youtube-transcript-api
This is a python API which allows you to get the transcripts/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!
Description
Install
It is recommended to install this module by using pip:
pip install youtube-transcript-api
You can either integrate this module into an existing application or just use it via a CLI.
API
The easiest way to get a transcript for a given video is to execute:
from youtube_transcript_api import YouTubeTranscriptApi
ytt_api = YouTubeTranscriptApi()
ytt_api.fetch(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 transcript in a different language, please read the section below.
Note: Pass in the video ID, NOT the video URL. For a video with the URL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12345the ID is12345.
This will return a FetchedTranscript object looking somewhat like this:
FetchedTranscript(
snippets=[
FetchedTranscriptSnippet(
text="Hey there",
start=0.0,
duration=1.54,
),
FetchedTranscriptSnippet(
text="how are you",
start=1.54,
duration=4.16,
),
# ...
],
video_id="12345",
language="English",
language_code="en",
is_generated=False,
)
This object implements most interfaces of a List:
ytt_api = YouTubeTranscriptApi()
fetched_transcript = ytt_api.fetch(video_id)
# is iterable
for snippet in fetched_transcript:
print(snippet.text)
# indexable
last_snippet = fetched_transcript[-1]
# provides a length
snippet_count = len(fetched_transcript)
If you prefer to handle the raw transcript data you can call fetched_transcript.to_raw_data(), which will return
a list of dictionaries:
[
{
'text': 'Hey there',
'start': 0.0,
'duration': 1.54
},
{
'text': 'how are you',
'start': 1.54
'duration': 4.16
},
# ...
]
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).
YouTubeTranscriptApi().fetch(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().
If you only want one language, you still need to format the languages argument as a list
YouTubeTranscriptApi().fetch(video_id, languages=['de'])
Preserve formatting
You can also add preserve_formatting=True if you'd like to keep HTML formatting elements such as <i> (italics)
and <b> (bold).
YouTubeTranscriptApi().fetch(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:
ytt_api = YouTubeTranscriptApi()
transcript_list = ytt_api.list(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:
transcript = transcript_list.find_transcript(['de', 'en'])
By default this module always chooses 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:
# 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:
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:
transcript.fetch()
This returns a FetchedTranscript object, just like YouTubeTranscriptApi().fetch() does.
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:
transcript = transcript_list.find_transcript(['en'])
translated_transcript = transcript.translate('de')
print(translated_transcript.fetch())
By example
from youtube_transcript_api import YouTubeTranscriptApi
ytt_api = YouTubeTranscriptApi()
# retrieve the available transcripts
transcript_list = ytt_api.list('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'])