How to Get a Transcript of a YouTube Video

How do you get a transcript of a YouTube video?

The fastest way to transcribe a YouTube video is to use the transcript panel YouTube already builds into every captioned video. It works on desktop and mobile, costs nothing, and needs no extension: it copies as plain text you can paste into a doc, an AI tool, or a citation manager.

For videos without captions, or when you want a clean summary instead of a wall of text, a browser extension built for YouTube fills the gap. Which route makes sense depends on what you're going to do with the text next: quote it, subtitle a re-upload, or just skim the key points.

• Native transcript panel: free, built into YouTube, best for videos that already have captions.
• Copy into a text editor or AI tool: strips timestamps and cleans up punctuation for you.
• AI transcript and summary extensions: turn a long video into notes without manual copying at all.

How to open and copy YouTube's built-in transcript

YouTube's transcript panel sits below the video, next to the description, on both the new and classic watch-page layouts. It lists every caption line with a clickable timestamp, so you can jump the video to the exact moment a sentence was spoken.

1. Open the video in Chrome and scroll down to the description box under the video player.
2. Look for a Show transcript button next to the ... (More actions) row. If you don't see it directly, click ... and choose Show transcript from the menu.
3. The transcript panel opens on the right (or below, on narrower windows) with timestamped caption lines.
4. Click the three-dot menu inside the panel itself and turn off Toggle timestamps if you only want the words, not the times.
5. Click anywhere inside the panel, press Ctrl+A (Cmd+A on Mac) to select every line, then Ctrl+C / Cmd+C to copy it.

Paste the result into Google Docs, Notion, or an AI chat tool to clean up line breaks. The transcript always reflects whichever caption track is currently active on the player, so switch the caption language first if you need the text in something other than the video's spoken language.

Which transcript format do you actually need?

Not every transcribing job needs the same output. Pick the format based on what happens to the text after you copy it, not just what's easiest to grab.

Why can't I find the Show transcript button?

The Show transcript button only shows up when YouTube actually has a caption track to display. A handful of situations hide it even on completely normal, legitimate videos.

• The creator uploaded the video with captions turned off and auto-captions were never generated for it.
• The video is a live stream still in progress; transcripts only populate once YouTube finishes processing the recording.
• The video is age-restricted and you're signed out, which can hide extra player controls including the transcript button.
• The video was uploaded minutes ago and auto-captions simply haven't finished generating yet.

Extensions that make transcribing YouTube less manual

If you transcribe videos often, a copy-paste-and-clean-up routine gets tedious fast. A few categories of extension remove separate steps: multitasking while you type notes, reviewing footage at speed, and summarizing instead of retyping everything word for word.

None of these replace YouTube's own transcript button; they sit on top of it, saving the retyping and window-juggling once the raw text exists. Check what each one asks to access before installing it. Our permissions guide explains what a "read and change data on this site" prompt actually means for a tool like this.

How to get a YouTube transcript on Android and iPhone

The transcript feature works the same way on a phone as on desktop, inside the YouTube app or in Chrome for Android; only where the menu sits moves around slightly.

1. Open the video in the YouTube app and tap the description text below the title to expand it.
2. Scroll down inside the expanded description and tap Show transcript.
3. The transcript appears as a scrollable list under the video; tap any line to jump the video to that exact timestamp.
4. Tap and hold a line to start a text selection and copy it, the same long-press-to-select gesture used everywhere else on the phone.

On a Chromebook, or in Chrome for Android with Desktop site requested from the browser menu, the transcript panel looks and behaves exactly like the desktop version described earlier, timestamp toggle included.

How to translate a YouTube transcript into another language

A transcript in the video's original spoken language isn't always useful if you don't read that language. There are two practical ways to work around it, and they produce noticeably different quality.

Auto-translated captions

Open the caption icon on the player, choose Auto-translate, then pick your language before opening the transcript panel. The transcript mirrors the translated captions, though accuracy varies a lot depending on the language pair.

Translate the copied text

Copy the transcript first, then run it through Immersive Translate or a translation tool. This usually reads more naturally than auto-translated captions because it translates full sentences, not caption fragments.

If you plan to speed up your review pass with Video Speed Controller while checking a translated transcript against the actual audio, slow the playback down instead for that step. It's much easier to catch mistranslated names, numbers, or technical terms at a slower speed than at 2x.

Troubleshooting transcript accuracy and copyright questions

A short list of problems comes up often enough with YouTube transcripts that it's worth planning for them before you start quoting or publishing anything.

• Auto-generated transcripts routinely misspell names, brand terms, and technical jargon; always double-check anything you plan to quote directly.
• Punctuation in auto-captions is minimal at best; expect to add periods, commas, and paragraph breaks yourself.
• Very fast speech, overlapping voices, and background music all reduce transcript accuracy, regardless of which method produced it.

If you're turning a transcript into a blog post or a video description once the writing is done, our YouTube thumbnail size tool is a quick reference for the images that usually go alongside it.