Podcast Transcript Scraper: Publisher Transcripts from RSS

Try it free: Apify's free plan includes monthly platform credit, no credit card needed. One example run with the input below costs about $0.005 ($0.0005 feed check + 2 transcripts at $0.002 each).

{
  "feedUrls": [
    "https://feeds.transistor.fm/acquired"
  ],
  "maxEpisodesPerFeed": 2
}

Paste this into the JSON tab of the input form and click Start.

Many podcasters publish a transcript for each episode in their RSS feed, using the open podcast:transcript tag (Podcasting 2.0). This Actor finds those transcripts and returns them as clean text with speakers and timestamps, whatever format the publisher used (WebVTT, SRT, JSON, HTML or plain text). It doesn't download or transcribe any audio, so it's fast and costs a fraction of speech-to-text.

Who it is for

• Researchers, journalists and analysts who need the text of many episodes, for example for search, quotes or topic tracking.
• AI and RAG builders who want podcast text with speaker turns and timestamps, without paying for transcription.
• Marketers and PR teams checking where a brand or topic was mentioned (keyword search inside transcripts).
• Automation builders (API, schedules, Make, Zapier, n8n): run it on a schedule with Only new episodes.

What you get for each episode

Field	Content
text	Readable transcript, one paragraph per speaker turn ("Ana: ...")
segments	[{start, end, speaker, text}] in seconds, as published
speakers, hasTimestamps, wordCount	What the transcript contains
transcriptFormat, transcriptType, transcriptUrl, transcriptLanguage	Source file, its format and its language
alternativeTranscripts	Other formats the publisher offers for the same episode
podcastTitle, podcastAuthor, episodeTitle, publishedAt, durationSeconds, audioUrl, episodeUrl, showNotes	Episode details from the feed
status	ok, or noTranscript / transcriptFailed / feedFailed with an error message (never charged)

RUN_SUMMARY in the key-value store has the run's counts.

Quick start

1. Paste one or more podcast RSS feed URLs or Apple Podcasts show links, or type search terms (Apple's public podcast search, by country).
2. Choose how many of the latest episodes you want, and optionally a date range, a keyword or languages.
3. Run. Open the Transcripts table, or use the dataset via API (JSON, CSV, Excel).

{
  "feedUrls": ["https://feeds.transistor.fm/acquired"],
  "searchTerms": ["true crime"],
  "country": "DE",
  "maxEpisodesPerFeed": 5,
  "publishedAfter": "2026-09-01",
  "languages": ["de", "en"]
}

Which podcasts have transcripts?

Only shows whose publisher adds the podcast:transcript tag. We checked the top 30 shows of Apple's charts in 10 countries on 2026-10-09 (274 different shows, latest 10 episodes each):

Feed language	Shows checked	With transcripts
German	42	15 (36 %)
Spanish	40	5 (13 %)
English	69	4 (6 %)
Portuguese	37	0
Japanese	24	0
Hindi	5	0

Hosts that publish transcripts for their shows include Podigee, Spreaker, RSS.com, Transistor, Omny Studio and Flightcast. Many large networks don't add the tag, so expect many shows without one. Use Only episodes with a transcript = off to see which episodes have none (free).

Episodes without a transcript

This Actor never transcribes audio itself. For episodes without a publisher transcript you can:

• use our separate Podcast Transcriber (Whisper), or
• turn on Transcribe episodes without a transcript, confirm that you may transcribe the audio, and set a maximum. The Actor then starts the Podcast Transcriber for those episodes as a separate run in your account. That run is billed by the Podcast Transcriber per audio minute, and this run doesn't wait for it.

Pricing

Pay per event:

• Feed check: once per run, however many feeds you check. It covers downloading the feeds and running the search, also when nothing new is found. An hourly schedule costs about $0.36 a month in feed checks (24 × 30 runs).
• Transcript: per transcript delivered. Episodes without a transcript, failed downloads and episodes skipped by Only new episodes are free. See the Pricing tab for the current price. With Only new episodes, transcripts already delivered to the same monitor are skipped and not charged.

