How to get a YouTube transcript
Three steps, about twenty seconds, no account.
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Paste the link
Paste any public YouTube video link. Any length.
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We get the transcription
In seconds, in whichever language the video was spoken in.
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Search it, copy it, download it
Search anything in it, jump to any moment, then copy it, download it, or get a free AI summary.
Two ways to transcribe a YouTube video
One works from a link to any video on YouTube and costs nothing. The other works from your own recording and is paid.
ViewRank AI YouTube transcript generator
This page. Paste a link to any public video and read the transcript in seconds, at any length.
- Best for
- Any video already on YouTube, whoever made it.
- Cost
- Free, no account, no limit
A paid transcription service
You upload your own recording and pay for the transcript. Several companies do only this, and do it well.
- Best for
- Interviews, meetings and podcasts you recorded yourself.
- Cost
- By the hour, or a monthly plan
What you can do with a YouTube transcript
Everything on this page is free, the AI features included. Ask for a summary of the video, or for the key learnings in it, and either one takes a few seconds.
Summarise the video with AI, free
One button reads the whole transcript and tells you what the video says. Nothing to paste into ChatGPT yourself.
Get the key learnings with AI, free
The points worth keeping from a three hour podcast, as a list you can copy.
Copy or download the transcript
Plain text, a Word document, a spreadsheet, or an SRT subtitle file for editing software.
Click any timestamp
Every line carries the time it was spoken. Click one and the player jumps to that moment.
Search anything in the transcript
Type a word and see every moment it was said. Much faster than dragging the red dot.
Read the transcript in another language
If a video carries captions in twelve languages, all twelve are in the list.
Podcasts, lectures, interviews and fifteen second Shorts all go through the same box. A three hour video takes about as long as a three minute one.
Is this YouTube transcript generator really free?
Yes, and this is everything that free covers.
- No accountNothing to sign up for
- No cardNot now, not later
- No limitTwo videos or two hundred
- AI summary, freeThree long videos a day
- Key learnings, freeThe same three a day
- Every downloadText, Word, sheet, subtitles
The AI features appear on videos longer than three minutes, because anything shorter is quicker to read than to summarise.
We can afford this because YouTube gives its transcripts to anyone who asks, so a video costs us close to nothing. We make our money from ViewRank AI, which is a different product for people making short videos every week.
Transcribe videos from any major platform
Four free tools, one for each platform. Paste your link into whichever one matches the video you have.
YouTube You are here
Any length, podcasts and lectures included, with a free AI summary. No limit and no account.
YouTube Shorts
A page written for short vertical videos, with the whole script on one screen.
Transcribe a Short →TikTok
Any public TikTok, with or without captions on it, in more than 60 languages.
Transcribe a TikTok →Instagram reels
Every reel is transcribed from the audio, which is why the transcript is usually cleaner.
Transcribe a reel →Also free, and nothing to do with transcripts: the YouTube thumbnail downloader saves the cover of any video or Short at the size it was really made.
When a YouTube transcript does not work
Five reasons cover almost every empty result.
YouTube is refusing our server
It happens for a while sometimes, and the tool says so honestly. A video we have already transcribed keeps working, and trying again later usually gets through.
The video has no transcript
Rare now, but it happens with music, with uploads that are minutes old, and with a few languages.
The video is private or age restricted
We can only transcribe what you could watch without logging in.
It is a live stream still running
The transcript appears once the stream has ended and been processed.
The link is not a video
Channel pages and playlists are the most common mistake. Open one video and copy the link from there.
YouTube transcript FAQs
Is this YouTube transcript generator free?
Yes, with no account, no card and no limit on how many videos you transcribe. The AI summary and key learnings are free too, on three long videos a day. We make our money from ViewRank AI, which is a different product.
Do I need a ViewRank AI account to use the YouTube transcript generator?
No. An account is not required, and there is nothing to install either. The tool runs in the browser you already have, on a phone as well as a computer. ViewRank AI is our paid product for people making short videos every week, and it is separate from this page.
Does it work on YouTube Shorts?
It does, and a Shorts link pasted here works exactly the same. There is also a transcript generator built for Shorts if that is mostly what you work with.
Can I get a YouTube transcript with timestamps?
Every line carries the time it was spoken, and one switch hides the times when you want clean text to paste somewhere. Click any timestamp and the player jumps to that moment. The subtitle download keeps proper timing for editing software.
Can I download a YouTube transcript as a Word document?
Yes. Plain text for pasting, a Word document for notes, a spreadsheet for sorting the lines, and an SRT subtitle file for editing software. All four are free and none of them needs an account.
What if a video has no transcript?
Then there is nothing for us to give you, and the tool says so rather than inventing text. It is rare on YouTube. It happens most with music, with uploads that are only minutes old, and with a few languages.
Can I get the transcript in another language?
If the video carries that language, yes, and a list appears whenever more than one is available. What this cannot do is translate a video that only carries English.
Can I use this with ChatGPT or Claude?
That is what most people do with it. Copy the plain text and paste it into whichever assistant you use, and it can summarise the video, list the steps, or answer questions about what was said. On a long video the Summary and Key learnings buttons do the same thing without the copying.
Transcribe any YouTube video in seconds for free
Paste a link and this page transcribes any public YouTube video, of any length, into text you can read, search, copy and download. Every line keeps the time it was spoken, so you can click a line and jump straight to that moment, or hide the times and take clean text away with you. Podcasts, lectures, interviews and Shorts all work, in whatever language the video was spoken in.
On anything longer than three minutes, AI will summarise the video and list its key learnings for you, free, so a two hour transcript never has to be pasted into an assistant by hand.
If you make short videos every week, one transcript at a time is the slow way to work. ViewRank AI is a complete AI workspace for that job: it transcribes Reels, TikToks and Shorts in more than 60 languages, studies what was on screen scene by scene, and turns what it found into ideas and full scripts for your own account.
Last updated 27 August 2026