Remove timestamps from a YouTube transcript
Paste the text you copied from YouTube's "Show transcript" panel — the time on its own line or at the start of each line — and get plain paragraphs back. The times and the spoken "1 minute, 5 seconds" lines are removed in your browser. Text from our YouTube Transcript Generator works too. Only have the video link? Use the generator.
Paste the text from YouTube's transcript panel — or drop a file
Cleaning runs in your browser. The file is not uploaded.
Key facts · updated
- As of October 10, 2026, the transcript opens from "Show transcript" in the video description, in a panel with Chapters and Transcript tabs (YouTube Help).
- Public guides checked on October 10, 2026 describe two layouts for text copied from that panel: the time on its own line above the words, and the time at the start of the same line.
- This page reads both layouts and the [mm:ss] lines our YouTube Transcript Generator writes, so there is nothing to choose before pasting.
Where your transcript comes from
From YouTube's own help and public samples, checked . YouTube changes its panel, so the cleaner reads what it finds rather than what the page promises.
The YouTube transcript panel
- The panel opens from "Show transcript" under the description; its header reads "In this video", with the tabs "Chapters" and "Transcript".
- Copied by hand, a line comes in one of two layouts: the time on a line of its own with the words on the next, or the time and the words on the same line. The cleaner reads both.
- With the time on its own line, a spoken form such as "1 minute, 5 seconds" can follow it. The cleaner removes those lines too.
- Text from our own YouTube transcript tool arrives as "[mm:ss] text" lines, which the cleaner reads as well.
Only have the link? Get the transcript from the video URL.
A transcript from Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, Otter, Loom or Word? Remove timestamps from any transcript.
Doing it in Word or Google Docs
Prefer find-and-replace in Word or Google Docs? The patterns and the steps are on the transcript cleaner page.
Example: before and after
Input — text copied from the "Show transcript" panel, time on its own line
0:00
0 seconds
hey everyone welcome back to the channel
0:04
4 seconds
today we're looking at three ways to
0:07
7 seconds
clean up a transcript
1:05
1 minute, 5 seconds
so the first thing you want to do is
Output — times removed, lines joined into paragraphs
hey everyone welcome back to the channel today we're looking at three ways to clean up a transcript
so the first thing you want to do is
A new paragraph starts after a pause of 3 seconds or more, or after about 80 words.
How it works
Copy the text from YouTube
Open the video, expand the description and click Show transcript. Select the lines in the panel and copy them. Text from our YouTube Transcript Generator, in [mm:ss] lines, works as well.
Paste it here
Paste into the box. The page recognises the YouTube layout, whether the time is on its own line or in front of the words, and cleans it at once.
Pick the paragraphs
Lines are joined into paragraphs at a pause of 3 seconds or more, or after about 80 words. Turn on filler words to take out "um" and "uh" and sound tags like [Music].
Copy or save
Copy the text, or save a .txt or a Word file. Only have the video link, not the copied text? The YouTube Transcript Generator fetches it from the link.