# Podcast Transcriber & Monitor — Backfill + New Episode Alerts (`lone_fascia/podcast-rss-transcriber`) Actor

Transcribe whole podcast archives from an RSS feed (backfill) and auto-transcribe new episodes (monitor). Dual-engine ASR: high-accuracy transcripts, optional speaker labels, SRT/VTT subtitles included. Pay per audio minute, failed episodes are never charged.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/lone_fascia/podcast-rss-transcriber.md
- **Developed by:** [mullvad lu](https://apify.com/lone_fascia) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per event

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Podcast Transcriber & Monitor — Backfill + New Episode Alerts

Turn any podcast RSS feed into searchable text — in bulk, or on autopilot.

Give it an RSS feed and it transcribes the back catalog (oldest episodes included), or keeps watch and transcribes every new episode as it drops. Two speech engines work together: a frontier ASR model writes the transcript, and a second engine adds speaker labels ("who said what") on the Speaker tier.

### What you get per episode

- **Full transcript** with timestamps, plus ready-to-use **SRT and VTT subtitle files**
- **Speaker labels** on the Speaker tier, with the host's split labels merged automatically and an optional name mapping (give it `["Host", "Guest"]` and get readable dialogue)
- **Show notes context**: episode title, publish date, duration, description and link travel with every transcript
- A run summary in the key-value store (`OUTPUT`): episodes processed, billed minutes, and per-engine usage for cost reconciliation

### Two modes

| Mode | What it does |
|---|---|
| `backfill` | Transcribe existing episodes from a feed. Defaults to the **latest 10 episodes** so a 400-episode archive never surprises your wallet. Pick by latest N, date range, or all — with hard caps you control. |
| `monitor` | Remembers what it has already transcribed (stored in the key-value store, keyed per feed). Schedule it hourly or daily; only genuinely new episodes are transcribed and billed. An optional webhook pings your endpoint when new transcripts land. |

Feeds are fetched politely with conditional requests (ETag / Last-Modified): an unchanged feed costs one cheap feed-check and zero transcription.

### Pricing (pay per event)

| Event | Price |
|---|---|
| Standard transcript (per audio minute, rounded up) | **$0.010** |
| Speaker-labeled transcript (per audio minute, rounded up) | **$0.018** |
| Feed check (monitor mode, per feed per run) | $0.002 |
| Actor start | $0.0005 |

- **Your first episode is free** — the first standard-tier episode of a run (up to 60 minutes) is on us.
- **Failures are never billed.** Unreachable audio, unsupported content, silence — if there's no transcript, there's no transcription charge.
- Duplicates in monitor mode are never billed.

### Why two engines?

Because one model can't do both jobs best. The primary engine produces the cleanest transcript text (it's the one that hears "Stairway to Heaven", not "steroid to heaven"), while the second engine is the one that can tell speakers apart. On the Speaker tier both run and their outputs are aligned by timestamp, so you get the best text *with* speaker labels. If a podcast CDN blocks one engine, the other takes over automatically — you still get your transcript.

### Input

- `feedUrls` — one or more RSS feed URLs (Apple Podcasts show links are resolved automatically), **or** `audioUrls` — direct audio file URLs
- `mode` — `backfill` (default) or `monitor`
- `episodeSelection` — `latestN` (default 10), `afterDate`, `beforeDate`, or `all`
- `tier` — `standard` (transcript only) or `speaker` (transcript + speaker labels)
- `language` — `auto` (default), `en`, `zh`, and more
- `speakerNames` — optional names mapped onto speakers in order of appearance
- Advanced: `freeFirstEpisode`, `webhookUrl`, `maxEpisodesPerRun` (default 200), `maxEpisodeMinutes` (default 240)

### Output

One dataset row per episode: `status`, `showTitle`, `episodeTitle`, `publishedAt`, `audioUrl`, `durationSec`, `language`, `transcript`, `segments` (start/end/speaker/text), `speakers`, `srt`, `vtt`, `wordCount`, `billedMinutes`, `enginesUsed` — plus the `OUTPUT` summary record in the key-value store.

### Notes & limits

- Episodes longer than `maxEpisodeMinutes` (default 4 hours) are skipped, never billed.
- Please only transcribe content you have the rights to process.
- Very old episodes behind multi-hop redirect chains are resolved to direct links automatically; the rare file both engines cannot fetch is reported as failed (with the reason), never billed, and never filled in with made-up text.

