YouTube Transcription API
URL in. Transcript out.
No yt-dlp. No bans.
Whisper is great until you realize you have to download the audio first, and yt-dlp gets you banned in two days. Built for AI app developers who want a transcript and would like to ship this week.
Get $3 free credits — no card required
$3 in credits drop in the moment you sign up. No card. No trial-expiry email.
curl https://api.importly.io/v1/transcribe \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $IMPORTLY_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
"language": "en",
"webhook_url": "https://your.app/webhooks/transcribe"
}'What you don't have to deal with
yt-dlp 429s and IP bans
We rotate residential proxies per request. You don't get to know how. You just get the audio.
ffmpeg version pinning
No more chasing the one ffmpeg build that doesn't choke on this week's container format change.
Hosting Whisper
Transcription runs server-side. You get text and word-level segments back, not a GPU bill.
Format detection logic
Live streams, VODs, members-only links, age-gated videos — same endpoint, same response shape.
Storage plumbing
Optionally drop the source audio in your own S3 or R2 bucket. Or don't. We delete it after 7 days either way.
3am pages
When YouTube changes their player, we ship the fix. You find out from a changelog, not a Sentry alert.
How it works
1
Get a key
Sign up, $3 in credits land in your account, your API key is on the next page.
2
POST a URL
Send any YouTube link to /v1/transcribe with optional language and webhook URL.
3
Get text back
We download, transcribe, and return text + word-level segments. Webhook fires when done.
Stop maintaining yt-dlp. Ship the transcript feature.
Self-serve. Stop any time. Your $3 credit doesn't expire.