n8n Workflow: YouTube Transcript Cleanup via Form Trigger

Turn a YouTube link into a clean, readable transcript—automatically

This n8n workflow lets users paste a YouTube URL into an n8n form, then automatically fetches the transcript from youtube-transcript.ai, cleans it, and displays the finished transcript back to the user on the form completion page.

What this workflow does

• Collects input via an n8n Form Trigger: the workflow receives a YouTube video URL from a form submission.
• Builds a transcript request: it extracts the YouTube video ID from the URL and constructs a transcript endpoint for youtube-transcript.ai.
• Fetches the transcript: downloads the transcript text using an HTTP request to youtube-transcript.ai.
• Cleans and normalizes the content: removes any leading “## Transcript” header, strips Markdown links, normalizes blank lines, and performs additional cleanup like removing timestamps and sound markers.
• Improves readability: normalizes whitespace and deduplicates immediately repeated phrases.
• Returns results to the user: shows the cleaned transcript on the form completion screen.

Use cases

• Generate consistent transcripts for SaaS content workflows where raw transcript output needs cleanup.
• Support knowledge base creation by turning YouTube URLs into clean text suitable for storage or review.
• Speed up research and summarization pipelines by providing normalized transcript text directly after submission.
• Help users quickly obtain a readable transcript without manually copying or editing output.

Technical details

• Nodes / tools used: form, form trigger, code, http request
• External service: youtube-transcript.ai (requires outbound HTTP access from your n8n instance)
• Key logic: YouTube video ID extraction, transcript endpoint construction, and text cleanup (header removal, Markdown link stripping, timestamp/sound marker removal, whitespace normalization, and deduplication)

Setup

Enable the form trigger, use its published URL to access the YouTube Transcript Generator form, and ensure your n8n instance can reach https://youtube-transcript.ai. If needed for your environment, adjust the transcript endpoint format in the code step that builds the URL.