Meetings & transcription
yt-whisper
Subtitles for a YouTube video, generated locally
★ 1.4k
January 2024
MIT
Meetings & transcription
What it does
Point it at a YouTube URL and it pulls the audio with yt-dlp, transcribes it with Whisper on your own machine, and writes a VTT subtitle file. Unmaintained since January 2024, so the surrounding tooling may have moved past it. Downloading video can conflict with the platform's terms — keep it to your own uploads or material you have permission for. MIT.
Summary based on the project's own description. The Japanese page has a fuller beginner guide: setup difficulty, what to prepare, and a step-by-step start.
Screenshots & visuals
Before you start
- Setup difficultyFor advanced users
- Command lineRequired
- API keyNot required
- Sends data onlineYes
Judged automatically from the project's own metadata. Always confirm on the official page.
yt-whisper FAQ
- Is yt-whisper free?
- Yes. It runs on your own machine, so there is no usage-based cost either.
- Do I need to install anything or write code to use yt-whisper?
- It needs the command line. If you are not comfortable typing commands, expect to get stuck during setup.
- Does yt-whisper work on a phone?
- No. It needs a computer.
- Can I use yt-whisper commercially?
- The licence is MIT, which permits commercial use. Conditions such as keeping the copyright notice still apply, so read the licence text before shipping it inside something.
How it compares
The conditions that decide whether you can actually use it, side by side.
| Tool | Command line | API key | Sends data out | Phone | Commercial use |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| yt-whisper (this page) | Required | Not needed | Yes | No | Yes |
| Whisper-youtube-crosslingual-subtitles | Not needed | Not needed | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| whishper | Required | Not needed | No | No | Yes |
| faster-whisper-GUI | Required | Not needed | Yes | No | Yes |
"Sends data out" means your input is uploaded to someone's server. Pick "No" when the material cannot leave your organisation.