Free tool
Free YouTube Transcript Generator
Convert any YouTube video to text instantly. Paste a URL to get the full transcript — copy, download, or use it however you need.
How to Convert YouTube Videos to Text
Three steps to transcribe any YouTube video — no account needed.
- Paste the YouTube URLCopy the link from any YouTube video and paste it into the input field above. Supports standard video URLs, shortened youtu.be links, and playlist URLs.
- Get the transcript instantlyClick "Get Transcript" and the tool fetches the full video transcript — with or without timestamps. Toggle timestamps on or off to match your use case. This free YouTube to text transcription works on any video with captions enabled.
- Copy or download in any formatCopy the transcript to your clipboard in one click, or download it in the format you need: plain text (.txt), timestamped TXT, SRT subtitles, WebVTT (.vtt), Markdown (.md), JSON, or PDF. All formats are generated client-side — your content stays private.
- Use it however you needPaste the text into your notes app, search it, feed it to an AI for further analysis, or drop the SRT file into a video editor. The converted YouTube transcript is plain text — portable, searchable, and format-agnostic.
Who Uses YouTube Transcript Downloads?
From students to journalists — here's why people transcribe YouTube videos every day.
- Free YouTube transcript generator — no account, no login, no watermarks
- Convert any YouTube video to text in seconds with one click
- Download YouTube transcripts as TXT, SRT, VTT, Markdown, JSON, or PDF
- Extract YouTube transcripts with or without timestamps
- Works with any language supported by YouTube captions
- YouTube to text converter with adjustable timestamp grouping (every line, 5s, 10s, 30s, or 1 min)
- Perfect for students, researchers, journalists, content creators, and accessibility
- AI summary available alongside any transcript — with a free credit on sign-up
Students & Researchers
Transcribe lectures, documentaries, and talks. Search the full text, highlight key passages, and cite exact quotes — without rewatching the video.
Content Creators
Repurpose video content into blog posts, social captions, and newsletters. Download YouTube transcripts with timestamps to create accurate subtitles for your own videos.
Journalists & Writers
Get accurate quotes from interviews and press conferences in seconds. Download the transcript as a text file and search it locally — no scrubbing through video timelines.
Accessibility
Read along with videos in noisy environments, or provide captions for hearing-impaired viewers by downloading the SRT or VTT file directly.
Download YouTube Transcripts in Any Format
Extract a YouTube transcript once and export it in the format that fits your workflow — subtitles, plain text, structured data, or a shareable PDF.
Clean, flowing text with no markup — ideal for pasting into notes apps, documents, or AI prompts.
The standard subtitle format. Drop the .srt file directly into Premiere, DaVinci Resolve, or any video player.
Web-native caption format for HTML5 video. Compatible with YouTube, Vimeo, and most CDN players.
Structured Markdown with the video title as a heading. Paste into Notion, Obsidian, or any Markdown editor.
Full segment data with per-segment start and end times. Use it programmatically, feed it to an API, or build custom tooling.
Print-ready PDF with the video title and full transcript. Share it with clients, colleagues, or students.
All formats support optional timestamps. Toggle timestamps on before downloading to include them in TXT, Markdown, and PDF exports. Only after the subtitle file? Use the YouTube SRT and VTT downloader instead, or get the key points with the YouTube Video Summarizer. Need transcripts for your own meetings too? See how MeetWave transcribes live meetings — no bot required.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, completely free. Paste any YouTube URL and get the full transcript with no account, no login, and no usage limits. Download in any format you need — TXT, SRT, VTT, Markdown, JSON, or PDF. The AI summary feature includes one free credit before requiring a free account.
No. Getting the transcript itself never requires an account — paste a URL and the text appears instantly. Signing up is only needed if you want to generate more than one free AI summary of a video; the transcript extraction and all download formats stay account-free.
Yes, the transcript extraction works on videos of any length, from short clips to multi-hour lectures and podcasts, since it reads YouTube's existing caption track rather than re-transcribing the audio. We checked in September 2026: across the 57 transcripts this tool delivered between 23 August and 22 September 2026, the median video ran 39 minutes and came back as 635 caption lines, the longest 3 hours 50 minutes — counted from our own log of successful runs, not from a sample of YouTube. The free AI summary covers the first portion of very long videos unless you sign up for a full-length summary.
Plain text (.txt), timestamped text, SRT subtitles (.srt), WebVTT (.vtt), Markdown (.md), JSON, and PDF. SRT and VTT drop directly into video editors and players, JSON includes per-segment start and end times, and PDF is ready to share as a document.
Paste the YouTube video URL into the input field and click "Get Transcript". Once the transcript loads, click the Download button and choose your preferred format: plain text (.txt), TXT with timestamps, SRT subtitles (.srt), WebVTT (.vtt), Markdown (.md), JSON, or PDF. All downloads happen instantly in your browser.
Copy the YouTube video link from your browser address bar or the Share button. Paste it into this YouTube to text converter and click "Get Transcript". The full video transcript appears as plain text within seconds — ready to copy, search, or download in any format.
Yes. Toggle the "Timestamps" switch to show each line prefixed with its start time (e.g. [01:23] text). You can also set how often a timestamp appears — every line, every 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 30 seconds, or every minute. Toggle it off for a clean, flowing plain-text version. Both versions are available for copy and download.
You can download the transcript as plain text (.txt), timestamped text (.txt), SRT subtitles (.srt), WebVTT (.vtt), Markdown (.md), JSON (.json), or PDF (.pdf). SRT and VTT files can be dropped directly into video editors or players. JSON includes per-segment start/end times for programmatic use.
It works for any YouTube video that has captions enabled — either auto-generated by YouTube or manually uploaded by the creator. If a video has no captions at all, the tool will let you know. Most popular videos, lectures, and interviews have auto-generated captions in the original language.
The tool extracts whatever captions YouTube has available for the video. YouTube's help page lists 67 languages for automatic captions (checked September 23, 2026). If the video has multiple caption tracks, the tool fetches the default one. Accuracy depends on YouTube's own speech recognition for auto-generated tracks — manually uploaded captions are typically more accurate.
The transcript is sourced directly from YouTube's caption system. Manually uploaded captions are usually verbatim-accurate. Auto-generated captions use YouTube's speech recognition and are generally very accurate for clear speech in common languages, but may have errors on technical terms, accents, or fast speech.
Not from captions: this tool and YouTube's own Show transcript panel both read the caption track, and a video without one has nothing to read. Between July 2 and September 22, 2026, 27 of 131 requests to our two YouTube tools (21%) hit such a video. If you have the audio or video file, upload it to our audio-to-text tool: it transcribes the sound directly, and the first file is free; if it is someone else's, ask the creator to add captions — our article on why a YouTube video has no transcript lists the six reasons YouTube gives.
A YouTube transcript generator is a tool that extracts the caption text from a YouTube video and presents it as readable, downloadable text. Instead of manually pausing and typing out what is said, you paste the video URL and get the full transcript instantly. This tool is a free YouTube transcript generator that also lets you download the result in seven different formats.
