YouTube Transcript Extractor
Free YouTube transcript extractor — paste a video URL to pull its available captions as clean, timestamped text you can copy, download or repurpose.
About the YouTube Transcript Extractor
Transcripts turn a video into searchable, repurposable text — perfect for notes, blog posts, subtitles, translation and accessibility. This free YouTube transcript extractor takes a video URL, requests its caption track server-side, and returns the transcript as clean, timestamped text you can copy or download.
It works with videos that have captions available — either creator-uploaded subtitles or YouTube's automatic speech recognition. When a transcript is available, you get every line with its timestamp; when a video has captions disabled or restricted, the tool explains exactly how to open the transcript panel on YouTube manually instead of failing silently.
Paste a link, extract, and use the text however you need — summarise a lecture, quote an interview, draft show notes, or feed it into a translator. The caption fetch runs through our proxy because browsers block cross-origin requests to YouTube's servers.
How to Use the YouTube Transcript Extractor
- 1Copy the YouTube video URL you want to transcribe.
- 2Paste it into the input and click Extract transcript.
- 3Review the timestamped transcript that appears.
- 4Copy or download the text, or follow the fallback steps if captions are restricted.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get a transcript from a YouTube video?
Paste the video URL into this tool and click extract — it requests the video's caption track and returns the timestamped text. If the automated fetch is blocked, you can also open the video on YouTube, click the three-dot menu below it, choose 'Show transcript', and copy the text from the panel.
Why do some videos have no transcript?
A transcript only exists if the video has captions — either uploaded by the creator or generated automatically by YouTube. Creators can disable captions, and auto-captions may be unavailable for some languages, very new uploads, or music-heavy videos, in which case there is no transcript to extract.
Are the timestamps accurate?
Timestamps come directly from the caption track, so they align with when each line is spoken. Creator-uploaded captions are usually precise; YouTube's automatic captions are close but can drift slightly or mis-transcribe unusual words, so proofread if accuracy matters.
Can I extract transcripts in other languages?
If the video offers captions in multiple languages, you can extract whichever track is available. Auto-generated captions are usually in the video's spoken language; some videos also carry human or auto-translated tracks. Availability depends entirely on what the creator and YouTube provide.
Is it legal to use a YouTube transcript?
Using a transcript for personal notes, study, or accessibility is generally fine. Republishing a creator's content verbatim may raise copyright concerns, so quote briefly with attribution or use the transcript as research rather than copying it wholesale. Always respect the original creator's rights.