YouTube Transcript
A transcript turns a video into something you can skim, search, quote and translate. It is far quicker to scan a page of text for the part you need than to scrub through a timeline.
Paste a video URL and the tool retrieves the captions for that video and presents them as continuous text you can copy.
Sends data to a server. Unlike most tools on this site, YouTube Transcript needs to send what you provide to a server in order to work. Read the privacy policy before using it with anything sensitive.
How to use the YouTube Transcript
- Copy the URL of the YouTube video.
- Paste it into the input field.
- Fetch the transcript.
- Copy the text.
Things worth knowing
- The video URL is sent to a server to retrieve the captions.
- Videos with no captions, and private or restricted videos, cannot be transcribed.
- Auto-generated captions contain recognition errors.
Frequently asked questions
Is the video URL sent to a server?
Yes. The URL is sent to a hosted function which retrieves the captions and returns them. The video itself is not downloaded to your device.
Why do some videos return nothing?
Only videos that actually have captions can produce a transcript. If the uploader disabled captions and the platform generated none, there is no text to retrieve. Private and age-restricted videos are also unavailable.
How accurate is the text?
It is as accurate as the captions on the video. Human-written captions are usually reliable; automatically generated ones struggle with names, technical terms, accents and crosstalk, so proofread before quoting.