# Audio & Video Transcriber — Speech to Text, SRT/VTT, Podcasts (`steadyscrape/audio-video-transcriber`) Actor

Transcribe any audio or video file link, or the newest episodes of a podcast feed: text with timestamps, SRT and WebVTT. 99 languages, auto-detected; translation to English; word timestamps. Whisper runs inside the Actor: no API key, and a file without speech or that cannot be read is never charged.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/steadyscrape/audio-video-transcriber.md
- **Developed by:** [Steady Scrape](https://apify.com/steadyscrape) (community)
- **Categories:** AI, Videos, Automation
- **Stats:** 1 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $20.00 / 1,000 audio minute, balanced qualities

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

## Audio & Video Transcriber — speech to text, SRT/VTT subtitles and podcast feeds

Give it **links to audio or video files**, or **podcast feeds**, and get for each one: the full transcript, timestamped
segments, ready-to-save **SRT and WebVTT subtitles**, the detected language, and optionally **word-level timestamps**
or a **translation to English**. 99 languages, detected automatically.

**Whisper runs inside the Actor.** There is no API key to bring, no third-party transcription service your audio is sent
to, and no model download at run time: the models are in the image.

**Pay per audio minute, and only for transcripts.** US$0.008 (fast), **US$0.02 (balanced, the default)** or US$0.04
(best) per started minute. A link that does not answer, a web page, a picture, a silent file: each leaves one row that
says what happened and **costs nothing**.

### What makes it different

- **Podcast feeds, not just files.** Paste an RSS feed or an **Apple Podcasts show link** and get the newest episodes
  transcribed, each row carrying the podcast, the episode title, its date, id and page.
- **Monitor mode.** `onlyNewEpisodes` remembers what it delivered to you. Put the Actor on a daily schedule and every
  new episode is transcribed once and charged once; a run with nothing new ends in 3 seconds and costs nothing.
- **Your spending limit is respected to the minute.** If the limit pays for 3 more minutes and the next file lasts 7,
  the first 3 minutes are transcribed, the row says `truncated`, and the run stops. Measured, not promised: a run capped
  at US$0.03 on a 7-minute file charged exactly 3 fast minutes.
- **Three qualities, three honest prices.** Whisper `base`, `small` and `large-v3-turbo`, with the speed of each
  measured on Apify's own machines (below), so you can choose between a cent and an accent.
- **Every failure is a row with a reason**, never a crashed run: `unreachable` (with the HTTP status), `not_media`
  ("the link answers a web page, not an audio or video file"), `too_large`, `no_speech`, `no_episodes`.
- **Survives platform restarts.** If Apify moves a long run to another server, the files already delivered are skipped:
  nothing is transcribed or charged twice.

### Use cases

- **Podcasts**: transcripts for show notes, SEO pages and search; a scheduled monitor that transcribes every new episode.
- **Subtitles**: SRT/VTT for videos you host, in the language spoken or translated to English.
- **Meetings, interviews, lectures, sales calls** recorded to a file: searchable text with timestamps.
- **AI pipelines**: feed transcripts to an LLM, a RAG index or an agent. One JSON row per file, stable schema.
- **After a scraper**: another Actor collects media links, this one turns them into text.

### Input

| field | what it does |
|---|---|
| `mediaUrls` | Direct links to files: mp3, m4a, wav, flac, ogg, opus, aac, mp4, mov, webm, mkv… anything FFmpeg decodes. Up to 1,000 per run, 2 GB per file. |
| `podcastFeeds` | RSS/Atom feeds, or Apple Podcasts show links (`https://podcasts.apple.com/…/id123…`), resolved to the show's public feed. |
| `maxEpisodesPerFeed` | How many of the newest episodes of each feed (default 1, up to 500). |
| `onlyNewEpisodes` | Monitor: skip the episodes this Actor already delivered to you. |
| `quality` | `fast`, `balanced` (default) or `best`. See the table below. |
| `language` | `auto` (default) or a code: `en`, `es`, `de`, `fr`, `pt`, `it`, `nl`, `ja`, `zh`, `ar`, `hi`, `ru`… Give it when you know it: a file that opens with music can fool detection. |
| `translateToEnglish` | The transcript comes out in English, in the same pass. Not with `best`. |
| `wordTimestamps` | Start, end and confidence of every word. Takes longer. |
| `includeSubtitles` | SRT and VTT inside each row (default on). |
| `maxMinutesPerFile` | Read only the first minutes of each file; 0 = whole file. |

```json
{
    "podcastFeeds": ["https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-daily/id1200361736"],
    "maxEpisodesPerFeed": 3,
    "onlyNewEpisodes": true,
    "quality": "balanced"
}
```

