✨ YouTube Transcript API ✨

This is a python API which allows you to retrieve the transcript/subtitles for a given YouTube video. It also works for automatically generated subtitles, supports translating subtitles and it does not require a headless browser, like other selenium based solutions do!

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## Install It is recommended to [install this module by using pip](https://pypi.org/project/youtube-transcript-api/): ``` pip install youtube-transcript-api ``` If you want to use it from source, you'll have to install the dependencies manually: ``` pip install -r requirements.txt ``` You can either integrate this module [into an existing application](#api), or just use it via an [CLI](#cli). ## API The easiest way to get a transcript for a given video is to execute: ```python from youtube_transcript_api import YouTubeTranscriptApi YouTubeTranscriptApi.get_transcript(video_id) ``` > **Note:** By default, this will try to access the English transcript of the video. If your video has a different language, or you are interested in fetching a different language's transcript, please read the section below. This will return a list of dictionaries looking somewhat like this: ```python [ { 'text': 'Hey there', 'start': 7.58, 'duration': 6.13 }, { 'text': 'how are you', 'start': 14.08, 'duration': 7.58 }, # ... ] ``` ### Retrieve different languages You can add the `languages` param if you want to make sure the transcripts are retrieved in your desired language (it defaults to english). ```python YouTubeTranscriptApi.get_transcript(video_id, languages=['de', 'en']) ``` It's a list of language codes in a descending priority. In this example it will first try to fetch the german transcript (`'de'`) and then fetch the english transcript (`'en'`) if it fails to do so. If you want to find out which languages are available first, [have a look at `list_transcripts()`](#list-available-transcripts). If you only want one language, you still need to format the `languages` argument as a list ```python YouTubeTranscriptApi.get_transcript(video_id, languages=['de']) ``` ### Batch fetching of transcripts To get transcripts for a list of video ids you can call: ```python YouTubeTranscriptApi.get_transcripts(["video_id1", "video_id2"], languages=['de', 'en']) ``` `languages` also is optional here. ### Preserve formatting You can also add `preserve_formatting=True` if you'd like to keep HTML formatting elements such as `` (italics) and `` (bold). ```python YouTubeTranscriptApi.get_transcripts(video_ids, languages=['de', 'en'], preserve_formatting=True) ``` ### List available transcripts If you want to list all transcripts which are available for a given video you can call: ```python transcript_list = YouTubeTranscriptApi.list_transcripts(video_id) ``` This will return a `TranscriptList` object which is iterable and provides methods to filter the list of transcripts for specific languages and types, like: ```python transcript = transcript_list.find_transcript(['de', 'en']) ``` By default this module always picks manually created transcripts over automatically created ones, if a transcript in the requested language is available both manually created and generated. The `TranscriptList` allows you to bypass this default behaviour by searching for specific transcript types: ```python # filter for manually created transcripts transcript = transcript_list.find_manually_created_transcript(['de', 'en']) # or automatically generated ones transcript = transcript_list.find_generated_transcript(['de', 'en']) ``` The methods `find_generated_transcript`, `find_manually_created_transcript`, `find_transcript` return `Transcript` objects. They contain metadata regarding the transcript: ```python print( transcript.video_id, transcript.language, transcript.language_code, # whether it has been manually created or generated by YouTube transcript.is_generated, # whether this transcript can be translated or not transcript.is_translatable, # a list of languages the transcript can be translated to transcript.translation_languages, ) ``` and provide the method, which allows you to fetch the actual transcript data: ```python transcript.fetch() ``` ### Translate transcript YouTube has a feature which allows you to automatically translate subtitles. This module also makes it possible to access this feature. To do so `Transcript` objects provide a `translate()` method, which returns a new translated `Transcript` object: ```python transcript = transcript_list.find_transcript(['en']) translated_transcript = transcript.translate('de') print(translated_transcript.fetch()) ``` ### By example ```python from youtube_transcript_api import YouTubeTranscriptApi # retrieve the available transcripts transcript_list = YouTubeTranscriptApi.list_transcripts('video_id') # iterate over all available transcripts for transcript in transcript_list: # the Transcript object provides metadata properties print( transcript.video_id, transcript.language, transcript.language_code, # whether it has been manually created or generated by YouTube transcript.is_generated, # whether this transcript can be translated or not transcript.is_translatable, # a list of languages the transcript can be translated to transcript.translation_languages, ) # fetch the actual transcript data print(transcript.fetch()) # translating the transcript will return another transcript object print(transcript.translate('en').fetch()) # you can also directly filter for the language you are looking for, using the transcript list transcript = transcript_list.find_transcript(['de', 'en']) # or just filter for manually created transcripts transcript = transcript_list.find_manually_created_transcript(['de', 'en']) # or automatically generated ones transcript = transcript_list.find_generated_transcript(['de', 'en']) ``` ### Using Formatters Formatters are meant to be an additional layer of processing of the transcript you pass it. The goal is to convert the transcript from its Python data type into a consistent string of a given "format". Such as a basic text (`.txt`) or even formats that have a defined specification such as JSON (`.json`), WebVTT (`.vtt`), SRT (`.srt`), Comma-separated format (`.csv`), etc... The `formatters` submodule provides a few basic formatters to wrap around you transcript data in cases where you might want to do something such as output a specific format then write that format to a file. Maybe to backup/store and run another script against at a later time. We provided a few subclasses of formatters to use: - JSONFormatter - PrettyPrintFormatter - TextFormatter - WebVTTFormatter - SRTFormatter Here is how to import from the `formatters` module. ```python # the base class to inherit from when creating your own formatter. from youtube_transcript_api.formatters import Formatter # some provided subclasses, each outputs a different string format. from youtube_transcript_api.formatters import JSONFormatter from youtube_transcript_api.formatters import TextFormatter from youtube_transcript_api.formatters import WebVTTFormatter from youtube_transcript_api.formatters import SRTFormatter ``` ### Provided Formatter Example Lets say we wanted to retrieve a transcript and write that transcript as a JSON file in the same format as the API returned it as. That would look something like this: ```python # your_custom_script.py from youtube_transcript_api import YouTubeTranscriptApi from youtube_transcript_api.formatters import JSONFormatter # Must be a single transcript. transcript = YouTubeTranscriptApi.get_transcript(video_id) formatter = JSONFormatter() # .format_transcript(transcript) turns the transcript into a JSON string. json_formatted = formatter.format_transcript(transcript) # Now we can write it out to a file. with open('your_filename.json', 'w', encoding='utf-8') as json_file: json_file.write(json_formatted) # Now should have a new JSON file that you can easily read back into Python. ``` **Passing extra keyword arguments** Since JSONFormatter leverages `json.dumps()` you can also forward keyword arguments into `.format_transcript(transcript)` such as making your file output prettier by forwarding the `indent=2` keyword argument. ```python json_formatted = JSONFormatter().format_transcript(transcript, indent=2) ``` ### Custom Formatter Example You can implement your own formatter class. Just inherit from the `Formatter` base class and ensure you implement the `format_transcript(self, transcript, **kwargs)` and `format_transcripts(self, transcripts, **kwargs)` methods which should ultimately return a string when called on your formatter instance. ```python class MyCustomFormatter(Formatter): def format_transcript(self, transcript, **kwargs): # Do your custom work in here, but return a string. return 'your processed output data as a string.' def format_transcripts(self, transcripts, **kwargs): # Do your custom work in here to format a list of transcripts, but return a string. return 'your processed output data as a string.' ``` ## CLI Execute the CLI script using the video ids as parameters and the results will be printed out to the command line: ``` youtube_transcript_api ... ``` The CLI also gives you the option to provide a list of preferred languages: ``` youtube_transcript_api ... --languages de en ``` You can also specify if you want to exclude automatically generated or manually created subtitles: ``` youtube_transcript_api ... --languages de en --exclude-generated youtube_transcript_api ... --languages de en --exclude-manually-created ``` If you would prefer to write it into a file or pipe it into another application, you can also output the results as json using the following line: ``` youtube_transcript_api ... --languages de en --format json > transcripts.json ``` Translating transcripts using the CLI is also possible: ``` youtube_transcript_api ... --languages en --translate de ``` If you are not sure which languages are available for a given video you can call, to list all available transcripts: ``` youtube_transcript_api --list-transcripts ``` If a video's ID starts with a hyphen you'll have to mask the hyphen using `\` to prevent the CLI from mistaking it for a argument name. For example to get the transcript for the video with the ID `-abc123` run: ``` youtube_transcript_api "\-abc123" ``` ## Proxy You can specify a https proxy, which will be used during the requests to YouTube: ```python from youtube_transcript_api import YouTubeTranscriptApi YouTubeTranscriptApi.get_transcript(video_id, proxies={"https": "https://user:pass@domain:port"}) ``` As the `proxies` dict is passed on to the `requests.get(...)` call, it follows the [format used by the requests library](https://requests.readthedocs.io/en/latest/user/advanced/#proxies). Using the CLI: ``` youtube_transcript_api --https-proxy https://user:pass@domain:port ``` ## Cookies Some videos are age restricted, so this module won't be able to access those videos without some sort of authentication. To do this, you will need to have access to the desired video in a browser. Then, you will need to download that pages cookies into a text file. You can use the Chrome extension [cookies.txt](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cookiestxt/njabckikapfpffapmjgojcnbfjonfjfg?hl=en) or the Firefox extension [cookies.txt](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/cookies-txt/). Once you have that, you can use it with the module to access age-restricted videos' captions like so. ```python from youtube_transcript_api import YouTubeTranscriptApi YouTubeTranscriptApi.get_transcript(video_id, cookies='/path/to/your/cookies.txt') YouTubeTranscriptApi.get_transcripts([video_id], cookies='/path/to/your/cookies.txt') ``` Using the CLI: ``` youtube_transcript_api --cookies /path/to/your/cookies.txt ``` ## Warning This code uses an undocumented part of the YouTube API, which is called by the YouTube web-client. So there is no guarantee that it won't stop working tomorrow, if they change how things work. I will however do my best to make things working again as soon as possible if that happens. So if it stops working, let me know! ## Donations If this project makes you happy by reducing your development time, you can make me happy by treating me to a cup of coffee, or become a [Sponsor of this project](https://github.com/sponsors/jdepoix) :) [](https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=BAENLEW8VUJ6G&source=url)