How to extract and download a YouTube transcript
Almost every YouTube video with captions has a full transcript behind it: every spoken line, in order, with the second it was said. YouTube shows it in a narrow side panel. A YouTube transcript extractor pulls that text out so you can read it, search it, copy it and keep it.
The tool on this page is a free YouTube transcript downloader that needs nothing installed. Paste a link and the transcript appears next to the video in a few seconds, either as readable paragraphs or line by line with timestamps.
How to use the transcript extractor
- Copy the link of the video. A normal watch link works, and so do
youtu.beshort links, Shorts links, live replay links, embed links and a bare 11-character video ID. - Paste it into the box at the top of this page and press Get transcript.
- Read it in the Paragraphs view, or switch to Timestamped to see when each line was said. In the timestamped view, click any line and the video player beside it jumps to that moment.
- Type a word into the find box. Every match is highlighted, the count shows how many there are, and the transcript scrolls to the first one.
- With a free Claras account, press Copy transcript or Download .txt. Both give you the view you are looking at.
What you get back
- Paragraphs. The caption lines joined into paragraphs, breaking after a sentence once a paragraph reaches about 70 words. It reads like a document, which makes it the better view for quoting, note-taking and pasting into another app.
- Timestamped lines. Every caption line with its start time, such as
[12:04]. This is the view for finding a moment, citing a quote, or checking what was said around a point. - Word count and reading time. Shown under the video, with reading time estimated at 230 words a minute, so you know whether you are about to read a page or a small book.
- The video itself, playing beside the text, so you can listen to any line you are not sure about.
Where the transcript comes from
The extractor reads the captions YouTube already has for the video. Those are either subtitles the creator uploaded or captions YouTube generated automatically from the speech. The tool does not listen to the audio itself, so a video with no captions has no transcript here. When that happens you will see a message saying so rather than an empty page.
It asks for English first. If the video has no English captions, it returns the captions in the video's own language, not a machine translation into English. Transcripts are cached once fetched, so a video that someone has opened before usually comes back faster.
The Claras app goes one step further: when a YouTube video has no captions, it can transcribe the audio with AI, up to a length that depends on your plan.
What people use a transcript for
- Study notes. Read a lecture in a third of the time it takes to watch, and keep the text next to your notes. Search it for the term your exam is about.
- Accurate quotes. Copy a speaker's exact words for an essay, an article or a script instead of transcribing by ear. The citation generator formats the reference.
- Research. Search a two-hour interview or podcast for every mention of a name, a product or a number, then click the timestamp to hear it in context.
- Working with AI. Paste the transcript into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini and ask your own questions about it. The paragraphs view pastes cleanly.
- Reading instead of watching. Some people simply read faster than a video plays, or cannot play sound where they are.
- Repurposing your own videos. A transcript is the raw material for show notes, a newsletter or an article. If you want a first draft written for you, try video to blog post.
Transcript extractor vs YouTube's own transcript panel
On a computer, YouTube can show a transcript under the video: open the description and press Show transcript. It is useful for a quick look. But the panel is narrow, it mixes a timestamp into every line, and copying a long transcript out of it means selecting text down a long scrolling list.
The extractor shows the same caption text in a wide reading view, lets you drop the timestamps entirely, finds words for you and gives you a file. If you want to learn every manual way to get a transcript, including on a phone, read our step-by-step guide.
Transcript extractor vs subtitle downloader
Both tools read the same captions. The difference is what you want at the end. The subtitle downloader is for files with timing: an .srt file you can load into a video editor or media player. This extractor is for text you want to read and work with: paragraphs, search, and a plain .txt. If you are not sure which you need, you probably want this one.
Tips and edge cases
- Automatic captions mishear things. Names, brands and technical terms are the usual victims. If a detail matters, switch to the timestamped view and listen to that line.
- Punctuation depends on the captions. Automatic captions often have few full stops, so some paragraphs break by length instead of at the end of a sentence.
- Private videos can't be read. If you have to be signed in to watch a video, the tool can't fetch its captions either.
- Music videos return the lyrics when the video has captions for them.
- Not on YouTube? Use the Instagram transcript generator or the TikTok transcript generator. For an audio file, try MP3 to text.
Is the transcript extractor free?
Your first transcript is free and needs no account. Copying, downloading and further transcripts take a free Claras account, which gives you 3 videos a month with no card. To keep the tool free for everyone it allows about 5 transcripts a day from one connection, and if the shared service is busy it says so and asks you to try again in a few minutes.
From transcript to understanding
A transcript gives you every word. Most of the time you want the point. In Claras, the same transcript sits next to an AI summary with the key points, clickable chapters, and a chat that answers your questions with the timestamp it found the answer at. The transcript tab has a download button and a Send to AI menu that sends the text to Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Gemini Notebook or Perplexity in one click.
Claras runs as a Chrome extension on YouTube and as a web app in any browser. Both paid plans, Pro and Unlimited, start with 14 days free. See pricing or start with a free account.