How to get the transcript of a YouTube video
- 1
Copy the video’s link from the address bar or the Share button. Links from youtu.be and Shorts work too.
- 2
Paste it above. The transcript and a short summary appear in a few seconds.
- 3
Read it with timestamps (each one opens the video at that moment), copy the text, or download a TXT or SRT file.
Transcripts at scale, from code
The same transcripts come from one API call: send video links, get each transcript as JSON with timestamps. Summarize them with Claude, GPT or Gemini on the same API key, or let an agent call the tool over MCP.
POST /v1/tools/youtube-transcript/run { "input": { "startUrls": ["https://youtu.be/…"] } }
Frequently asked questions
Is this YouTube transcript generator free?
Yes. You can get a few transcripts a day for free, with no account. For more, or to fetch transcripts from code, use the YouTube transcript API.
Which videos work?
Any public YouTube video with captions: ones the uploader wrote, or ones YouTube generated automatically. Private videos, and videos with captions turned off, have no transcript.
Which language is the transcript in?
The language of the video’s own captions, usually the language it was recorded in. There is nothing to choose: paste the link and you get them.
How do I get transcripts for a whole channel or many videos?
Use the YouTube transcript API: send up to 50 video links per call and pay $0.0025 per transcript. The Python guide shows how to collect every video of a channel first.
What is an SRT file?
A subtitle file: each caption line with its start and end time. Video editors and players such as VLC, Premiere and DaVinci Resolve can load it.