How to Get the Transcript of a YouTube Video

To get a YouTube video transcript, open the video's description and click Show transcript, or paste the video's link into a free YouTube transcript generator and copy the text. YouTube's own panel is fine for reading along. A generator is faster when you want the whole transcript as clean text to save, search, or paste into ChatGPT or Claude.

1Open the YouTube video transcript on a computer

YouTube shows a transcript for any video that has captions, whether the creator uploaded them or YouTube generated them automatically. It works in any desktop browser.

1. Open the video on youtube.com.
2. Below the video, click ...more to expand the description.
3. Scroll to the bottom of the description and click Show transcript.
4. The transcript opens in a panel to the right of the video (below it, if your window is narrow). The line being spoken is highlighted as the video plays.
5. Click any line to jump to that moment in the video.

Hide the timestamps

By default, every line starts with its time, like 1:23. To read (or copy) just the words:

1. Click the ⋮ (three dots) at the top of the transcript panel.
2. Choose Toggle timestamps.

Choose it again to bring the times back.

Copy the transcript from YouTube

YouTube has no button that copies the whole transcript, so you select it by hand:

1. Turn timestamps off first (see above), unless you want them.
2. Click just before the first word in the panel and drag down to the last line. The panel scrolls as you drag.
3. Press Ctrl + C (Windows, Linux) or Cmd + C (Mac).
4. Paste it into a document with Ctrl + Shift + V (Mac: Cmd + Shift + Option + V) to drop the formatting.

Limitations: On a long video, dragging through hundreds of lines is slow and easy to get wrong. The pasted text keeps one short caption per line, often with stray blank lines. For anything longer than a few minutes, a transcript generator is quicker.

Change the transcript language

If the video has captions in more than one language, open the language menu at the bottom of the transcript panel (it shows the current track, such as English (auto-generated)) and pick another. You only see the languages the video actually has captions for. More on that in section 7.

If you don't see "Show transcript"

• The video has no captions. No captions means no transcript. Check for the CC button in the player. If it's missing, see section 5.
• It's a Short. Shorts open in a vertical player without the usual description. Change the address from youtube.com/shorts/VIDEO_ID to youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID to open it as a normal video, then follow the steps above.
• It's a live stream in progress, or a brand-new upload. Automatic captions can take a while to appear after a video goes up.

2See the transcript in the YouTube app

The YouTube app on iPhone, iPad and Android has the same transcript, opened from the description:

1. Open the video in the YouTube app.
2. Tap the video's title (or ...more) to open the description.
3. Scroll down to the Transcript section and tap Show transcript.
4. The transcript replaces the description below the player and follows along as the video plays. Tap a line to jump to it.

Limitations: The app is made for reading, not copying. You can't select the whole transcript at once, and there's no export. To copy the text on a phone, tap Share›Copy link under the video and paste the link into the YouTube Transcript Generator in your phone's browser. It works the same on mobile.

3Use a free YouTube transcript generator

When you want the full transcript as text, in one go, a transcript generator does it from just the link. The URL to Text YouTube Transcript Generator is free and needs no account or extension:

1. Copy the video's link from your browser's address bar, or tap Share›Copy link in the YouTube app. Regular videos, Shorts and youtu.be links all work.
2. Paste it into the box on the YouTube Transcript page.
3. Tick Include timestamps if you want the time each line is spoken. Leave it off for just the words.
4. Click Convert.
5. Click Copy to copy the whole transcript.

With timestamps on, every line starts with the time it's spoken, like [01:23], or [1:02:05] on videos longer than an hour, so you can find the moment again. Lines are never split mid-caption, which makes the text easy to scan.

Good to know:

• It uses the video's captions. It gets the same text YouTube shows in its own transcript, so it's fast (a few seconds even for long podcasts and lectures) but only works on videos that have captions.
• Which language you get: if the video has English captions, you get English, and human-written captions win over auto-generated ones. If it has no English captions, you get the transcript in the video's own language, with a note telling you which one.
• Free use is rate limited: without an account you can run a handful of videos every 10 minutes, up to about 25 a day.
• Not supported: private videos, members-only videos and age-restricted videos.

4Get the transcript and an AI summary in one step

The main URL to Text converter on the home page recognizes YouTube links too. Paste one and you'll see YouTube video detected. We'll get the full transcript. Options that only apply to web pages are turned off, and the Include timestamps checkbox becomes available.

The converter adds two extras when you're signed in. They use account credits (Add AI Prompt costs a little more than a plain transcript), and a free account includes a small monthly allowance:

• Add AI Prompt: type an instruction like "Summarize this video in 7 bullet points" or "List every book mentioned" and get the answer with the transcript.
• Define End of Article: enter a phrase that's said near the end (like "thanks for watching") and the transcript stops there, which trims sponsor reads and outros.

