n8n Workflow: Turn YouTube Transcripts into OpenAI Newsletters

Turn any YouTube video into a ready-to-send OpenAI newsletter—automatically

This n8n workflow takes a YouTube URL (via webhook), extracts or accepts the transcript, sends it to the OpenAI Chat Completions API, and returns a complete “news issue” plus repurposed social posts for X and LinkedIn—all delivered back as structured JSON including a ready-to-paste Markdown newsletter.

What this workflow does

• Receives a POST webhook with a url (or video ID) and optionally a raw transcript.
• Extracts the YouTube video ID from the submitted URL or validates the provided ID.
• Uses the provided transcript when available. If not provided, it retrieves captions from youtubetranscript.com, then parses them into plain text.
• Sends the transcript to OpenAI (Chat Completions) to generate a structured JSON payload containing newsletter sections, key takeaways, an X thread, a LinkedIn post, and a call to action.
• Normalizes the output into consistent fields and builds a formatted newsletter Markdown document.
• Responds to the webhook with a JSON payload including source video info, generated content, and the Markdown output.

Use cases

• Publish a newsletter from YouTube content by triggering the workflow from your web app or scheduler.
• Turn creator interviews or product demo videos into consistent OpenAI-generated newsletter issues.
• Repurpose the same source transcript into an X thread and a LinkedIn post without manual rewriting.
• Run batch automation: submit multiple video URLs to generate newsletters at scale via webhook.

Technical details

• Nodes/tech stack: code, webhook, http request, respond to webhook
• External services: OpenAI Chat Completions API, youtubetranscript.com
• Key setup: add your OpenAI API key by updating the Authorization header in the OpenAI Chat Completions request.

If youtubetranscript.com is blocked for your videos, pass the transcript directly in the webhook request body.