YouTube AI Summarizer

Automatically generate AI-powered summaries of YouTube videos using OpenAI's GPT models.

Features

• Transcript Extraction: Automatically fetches transcripts from YouTube videos
• AI Summarization: Uses OpenAI API to generate intelligent summaries
• Multiple Summary Styles: Choose from brief, detailed, bullet points, or key takeaways
• Metadata Extraction: Gets video title, channel name, and other details
• Custom Prompts: Add your own instructions for summarization
• Multi-language Support: Supports transcripts in various languages

Input

The actor accepts the following input:

{
  "youtube_urls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ],
  "openai_api_key": "sk-...",
  "summary_style": "brief",
  "custom_prompt": null,
  "language": "en"
}

Input Parameters

• youtube_urls (array of strings, required): Array of YouTube video URLs to summarize
• openai_api_key (string, required): Your OpenAI API key
• summary_style (string, optional): Style of summary - brief, detailed, bullet_points, or key_takeaways. Default: brief
• custom_prompt (string, optional): Custom instructions for summarization
• language (string, optional): Language code for transcript (e.g., en, es, fr). Default: en

Output

The actor produces a dataset with the following fields for each video:

{
  "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "title": "Video Title",
  "channel": "Channel Name",
  "transcript": "Full video transcript...",
  "transcript_length": 5000,
  "summary": "AI-generated summary...",
  "key_points": "Extracted key points...",
  "summary_style": "brief",
  "language": "en",
  "status": "success"
}

Requirements

• YouTube video must have a transcript available
• Valid OpenAI API key with gpt-3.5-turbo or gpt-4 access
• YouTube URL must be in a standard format (youtube.com/watch?v=ID or youtu.be/ID)

How It Works

1. Parses each YouTube URL to extract the video ID
2. Fetches video metadata (title, channel) from YouTube
3. Retrieves the video transcript using YouTube's transcript API
4. Sends the transcript to OpenAI for summarization based on selected style
5. Extracts key points from the transcript
6. Returns structured data with all information

Example Use Cases

• Content Research: Quickly summarize long educational videos
• Meeting Notes: Get summaries of recorded webinars and presentations
• Content Curation: Batch process multiple videos for content analysis
• Accessibility: Generate text summaries for users who prefer reading

Pricing

• Per actor run: $0.01
• Per video processed: $0.02

OpenAI API costs are separate and depend on your OpenAI account tier.

Rate Limits

• YouTube has no official rate limits for transcript API
• OpenAI rate limits apply based on your account tier
• Recommended: Process no more than 10 videos per run for reliable performance

Support

For issues or feature requests, please contact the actor developer.

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💻 Code Example — Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("nexgendata/youtube-ai-summarizer").call(run_input={
    # Fill in the input shape from the actor's input_schema
})

for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

🌐 Code Example — cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/nexgendata~youtube-ai-summarizer/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ /* input schema */ }'

❓ FAQ

Q: How do I get started? Sign up at apify.com, grab your API token from Settings → Integrations, and run the actor via the Apify console, API, Python SDK, or any integration (Zapier, Make.com, n8n).

Q: What's the typical cost per run? See the pricing section below. Most runs finish under $0.10 for typical batches.

Q: Is this actor maintained? Yes. NexGenData maintains 140+ Apify actors and ships updates regularly. Bug reports via the Apify console issues tab get responses within 24 hours.

Q: Can I use the output commercially? Yes — you own the output data. Check the target site's Terms of Service for any usage restrictions on the scraped content itself.

Q: How do I handle rate limits? Apify manages concurrency and retries automatically. For very large batches (10K+ items), run multiple smaller jobs in parallel instead of one mega-job for better reliability.

💰 Pricing

Pay-per-event pricing — you only pay for what you actually extract.

• Actor Start: $0.0100
• Video summary: $0.0200

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New to Apify? Sign up with our referral link — you get free platform credits on signup, and you help fund the maintenance of this actor fleet.

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Built and maintained by NexGenData — 140+ actors covering scraping, enrichment, MCP servers, and automation.