Question 1

How do I convert a YouTube video to a transcript?

Accepted Answer

Paste any YouTube video URL into YouTube2Text and click Get Transcript. The full transcript appears in seconds with timestamps. You can copy it to your clipboard, download it as TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown, translate it, or send it straight to ChatGPT or Claude.

Question 2

Is YouTube2Text really free?

Accepted Answer

Yes, YouTube2Text is 100% free. No signup, no account, no credit card, no daily limit, and no ads. Just paste a link and go.

Question 3

Can I get a YouTube transcript without captions?

Accepted Answer

YouTube2Text works with any YouTube video that has either manual captions or auto-generated subtitles. Almost every public YouTube video has auto-generated subtitles, so it works on the vast majority of content.

Question 4

How do I get a transcript for a YouTube Short?

Accepted Answer

YouTube2Text supports YouTube Shorts. Just paste the Short URL (the one that starts with youtube.com/shorts/) and you'll get the full transcript exactly the same way you would for a regular video.

Question 5

Can I translate the YouTube transcript?

Accepted Answer

Yes. YouTube2Text can translate the transcript into 100+ languages. Pick the source caption track and a target language, and we'll return a translated transcript with the original timestamps preserved.

Question 6

Can I download the YouTube transcript as SRT or VTT?

Accepted Answer

Yes. You can export the transcript as plain TXT, SubRip (SRT), WebVTT (VTT), or Markdown. SRT and VTT are useful for adding subtitles to video editors like Premiere, Final Cut, DaVinci Resolve and CapCut.

Question 7

Does YouTube2Text have an API?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Developers can call the YouTube2Text API to fetch transcripts at scale. See the /api page for endpoints, pricing, and example code.

Question 8

Is YouTube2Text safe and legal to use?

Accepted Answer

YouTube2Text only retrieves the publicly available caption data that YouTube already serves with each video — it never downloads the video itself. The service is an independent project and is not affiliated with YouTube or Google.

Question 9

What's the best free YouTube transcript tool?

Accepted Answer

YouTube2Text is the fastest free YouTube transcript tool: no signup, no captcha, no daily limit, plus features paid tools usually charge for — embedded player, click-to-jump, translation to 100+ languages, AI prompts for ChatGPT and Claude, and exports to TXT/SRT/VTT/Markdown.