How to See a Spotify Podcast Transcript (and Export It)

Spotify generates transcripts for many podcast episodes and shows them inside the app, synced to the audio. They are easy to miss, they are not on every episode, and they cannot be copied or downloaded. This guide covers all three: where to find the transcript, why an episode might not have one, and how to get the text out when you need it as a file.

How to see the transcript in the Spotify app (iPhone and Android)

1. Start playing the episode and open the full-screen player by tapping the mini player at the bottom.
2. Scroll down below the playback controls. On episodes that have one, a transcript card appears showing the current lines.
3. Tap the card to open the full transcript. The text follows along as the episode plays, highlighting the line being spoken.

Some episodes also show a transcript preview on the episode page itself, under the description. If you scroll the whole player and see no transcript card, the episode does not have one.

How to see it on desktop and the web player

In the Spotify desktop app and at open.spotify.com, open the episode and start playing it, then open the Now Playing view (the panel on the right) or the episode's own page. Where a transcript exists it appears there, following the audio just as it does on mobile. Spotify moves this control between app versions, so if it is not where you expect, check both places before concluding there is none.

Why some Spotify episodes have no transcript

• Coverage is partial. Spotify generates transcripts automatically, but not for every show or every episode. Smaller and older shows are the most likely to be missing them.
• Language. Auto-generated transcripts are only produced for some languages.
• The creator turned them off. Podcasters can edit or hide the transcript Spotify generates for their episodes.
• Your app is out of date. Older versions of the app do not show the transcript at all. Update Spotify first if a friend can see a transcript you cannot.

Can you copy or download a Spotify transcript?

No. Spotify's transcript is display-only: you cannot select the text, there is no copy or share button for it, and there is no export or download option. That is fine for following along, but it rules out quoting a guest, searching an episode, pasting it into notes, or making subtitles. Screenshots work for a line or two and not for an hour of speech.

How to export a Spotify podcast transcript

1. Paste the episode link into a transcript tool

The quickest way to get the text out is to transcribe the episode yourself from its link. Copy the link in Spotify (⋯ menu → Share → Copy episode link) and paste it into the Spotify podcast transcript generator. You get the whole episode as text with speaker labels and timestamps, and you can download it as TXT, SRT, VTT, JSON, DOCX or PDF. This works on episodes where Spotify shows no transcript too, because the audio comes from the show's public feed rather than from Spotify's text.

You can see the first 30 seconds of your own episode transcribed without creating an account. The free plan then covers 30 minutes a month with no card.

2. Check the show's own RSS feed

Some podcast hosts publish a transcript file alongside each episode, using the podcast:transcript tag in the show's RSS feed. Apple Podcasts and several other apps read it. Find the show's feed with the RSS feed finder, open it, and search for podcast:transcript. If it is there, the URL next to it is a downloadable transcript the creator wrote or approved.

3. Look at the show's website

Interview shows and the larger networks often post full transcripts on the episode's page on their own site. The show notes in Spotify usually link to it.

Which option should you use?

If you only want to follow along, Spotify's own transcript is enough. If you need the text (to quote it, search it, translate it, or turn it into subtitles or an article), check the feed first, since a creator's own transcript is the most accurate, and transcribe the episode from its link when there isn't one. For a longer comparison of every method, including uploading audio to a general-purpose transcription service, see How to transcribe a Spotify podcast: 4 methods compared.