***

*Built for podcasters, researchers, and content teams who need their audio searchable.*

# Actor input Schema

## `audioUrls` (type: `array`):

Direct links to episode audio files (mp3/m4a/...), used when you do not have an RSS feed. Monitor mode is not available in this mode.

## `episodeSelection` (type: `object`):

Which existing episodes to transcribe in backfill mode. Default: the 10 most recent episodes, so a first run cannot accidentally transcribe (and bill) a whole archive. Use {"type":"all"} for the full archive, or {"type":"afterDate","afterDate":"2026-01-01"} for episodes published after a date.

## `feedUrls` (type: `array`):

One or more podcast RSS feed URLs. Apple Podcasts show-page URLs are accepted too and resolved to their RSS feed automatically. Use this (with mode) for whole-archive backfill and new-episode monitoring.

## `freeFirstEpisode` (type: `boolean`):

Transcribe the first selected episode of this run for free (standard tier only, up to 60 minutes; minutes beyond 60 are billed normally). One free episode per run.

## `language` (type: `string`):

Language hint for the speech engine. 'auto' lets the engine detect it. Supported: auto, zh, yue, en, ja, ko, de, fr, ru, es, pt, ar, it, hi, id, th, tr, uk, vi, cs, da, fil, fi, is, ms, no, pl, sv.

## `maxEpisodeMinutes` (type: `integer`):

Episodes longer than this are skipped (and reported, never charged). Raise it for very long shows.

## `maxEpisodesPerRun` (type: `integer`):

Safety cap on episodes processed in one run.

## `mode` (type: `string`):

backfill: transcribe existing episodes selected below. monitor: transcribe only episodes not seen in previous monitor runs of the same feed (state is kept between runs; schedule this Actor to catch new episodes automatically).

## `speakerNames` (type: `array`):

Optional names for the speakers, in order: the first name goes to SPEAKER_1 (the person who talks the most), the second to SPEAKER_2, and so on, e.g. \["Host", "Guest"]. Names appear in the transcript, segments, subtitles and the speakers list.

## `tier` (type: `string`):

standard: accurate transcript + subtitles. speaker: everything in standard, plus speaker diarization (who said what) merged into the transcript, segments and subtitles.

## `webhookUrl` (type: `string`):

Optional. In monitor mode, after a run that transcribed new episodes, a JSON summary is POSTed to this URL.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "episodeSelection": {
    "n": 1,
    "type": "latestN"
  },
  "feedUrls": [
    "https://feeds.npr.org/500005/podcast.xml"
  ],
  "freeFirstEpisode": true,
  "language": "auto",
  "maxEpisodeMinutes": 240,
  "maxEpisodesPerRun": 200,
  "mode": "backfill",
  "speakerNames": [
    "Host",
    "Guest"
  ],
  "tier": "standard"
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `mode` (type: `string`):

No description

## `tier` (type: `string`):

No description

## `episodesProcessed` (type: `string`):

No description

## `episodesFailed` (type: `string`):

No description

## `episodesSkippedDuplicate` (type: `string`):

No description

## `episodesSkippedOther` (type: `string`):

No description

## `totalBilledMinutes` (type: `string`):

No description

## `totalAudioMinutes` (type: `string`):

No description

## `estimatedAsrCostUsd` (type: `string`):

No description

## `startedAt` (type: `string`):

No description

## `finishedAt` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "episodeSelection": {
        "n": 1,
        "type": "latestN"
    },
    "feedUrls": [
        "https://feeds.npr.org/500005/podcast.xml"
    ],
    "language": "auto"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("lone_fascia/podcast-rss-transcriber").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "episodeSelection": {
        "n": 1,
        "type": "latestN",
    },
    "feedUrls": ["https://feeds.npr.org/500005/podcast.xml"],
    "language": "auto",
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("lone_fascia/podcast-rss-transcriber").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "episodeSelection": {
    "n": 1,
    "type": "latestN"
  },
  "feedUrls": [
    "https://feeds.npr.org/500005/podcast.xml"
  ],
  "language": "auto"
}' |
apify call lone_fascia/podcast-rss-transcriber --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,lone_fascia/podcast-rss-transcriber"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/TcyV5uPbZHDLxNDno/builds/8rqaZ0HqFPewIDcoB/openapi.json