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YouTube Transcript
Downloader

Download full text transcripts from any YouTube video. Perfect for content repurposing, creating blog posts, studying, or accessibility needs.

Transcript Downloader
Enter a YouTube video URL to download its transcript
? Works with any public YouTube video that has captions enabled
Understanding Transcripts

What Are YouTube Transcripts?

Transcripts are the complete text versions of video audio content.

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Text Version of Audio
A YouTube transcript is the full text of everything spoken in a video. It includes dialogue, narration, and sometimes sound descriptions. Transcripts make video content accessible and searchable.
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How They're Created
Transcripts come from three sources: manually added by creators, auto-generated by YouTube's speech recognition AI, or contributed by the community. Manual transcripts are most accurate.
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Multiple Languages
Many videos have transcripts available in multiple languages - either translated by the creator or auto-translated by YouTube. You can download the transcript in your preferred language.
Use Cases

What Can You Do With YouTube Transcripts?

Transcripts unlock powerful content repurposing opportunities.

1
Create Blog Posts
Transform video content into written articles. Expand on key points, add images, and optimize for SEO to reach readers who prefer text over video.
2
Study & Research
Download educational content for studying offline. Highlight key concepts, create notes, and reference material for academic work or self-improvement.
3
Podcast Show Notes
If you have a video podcast, use transcripts to create detailed show notes, episode summaries, and searchable archives for your audience.
4
Accessibility
Make content accessible for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers, or for those who prefer reading. Transcripts enable everyone to access your message.
5
Content Summaries
Create executive summaries, key takeaways, or TL;DR versions of long videos. Perfect for newsletters, social media posts, or quick reference guides.
6
Translation Base
Use English transcripts as a starting point for translating content into other languages. Having accurate text makes translation faster and more accurate.
How It Works

Download Transcripts in 3 Steps

1

Paste Video URL

Copy any YouTube video URL and paste it into the input field above. Works with any public video that has captions.

2

Preview Transcript

Review the full transcript in our preview panel. Check the word count and reading time to ensure it's what you need.

3

Download or Copy

Copy the transcript to your clipboard or download it as a TXT or PDF file for offline use.

Features

Transcript Downloader Features

Everything you need to extract and use YouTube transcripts.

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Multiple Export Formats
Download transcripts as plain text (TXT) for easy editing, or as PDF for professional documentation and sharing. Both formats preserve the full content.
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Instant Preview
Preview the complete transcript before downloading. See word count, estimated reading time, and scroll through the entire content to verify it's what you need.
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One-Click Copy
Copy the entire transcript to your clipboard with one click. Paste directly into your document, blog editor, or any application for immediate use.
FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Simply paste the YouTube video URL into our transcript downloader tool and click 'Get Transcript'. Once the transcript loads, you can preview it, copy it to your clipboard, or download it as a TXT or PDF file. The process takes just a few seconds.

No, not all YouTube videos have transcripts available. Transcripts are only available for videos that have captions enabled. These can be manually added by the creator, auto-generated by YouTube's speech recognition, or community-contributed. If a video doesn't have any form of captions, no transcript will be available.

Captions are the timed text that appears on screen while watching a video - they're synced to specific moments. Transcripts are the complete text of all the captions combined into a single document, without the timing information. Our tool extracts the transcript text for easy reading and downloading.

Yes, if the video has captions available in multiple languages - either manually translated by the creator or auto-translated by YouTube - you can select your preferred language from the available options before downloading. The transcript will be provided in that language.

Downloading transcripts for personal use, study, accessibility purposes, or creating derivative content with proper attribution is generally acceptable. However, republishing entire transcripts as your own content without permission may violate copyright. Always give credit to the original creator when using transcript content.

If parts of the transcript are missing, it's usually because those sections weren't captioned. Auto-generated captions may miss unclear speech, mumbling, music, or heavy accents. Some creators only caption certain parts of their videos. For complete transcripts, look for videos with manually-added captions.

Yes, YouTube Shorts with captions enabled will have transcripts available. Simply paste the Shorts URL into our tool. However, since Shorts are typically very short videos (under 60 seconds), the transcripts will also be brief.

YouTube's auto-generated captions have improved significantly but aren't perfect. Accuracy depends on audio quality, accent, background noise, and speaking clarity. Expect 80-95% accuracy for clear English content. Technical terms, names, and foreign words may be incorrect. Always proofread auto-generated transcripts before using them professionally.

YouTube transcripts have many uses: create blog posts from video content, study educational material offline, make content accessible, create show notes for podcasts, generate content summaries, extract quotes for social media, translate content, research and reference, improve SEO by adding transcripts to your website, or repurpose video content into other formats.

No, our tool only works with public YouTube videos. Private videos require authentication and aren't accessible to external tools. Unlisted videos may work if you have the exact URL, but results vary depending on the video's privacy settings.

More Download Tools

Download thumbnails, subtitles, and more from YouTube videos.

`); printWindow.document.close(); showToast('info', 'Print Dialog', 'Save as PDF from the print dialog'); } function sanitizeFilename(name) { return (name || 'transcript') .replace(/[^a-z0-9]/gi, '_') .replace(/_+/g, '_') .substring(0, 50); } function formatNumber(n) { if (!n) return '0'; if (n >= 1000000) return (n/1000000).toFixed(1) + 'M'; if (n >= 1000) return (n/1000).toFixed(1) + 'K'; return n.toLocaleString(); } function escapeHtml(text) { const div = document.createElement('div'); div.textContent = text || ''; return div.innerHTML; } // Enter key handler document.getElementById('videoUrl').addEventListener('keydown', e => { if (e.key === 'Enter') getTranscript(); });