Extract YouTube Transcripts via Google Sheets or API Webhook

Description

YouTube Transcript Extractor

This n8n template demonstrates how to extract transcripts from YouTube videos using two different approaches: automated Google Sheets monitoring and direct webhook API calls.

Use cases: Content creation, research, accessibility, meeting notes, content repurposing, SEO analysis, or building transcript databases for analysis.

How it works
Google Sheets Integration:** Monitor a sheet for new YouTube URLs and automatically extract transcripts
Direct API Access:** Send YouTube URLs via webhook and get instant transcript responses
Smart Parsing:** Extracts video ID from various YouTube URL formats (youtube.com, youtu.be, embed)
Rich Metadata:** Returns video title, channel, publish date, duration, and category alongside transcript
Fallback Handling:** Gracefully handles videos without available transcripts

Two Workflow Paths
Automated Sheet Processing: Add URLs to Google Sheet → Auto-extract → Save results to sheet
Webhook API: Send POST request with video URL → Get instant transcript response

How to set up
Replace "Dummy YouTube Transcript API" credentials with your YouTube Transcript API key
Create your own Google Sheet with columns: "url" (input sheet) and "video title", "transcript" (results sheet)
Update Google Sheets credentials to connect your sheets
Test each workflow path separately
Customize the webhook path and authentication as needed

Requirements
YouTube Transcript API access (youtube-transcript.io or similar)
Google Sheets API credentials (for automated workflow)
n8n instance (cloud or self-hosted)
YouTube videos

How to customize
Modify transcript processing in the Code nodes
Add additional metadata extraction
Connect to other storage solutions (databases, CMS)
Add text analysis or summarization steps
Set up notifications for new transcripts