#### Quality, speed and price

Speeds measured on Apify on 2026-09-20, per 4 GB of run memory (Apify gives one CPU core per 4 GB, and speed scales with
it: at 8 GB everything below is twice as fast, at the same price per audio minute).

| quality | model | speed at 4 GB | a 60-minute podcast takes | price per audio minute |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| `fast` | Whisper base | 7.6× real time | ~8 min | US$0.008 |
| `balanced` | Whisper small | 2.4× real time | ~25 min | US$0.02 |
| `best` | Whisper large-v3-turbo | 1.15× real time | ~52 min | US$0.04 |

`fast` is fine for clear speech in major languages. `balanced` is the sensible default. `best` is for accents, noise,
crosstalk and proper names. For long files raise the run's memory to 8 or 16 GB.

### Output

One row per file. This is the real row of the file the input is prefilled with (President Johnson, 1968, public domain),
with `wordTimestamps` on and the segments shortened here:

```json
{
    "status": "ok",
    "reason": null,
    "inputUrl": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Address_to_the_Nation_Excerpt.ogg",
    "mediaUrl": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Address_to_the_Nation_Excerpt.ogg",
    "episode": null,
    "contentType": "application/ogg",
    "fileSizeBytes": 301405,
    "quality": "balanced",
    "language": "en",
    "languageProbability": 0.9912,
    "translatedToEnglish": false,
    "durationSeconds": 37.46,
    "transcribedSeconds": 37.46,
    "truncated": false,
    "billedMinutes": 1,
    "text": "I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes or to any duties other than the awesome duties of this office, the presidency of your country. Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president.",
    "wordCount": 59,
    "segments": [
        {
            "start": 0.02,
            "end": 8.94,
            "text": "I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan",
            "words": [
                { "start": 0.02, "end": 0.54, "word": "I", "probability": 0.758 },
                { "start": 0.54, "end": 0.7, "word": "do", "probability": 0.976 }
            ]
        }
    ],
    "srt": "1\n00:00:00,020 --> 00:00:08,940\nI do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan\n\n2\n…",
    "vtt": "WEBVTT\n\n00:00:00.020 --> 00:00:08.940\nI do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan\n\n…",
    "processingSeconds": 19.19,
    "transcribedAt": "2026-09-20T04:50:56.495Z"
}
```

A podcast episode carries `episode`: `{ feedUrl, podcast, title, guid, publishedAt, pageUrl }`.

| field | meaning |
|---|---|
| `status` | `ok`, or why there is no transcript: `no_speech`, `unreachable`, `not_media`, `too_large`, `no_episodes`, `failed`. Only `ok` is charged. |
| `reason` | In plain words: the HTTP status, what the link turned out to be, or how much of the file was read. |
| `text` | The transcript as prose; a blank line where the speaker paused two seconds or more. |
| `segments` | `start`, `end`, `text`, and `words` when asked for. Seconds from the start of the file. |
| `srt`, `vtt` | The subtitles, ready to save as files. |
| `language`, `languageProbability` | What was spoken and how sure the engine is. |
| `durationSeconds`, `transcribedSeconds`, `truncated` | The file's length and how much of it was read. |
| `billedMinutes` | What this row cost, in audio minutes of its `quality`. |
| `wordCount` | `null` for languages written without spaces (Chinese, Japanese, Thai), where a count would mislead. |

The run's summary (files per status, minutes billed, episodes the monitor skipped) is in the key-value store as `SUMMARY`.

