Transcribe any YouTube video to accurate text in seconds. Free online tool with AI-powered Whisper transcription, timestamps, SRT/VTT export, and 100+ language support. No signup required.
YouTubeTranscripts.co transcribes any YouTube video to text in under 2 seconds — paste the URL, get the full transcript. The tool pulls official captions when available and falls back to AI-powered Whisper transcription (95%+ accuracy) for uncaptioned videos. Over 90,000 people search for ways to transcribe YouTube videos every month. This page gives you the fastest, most accurate way to do it — completely free, no account required.
Grab the link from your browser address bar, the YouTube share button, or the mobile app. YouTubeTranscripts.co accepts all URL formats: youtube.com/watch?v=, youtu.be/ short links, and videos within playlists.
Our system first checks for official captions (manual or auto-generated). If the video has no captions at all, we automatically run AI transcription via OpenAI Whisper — no extra steps needed. The entire process takes under 2 seconds for captioned videos.
The full transcript appears on screen with timestamps. Copy it to your clipboard with one click, or download as plain text, SRT, VTT, or JSON. Use the language selector to grab transcripts in any of 100+ supported languages.
Paste Video URL
Any YouTube link — long or short format
Auto-Transcribe
Captions extracted or AI generates text
Copy or Download
Text, SRT, VTT, or JSON output
Most YouTube transcription tools either require browser extensions, limit free usage, or can't handle videos without captions. YouTubeTranscripts.co solves all three.
Works in any browser, on any device. No Chrome extension to install, no account to create, no email to verify. Paste a URL, get a transcript.
Videos without captions are automatically transcribed using OpenAI Whisper. Accuracy is 95%+ for clear spoken audio in English, with strong support for 100+ other languages.
Captioned videos return a full transcript in under 1.5 seconds. AI transcription for uncaptioned videos takes 5-15 seconds depending on video length.
Download as plain text for reading, SRT or VTT for video editing software, or JSON for developers building automations and pipelines.
Language is detected automatically from the video's metadata. You can also manually specify a language code to get transcripts in Spanish, Japanese, Arabic, Hindi, and more.
Need to transcribe videos programmatically? The REST API handles single videos and batches of up to 25. SDKs available for Python, JavaScript, and PHP.
Choose the format that fits your workflow. All four formats include the complete transcript — they differ in structure and metadata.
| Format | Use Case | Includes Timestamps | File Extension |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plain Text | Blog posts, notes, reading | No | .txt |
| Timestamps | Video navigation, quoting | Yes (mm:ss) | .txt |
| SRT | Video editing (Premiere, DaVinci, Final Cut) | Yes (hh:mm:ss,ms) | .srt |
| VTT | Web video players, HTML5 subtitles | Yes (hh:mm:ss.ms) | .vtt |
| JSON | API integrations, RAG pipelines, data analysis | Yes (offset_ms) | .json |
Automate transcription with a single API call. The endpoint accepts any YouTube URL and returns the full transcript in your chosen format. 150 free requests — no credit card required.
# Transcribe a YouTube video with curl
curl "https://api.youtubetranscripts.co/v1/transcript" \
-H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
-d '{"url": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"}'
# Python — one-liner
from youtubetranscripts import YouTubeTranscripts
client = YouTubeTranscripts(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")
transcript = client.get_transcript("https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID")
print(transcript.text)
# JavaScript / Node.js
import { YouTubeTranscripts } from "youtubetranscripts";
const client = new YouTubeTranscripts({ apiKey: "YOUR_API_KEY" });
const transcript = await client.getTranscript("https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID");
console.log(transcript.text);/v1/transcript?url=youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID&format=json{
"video_id": "VIDEO_ID",
"title": "How to Build a REST API",
"lang": "en",
"source": "caption_auto",
"word_count": 2847,
"content": [
{ "text": "Welcome to this tutorial on building REST APIs.", "offset_ms": 1200 },
{ "text": "We will cover authentication, routing, and deployment.", "offset_ms": 4800 },
{ "text": "Let us start by setting up our project.", "offset_ms": 8200 }
]
}YouTube transcription serves professionals across content creation, education, research, and software development.
