Extract Any YouTube Transcript Instantly
How it works
Drop any video URL or ID into the box. Switch to the playlist tab to pull a whole playlist instead.
We grab the captions and return clean text with timestamped segments in seconds - auto-generated or creator-uploaded.
Copy the text, download a .txt file, or switch to the API to do it at scale from your own code.
Features
Every segment carries its own start time, so you can jump to a moment instead of scanning a wall of text.
It makes no difference which kind a video has. Both are read the same way.
One click to the clipboard, or save the file if you would rather keep it.
Pull every video in a playlist and grab each transcript, instead of pasting one link at a time.
Nothing to install and no account to create.
Ready to paste into a summary, a subtitle file, or a prompt without cleaning it up first.
What you get
Welcome back. Today we're looking at how search engines index spoken content. Most of what gets said on video never makes it into a search result. Captions change that, because they turn speech into text you can query.
{ "language": "en", "segments": [ { "start": 0, "text": "A clean transcript…" }, { "start": 18, "text": "Each segment keeps…" } ] }
Tool details
Convert any public YouTube video to text - long interviews, lectures, tutorials, interviews, and Shorts. The tool reads both creator-uploaded and auto-generated captions, in any language YouTube provides them, and works straight from a watch link, a youtu.be link, or an 11-character video ID. Need a whole playlist? Switch to the playlist tab to pull a list of videos and grab each transcript.
This tool is for one-off transcripts. To pull them programmatically, the YouTube transcript API returns the same text as timestamped JSON, with a batch endpoint for whole channels and playlists. Check pricing - 50 credits a month are free and only successful fetches are billed.
If you work in an AI assistant, you can skip this page entirely: the YouTube MCP Server gives Claude, Cursor and any MCP client the same fetch as a native tool, so "summarize this video" just works, transcript included. And when a script or backend needs the text, the YouTube Transcript API returns it as JSON with timestamps, one call per video.
YouTube auto-generates captions on nearly every upload, which makes it the easiest of the major platforms to get text out of. Where TikTok and Instagram usually force speech-to-text, most YouTube videos already have a track sitting there, often in several languages.
The difference that catches people out is length. A ten-minute video is roughly 1,500 words and an hour-long lecture can pass 10,000, so a YouTube transcript is usually something you search or summarise rather than read. Timestamps matter more here than on short-form video, because finding the moment is the point.
The cases that still fail are specific: live streams while they are still running, videos where the uploader disabled captions, and clips with no speech at all. Everything else generally has something to pull.
Questions, answered
Yes. Paste any public YouTube video link to get its full transcript free, with no sign-up. The free tool is rate-limited; for higher limits and programmatic access, use the TranscriptFetch API.
Paste the video URL (or 11-character ID) into the box above and click Get transcript. You'll get the full text plus optional timestamps, which you can copy or download as a .txt file.
It returns the transcript whenever YouTube has captions available - creator-uploaded or auto-generated. If a video has no transcript, the tool tells you.
The free tool lists videos from a playlist so you can grab each transcript. Channels and keyword search are API-only, along with bulk fetching and a batch endpoint.
Yes. Transcripts come as clean text with timestamped segments, ready for summarization, search indexing, subtitles (SRT/VTT), and LLM/RAG pipelines. The API returns structured JSON for automation.
Yes. An hour-long video can produce more than 10,000 words, and the transcript comes back with per-segment timestamps so you can find the moment rather than scrolling the whole thing.
A stream that is still running has no finished caption track, so it cannot be transcribed until it ends. Once the recording is published it behaves like any other video.
Yes. Paste a youtube.com/shorts/ link exactly like a regular video link. Shorts carry the same auto-generated captions, so the transcript comes back in seconds and you can copy it or download it as text or SRT.
The free tool allows 6 transcripts a month per visitor. Create a free account for an API key with much higher limits and caption fetches at one credit each. AI Fallback Transcription is billed by audio duration, only on delivery.
Use the same transcript workflow for channels, playlists, and production. 50 free credits a month. No card required.