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Free YouTube transcript generator

Paste a YouTube link and get the video's transcript in seconds — free, no sign-up. Copy it, or download it as TXT, SRT or VTT. When you need speaker labels and text you can quote, our editors finish the job from $0.80 per audio minute.

Need it transcribed properly?

A first-pass draft, a professional editor and a separate quality check.
Speaker labels, accurate names and terms, timestamps on request.
Your USD price the moment the upload finishes, from $0.80 per minute.
NDA on request.

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How the youtube transcript generator works

Copy the video's link from YouTube (the address bar or Share → Copy link) and paste it into the box.
Press Get the transcript. If the video has captions — the creator's own or YouTube's automatic ones — they come back as clean, readable text.
Copy the text, or download it as .txt, or as .srt and .vtt subtitle files with the original timings.
Need speaker labels, correct names and punctuation you can quote? Send the same link for a transcript checked by people.

Captions, automatic captions and human transcripts

Every YouTube video can carry two kinds of captions. Creator captions are uploaded by the channel and are usually accurate. Automatic captions are generated by YouTube's speech recognition: fast and free, but without speaker labels, often without punctuation, and prone to errors on names, accents and jargon.

The tool tells you which kind you got. For research, legal, journalism or published content, a transcript edited and quality-checked by people is the safer choice.

What people use YouTube transcripts for

Research and study — quote lectures, talks and interviews accurately.
Content repurposing — turn videos into blog posts, show notes and social posts.
Accessibility — provide text alongside video for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers.
Subtitles — download SRT or VTT files to edit, translate or re-time.

YouTube transcript generator — questions

Is the YouTube transcript generator free?

Yes — free, with no sign-up. It reads the captions that come with the video. A full transcript checked by people starts at $0.80 per audio minute, quoted before you pay by card or M-Pesa.

How do I get the transcript of a YouTube video?

Paste the video's link into the box above and press Get the transcript. You can also open the video on YouTube, choose ⋯ → Show transcript and copy it from the panel — the tool does the same thing and tidies the text into paragraphs.

Can I download YouTube captions as SRT or VTT?

Yes. When the video has a caption track, download it as .srt or .vtt with the original timings, ready for video editors and players. To change format later, use our free subtitle converter.

Why can't some videos be transcribed?

Private, members-only, age-restricted and live videos can't be read, and some videos have no captions at all. Send us the link (or upload the file) and our team will transcribe it.

How accurate are YouTube's automatic captions?

They are a useful draft but often miss speaker changes, names, numbers and technical terms, and they have little punctuation. For anything you'll publish, quote or file, have the transcript checked by people.

Is anything stored?

No. The free tool reads the captions to show them to you and keeps nothing. Paid orders and their transcripts are kept for 90 days, then deleted.

Transcripts checked by people, quoted in minutes

Upload your recordings and see the confirmed USD price as soon as the upload finishes. Every transcript is drafted, edited by a professional and quality-checked before delivery.

Send your files See sample transcripts