YouTube Transcription API for Videos & Shorts

Build YouTube-to-text into knowledge bases, educational products, and media workflows. Submit a public video, Short, or youtu.be URL and poll the returned job location for structured results.

Build searchable text from YouTube media

Fast Transcriber generates a transcript through its media and speech-to-text pipeline rather than requiring your application to depend on a creator-supplied caption track. The completed text and segments use the same shape as every other API job.

Choose the right public YouTube video or Short URL

Standard videos: youtube.com/watch?v={video-id} is the canonical form for an ordinary public upload.
Shorts: youtube.com/shorts/{video-id} identifies a public Short without converting it to a watch URL first.
Compact shares: youtu.be/{video-id} links use the same pipeline after redirect resolution. Submit one video, not a playlist page.

Quickstart: queue a public YouTube video or Short transcription

Create a Fast Transcriber API key and store it in a server-side environment variable. Send the public media URL as source_url; never expose the Bearer key in browser code or commit it to source control.

curl --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
  }'

A valid request returns 202 Accepted. This means the job was queued, not that the source was fetched successfully. Read the Location response header, set LOCATION_PATH to that path, and poll it until the job status is completed or failed.

LOCATION_PATH="/api/v1/transcriptions/95c3fdd8-..."
curl --request GET "https://fast-transcriber.com$LOCATION_PATH" \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $FAST_TRANSCRIBER_API_TOKEN"

Ready to run this request? Create an API key, or review every endpoint in the API documentation.

Work with text and timestamped segments

Completed jobs contain the transcript text and timestamped segments available under the authenticated account's plan limits. The same response shape lets an application index a video, jump to quoted moments, create summaries, or feed the transcript into an authorized search or RAG workflow.

{
  "data": {
    "id": "95c3fdd8-...",
    "filename": "source-video.mp4",
    "status": "completed",
    "duration_seconds": 84,
    "text": "Completed transcript text...",
    "segments": [
      { "start": 0, "end": 3.8, "text": "First segment..." }
    ]
  }
}

Set speaker_diarization to true when speaker labels are needed. Speaker diarization requires a Pro account and uses the same account limits as the web application.

What developers build with public YouTube video or Short transcripts

Knowledge bases: index authorized educational or company video libraries by spoken content.
Research tools: search and cite relevant moments using the timestamped segment offsets.
Publishing workflows: turn owned videos into draft articles, show notes, chapters, or accessible text for human review.

Supported links and access requirements

Supported public YouTube videos, Shorts, and youtu.be links can be submitted through source_url.

The video must be public, available, and accessible without signing in.
Private, members-only, removed, age-restricted, and active live streams cannot be imported.
Submit the canonical video, Shorts, or youtu.be URL and handle inaccessible-media errors in your application.

If a recording is private and you are authorized to process it, retrieve the media through your own authenticated workflow and use the direct audio and video upload API instead.

Troubleshoot public YouTube video or Short imports

Exclude active live streams: wait until a live broadcast has ended and a public replay is available before queueing transcription.
Test viewing without an account: members-only, private, age-restricted, and some region-restricted videos cannot be fetched by a public-link worker.
Store the video ID: the stable ID helps your application deduplicate watch, Shorts, and youtu.be variants that point to the same media.

Plan for asynchronous errors

Production integrations should handle invalid or inaccessible sources, authentication failures, account limits, and temporary processing failures. Immediate HTTP failures use an {"error":{"code":"...","message":"..."}} envelope. A queued source can later return data.status as failed with details in data.error when polled. Do not retry private, removed, or login-gated media indefinitely; surface a clear message or offer an authorized file-upload fallback.

Frequently asked questions

Which YouTube URL formats work?

Supported public videos, Shorts, and youtu.be links use the same resolver as the Fast Transcriber browser tool.

Can the API access private YouTube content?

No. URL sources must be publicly accessible. Use an authorized direct upload for private media you are allowed to process.

Why does the endpoint return 202?

Transcription is asynchronous. Use the Location header to retrieve job status and the eventual result.

YouTube Transcription API for Videos and Shorts

Create your Fast Transcriber API key