# Get a YouTube transcript: agent skill

YouTube transcript API for an agent: it sends a YouTube video link to a catalog endpoint and reads timestamped transcript lines, plain text version and start back. Several providers sell the call, so the agent tries the cheapest first. You pay per call, and a failed call costs nothing.

## When it starts

- get the transcript of this YouTube video
- summarize this video from its captions
- pull the text of this talk

## What it asks for

- The YouTube video link
- The caption language, when the video has several

## How it runs

- looot discover finds the endpoint
- looot inspect shows the price and the input schema
- looot run executes it, billed per call
- Endpoints in order: scrapecreators-youtube-video-transcript, anysite-api-youtube-video-subtitles, dataforseo-youtube-video-subtitles-advanced, searchapi-io-youtube-transcripts

## What comes back

- Timestamped transcript lines
- Plain text version
- Start and end times
- Caption language

## Answer rule

Return the plain text first and offer the timestamped version. Say when a video has no captions.

## Install

Save the skill file as /agent-skills/youtube-transcript/SKILL.md, or tell your agent: set up looot, then use /agent-skills/youtube-transcript/SKILL.md.

## Difficulty

easy

## How do I get the transcript of a YouTube video?

Send the video link to a transcript endpoint. Your agent gets back the caption lines with start times and a plain-text version. For a list of videos, it makes one call per link.

## Does it work on long videos and podcasts?

Yes, when YouTube exposes public captions. One provider states there is no two-minute limit, so a podcast of several hours works if it has captions.

## What if the video has no captions?

Then there is nothing to return, and the transcript fields come back empty. Ask your agent to list the links that returned nothing, so you can skip them or transcribe the audio another way.

## Can I pick the language?

Yes. Three of the endpoints take a language code, and one also lists the languages a video offers. A language that does not exist for the video returns null on one provider.

## Can I get transcripts for a whole channel?

In two steps. The agent lists the channel's videos, then makes one transcript call per video. Each call is billed on its own, so ask for the total before a big channel.

## How much does one video cost?

You pay per call, and the price depends on the provider your agent picks. This page reads the cheapest live price from the catalog and shows no number when the catalog is unreachable.