Repurpose a 20-minute video into a 2,000-word blog post, a Twitter thread, a LinkedIn article, and email newsletter content — all from one transcript.
Transcribe lectures, conference talks, and interviews for searchable study notes. Build text corpora for qualitative research without manual transcription.
Many podcasts are published on YouTube. Transcribe episodes to create show notes, pull quotes, and improve discoverability through SEO.
Feed transcripts into RAG pipelines (LangChain, LlamaIndex), fine-tuning datasets, or sentiment analysis workflows. JSON format integrates directly.
Provide text alternatives for video content to comply with ADA, WCAG 2.1, and Section 508 requirements. Download SRT files for caption overlays.
Search transcripts for exact quotes with timestamps. Verify claims by cross-referencing spoken words against source material.
We compared the three most popular YouTube transcription tools side-by-side. Here is how they stack up as of April 2026.
| Feature | YouTubeTranscripts.co | NoteGPT | Tactiq |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price (free tier) | Unlimited web + 150 API | 5 videos/mo | 10 transcripts/mo |
| Requires extension | No | No | Yes |
| AI transcription | Yes (Whisper) | Yes (GPT-based) | No |
| API + SDKs | REST + Python, JS, PHP | No API | No API |
| Batch processing | 25 videos/request | No | No |
| Export formats | Text, SRT, VTT, JSON | Text, PDF | Text |
| Avg response time | <1.5s | 3-8s | 3-5s |
Go to YouTubeTranscripts.co, paste the YouTube video URL into the input field, and click 'Get Transcript'. The full text appears in under 2 seconds. No signup, no extension, no payment required. You can copy the transcript or download it as a text file.
Yes. YouTubeTranscripts.co uses AI-powered Whisper transcription for videos without captions. When no official or auto-generated captions exist, our system automatically processes the audio and generates a transcript with 95%+ accuracy for clear spoken English.
For videos with official captions, accuracy matches what YouTube displays — typically 98%+. For AI-generated transcripts (uncaptioned videos), accuracy is 95%+ for clear English audio. Background music, overlapping speakers, and heavy accents can reduce accuracy to 85-90%.
YouTubeTranscripts.co supports 100+ languages. The most common include English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese (Mandarin), Korean, Arabic, Hindi, Russian, and Italian. Language is auto-detected, but you can specify one manually.
Videos with existing captions are transcribed in under 1.5 seconds. Videos without captions require AI processing, which takes 5-15 seconds for a typical 10-minute video. Longer videos (1+ hour) may take up to 60 seconds for AI transcription.
Yes, via the API. The batch endpoint (POST /v1/transcript/batch) accepts up to 25 video URLs per request. Each video is processed in parallel, and results are returned as a single JSON response. This is ideal for building content pipelines or research datasets.
Five formats are available: plain text (clean, readable), timestamped text (with time markers), SRT (for video editing software like Premiere and DaVinci Resolve), VTT (for HTML5 web players), and JSON (structured data for developers).
The web tool has no daily limit — transcribe as many videos as you need. The API provides 150 free requests, after which you can purchase additional credits starting at $5 for 500 requests. Credits never expire.
Yes. YouTubeTranscripts.co provides a REST API with SDKs for Python, JavaScript, and PHP. Authentication uses an API key passed via the x-api-key header. Get your free API key at youtubetranscripts.co/login — no credit card required.
YouTube's built-in transcript viewer only works for videos where the creator has enabled captions. It does not support downloading, format conversion, or API access. YouTubeTranscripts.co adds AI transcription for uncaptioned videos, 5 export formats, batch processing, and a developer API.
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Paste a URL, get the full transcript. No signup, no limits on the web tool. Developers get 150 free API requests.