Audio & Podcast Transcription - Whisper (Bulk)

Turn audio files, video files and podcast episodes into searchable text with timestamps and subtitles. Paste direct file links or podcast RSS feeds, pick a Whisper model, and get one clean result per file: full transcript, timestamped segments, detected language and optional SRT/VTT subtitles. $6 per 1,000 audio minutes (base model), no API key needed.

What it does

• Transcribes files you supply: direct links to MP3, M4A, WAV, FLAC, OGG, OPUS, AAC, MP4, MOV, WEBM, MKV and most other formats ffmpeg can read.
• Transcribes podcast feeds: give any podcast RSS feed and it picks the latest N episodes from their audio enclosures. Episode title, publish date, episode page and podcast name are added to each result.
• Transcribes uploaded files: point it at an Apify key-value store with your files.
• Runs open-source Whisper (faster-whisper, int8) on Apify. Choose tiny (fastest), base (default) or small (most accurate). Audio is processed inside the run; nothing is sent to a third party.
• Optional OpenAI engine: use your own OpenAI API key (whisper-1 or the gpt-4o transcribe models). OpenAI bills you directly; this tool charges a small per-minute handling fee.
• Handles long files: audio is processed in 10-minute pieces, so multi-hour recordings work. A per-file length limit protects your budget, and one bad file never fails the whole run.
• Auto-detects the language (99 languages) or uses the one you set, and can translate speech to English.

Not supported: YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Vimeo, Spotify, SoundCloud and other platform pages. Their terms do not allow downloading, so this tool only accepts direct media file links and podcast RSS enclosures that publishers offer for download.

Use cases

• Podcast producers and networks: show notes, searchable archives, blog posts and accessibility transcripts for every episode.
• Media monitoring and research: transcribe the latest episodes of many shows and search or analyze the text.
• Content and SEO teams: turn webinars, interviews and recorded talks into articles and quotes.
• Video editors: SRT/VTT subtitles for MP4 files you host.
• AI and RAG pipelines: feed timestamped transcripts into search, summarization or chat-with-your-audio apps.

How to use

1. Add audio or video file URLs, podcast RSS feeds, or a key-value store with uploaded files.
2. Pick the engine and model. base is a good default for clear English speech; use small for accents, noisy audio or other languages.
3. Optionally set the language, turn on SRT/VTT subtitles, and set max minutes per file.
4. Click Start. Results appear in the Output tab and can be downloaded as JSON, CSV or Excel.

Recommended memory: 4 GB (default). 8 GB runs the tiny and base models about twice as fast. 2 GB is enough for the OpenAI engine.

Input example

{
  "rssFeeds": ["https://www.nasa.gov/feeds/podcasts/houston-we-have-a-podcast"],
  "episodesPerFeed": 3,
  "mediaUrls": [{"url": "https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/590331main_ringtone_smallStep.mp3"}],
  "engine": "local",
  "model": "base",
  "language": "",
  "outputSrt": true,
  "maxDurationMinutes": 120
}

Field	Description
mediaUrls	Direct links to audio/video files
rssFeeds	Podcast RSS/Atom feed URLs
episodesPerFeed	Newest episodes to transcribe per feed (default 3)
keyValueStoreId, keyPrefix	Transcribe files stored in an Apify key-value store
engine	local (Whisper on Apify) or openai (your own key)
model	tiny, base (default) or small
openaiModel, openaiApiKey	For the OpenAI engine
language	Empty = auto-detect, or an ISO code such as en, es, de
translateToEnglish	Output English translation instead of the original language
includeSegments, outputSrt, outputVtt, wordTimestamps	Output options
maxDurationMinutes, whenTooLong	Per-file limit (default 120 min): transcribe the first part, or skip the file
maxFiles	Stop after this many files
vocabularyPrompt	Names and jargon to help spelling
skipSilence, beamSize	Speed/accuracy tuning for the local engine

Output example

Real result from the default run (a 13-second NASA Apollo 11 clip, Whisper base):

