text in transcripts.
• With chunks, one item per segment, with the text in content and, in metadata, the second where the segment starts and ends and a link that opens the video at that moment.

If the video has no subtitles in the requested languages or they cannot be retrieved, the result has an error field with the reason instead of stopping the flow.

You can connect the result to an agent or to Summarizer to summarize it. The component can also be connected to an Agent as a tool, so the agent gets the transcript of the videos it is asked about. See Tool Mode.

Example

A software company wants a summary of every webinar it publishes on YouTube.

1. Add YouTube Transcripts and paste the webinar link in Video URL.
2. Leave Transcript Format as text and write en in Language.
3. Connect Data to an agent that writes a summary with the main ideas and the audience’s questions.
4. Email the summary to the list of attendees.

Good practices

• Write in Language the language spoken in the video. If you ask for a language with no subtitles, there will be no transcript.
• Use chunks when you want to cite the exact moment in the video: each segment comes with its link.
• YouTube’s automatic subtitles may have mistakes in proper names and technical terms.

Related components

• Video: looks up and manages videos on your YouTube channel.