Knowledge and search
Index spoken content from permitted videos so users can find exact topics without scrubbing through a recording.
YouTube transcription API for product teams
Turn an accessible YouTube URL into structured transcript data without building a separate media-resolution and speech-to-text pipeline. Fast Transcriber queues the video as an asynchronous job and returns the same result model used for every supported source.
Use it from your product backend or connect a compatible AI agent over MCP.
- Bearer authentication
- Asynchronous jobs
- Structured JSON
Queue a public YouTube video
curl --include --request POST https://fast-transcriber.com/api/v1/transcriptions \
--header "Authorization: Bearer $FAST_TRANSCRIBER_API_TOKEN" \
--header "Content-Type: application/json" \
--data '{
"source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID",
"speaker_diarization": false
}'202 Accepted · Location: /api/v1/transcriptions/{id}
Build a reliable YouTube-to-text workflow
Submit a public watch URL, Shorts URL, or youtu.be share link through source_url. Your backend receives a job immediately, so the original request does not remain open while a long video is processed.
Keep the YouTube video ID beside the Fast Transcriber job ID in your own database. That makes it easier to identify duplicate URL forms, reconnect a user to an existing job, and avoid creating the same transcription twice.
With Fast Transcriber
- One asynchronous job lifecycle across supported sources
- Source resolution and media retrieval handled server-side
- One transcript response with text and timestamped segments
- A direct-upload fallback for authorized private media
Building every source yourself
- Separate URL and access handling for every source
- Queue, retry, polling, and failure-state infrastructure
- Source-specific results that need normalization
- Ongoing maintenance as external sources change
One API family
One source workflow. One predictable job model.
Use the same status lifecycle and transcript fields across supported public URLs and account-owned uploads.
What this endpoint accepts
Supported inputs
- Public youtube.com/watch video URLs
- Public youtube.com/shorts URLs
- Public youtu.be share links
- One video per transcription job
Access and input boundaries
- The video must open without a YouTube sign-in or session cookie.
- Private, members-only, removed, age-restricted, and currently live videos cannot be imported through source_url.
- Submit an individual video rather than a playlist, channel, search, or account page.
- Only process videos you own or are authorized to transcribe.
Queue once, then follow the job
Transcription runs outside the original HTTP request. Save the returned job identity and poll its status instead of submitting duplicate work.
- 01
Send one YouTube URL
POST source_url to /api/v1/transcriptions with a bearer API key. Create one job for each media item.
- 02
Save the job location
A valid request returns 202 Accepted. Persist the Location header and job ID instead of repeating the POST.
- 03
Poll to a final state
GET the job URL with bounded backoff until status is completed or failed, then stop polling.
Built for production transcription workflows
Editorial workflows
Use timestamped segments as a starting point for show notes, research, excerpts, and human-reviewed captions.
Internal automation
Attach transcript text to an existing video record, then pass it into your own approved analysis or summarization process.
Send a real API request
Authenticate from your backend, create the job, and store the returned Location header for status retrieval.
Queue a public YouTube video
curl --include --request POST https://fast-transcriber.com/api/v1/transcriptions \
--header "Authorization: Bearer $FAST_TRANSCRIBER_API_TOKEN" \
--header "Content-Type: application/json" \
--data '{
"source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID",
"speaker_diarization": false
}'202 Accepted · Location: /api/v1/transcriptions/{id}
Implement the complete request flow
Authentication, source rules, request fields, and status handling are covered in the technical guide.
One predictable transcript response
YouTube jobs return the shared transcript response: job status, full text, detected duration, and timestamped segments. Your integration does not need a YouTube-specific result parser.
- status
- Use completed and failed as terminal states.
- text
- The complete transcript becomes available on completion.
- segments[]
- Each segment includes start, end, and text values.
- duration_seconds
- The detected duration of the processed recording.
application/json
{
"data": {
"id": "95c3fdd8-...",
"filename": "source-media.mp4",
"status": "completed",
"created_at": "2026-08-24T16:30:00.000Z",
"duration_seconds": 1842,
"text": "Completed transcript text...",
"segments": [
{ "start": 0, "end": 4.2, "text": "Welcome." }
]
}
}200 OK · completed transcript
YouTube API FAQ
- Which YouTube links can I submit?
- Public watch URLs, Shorts URLs, and youtu.be share links are supported when they resolve to one video that opens without signing in.
- Can the API transcribe a private YouTube video?
- Not through source_url. If you are authorized to process private media, download it through your own authorized workflow and use the file-upload API.
- Does job creation return the transcript immediately?
- No. A successful POST returns 202 Accepted and a Location header. Poll that job until it reaches completed or failed.
- Do I need a YouTube caption track?
- The API transcribes accessible media through the Fast Transcriber processing pipeline; its contract is not limited to returning creator-provided caption tracks.
Related endpoints
API overviewUse the same job model elsewhere
Ready to build?
Add YouTube transcription to your product.
Create a key, then follow the source guide to queue your first job.