{
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/590331main_ringtone_smallStep.mp3",
  "sourceType": "url",
  "title": "590331main_ringtone_smallStep.mp3",
  "engine": "local",
  "model": "base",
  "durationSeconds": 12.95,
  "status": "ok",
  "language": "en",
  "languageProbability": 0.877,
  "task": "transcribe",
  "transcribedSeconds": 12.95,
  "billedMinutes": 1,
  "truncated": false,
  "text": "I'm gonna step off the land now. It's one small step for man, one by a lead for man, time.",
  "wordCount": 20,
  "segmentCount": 2,
  "processingSeconds": 2.9,
  "transcribeSeconds": 2.2,
  "speedVsRealtime": 6,
  "segments": [
    {
      "start": 0,
      "end": 2,
      "text": "I'm gonna step off the land now."
    },
    {
      "start": 2,
      "end": 12.94,
      "text": "It's one small step for man, one by a lead for man, time."
    }
  ]
}

Podcast results also include feedTitle, feedUrl, episodeUrl, published and feedDuration. With subtitles on you get srt and vtt text fields ready to save as files. Files that fail (404, not a media file, platform page) are returned with "status": "error" and an error message, and are not charged.

Main fields: sourceUrl, title, durationSeconds, language, languageProbability, text, segments (start/end in seconds + text), wordCount, billedMinutes, truncated, speedVsRealtime, status, error.

Pricing

Pay per audio minute, rounded up per file (a 12-second clip is 1 minute, a 59 min 45 s episode is 60 minutes). Failed and skipped files are free.

Engine / model	Price per audio minute	Per hour of audio
Whisper tiny or base on Apify	$0.006	$0.36
Whisper small on Apify	$0.016	$0.96
OpenAI engine with your own key	$0.003 handling fee + OpenAI's own charge	$0.18 + OpenAI

Worked examples:

• 10 podcast episodes of 45 minutes with base: 450 minutes = $2.70.
• 200 short voice clips under one minute each: 200 minutes = $1.20.
• A 3-hour conference recording with small: 180 minutes = $2.88.

Volume discounts on higher Apify plans. Set a maximum cost per run in the run options; the tool trims the last file to fit and stops when the limit is reached.

FAQ

Is this legal? Transcribe only audio you own or are allowed to use. Podcast publishers offer RSS enclosures for download, and many organizations publish public-domain audio. The tool does not download from YouTube, social networks or streaming platforms because their terms forbid it. Transcripts of copyrighted shows are for your own analysis; republishing them may need the rights holder's permission.

How accurate is it? base is good on clear English speech such as interviews and podcasts. small is noticeably better on accents, crosstalk, noisy recordings and non-English audio. Names and rare terms can be misspelled; add them to the vocabulary hint. Very old or low-quality recordings will have more errors with any model.

How fast is it? Measured on Apify with a 60-minute podcast: base at 8 GB about 17-28x real time (an hour of audio in 2-4 minutes); base at 4 GB about 11x; small at 4 GB about 3.6x; tiny at 8 GB over 60x.

Does it identify speakers? No, there are no speaker labels in this version.

Can I use it through the API? Yes. Call it with the Apify API or the Python/JavaScript clients and read the dataset. It also works in Make, Zapier and n8n through the Apify integrations, and AI agents can call it through the Apify MCP server.

Where does my audio go? With the local engine, audio is downloaded into the run's temporary storage, transcribed there and deleted. With the OpenAI engine, audio is sent to OpenAI under your own account.

Related tools from Plot Point Technologies

• Podcast Scraper - Apple Podcasts, Owner Emails & Episodes: find podcasts and their RSS feeds, then transcribe the episodes here.
• RSS Feed Reader & Monitor - Any Feed to JSON: watch feeds for new items.
• PDF to Text & Tables Extractor: text and tables from PDFs.
• Image OCR - Image to Text in Bulk: text from images and screenshots.

Plot Point Technologies is not affiliated with OpenAI, NASA, or any podcast publisher. Whisper is an open-source model released by OpenAI; this tool uses the faster-whisper implementation.

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