Fair use, rights and limits

• Only public RSS feeds and the transcript files the publisher links in them. Private or subscriber feeds (Patreon, Supercast, Memberful, Steady, feeds with personal access keys) are refused. Pages that need a login or payment are never accessed.
• The Actor respects each host's robots.txt and identifies itself with a clear user agent. A host that refuses access is reported, not worked around.
• Apple links and search use only Apple's public iTunes Search/Lookup API, to find the show's own RSS feed. Spotify, YouTube and similar platforms are not supported.
• Transcripts belong to their publishers. Use them according to the podcast's terms and copyright law (for example research, accessibility, quotes). Republishing a full transcript usually needs permission.
• Transcripts are returned as published: machine-made transcripts can contain recognition errors, and speaker names may be generic ("Speaker 1").
• Up to 200 feeds and 500 episodes per feed per run; transcript files up to 20 MB.

FAQ

Why did I get no results? The selected episodes have no podcast:transcript tag. Turn off Only episodes with a transcript to see them listed as noTranscript.

Can I monitor a show for new transcripts? Yes. Schedule the Actor with Only new episodes since the last run and a monitor name.

Can I search inside transcripts? Set a keyword and turn on Search the keyword in transcripts instead. The Actor checks the latest episodes and returns only transcripts that mention it.

Related Actors by the same developer

• Podcast Transcriber: turns any podcast episode or audio file into text with timestamps, SRT and VTT (Whisper), no API key needed.
• Podcast & Video Clip Finder: finds the strongest short-form moments in a podcast or video and returns timestamps, hooks and SRT subtitles for each clip.

En español

Este Actor descarga las transcripciones que los propios podcasters publican en su feed RSS (etiqueta podcast:transcript) y las devuelve como texto limpio con hablantes y marcas de tiempo, sea cual sea el formato (VTT, SRT, JSON, HTML o texto). No transcribe audio, por eso es rápido y barato. Precio: un cargo pequeño por ejecución (revisión de feeds) más un cargo por transcripción entregada; una ejecución cada hora cuesta unos 0,36 USD al mes en revisiones. Solo funciona con podcasts que publican transcripciones; en nuestra prueba, 5 de 40 programas populares en español lo hacían.

{ "searchTerms": ["noticias"], "country": "MX", "languages": ["es"], "maxEpisodesPerFeed": 3 }

Em português (Brasil)

Este Actor baixa as transcrições que os próprios podcasters publicam no feed RSS (tag podcast:transcript) e as entrega como texto limpo, com falantes e marcações de tempo, em qualquer formato (VTT, SRT, JSON, HTML ou texto). Ele não transcreve áudio, por isso é rápido e barato. Preço: uma pequena taxa por execução (verificação dos feeds) mais uma taxa por transcrição entregue; uma execução por hora custa cerca de US$ 0,36 por mês em verificações. Atenção: em nosso teste, nenhum dos 37 podcasts populares em português publicava transcrições. Para esses casos, use o nosso Podcast Transcriber (Whisper).

{ "feedUrls": ["https://exemplo.com/feed.xml"], "languages": ["pt"], "maxEpisodesPerFeed": 3 }

Auf Deutsch

Dieser Actor holt die Transkripte, die Podcaster selbst in ihrem RSS-Feed veröffentlichen (Tag podcast:transcript), und liefert sie als sauberen Text mit Sprechern und Zeitstempeln, egal ob als VTT, SRT, JSON, HTML oder Text. Audio wird nicht transkribiert, deshalb ist er schnell und günstig. Preis: eine kleine Gebühr pro Lauf (Feed-Prüfung) plus eine Gebühr pro geliefertem Transkript; ein stündlicher Zeitplan kostet an Feed-Prüfungen etwa 0,36 USD im Monat. Im deutschsprachigen Raum ist das Angebot am größten: In unserem Test hatten 15 von 42 beliebten deutschsprachigen Podcasts Transkripte (z. B. viele Shows bei Podigee).

{ "searchTerms": ["Wirtschaft"], "country": "DE", "languages": ["de"], "maxEpisodesPerFeed": 5 }

日本語

この Actor は、ポッドキャスト制作者が RSS フィードで公開している文字起こし(podcast:transcript タグ)を取得し、形式(VTT、SRT、JSON、HTML、テキスト)にかかわらず、話者とタイムスタンプ付きのテキストとして返します。音声の文字起こしは行わないため、高速で低コストです。料金は実行ごとの少額のフィードチェック料金と、取得した文字起こし 1 件ごとの料金です(1 時間ごとの定期実行でフィードチェック料金は月約 0.36 USD)。なお、私たちの調査では日本の人気番組 24 件のうち文字起こしを公開している番組はありませんでした。その場合は Podcast Transcriber(Whisper)をご利用ください。

{ "feedUrls": ["https://example.com/feed.xml"], "languages": ["ja"], "maxEpisodesPerFeed": 3 }