Self-hosted web app that transcribes YouTube videos and local audio/video files with OpenAI Whisper, running on your own machine.
wendy7756/AI-Video-Transcriber
Open-source tool that transcribes, summarizes and archives videos and podcasts from YouTube, TikTok, Bilibili and 30+ platforms or local files.
Open-source alternative to:Otter.ai
- Stars
- 3,357
- Forks
- 432
- Open issues
- 10
- Last commit
- 11 days ago
What is it?
AI Video Transcriber takes a video or podcast URL, or a local audio, video or text file, and produces a transcript, an AI-optimized version of that text, and a summary in a chosen language. It works with platforms supported by yt-dlp, including YouTube, TikTok, Bilibili, Apple Podcasts and SoundCloud.
When a source has native subtitles, the tool extracts them directly without downloading audio. When none are available, it downloads the audio and transcribes it locally with Faster-Whisper. Translation runs automatically only when the summary language differs from the transcript language. An optional original video (up to 720p) can be saved alongside the results.
The AI steps use any OpenAI-compatible API endpoint, configured in the web UI or through environment variables. A headless CLI and an MCP server expose the same pipeline to scripts and agents such as Claude Code and Codex.
Key features
- 01Extracts native subtitles from supported platforms, skipping audio download when available
- 02Falls back to local Faster-Whisper transcription when no subtitles exist
- 03Accepts local .mp3, .mp4, .wav, .mkv, .flac and other files, plus .txt transcripts
- 04Generates summaries in 11 languages and translates when needed
- 05Works with any OpenAI-compatible API endpoint, with model discovery in the UI
- 06Provides a CLI, Claude Code skill and MCP server for agent use
Use cases
- Summarizing long YouTube lectures or podcasts before deciding whether to watch them
- Archiving transcripts and source videos from online content for later reference
- Batch-transcribing local recordings with the CLI in scripts or cron jobs
- Letting an AI agent fetch and summarize video content through MCP
Quick start
- 1
Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/wendy7756/AI-Video-Transcriber.git - 2
Run the automatic installer from the project folder
./install.sh - 3
Start the service, then open http://localhost:8000
python3 start.py
Things to know
- Requires FFmpeg to be installed separately.
- AI optimization, translation and summaries need an API key from an OpenAI-compatible provider.
In collections
Topics
FAQ
- What is AI-Video-Transcriber?
- Open-source tool that transcribes, summarizes and archives videos and podcasts from YouTube, TikTok, Bilibili and 30+ platforms or local files. AI Video Transcriber takes a video or podcast URL, or a local audio, video or text file, and produces a transcript, an AI-optimized version of that text, and a summary in a chosen language. It works with platforms supported by yt-dlp, including YouTube, TikTok, Bilibili, Apple Podcasts and SoundCloud.
- Is AI-Video-Transcriber free to use? What license does it have?
- AI-Video-Transcriber is open source under the Apache-2.0 license. Check the license terms before using it in commercial products.
- Is AI-Video-Transcriber still maintained?
- Actively maintained. The last commit to AI-Video-Transcriber was on Oct 11, 2026.
- What can I use AI-Video-Transcriber for?
- Summarizing long YouTube lectures or podcasts before deciding whether to watch them Archiving transcripts and source videos from online content for later reference Batch-transcribing local recordings with the CLI in scripts or cron jobs Letting an AI agent fetch and summarize video content through MCP
- How do I install AI-Video-Transcriber?
- Clone the repository: git clone https://github.com/wendy7756/AI-Video-Transcriber.git Run the automatic installer from the project folder: ./install.sh Start the service, then open http://localhost:8000: python3 start.py
- Where can I get AI-Video-Transcriber?
- The source code and installation instructions are on GitHub: https://github.com/wendy7756/AI-Video-Transcriber
Summary generated by AI from the project's README. GitHub stats refresh daily.
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