YouTube → text
Turn any YouTube video into a transcript.
Paste a link and get the full spoken text on its own page, with timestamps you can keep or strip. Copy it, or download it as a .txt or .srt file.
Sign in to keep a history of every video you transcribe.
Everything you need to work with video as text
Instant transcripts
Paste a link and the full spoken text appears in seconds — no signup, no browser extension, no waiting in a queue.
Timestamps you control
Keep timestamps for navigating long talks, or strip them for a clean block of prose ready to paste anywhere.
TXT and SRT exports
Download plain text for writing and research, or a subtitle-ready .srt file for editing and re-uploading video.
Every available language
Switch between all caption tracks a video publishes, including auto-generated ones, with a single click.
AI fallback
No captions at all? Upload the audio and our AI plan transcribes the speech for you instead.
Saved history
Signed-in members get a searchable history of every video they've transcribed, ready to revisit or re-export.
How it works
- 1
Copy the video link
Grab any public YouTube URL — watch pages, youtu.be short links, Shorts and embeds all work.
- 2
Paste it above
We read the caption tracks published with the video and turn them into clean, readable segments.
- 3
Copy or download
Toggle timestamps, copy the text to your clipboard, or export it as a .txt or .srt file.
Who uses YoutubeTranscripts.xyz
Manually transcribing a video takes hours. These are the people who get that time back.
Content creators
Turn a video into a blog post, newsletter or thread without rewatching it, and repurpose your back catalogue.
Students & researchers
Quote lectures accurately, search a two-hour talk for one sentence, and build notes you can actually study from.
Marketers
Mine competitor videos and webinars for messaging, keywords and quotes you can drop straight into campaigns.
Editors & subtitlers
Start from an .srt instead of typing from scratch, then fix timing and wording in your editor of choice.
Podcasters
Publish show notes and searchable episode pages so people can find your episodes through text.
Accessibility teams
Provide readable text alternatives for video content so nobody is excluded from the material.
Frequently asked questions
- Is YoutubeTranscripts.xyz free?
- Yes. Pulling captions from any public YouTube video is free and unlimited. Paid plans add AI transcription for videos with no captions.
- Do I need an account?
- No account is needed to transcribe and download. Signing in simply saves your history and unlocks paid features.
- Which links are supported?
- Standard watch URLs, youtu.be short links, Shorts, embeds, and links with playlist or timestamp parameters attached.
- What if a video has no captions?
- You'll see an option to upload the video's audio and have it transcribed by AI, which is included with the AI plan.
- How accurate are the transcripts?
- Caption transcripts are exactly what the video publishes, so human-written captions are near perfect and auto-generated ones follow YouTube's own accuracy.
- Can I use the text commercially?
- Transcripts are the creator's words. Quote and summarise fairly, and get permission before republishing a transcript wholesale.
Ready to grab your first transcript?
Caption transcripts are free and unlimited. Create an account to keep your history, or see the plans for AI transcription.