Transcripts

How to Get a Transcript of a YouTube Video

By YoutubeToTextUpdated

To get a transcript of a YouTube video, open the video, click "...more" at the bottom of the description, then click "Show transcript". The full transcript opens in a panel beside the player, and clicking any line jumps to that moment.

Step by step:

  1. Open the video on youtube.com.
  2. Click "...more" at the bottom of the description.
  3. Scroll down and click "Show transcript".
  4. The transcript appears in a panel with a timestamp on every line.
  5. To hide the timestamps, click the three-dot menu at the top of the panel and choose "Toggle timestamps".

For most videos that is all there is to it, and it costs nothing. The rest of this guide covers the same feature on your phone, what the built-in transcript can't do, and how to get the transcript as a clean file when you need one.

Getting the transcript on your phone

The steps in the YouTube app are nearly the same:

  1. Open the video in the YouTube app.
  2. Tap the title (or the arrow next to it) to expand the description.
  3. Scroll to the bottom of the description and tap "Show transcript".

The panel works the same way as on desktop: every line has a timestamp, and tapping a line jumps to that point. It is a quick way to skim a long video or find a quote you half remember.

What the built-in transcript can't do

The panel is the right answer when you want to skim a video, follow along, or find a moment. It falls short as soon as you want the text outside of YouTube:

  • There is no download or copy button. You can select the panel text by hand and paste it elsewhere, but every timestamp comes along on its own line, so a one-hour video means a long cleanup.
  • It only exists if the video has captions. Automatic captions cover most uploads, but new videos, music-heavy videos and some languages get none, and then there is no panel to open.
  • Automatic captions are rough. They have no punctuation, no sentences and no speaker names, and they often get names, brands and technical terms wrong.
  • Languages are limited. You get the caption tracks the uploader added, plus YouTube's auto-translation, which carries every mistake in the captions underneath it.

If none of that matters for what you are doing, stop here: the built-in panel is all you need.

When you need a file: download the transcript

When the transcript has to leave YouTube, to become notes, an article draft, a subtitle file or input for an AI tool, a transcription tool takes over. With YoutubeToText it works like this:

  1. Copy the link from YouTube.
  2. Paste it into the box on our homepage and click Transcribe.
  3. In minutes you get the full transcript with punctuation, speaker labels and timestamps.
  4. Copy it in one click, or download it as TXT, DOCX, SRT or WebVTT.

The audio is transcribed fresh by ElevenLabs' Scribe model instead of read from YouTube's captions, so this also works on videos that have no captions at all. Accuracy is above 95% on our own benchmark; the accuracy page shows how we measure it. You can translate the result into 90+ languages, and videos up to 12 hours come back as one transcript. Want the transcript as notes you can search and summarize? See YouTube video to notes.

Which method should you use?

  • Use YouTube's built-in panel to skim, find a quote or jump around a long tutorial. It is free, instant and already there.
  • Use a transcription tool when you need the text as a file, need punctuation and speaker labels, need a language YouTube doesn't offer, or the video has no captions.

FAQ

Questions.
Answered.

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The "Show transcript" panel always holds the complete transcript, from start to finish, as long as the video has captions. If you want it as one clean document instead of a panel you have to scroll, paste the video link into YoutubeToText and download the whole thing as a TXT file.
Not from YouTube itself: without captions there is no transcript panel. A transcription tool listens to the audio instead of reading the captions, so it can make a transcript of any public video, including a new upload that has no automatic captions yet.
The built-in panel shows a timestamp on every line, but you cannot export it. For a file that keeps the timing, download the transcript as an SRT or WebVTT subtitle file, or as a TXT with the timestamps switched on.
A TXT file holds only the words, so it is the one to read, quote or turn into an article. An SRT file holds the same words cut into short lines, each with a start and end time, so a video player can show them as subtitles. WebVTT is the web version of SRT.
Downloading a transcript for your own use, such as study notes, research or finding a quote, is generally seen as fair use in the US. Publishing it or using it commercially is different: the words belong to the creator, so ask for permission and credit the video. This is general information, not legal advice.