Frequently asked questions
Is it free?
Yes. No account, no email, no daily limit, no watermark. Nothing is held back behind a paywall.
Do I need to sign up?
No. There are no accounts at all, so there's nothing to sign up for.
Why does it say this video has no captions?
Because it genuinely doesn't have any. YouTube auto-generates captions for many videos but not all of them, and creators don't always upload their own. This tool reads existing captions rather than transcribing audio, so when there are none there's nothing to return.
Can I get a transcript in another language?
If the video carries caption tracks in other languages, they all appear in the language picker above the transcript. We also mark which are human-written and which YouTube generated automatically.
What formats can I download?
Plain text, timestamped text, readable paragraphs, SRT and WebVTT for video editors, Markdown for note-taking, and JSON or CSV if you are working with the data programmatically.
Does it work with Shorts?
Yes — Shorts, Live recordings, embed links, youtu.be short links, links with timestamps or playlist parameters, and bare video IDs all work.
Can I use it for private or unlisted videos?
No. Only videos that are publicly viewable without signing in.
Are the transcripts accurate?
They're exactly as accurate as YouTube's captions. Human-written tracks are usually near-perfect; auto-generated ones handle clear speech well and struggle with accents, jargon, overlapping speakers and background noise. We never alter the words, so what you see is what the caption file says.
Do you store my data?
Transcripts are cached so that a video someone has already looked up loads instantly next time. Nothing about you is stored — there are no accounts, no logins and no tracking of what you search for.
Can I use the transcripts commercially?
That depends on the video, not on us. Captions are part of the creator's work and copyright still applies. Quoting, note-taking, research and accessibility uses are generally fine; republishing someone's full transcript as your own content is not. Use your judgement.