🌟 YouTube Shorts Transcript Fetcher (Shorts-only) > Instant, reliable transcripts for YouTube Shorts — optimized for short-form content. --- ## 📖 Overview This Actor fetches clean, timestamped transcripts specifically from YouTube Shorts (including youtu.be short links and /shorts URLs). It is optimized for short durations, fast responses, and batch processing of multiple Shorts. --- ## 💡 Why Shorts-only? * Shorts are brief — timestamps and compact formatting matter. * Many Shorts use alternative URL forms (youtu.be and /shorts) — this Actor normalizes them. * Faster runs and smaller payloads reduce cost when processing thousands of short clips. --- ## 🔧 Key Features * ✅ Short-specific URL normalization (/shorts, youtu.be). * ✅ Dual-source transcript fetching with smart fallback. * ✅ Compact timestamped output tailored for clips under 60 seconds. * ✅ Batch input support and configurable concurrency. * ✅ Proxy-compatible and production-ready. --- ## ⚡ Quick Start — Console 1. Open the Actor on Apify Console. 2. Paste one or more Shorts URLs into the input (regular, /shorts/ or youtu.be links accepted). 3. Click Run — view transcript items in the Dataset. --- ## ⚙️ Quick Start — CLI & Python ### CLI bash apify call neuro-scraper/youtube-shorts-transcript --input ./shorts_input.json ### Python (apify-client) python from apify_client import ApifyClient client = ApifyClient('<APIFY_TOKEN>') run = client.actor('neuro-scraper/youtube-shorts-transcript').call( run_input={"startUrls": [{"url": "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/EXAMPLE"}]} ) for item in client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).list_items()['items']: print(item['Transcript']['plain_text']) --- ## 📝 Inputs (Shorts-focused) | Name | Type | Required | Default | Example | Notes | | -------------------- | ------- | -------- | ------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------- | | startUrls | array | Yes | [] | [{"url":"https://www.youtube.com/shorts/abcd1234"}] | List of Shorts URLs | | workers | integer | Optional | 5 | 10 | Max concurrent fetches | | proxyConfiguration | object | Optional | {} | {"useApifyProxy": true} | Proxy settings | Example input (Console JSON): json { "startUrls": [ {"url": "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/abcd1234"}, {"url": "https://youtu.be/abcd1234"} ], "workers": 5, "proxyConfiguration": {"useApifyProxy": true} } --- ## 📄 Outputs (compact) Each Dataset item returns a compact schema tuned for Shorts: json { "video_id": "AWBsoArakNY", "title": "Who Has The Fastest Reaction Time?", "url": "https://youtube.com/shorts/AWBsoArakNY?si=8ThAJzdEEA1PnZRk", "lang": "en", "format": "vtt", "segments": [ { "start": 3.919, "end": 5.99, "text": "I [screaming] WON. I WON. OH, I SHOULD", "duration": 2.071, "duration_seconds": 2, "duration_milliseconds": 71, "duration_seconds_with_ms": "2.071", "duration_minutes": 0.03451666666666667, "start_ts": "00:00:03.919", "end_ts": "00:00:05.990", "display": "Transcripts:\nStart: 00:00:03.919 End: 00:00:05.990\nDuration: 2.071 seconds (0.034517 minutes)\n\nNo transcript added for this duration." } ] } Outputs are easy to export (JSON, CSV, Excel) and optimized to contain only essential text and timestamps. --- ## 🔑 Environment Variables * APIFY_TOKEN — required. * HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY — optional. * APIFY_PROXY_PASSWORD — use when using Apify Proxy. Store credentials securely as secrets, not plaintext. --- ## ▶️ How to Run (short checklist) 1. Open Apify Console → Actors → YouTube Shorts Transcript Fetcher. 2. Paste Shorts-only input JSON or use CLI/Python. 3. Run and inspect Dataset. --- ## 🛠 Logs & Troubleshooting * No transcript available — the Short may not have captions or the audio is muted. * Timeouts / failures — try reducing concurrency (workers) or enable proxy. Monitor real-time logs in the Console Run Log panel. --- ## ⏱ Scheduling & Webhooks * Schedule frequent short-run batches (e.g., every 15 minutes or hourly) for near-real-time ingestion. * Use Webhooks to push results to downstream systems after each run. --- ## 🔟 Changelog * 1.0.0 — 2025-11-04: Initial Shorts-only release. --- ## 📝 Notes & TODO * TODO: Add demo GIF showing Console run for Shorts. * TODO: Add language detection flag for multilingual Shorts. --- ## ✅ Final note This README is tailored for teams that process high volumes of YouTube Shorts and need compact, timestamped transcripts quickly and reliably.