YouTube Content Extraction

Extract transcripts, download audio or video, and retrieve metadata from YouTube using youtube-transcript-api (Python) and yt-dlp.

When to Use

• User wants to get the transcript of a YouTube video
• User wants to summarize a YouTube video without watching it
• User wants to download audio from a YouTube video
• User wants to download a video for offline viewing
• User wants to search for metadata (title, duration, views) of a video

How to Use

1. Install required tools

powershell
pip install youtube-transcript-api
pip install yt-dlp
# Verify
yt-dlp --version

2. Get a video transcript (Python)

python
from youtube_transcript_api import YouTubeTranscriptApi

video_id = "dQw4w9WgXcQ"   # from youtube.com/watch?v=<id>
transcript = YouTubeTranscriptApi.get_transcript(video_id)
text = " ".join(entry["text"] for entry in transcript)
print(text[:2000])

3. Get transcript in a specific language

python
from youtube_transcript_api import YouTubeTranscriptApi

video_id = "dQw4w9WgXcQ"
# Try English first, then auto-generated
transcript = YouTubeTranscriptApi.get_transcript(video_id, languages=["en", "en-US"])
text = " ".join(entry["text"] for entry in transcript)

4. List available transcript languages for a video

python
from youtube_transcript_api import YouTubeTranscriptApi

video_id = "dQw4w9WgXcQ"
transcript_list = YouTubeTranscriptApi.list_transcripts(video_id)
for t in transcript_list:
  print(t.language, t.language_code, "auto-generated:", t.is_generated)

5. Download audio (MP3) with yt-dlp

powershell
$videoUrl = "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" $videoUrl

6. Download video (best quality)

powershell
$videoUrl = "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
yt-dlp -f "bestvideo+bestaudio" --merge-output-format mp4 -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" $videoUrl

7. Download video at specific quality

powershell
# List available formats first
yt-dlp -F $videoUrl

# Download 720p
yt-dlp -f "bestvideo[height<=720]+bestaudio" --merge-output-format mp4 -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" $videoUrl

8. Get video metadata (no download)

powershell
yt-dlp --dump-json --no-download $videoUrl | python -m json.tool | Select-String -Pattern '"title"|"duration"|"view_count"|"upload_date"'

9. Download an entire playlist

powershell
$playlistUrl = "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxxxxxx"
yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 -o "%(playlist_index)s-%(title)s.%(ext)s" $playlistUrl

Examples

"Get me the transcript of this YouTube tutorial so I can read it" → Use step 2 — extract video ID from URL and call get_transcript.

"Download the audio from this podcast episode on YouTube" → Use step 5 with the video URL to download as MP3.

"What languages are available for transcripts on this video?" → Use step 4 to list available transcript languages.

Cautions

• youtube-transcript-api only works for videos that have transcripts (manual or auto-generated)
• Auto-generated transcripts may have errors, especially for technical content or non-English speech
• Downloading videos may be subject to YouTube's Terms of Service — use for personal research and fair use only
• yt-dlp may need updates when YouTube changes its API: run yt-dlp -U to update
• Rate limiting may occur on rapid consecutive downloads — add delays between requests for playlists