Paste a link, get the text
Drop in any public YouTube URL with captions and we hand you the full transcript to copy or download.
YouTube (watch, youtu.be, Shorts) and X.com video posts
How it works
Paste the YouTube URL
Any public video, Short, or youtu.be link. We read the video ID from watch, mobile, and embed links too.
We pull the captions
The spoken-word transcript is fetched from the video captions, cleaned up, and joined into readable text.
Copy or download
Read it on the page, copy the whole transcript in one click, or download it as a .txt file.
What you get
Full clean transcript
The complete spoken text of the video, joined into readable paragraphs with no timestamps in the way.
Every link format
Works with youtube.com/watch, youtu.be, Shorts, and mobile share links. Paste whatever you have.
One-click copy
Grab the entire transcript to your clipboard instantly. Paste into notes, docs, or an AI prompt.
Download as .txt
Save the transcript as a text file named after the video. Keep it, search it, or feed it to other tools.
youtubetranscript.com clones vs StartupHub YouTube Transcript
Generic clone column describes typical free transcript dump sites. We have not benchmarked every competitor head-to-head.
| youtubetranscript.com clones | Your YouTube Transcript | |
|---|---|---|
| Link formats | watch only | watch, youtu.be, Shorts, mobile, embed, youtube-nocookie + X.com video posts |
| Output | Timestamped list 0:12 text | Clean paragraphs, no timestamps in the way: readable, copy-paste ready |
| Timestamps option | No | No by default: join into paragraphs; for exact times use YouTube to Clips fuzzy-matched start/end |
| Copy | Select text | One-click copy entire transcript |
| Download | No / txt with random name | .txt named after video: folder stays searchable |
| Free | Unlimited but slow | 3/day YouTube + 2/day X.com free, no sign-up: metered because uncached fetch costs |
| X.com | No | Yes: separate transcription path |
Need exact clip timestamps? YouTube to Clips fuzzy-matches start and end times to spoken words.
Also searched as
YouTube transcript downloader, youtube to text converter, get transcript of youtube video with timestamps removed.
YouTube to text, in 30 seconds
YouTube Transcript takes a public YouTube link and gives you the spoken words as readable text. It accepts standard watch links, youtu.be short links, Shorts and embed links, and it works on X.com video posts through a separate path. It reads the caption track the video already publishes, joins the timecoded fragments into paragraphs rather than leaving a column of timestamps in your way, and lets you copy the whole thing in one click or download it as a .txt named after the video. No account needed. It is metered rather than unlimited: 3 transcripts a day on the free tier, and 2 for X.com, which costs more to produce.
The output
What you get back
A caption track arrives as hundreds of timecoded fragments. That is fine for a player and useless for reading, quoting or pasting into anything.
Raw caption track
0:00 in this video i'll show you 0:04 how we cut our database 0:07 costs by about sixty percent 0:12 the first mistake most teams 0:15 make is provisioning for peak
What this tool returns
In this video I'll show you how we cut our database costs by about sixty percent. The first mistake most teams make is provisioning for peak.
One click to copy, or download as a .txt named after the video.
Questions
Straight answers
Which YouTube link formats work?
Standard watch links, youtu.be short links, Shorts, and embed links including youtube-nocookie. Mobile share links work as well, because they carry the same watch path with the video id in it.
Does it work for X.com videos?
Yes, through a separate path. X does not publish a caption track the way YouTube does, so the audio has to be pulled and transcribed, which costs real compute. That one is capped at 2 a day on the free tier rather than 3.
Does the video need captions?
For YouTube, yes. We read the caption track the video already carries rather than transcribing the audio ourselves, which is what makes it instant and free. A video with no captions has nothing to read.
Can I download the transcript?
Yes, as a .txt file named after the video, so a folder of them stays searchable later. There is also a one-click copy for pasting straight into notes, a document, or a prompt.
Are there timestamps?
Not by default. The caption track arrives as timecoded fragments and we join them into readable paragraphs, because a wall of "0:12" markers is worse to read and worse to paste. If you want precise timings, YouTube to Clips returns exact start and end times matched to the spoken words.
Do I need to sign up?
No account is needed. It is metered rather than unlimited: 3 transcripts a day on the free tier, because every uncached fetch costs us something. Signing in on a paid plan raises the cap.
Is this a YouTube to text converter?
That is exactly what it is. Paste a link, get the spoken words as text you can read, copy, download, or feed into something else.
Same video, more outputs
More free tools
Turn that video into clips, too.
Got the transcript? Paste the same URL into YouTube to Clips and get AI-picked viral moments with quotes, timestamps, and tweet copy.