If you mostly want the summary, the Video Summarizer is built for that. See our guide on how to summarize a YouTube video.

5Transcribe a YouTube video that has no captions

Some videos have no captions at all: music-heavy clips, older uploads, some live recordings, or languages YouTube can't auto-caption. YouTube's Show transcript button won't appear, and caption-based tools return "This video has no captions."

The fix is to transcribe the audio with speech recognition instead:

1. Open Audio & Video to Text.
2. Choose Paste a link and paste the YouTube link, or choose Upload a file if you have the video or audio saved (MP3, M4A, WAV, MP4, MOV and more, up to 95 MB).
3. Click Transcribe. The speech is turned into text with Whisper, an AI speech recognition model, usually in under a minute.
4. Click Copy, or Download .txt.

It works for up to 15 minutes per video without an account, or up to 60 minutes when you sign in (free). The language is detected automatically. For YouTube links that do have captions, it simply uses those. Downloading audio from YouTube is limited each day, so if a link fails, save the audio or video file you have the rights to and upload it instead.

Tip: If a long video is over the limit and you have the file, export just the audio as an MP3 or M4A. Audio-only files are far smaller than video.

6Download the transcript as an SRT or VTT subtitle file

A transcript is plain text. A subtitle file also times every line, so a video player or editor can show it on screen. The two common formats are SRT (for YouTube, Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut and most players) and VTT (for websites and HTML5 video).

Any video: use a subtitle generator

1. Open the Subtitle Generator.
2. Paste the YouTube link (or upload the video file).
3. Click Generate subtitles.
4. Switch between the SRT, VTT and Text tabs, edit any words in the box if you need to (the timings stay the same), then click Download .srt or Download .vtt.

Captions are kept to at most two lines of 42 characters each, the size most players and editors expect.

Your own videos: YouTube Studio

If you uploaded the video, you can download its captions directly:

1. Go to YouTube Studio and click Subtitles in the left menu.
2. Click the video, then find the language you want.
3. Open the ⋮ (options) menu next to that caption track and choose Download.
4. Pick a format, such as .srt or .vtt.

YouTube only lets you download caption files from your own channel this way.

7Get a transcript in another language

There are two different things people mean here.

The video already has captions in your language. Many videos have several tracks. On a computer, switch the language from the menu at the bottom of the transcript panel (section 1).

You want a translation of a foreign-language video. YouTube can auto-translate captions while you watch: click the Settings (gear) icon in the player, then Subtitles/CC›Auto-translate, and choose a language. This translates the on-screen captions, but the transcript panel usually only lists the tracks the video really has, so it isn't a way to copy a translated transcript.

To get a translated transcript you can copy:

1. Open the Video Transcript Translator.
2. Pick a language under Translate into (33 languages, from Spanish and Portuguese to Hindi, Arabic, Japanese and Korean).
3. Paste the YouTube link or upload a file, then click Translate.
4. Switch between the Translation and Original tabs, then Copy or download.

The video's own language is detected automatically, so it works for a Spanish video into English as easily as an English lecture into Spanish.

8Get YouTube transcripts in bulk or with an API

Doing a playlist, a whole channel, or building transcripts into an app? Use code instead of the website.

The URL to Text API

Send the video link to the URL to Text API and you get the transcript back as text. Sign up to get your API key from your account; each request uses a small number of credits.

curl -X POST https://urltotext.com/api/v1/urltotext/ \
  -H "Authorization: Token YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID", "include_timestamps": true}'

The transcript is in data.content in the JSON response. To do a list of videos in Python:

import requests

videos = [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID_1",
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID_2",
]

for url in videos:
    response = requests.post(
        "https://urltotext.com/api/v1/urltotext/",
        headers={"Authorization": "Token YOUR_API_KEY"},
        json={"url": url, "include_timestamps": False},
        timeout=60,
    )
    print(url)
    print(response.json()["data"]["content"])

The same endpoint also turns web pages into text or Markdown, so one integration covers both. You can add an ai_prompt to summarize each transcript in the same call.

The youtube-transcript-api Python library

If you'd rather run it yourself, the open-source youtube-transcript-api library reads YouTube's captions directly (version 1.x uses an instance and fetch):

from youtube_transcript_api import YouTubeTranscriptApi

ytt_api = YouTubeTranscriptApi()
transcript = ytt_api.fetch("VIDEO_ID", languages=["en", "es"])  # tries English, then Spanish

for snippet in transcript.snippets:
    print(f"{snippet.start:7.1f}s  {snippet.text}")

It also has a command line tool (youtube_transcript_api VIDEO_ID --languages en) and formatters for plain text, JSON and SRT.