### Cost

| what | audio | price |
|---|---|---|
| The prefilled example, balanced | 37 s | US$0.02 |
| A 30-minute podcast episode, balanced | 30 min | US$0.60 |
| The same, fast | 30 min | US$0.24 |
| A 10-hour audiobook, fast | 600 min | US$4.80 |
| A daily monitor on a feed with nothing new | — | US$0.00 |

A file is billed by the started minute, at least one. There is no start fee and no per-file fee. Measured on
2026-09-20: two LibriVox chapters from a feed, 36 minutes of Spanish, balanced, at 4 GB: 15 minutes of run, US$0.72.

### Limits

- **Direct file links and feeds only.** A YouTube, TikTok or Instagram page is not a file; this Actor says so in a free
  row instead of trying to get around those sites. (For YouTube, captions exist: see our YouTube Transcript Scraper.)
- No speaker labels (diarization).
- Whisper can mishear names and rare words; `best` mishears fewer. Music and silence are skipped by voice detection.
- 2 GB per file. Files are processed one after another: for many long files, run several runs side by side.
- Feeds that need a login or a private token in a header are not supported; a private feed whose token is part of the
  URL works.

### Is it legal?

The Actor downloads the files you point it at and nothing else. Transcribe recordings you have the right to process:
your own, public-domain and openly licensed ones, or ones you have permission for. Transcripts of people's voices can
be personal data; if you process them, the GDPR and similar laws apply to you as they would with any other tool.
Whisper is open source (MIT licence, by OpenAI); this Actor is not affiliated with OpenAI.

# Actor input Schema

## `mediaUrls` (type: `array`):

Direct links to files: mp3, m4a, wav, flac, ogg, opus, aac, mp4, mov, webm, mkv and anything else FFmpeg decodes. A link that opens a web page (YouTube, a share page) is not a file and comes back as a free row that says so.

## `podcastFeeds` (type: `array`):

RSS or Atom feed links, or Apple Podcasts show links (https://podcasts.apple.com/…/id123456789), which are resolved to the show's public feed. The newest episodes of each are transcribed.

## `maxEpisodesPerFeed` (type: `integer`):

How many of the newest episodes of each feed to transcribe.

## `onlyNewEpisodes` (type: `boolean`):

Remembers the episodes this Actor delivered to you and skips them in later runs. Put it on a schedule to transcribe every new episode once, and pay for it once.

## `quality` (type: `string`):

fast: Whisper base, about 8× real time per 4 GB of memory, fine for clear speech. balanced: Whisper small, about 2.4×, good in most languages. best: Whisper large-v3-turbo, about 1.2×, the most accurate, for accents, noise and proper names. Each is charged at its own price per audio minute.

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

"auto" detects it from the first 90 seconds. Give a code (en, es, de, fr, pt, it, nl, ja, zh, ar, hi, ru… any of Whisper's 99) when you know it: it avoids a wrong guess on files that open with music or another language.

## `translateToEnglish` (type: `boolean`):

Whisper writes the transcript in English instead of the spoken language, in the same pass. Not available with quality "best".

## `wordTimestamps` (type: `boolean`):

Start, end and confidence of every word, inside each segment. Takes longer.

## `includeSubtitles` (type: `boolean`):

Each row carries the subtitles ready to save as .srt and .vtt. Turn it off to make rows smaller.

## `maxMinutesPerFile` (type: `integer`):

Reads only the first minutes of each file; 0 reads the whole file. A file cut short says so in its row.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mediaUrls": [
    "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Address_to_the_Nation_Excerpt.ogg"
  ],
  "maxEpisodesPerFeed": 1,
  "onlyNewEpisodes": false,
  "quality": "balanced",
  "language": "auto",
  "translateToEnglish": false,
  "wordTimestamps": false,
  "includeSubtitles": true,
  "maxMinutesPerFile": 0
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `transcripts` (type: `string`):

No description

## `summary` (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 = {
    "mediaUrls": [
        "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Address_to_the_Nation_Excerpt.ogg"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("steadyscrape/audio-video-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 = { "mediaUrls": ["https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Address_to_the_Nation_Excerpt.ogg"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("steadyscrape/audio-video-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 '{
  "mediaUrls": [
    "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Address_to_the_Nation_Excerpt.ogg"
  ]
}' |
apify call steadyscrape/audio-video-transcriber --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,steadyscrape/audio-video-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/FK6bypV3APphuHuCF/builds/G3n16jRef6UjQBCDW/openapi.json