Gladia YouTube Transcription (Free)

Video/Audio Transcription Skill

Overview

This skill provides automated transcription for video and audio content using Gladia API. It converts spoken content from YouTube videos, MP3 files, or any accessible audio/video URL into text, which can then be summarized by an LLM.

Use Cases

Service: Gladia API

What is Gladia?

Gladia is an audio transcription API that supports multiple languages including Cantonese. It provides both async (pre-recorded) and real-time transcription.

Free Tier (as of March 2026)

| Feature | Free Tier | |---------|-----------| | Monthly transcription | 10 hours | | Renewal | Monthly (resets automatically) | | New streams limit | 5 per minute | | Languages | All included | | Cost after quota | $0.61/hour (async) / $0.75/hour (real-time) |

How to Sign Up

1. Visit gladia.io 2. Click "Try for free" → Sign up with email 3. Go to Dashboard → API Keys 4. Create a new API key 5. Copy the key (format: xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx)

Checking Usage

1. Log in to Gladia Dashboard 2. Navigate to Usage or Billing section 3. View current month consumption (hours/minutes used)

Alternatively, you can check via API:

curl -X GET "https://api.gladia.io/v2/usage" -H "x-gladia-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

Setup

Step 1: Save Your API Key

Recommended: Set in current session

export GLADIA_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"

Or add to ~/.bashrc (ensure ~/.bashrc is in .gitignore):

echo 'export GLADIA_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Note: Storing secrets in shell rc files is discouraged due to risk of accidental commits. Prefer setting the environment variable directly in your session or use a secrets manager.

Step 2: Verify Key Works

Test that your API key is valid by checking usage:

curl -X GET "https://api.gladia.io/v2/usage" -H "x-gladia-key: $GLADIA_API_KEY"

If successful, you'll see your usage information. If you get an auth error, check your API key.

How to Use

Command Line

# Navigate to skill directory (where you installed the skill)
cd /path/to/video-transcription
Basic usage
./scripts/youtube_transcribe.sh "YOUTUBE_URL"
Save to specific file
./scripts/youtube_transcribe.sh "YOUTUBE_URL" /path/to/output.txt

Via OpenClaw

1. Provide a YouTube URL or video link 2. The skill will: - Submit transcription job to Gladia - Poll for completion (~1-2 min for 10-15 min videos) - Return the full transcript

Script Location

/path/to/video-transcription/scripts/youtube_transcribe.sh

Configuration

Environment Variables

| Variable | Required | Description | |----------|----------|-------------| | GLADIA_API_KEY | Yes | Your Gladia API key |

Output

The script saves transcripts to a transcripts/ subdirectory in the skill folder:

/path/to/video-transcription/transcripts/

Privacy & Security Notes

Limitations

Troubleshooting

"Failed to call the url"

"Quota exceeded"

"Authentication failed"

Alternative Services

If Gladia quota is exhausted:

| Service | Free Tier | Notes | |---------|-----------|-------| | AssemblyAI | Limited | Requires credit card | | Deepgram | $0 credit | Pay-per-use | | YouTube Transcript | Free (if available) | Only works if video has captions |

Future Enhancements

Potential improvements:

*Last updated: March 2026*

Environment Variables

| Variable | Required | Description | |----------|----------|-------------| | GLADIA_API_KEY | Yes | Your Gladia API key |

Output

The script saves transcripts to a transcripts/ subdirectory in the skill folder:

/path/to/video-transcription/transcripts/

"Failed to call the url"

"Quota exceeded"

"Authentication failed"