simple-yt-api 3.0.1

A simple and easy-to-use unofficial YouTube API Wrapper.

Simple YouTube API

An unofficial lightweight Python wrapper for extracting video metadata and transcripts from YouTube videos.

Features

• 🎥 Extract video metadata (title, thumbnail, short description)
• 📝 Get video transcripts in various languages
• ⚡ Simple and easy to use interface
• 🔒 No API key required

Installation

uv is recommended for managing and installing packages in isolated environments.

uv add simple-yt-api

You can also install it using pip:

pip install simple-yt-api

Quick Start

from simple_yt_api import YouTubeAPI

# Initialize
yt = YouTubeAPI()

url = "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"

# Get video metadata
metadata = yt.data(url=url)
print(metadata["title"])

# Get video transcript
transcript = yt.get_transcript(
    url=url,
    language_code="tr",
    as_dict=True
) # Get Turkish transcript. Defaults to "en".
print(transcript)

# Or get both metadata and transcript at once
data, transcript = yt.get_video_data_and_transcript(
    url=url,
    language_code="es",
    as_dict=False  # Return transcript as plain text
)

API Reference

YouTubeAPI Class

YouTubeAPI()

Initializes the API client.

data(url: str) -> dict

Returns video metadata dictionary containing:

• video_id: YouTube video ID
• title: Video title
• img_url: Thumbnail URL
• short_description: Video description

get_transcript(url: str, language_code: str = "en", as_dict: bool = True) -> list[dict] | str

Get video transcript in the specified languages.

• url (str): The URL of the YouTube video.
• language_code (str, optional): The language code for the desired transcript. Defaults to "en".
• as_dict (bool, optional): If True, returns the transcript as a list of dictionaries; otherwise, returns the transcript as a string. Defaults to True.

get_video_data_and_transcript(url: str, language_code: str = "en", as_dict: bool = True) -> tuple

Returns both video metadata and transcript. If there is an error, that spot in the tuple will have None instead of a value.

• url (str): The URL of the YouTube video.
• language_code (str, optional): The language code for the desired transcript. Defaults to "en".
• as_dict (bool, optional): If True, returns the transcript as a list of dictionaries; otherwise, returns the transcript as a string. Defaults to True.

Error Handling

The library includes custom exceptions:

• NoVideoFound: When a video is not accessible or doesn't exist.
• NoMetadataFound: When no metadata is found for the video.
• TranscriptsDisabled: When transcripts are not available for the video.
• NoTranscriptFound: When no transcript is available for the video.

Warning

Sending too many requests in a short period might lead to your IP address being temporarily blocked by YouTube. Use responsibly.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

Links

• GitHub Repository
• PyPI Package
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