What is a YouTube transcript?
A YouTube transcript is the full written text of everything spoken in a video, drawn from its captions. Each line is usually paired with a timestamp that marks when the words are said, so you can read along, jump to a moment, or quote a passage. A transcript turns a video into searchable, skimmable text, which makes it easy to study, repurpose into notes or articles, translate, or make content more accessible. This tool reads a video's captions and lays them out as clean, copyable text.
From a link to a transcript
Paste a URL and the tool finds the video's caption track, formats it into readable lines with timestamps, and gives you the text to copy or download.
YouTube link
Any watch, Shorts, or share URL.
Caption track
The video's available captions are located.
Timestamped text
Lines are cleaned and time-stamped.
Copy or download
Grab plain text, or a TXT or SRT file.
A transcript can only be produced when a video has captions, either added by the creator or generated automatically by YouTube. Videos with captions turned off cannot be transcribed here.
Clean text, your way
Read the transcript with timestamps, switch them off for flowing prose, then copy it or export a file. Here is what a timestamped transcript looks like.
| Format | What it is | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Plain text | Just the words, no times | Notes, articles, quoting |
| Timestamped | Each line with its time | Citing moments, study |
| SRT file | Subtitle file with timing | Captions, video editing |
Manual versus automatic captions
YouTube videos can carry captions written by the creator or generated automatically by speech recognition. Both can be transcribed, but they differ in accuracy and punctuation.
| Aspect | Manual (creator) | Automatic (ASR) |
|---|---|---|
| Source | Written or reviewed by a person | Generated by speech recognition |
| Accuracy | Usually high | Varies with audio quality |
| Punctuation | Generally clean | Can be sparse |
| Speaker names | Sometimes included | Rarely |
| Languages | Whatever the creator added | Many, plus auto-translate |
| Availability | Only if the creator added them | Most videos with clear speech |
Transcript, captions, and subtitles
The words are often used loosely, but they mean different things.
| Term | What it is | Timing |
|---|---|---|
| Transcript | The full spoken text as a document | Optional timestamps |
| Captions | On-screen text of speech and sounds, for the same language | Synced to the video |
| Subtitles | On-screen translation of the speech | Synced to the video |
What a transcript is good for
Notes and study
Turn lectures and tutorials into text you can highlight, search, and revise from.
Repurpose content
Reshape a video into a blog post, newsletter, or social captions in your own words.
Translate and share
Move text into a translator, or hand a transcript to people who prefer reading.
Find a moment
Search the text for a phrase, then jump straight to that timestamp in the video.
Accessibility
Provide a text alternative so a video works for people who cannot hear the audio.
Quote accurately
Pull exact wording for citations, research, or fact-checking without retyping.
Reading is faster than listening
As a rough rule of thumb, most people read noticeably faster than they listen, so a transcript lets you cover a video's content in a fraction of the runtime.
How to get a YouTube transcript
Copy the video link
On YouTube, use Share to copy the link, or copy the URL from your browser's address bar.
Paste it above
Drop the link into the box and press Get transcript. The tool finds the caption track.
Read or refine
Toggle timestamps, search for a phrase, or switch the language if more than one is offered.
Copy or download
Copy the text, or save it as a TXT for notes or an SRT for subtitles.
Transcript terms, defined
- Transcript
- The full written text of the speech in a video, often with timestamps.
- Caption track
- The timed text stored with a video that this tool reads to build a transcript.
- ASR
- Automatic speech recognition, the technology that generates captions from audio.
- Timestamp
- The time mark on a line showing when those words are spoken in the video.
- SRT
- SubRip, a common subtitle file format that pairs lines of text with start and end times.
- VTT
- WebVTT, a web subtitle format similar to SRT used by browsers and players.