Turn long YouTube videos into short, clear summaries. Ideal for marketing teams and content creators who need quick notes for blogs, newsletters, and scripts. Get the key points without watching the full video.

Run it when you need results. A manual trigger passes a video id to SearchApi.io to fetch the transcript. Transcript items are split, then combined into one clean text block. A summarization chain uses an OpenAI chat model and a recursive text splitter set to 6000 characters to handle long content. The result is a focused summary ready for reuse across sites, emails, and slides.

You need API keys for SearchApi.io and OpenAI. Add the video id or map it from an earlier step, then run a test to see the output. Teams can turn the result into show notes, article outlines, or social copy and cut review time from hours to minutes. Keep the chunk size at 6000 for long videos, or adjust if your model has lower limits.

• Manual test trigger to run summaries on demand
• SearchApi.io fetches the full video transcript by video id
• Split Out expands transcript items for reliable processing
• Summarize combines all text into a single clean field
• Recursive text splitter sets 6000 character chunks for long content
• OpenAI chat model generates a concise, readable summary
• LangChain summarization chain organizes chunking and output flow

• Reduce manual review time from 30 minutes to 2 minutes per video
• Streamline content prep by 80% with a single click summary
• Improve consistency of notes across videos by 90%
• Connect SearchApi.io and OpenAI in one flow without switching tools
• Handle long transcripts with smart chunking at 6000 characters

1. Import the template into n8n: Create a new workflow in n8n > Click the three dots menu > Select 'Import from File' > Choose the downloaded JSON file.
2. You'll need accounts with SearchApi.io and OpenAI. See the Tools Required section above for links to create accounts with these services.
3. Create the SearchApi.io credential: double click the SearchApi node, open the 'Credential to connect with' dropdown, click 'Create new credential', then follow the on screen instructions. Generate an API key in your SearchApi.io dashboard on the API page and paste it into n8n.
4. Create the OpenAI credential: double click the OpenAI Chat Model node, choose 'Create new credential', then follow the on screen steps. In your OpenAI account, visit the API keys page to create a key and paste it into n8n.
5. In the SearchApi node, replace the example video id with your own, or map a video id from a previous node if you plan to chain this into a larger flow.
6. Leave the Split Out node set to the transcripts field so each transcript item is processed correctly.
7. Check the Summarize node to confirm it combines the text field and uses concatenate with a space separator.
8. Open the OpenAI Chat Model node and pick gpt 4o mini or your preferred model. Adjust temperature and max tokens if these options are available in your plan.
9. Review the Recursive Character Text Splitter node and keep the chunk size at 6000 for long videos. Lower it if your model has stricter limits.
10. Click Test workflow. Verify the SearchApi node returns a transcripts array, the Split Out node shows individual items, the Summarize node outputs one large text, and the Summarization Chain returns a clean summary.
11. If the transcript is empty, confirm the video id is correct, check if the video has captions, and make sure your SearchApi.io key is active and not over quota.
12. If the OpenAI step fails, confirm the API key, model name, and billing status in your OpenAI account.