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Free YouTube Transcript

Paste a YouTube link. Get the full text in seconds. 125+ languages, no signup. Built for notes, AI prompts, and our YouTube transcript API.

Drop your YouTube link here

  • No signup
  • 125+ languages
  • Free forever

Building something? Use the YouTube Transcript API →

How to get a YouTube transcript

No accounts. No extensions. Three steps from link to text.

  1. Paste the YouTube link

    Full URL, share link, Shorts URL, or just the video ID. We figure out the rest.

  2. We pull the captions

    Our server fetches the transcript in the video’s original language. Human captions when they exist, auto-generated when they don’t.

  3. Copy the text or send it to AI

    Clean plain text. Drop it in your notes, paste it into ChatGPT or Claude for a summary, or pipe it through the API.

Who uses this

Captions live inside YouTube’s player. Pulled out as plain text, they unlock everything else.

Students

Watch a lecture once, read it back later. Highlight what matters or paste a chapter into ChatGPT for a study guide.

Journalists and writers

Pull exact quotes from interviews, press conferences, and panels without rewinding fifty times.

Content creators

Turn one YouTube video into a blog post, a newsletter, and a week of social posts. Editors work from text, not a 40-minute upload.

Podcasters

Publish full transcripts and show notes. Better SEO, easier to search, accessible to people who prefer reading.

Language learners

Read along while you watch. Look up words you couldn’t catch by ear.

Researchers and analysts

Search across hours of footage in seconds. Find the exact moment someone said the thing.

Developers

Need transcripts in bulk? Use the YouTube transcript API. JSON in, JSON out, thousands of videos a day.

What you get

The boring checklist. It’s here because people ask.

  • 125+ languages.

    Any caption track YouTube has, auto-generated or human-uploaded, in the original language.

  • Plain text by default.

    No timestamps, no markup. Paste it anywhere.

  • Fast and cached.

    Most transcripts return in a couple of seconds. Repeat lookups of the same video are instant.

  • No signup to try.

    Paste, click, copy. Sign up only when you want higher daily limits or API access.

  • Works with every AI tool.

    Plain text drops straight into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, NotebookLM, or your own pipeline.

  • REST API for scale.

    Same engine, exposed as JSON. Pull thousands of transcripts a day from your own code.

Pair it with ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini

A transcript is the cheapest way to make any AI tool understand a YouTube video. Copy the text, paste it into your chat, add a prompt. Three we use every day:

  • Summarize a long talk

    Summarize this YouTube transcript in 5 bullet points and pull out any quotable lines.

  • Turn a video into a blog post

    Rewrite this YouTube transcript as a short blog post with an intro, three sections, and a takeaway.

  • Ask a question about the video

    Based on this YouTube transcript, answer: <your question>. Quote the part of the transcript you used.

Pulling YouTube transcripts at scale?

Use the YouTube Transcript API. JSON in, JSON out. Same engine that powers this page.

See the API

Frequently asked questions

Something not covered here? Drop us a line.

  • Is it really free?
    Yes. Every visitor can fetch a transcript without signing up. Sign up for 100 free credits when you need more, and only pay when those run out.
  • What videos work?
    Any public YouTube video that already has captions, auto-generated or human-uploaded. Private and members-only videos do not work.
  • What languages does the YouTube transcript support?
    Whatever language YouTube has captions in for that video (125+ in practice). We return the transcript in the original language by default.
  • How do I summarize a YouTube video with ChatGPT?
    Copy the transcript from this page, paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini, and ask for a summary, bullet points, or Q&A. The transcript is plain text, so any AI tool handles it.
  • Is there a YouTube transcript API?
    Yes. The same engine that powers this page is available as a REST API. Sign up, grab a key, and pull transcripts from your own code. See the developer page for endpoints and pricing.