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Transcribe
Free to use · No sign-up

Free YouTube transcript generator

Paste a link and get the full transcript in seconds. Search it, jump to any moment, listen to it, and download it in the format that works for you.

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Everything you need after the transcript loads

Transcribe reads the same public caption tracks that power YouTube’s own “Show transcript” panel, then gives you real tools on top of them.

  • Start instantly

    Paste a YouTube link and get straight to the transcript. No setup, installation, or account needed.

  • Search across the transcript

    Jump between every match with keyboard-friendly navigation, and see exactly where each hit sits in the video.

  • Seven export formats

    Download TXT, Markdown, PDF, JSON, or CSV, plus subtitle formats when precise timings are available.

  • Click a line, play the video

    Use any available timestamp to jump straight to that moment in the video.

  • Reading stats built in

    Word count, reading time, speaking pace, and the most frequent terms, calculated instantly.

  • Reads aloud

    Listen with the most natural voice available on your device, without uploading the transcript.

How to get a YouTube transcript

  1. 1

    Copy the video link

    Watch URLs, youtu.be short links, Shorts, embeds, and bare video IDs all work.

  2. 2

    Paste it above

    Transcribe finds the available captions for you — no setup, uploads, or waiting around.

  3. 3

    Read, search, export

    Jump to any timestamp, search every line, and download in the format your workflow needs.

Export formats

  • TXTPlain text

    Timestamped or clean prose.

  • PDFPDF document

    Formatted and ready to share.

  • SRTSubRip subtitles

    Standard editor-ready captions.

  • VTTWebVTT

    For HTML5 video players.

  • JSONJSON data

    Cue timings for developers.

  • CSVSpreadsheet

    One row per caption cue.

Subtitle exports use precise cue timings, so SRT and VTT files line up correctly in video editors.

Frequently asked questions

Why does a video sometimes have no transcript?
Transcribe can only read captions that exist on YouTube. If the creator disabled captions and YouTube generated none, the "Show transcript" button is missing on YouTube too, and there is nothing to fetch. Private, age-restricted, and members-only videos are also unreadable.
Can I get transcripts in other languages?
Yes. Transcribe prefers a human-written track in your chosen language, falls back to the auto-generated one, and can ask YouTube to machine-translate a track when no native version exists.
What formats can I export?
TXT, Markdown, PDF, JSON, and CSV are available for every transcript. SRT and VTT are also available when the source provides precise subtitle timings.
How accurate are the captions?
Accuracy depends on the captions supplied for the video. Automatic captions are often strong for clear speech but may miss punctuation, names, or technical terms.