YouTube transcript generator
Point this YouTube transcript generator at any public video and read it instead of watching it. The full script appears with timestamps, ready to copy into notes or keep as a TXT, SRT or VTT file. Copy the transcript or save it as a file, free.
See the transcript flow, step by step
A walkthrough of speech turning into clean, timed text.
10%
What you get
- Plain text transcript
- Timestamped lines you can jump through
- Subtitle file, .srt or .vtt
Why people use it
Files stream straight to your device. We keep no copy of the video or the link.
No sign up, no email, no tracking pixel. Paste a link and save the file.
Every tool on the site is free to use, with no daily download cap.
We pick the highest stream the source offers, up to 4K where it exists.
One paste, one click. No queues, no waiting rooms, no forced ads between steps.
Runs in any modern browser on phone, tablet and desktop. Nothing to install.
How to get a YouTube transcript
Copy the video address from the browser bar, or use Share and Copy link in the app. Paste it above and press Get transcript.
The whole text appears in seconds. Switch between the timestamped view, useful for jumping back into the video, and plain text, which is what you want when you are pasting into a document.
If the video has captions in several languages, each one shows as a chip above the text. Tap one and the transcript reloads in that language.
Copy it, or save it as a file
Copy transcript puts whichever view you are looking at on your clipboard, so a plain paste into a doc keeps no stray timings.
TXT saves the same thing as a file. SRT and VTT keep the exact start and end time of every line, which is the format video editors, Premiere, Final Cut, CapCut and DaVinci, expect when you import subtitles.
What people use transcripts for
Studying a long talk without watching it, pulling a quote accurately, turning a tutorial into written steps, or feeding a lecture into your own notes before an exam.
Creators use them the other way around, taking their own video's SRT, cleaning up the auto captions and uploading a corrected file back to YouTube so the captions read properly.
Researchers and journalists use the timestamps to cite the exact moment a thing was said, which a plain text dump cannot give you.
Auto captions versus real captions
When a creator uploaded their own caption file, that is what you get, and it is usually clean, punctuated and correct.
When they did not, YouTube's speech recognition fills the gap. It is good but not perfect, it mishears names and technical words, and it adds little punctuation. The chip tells you when a track is auto generated so you know to proofread.
Videos with no speech, music clips, ambient footage and many very short uploads, have no captions at all, and nothing can extract text that was never spoken.
Where the words come from
YouTube publishes captions for most uploads, either written by the creator or generated automatically, and the generated set is what exists on the majority of videos.
When a caption track already exists it is read directly, which is fast and matches what the platform shows on screen.
When there is none, the audio itself is transcribed, which takes a little longer and depends on how clearly the speaker was recorded.
Reading beats rewatching
Skimming a page of text for the one sentence you needed takes seconds, where scrubbing a YouTube video back and forth takes minutes.
A transcript is searchable, so a recipe quantity, a price or a name is found with a browser find rather than a replay.
It also gives you something quotable, since the wording is in front of you instead of half remembered.
What to check before you use it
Names, brands and places are the usual errors, because they are guessed by sound.
Background music and two people talking at once both lower accuracy noticeably, so busy clips need a read through.
Punctuation is inferred from pauses rather than heard, so long stretches of speech come back with fewer full stops than you would write.
Good to know
Good for long videos and lectures
Paste a lecture, podcast or tutorial and read it instead of scrubbing through the timeline. Searching the text for one word is much faster than rewatching.
Download YouTube subtitlesTimestamps help you jump back
Each line carries the moment it was said, so you can find the exact spot in the video when you need to quote it or check context.
Translate a videoQuoting someone else's video
A transcript makes quoting easy, but the words still belong to the creator. Credit the channel and link the video when you use them.
Transcribe many videosQuestions people ask
Is the YouTube transcript generator free?
Yes. No account, no payment and no daily cap. Paste a link and read the text.
Can I download the transcript as an SRT file?
Yes. Every transcript can be saved as TXT, SRT or VTT. SRT and VTT keep the timing of each line, so they drop straight into a video editor.
Why does it say this video has no captions?
YouTube only produces captions when there is spoken audio it can recognise, and some creators disable them. Music videos and very short clips are the usual cases.
Does it work with Shorts and live streams?
Yes, as long as the upload has captions. Shorts often do, finished live streams usually do once YouTube has processed them.
Can I get a transcript in another language?
You get every caption track the video has, including translated ones the creator added. If a language is not listed, the video does not carry it.
Do you store the transcript?
No. The text is read live from YouTube, sent to your browser and forgotten. Nothing is written to our servers.
Does the video need captions turned on?
No. If YouTube has a caption track it is used, and if not the audio is transcribed instead.
Can I get the text with timestamps?
Yes, timings come through where the source carries them, and the plain text version is there too for pasting into notes.
Does it work on private posts?
No. Only content that is already public can be read, since nothing signs in on your behalf.