YouTube transcript extractor, free and instant

How the transcript extractor works

The tool reads the captions that already exist on a YouTube video, manual or auto-generated, and shows them line by line with the time each line starts. It does not listen to the audio and runs no speech recognition of its own: if a video has no captions, there is nothing to extract, and the tool says so instead of guessing.

It accepts the usual forms of a video link: a standard watch URL, a youtu.be short link, a Shorts link or an embed link. A channel page or a playlist page on its own is not a video link, so it is refused.

How to use it, step by step

1. Copy the address of the video from your browser, or from the Share button on YouTube.
2. Paste it in the field above and press Get the transcript (or Enter).
3. Read the transcript. Each line starts with its timestamp; untick Timestamps to read the text alone.
4. Type a word in the search box to keep only the lines that contain it. It is the fastest way to find a quote, or the moment a topic comes up.
5. Click Copy to put the full text on your clipboard, or open Download and pick a format.

The thumbnail next to the search box opens the video on YouTube, so you can check a line against the audio.

The five export formats

Format	What the file contains	Typical use
.txt	The full text as one block, without timestamps	Pasting into a document or an AI assistant
.md	One paragraph per line, each starting with its timestamp in bold	Notes, research files, a first outline
.srt	Numbered subtitle cues with a start and an end time	Video editors and subtitle tools
.vtt	The same cues in WebVTT format	HTML5 video players
.json	The video ID and every line with its start time in seconds	Scripts and developers

Each file is named after the video ID, for example transcript-VIDEOID.txt. The Copy button gives the same text as the .txt file.

Limits worth knowing before you paste a link

• Captions are required. Videos without captions, private videos and members-only videos cannot return a transcript, and neither can some region-locked videos.
• Auto-generated captions keep their errors. The text comes back as YouTube provides it. Names, brands and technical terms are the usual weak spots, so proofread before you quote anyone.
• No translation, no language choice. The tool returns one existing caption track as it is.
• Timing is rounded to the second. In the SRT and VTT files, each cue ends when the next one starts, and the last cue lasts four seconds. That is enough to read along or to lay down working subtitles; for precise subtitles, adjust the timing in an editor.
• A daily limit per visitor. The tool is free and needs no account, within a daily number of extractions per visitor.

What to do with the transcript next

Pull exact quotes. Search for a keyword, copy the line, and use the timestamp to point to the moment. If the video is an interview, our guide on how to turn a video interview into a blog post covers quoting a guest without distorting what they said.

Subtitle a video you edit. Download the SRT or VTT file, import it into your editor, then fix the wording and the timing where needed.

Start a blog post. A transcript is raw material, not an article: spoken language repeats itself, has no headings and rarely opens with the answer. Our pillar guide on how to turn YouTube videos into blog posts walks through the cleanup and the restructuring, and our explainer on what Google does with a published transcript shows why a raw transcript rarely earns its place in search.

To compare other ways of getting the text, including YouTube's own transcript panel, see how to transcribe a YouTube video to text. To go straight from a URL to a finished article, our comparison of the best video-to-blog tools weighs the options, video2blog.ai included.

The button that appears above the transcript sends the same video into video2blog.ai, where the article is generated. Your first article is free, with no card; exporting and publishing it opens the 7-day free trial (card required, no charge if you cancel before day 7).