How to Get the Transcript of a YouTube Video (View, Copy, Download)

Most YouTube videos already have a transcript. YouTube builds one from the video's captions and shows it in a panel beside the video, with every line timed. The button that opens it is easy to miss, it is not on every video, and the panel has no download option. This guide covers all three: where to find it, how to copy it cleanly, and how to get it as a file.

How to see a YouTube transcript on a computer

1. Open the video on youtube.com.
2. Under the video title, click ...more to expand the description.
3. Scroll to the end of the description and click Show transcript.

The transcript opens in a panel on the right, next to the video. Each line carries the time it is spoken, and clicking a line jumps the video to that moment. If the video has captions in more than one language, a language menu at the bottom of the panel switches between them.

How to see a YouTube transcript on a phone

1. Open the video in the YouTube app on iPhone or Android.
2. Tap the title or description area under the video to open the full description.
3. Scroll down and tap Show transcript.

The transcript opens over the lower half of the screen and scrolls with the video. Copying from it on a phone is awkward, because the text is split into short timed lines; if you need the text itself, the download route further down is quicker.

Why there is no Show transcript button

The transcript is made from the video's captions, so the button only appears when the video has a caption track. The usual reasons it is missing:

• The video has no captions. YouTube generates them automatically for most uploads in common languages, but not for every video, and not straight away for a new one.
• The creator turned captions off or removed the automatic track.
• It is a live stream still in progress, or a very recent upload whose captions are not ready yet.
• The language is not supported by YouTube's automatic captions.

If a video has no captions at all, there is no transcript to show or download. The only way to get one is to transcribe the audio itself, for example by downloading the audio you have the rights to and uploading the file to a speech-recognition tool.

How to copy a YouTube transcript without the timestamps

1. Open the transcript panel as above.
2. Click the three-dot menu at the top of the panel and choose Toggle timestamps. The times disappear and only the words are left.
3. Click at the start of the first line, scroll to the end, and shift-click the last line to select everything. Copy it and paste it wherever you need it.

What you paste is still one short caption line per row, not paragraphs, because captions are cut to fit on screen. For a short clip that is fine. For an hour-long video you will spend a while joining lines back into sentences.

How to download a YouTube transcript as a file

YouTube itself has no download button for the transcript, so this takes a tool. With the YouTube transcript generator:

1. Copy the video's link from the address bar or the Share button. Regular videos and Shorts both work.
2. Paste it into the field on that page and sign in. The free plan needs no card.
3. Open the full transcript in the editor, fix any names, and export it as TXT, MD, SRT, VTT, JSON, DOCX or PDF.

The words come from the same caption track YouTube's panel shows, with a creator's own captions used ahead of the automatic ones where both exist. The difference is the shape: the short caption lines are joined into readable paragraphs for the text export, while SRT and VTT keep every cue with its original timing. If what you need is a subtitle file to edit or upload somewhere else, the YouTube caption downloader starts from that format.

Which way to use

• To read along or check one quote: YouTube's own Show transcript panel.
• To copy a few minutes of text: the panel with timestamps toggled off.
• To keep the whole transcript, quote it at length, or work with it as a file: paste the link into the YouTube transcript tool and download it.

Whichever you use, a transcript is a copy of someone else's words. Quoting a few lines with credit and taking notes for yourself are ordinary uses; republishing a creator's whole script as your own is not.