Limitations: YouTube often blocks requests from cloud servers (AWS, Google Cloud, DigitalOcean and similar), so scripts that work on your laptop can fail once deployed. The library supports proxies for this. A hosted API like URL to Text handles that part for you.

Auto-generated vs uploaded captions: how accurate are they?

Every YouTube transcript comes from one of two kinds of captions:

• Uploaded captions are written or checked by the creator (or a captioning service). They're usually accurate, punctuated, and have names spelled right.
• Auto-generated captions are made by YouTube's speech recognition. YouTube labels them, for example English (auto-generated). They're good on clear speech in common languages, and weaker on accents, crosstalk, music, jargon, and names.

Typical problems in auto-generated transcripts: missing or odd punctuation, homophones ("their" for "there"), product and people's names spelled phonetically, and no speaker labels.

Tips for a cleaner transcript:

• Check the transcript panel's language menu. If there's a track without "(auto-generated)", use that one. The URL to Text generator picks human-written captions first automatically.
• When the auto captions are poor, try transcribing the audio with Whisper instead. It often handles punctuation and accents better.
• Paste the transcript into ChatGPT or Claude and ask it to "fix punctuation and obvious transcription errors without changing the wording."
• Before you quote someone, check the line against the video. Click the timestamp to jump there.

Using a YouTube transcript with ChatGPT or Claude

This is what most people do with a transcript: summarize a 2-hour podcast, turn a lecture into notes, or pull quotes from an interview. ChatGPT and Claude usually can't watch a YouTube video from its link, but they read a pasted transcript very well.

1. Get the transcript with the YouTube Transcript Generator. Turn on Include timestamps if you want the answer to point to moments in the video.
2. Click Copy.
3. In ChatGPT or Claude, write your request, then paste the transcript below it.

Prompts that work well:

• "Summarize this video transcript in 5 to 8 bullet points, then list the 3 most useful takeaways."
• "Turn this transcript into study notes with headings, key terms and definitions, and 5 quiz questions."
• "Using the timestamps, make a list of chapters with the time each topic starts."
• "Find every claim with a number in it, and give the timestamp for each."

For more templates (chapters, action items, study notes) and tips for very long videos, see how to summarize a YouTube video.

Is it legal to copy a YouTube transcript?

Reading a transcript, or copying it for your own notes, study or research, is generally fine. The words still belong to the creator, though. Quoting short parts with credit is usually covered by fair use in the US, but republishing a whole transcript, or turning someone's video into your own article without permission, can infringe their copyright. Ask the creator when in doubt. This isn't legal advice.

Frequently asked questions

How do I get the transcript of a YouTube video?

On a computer, click ...more under the video, then Show transcript. In the YouTube app, tap the title, scroll down and tap Show transcript. To copy the whole transcript as clean text, paste the link into the free YouTube Transcript Generator and click Convert.

How do I copy a YouTube transcript without timestamps?

In YouTube's transcript panel, click the ⋮ menu and choose Toggle timestamps, then select the text and copy it. Or paste the link into the YouTube Transcript Generator with Include timestamps unticked and click Copy.

Is there a free YouTube transcript generator?

Yes. The URL to Text YouTube Transcript Generator is free with no sign-up. Paste a link, choose whether you want timestamps, and click Convert. Free use is rate limited.

Why doesn't a YouTube video have a transcript?

The video has no captions. That happens when the creator didn't add any and YouTube couldn't generate them, for example because of music, poor audio or an unsupported language. You can still transcribe its audio with Audio & Video to Text.

Can I get the transcript of a YouTube Short?

Yes. Paste the Shorts link into the YouTube Transcript Generator. To see it on YouTube itself on a computer, change /shorts/VIDEO_ID in the address to /watch?v=VIDEO_ID and open the description.

How do I download a YouTube transcript as a file?

For a text file, use Audio & Video to Text and click Download .txt, or copy the result from the transcript generator. For a subtitle file with timings, use the Subtitle Generator and download .srt or .vtt.

Can I get a transcript of a YouTube video in another language?

If the video has captions in that language, switch the language in the transcript panel. To translate a transcript, use the Video Transcript Translator, which supports 33 languages.

Is there an API for YouTube transcripts?

Yes. POST the video URL to https://urltotext.com/api/v1/urltotext/ with your API key, and add "include_timestamps": true if you want times. See the API documentation. For a do-it-yourself option in Python, there's the open-source youtube-transcript-api library.

Which method should you use?

• Reading along with the video: YouTube's own Show transcript.
• The whole transcript as text, now: the YouTube Transcript Generator.
• No captions: Audio & Video to Text.
• A subtitle file: the Subtitle Generator.
• A translation: the Video Transcript Translator.
• Dozens or thousands of videos: the URL to Text API.

Need text from web pages too? The free URL to Text Chrome extension copies any article as clean text or Markdown in one click.