Podcast Transcription — RSS Episodes to Text

What does Podcast Transcription do?

Turn public podcast RSS episodes into searchable text and optional SRT subtitles. Paste one or more public RSS feed URLs into Podcast RSS feeds. The first-run form contains one NASA feed and selects the newest episode from each feed (maxEpisodesPerFeed: 1). Remove the example before entering your own feed.

How to use

1. Enter a public podcast RSS URL or Apple Podcasts show link in Podcast RSS feeds.
2. Keep Use publisher transcripts enabled to use a usable transcript linked by the feed when available.
3. Set Episodes per podcast feed to the number of recent episodes you need, then start the Actor.
4. Read the Dataset row and download txtUrl or srtUrl when present. A plain publisher transcript may have no timing, so an SRT file may be unavailable.

Input example

Example JSON input:

{"podcastFeeds":["https://www.nasa.gov/feeds/podcasts/small-steps-giant-leaps"],"urls":[],"maxEpisodesPerFeed":1,"usePublisherTranscripts":true}

Output example

The overview shows episodeTitle, transcriptSource, text, txtUrl, srtUrl, billedMinutes, charged and errorType. The full Dataset retains the audio engine's other fields. A publisher transcript row has transcriptSource: "publisher" and billedMinutes: 0.

Pricing

A successful publisher transcript has no audio-minute event. If a publisher transcript is absent or unusable, the engine transcribes the episode audio and charges one audio-minute event per started minute (Free/Bronze: $0.006 per minute). Failed, silent and invalid inputs are free rows. Optional speaker labels, summaries and translated subtitles use the engine's separate existing events and prices when enabled. Check Apify's maximum cost per run before a larger batch.

Limitations

This is a focused form for the existing audio-transcriber engine. Other valid engine inputs, including direct media URLs, uploads and dataset rows, remain available through advanced JSON and follow the same behavior and prices. Feed reading and user-supplied media downloads follow the engine's current access behavior; this Actor does not promise a robots.txt gate for either. It does not log in, solve CAPTCHAs or use stealth tools. A blocked or inaccessible source is reported as a free error row.

Only use episodes and transcripts you are entitled to process; respect publisher rights and applicable terms. The NASA URL is a public first-run sample, not a guarantee that its latest episode has a publisher transcript or a particular duration.

FAQ

Will every episode have an SRT file? A plain publisher transcript may have no timing, so an SRT file may be unavailable.

Optional content pack

Set "contentPack":true for chapter, show notes, X and LinkedIn drafts in contentPack. Add "contentPackSubtitleLanguages":["Spanish"] for one translated SRT/VTT language in contentPack.translatedSubtitles (the existing $0.002/started-minute subtitle event applies on success). Drafts require review before publishing. Off by default; existing output and charges stay the same. A failed pack has contentPackError and no pack charge. Charge starts 2026-11-06 or later: one $0.10 content-pack event per successful pack, in addition to existing audio-minute charges. Until the operator sets CONTENT_PACK_CHARGE_FROM to an announced date on or after 2026-11-06 and that date arrives, the text pack is free.