YouTube Video to Transcript

Turn a YouTube video into text you can quote, translate or repurpose. Audio is decoded in your browser; the first 2 minutes transcribe free.

Be clear about the difference: this page does not fetch YouTube links. You take the audio out of the video with your own tools, then drop that audio file here. The steps below are exactly that workflow. If you already have YouTube's own captions, exporting those is faster and free.
Click or drop the audio file you exported (MP3, M4A, WAV, OGG and FLAC)

First 2 minutes are transcribed free, no account. The full transcript is a one-time $4.99 — no subscription. Audio is decoded in your browser; only short slices are uploaded.

Get a YouTube transcript in four steps

  1. Check YouTube's own captions first. Open the video, use the description's transcript panel or the three-dot menu. For many videos this is instant and free, and it is the right answer if you only need the text.
  2. Export the audio. In YouTube Studio you can download your own uploads; for videos you own elsewhere, pull the audio track with your usual editor or recorder and save as M4A, MP3 or WAV.
  3. Drop the audio file here and read the first 2 minutes free. Treat that as your quality check: accents, crosstalk and music all show up immediately.
  4. Unlock the rest for a one-time $4.99 if the preview is clean. Long videos are processed in 300-second slices.

When YouTube's captions are not enough

SituationWhat to do
Auto-captions have no punctuation and wrong namesTranscribe the audio here, then fix the few names in your editor — the model returns punctuated sentences.
You need the text of a long interviewExport audio, transcribe in slices, paste into your notes app.
You need an SRT with exact timingsTwo options: keep YouTube's own auto-captions, or transcribe the exported audio here and download the .srt the page builds from the recogniser's word timings.
Video is not yours and has no captionsCheck the licence and YouTube's terms before reusing the text elsewhere.

What gets uploaded

Only 16 kHz mono WAV slices from the audio you exported. The video file and the original audio stay on your device.

FAQ

Can I paste a YouTube link?

Not today — this tool takes files, not links. The workflow below shows how to get the audio off YouTube and onto this page in two minutes with tools you already have.

Why not support links directly?

Fetching a link means downloading someone else's video server-side, which raises both cost and copyright questions. File upload keeps the processing on your device and keeps the tool honest about what it does.

Does this download the video?

No. Any download happens in your own tools before you drop the audio file here; this site never fetches YouTube content.

Will the transcript include timestamps?

Yes, as subtitle lines: you get .srt and .vtt files built from the recogniser's word timings, and the first 2 minutes are included in the free preview. Speaker labels are not added, and nothing is retimed by hand.

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