How to get a YouTube transcript
Copy the video link from YouTube, paste it in the box above, and press Get transcript. There is no file to download and nothing to install: we fetch the audio, run it through the transcription queue, and the page shows your progress until the transcript appears right here.
Every line carries the timestamp of the moment it was said, so the transcript doubles as an index into the video. When several people are speaking, each line is labeled with the speaker, which turns an interview or podcast episode into a readable dialogue.
YouTube to text with real accuracy
Auto-generated captions are a lowest-common-denominator transcript: no punctuation, no speakers, and shaky accuracy outside English. This tool transcribes the YouTube video with the exact same pipeline as our paid product, on infrastructure we operate, and per-language accuracy is published openly on our benchmarks page. Language detection is automatic across 52 languages and dialects.
What the free tool includes
One video per day, up to 45 minutes, with timestamps, speaker labels, and automatic language detection. Free transcripts are deleted automatically about 24 hours after they finish, so copy what you need or sign up to keep them.
Working with longer videos or whole channels? A free account adds signup credit, much higher length limits, exports (TXT, SRT, VTT and more), and a searchable library with cited answers to questions about your videos. See pricing for the full picture.
More free tools
Have the recording as a file instead of a link? Use the free audio to text converter, or the free video to text converter when the file is a video. Recorded lectures work best in the lecture to notes converter, and multi-speaker conversations in the free interview transcription tool. All of them, plus this one, are collected on the free tools page.