How to Download a YouTube Video Transcript
Works on any public video that has captions — auto-generated or manually uploaded.
YouTube shows a transcript panel next to some videos, but it only lets you read the text on screen — there is no built-in download button. If you need the transcript as an actual file, for research, notes, captioning, or feeding into another tool, you need a transcript downloader. Here is the fastest way to do it.
1. Copy the video URL
Open the video on YouTube and copy the link from the address bar, or tap Share → Copy link on mobile. You do not need to open the transcript panel first.
2. Paste it into a transcript downloader
Go to the CaptionFetch transcript tool and paste the URL in. The tool reads the caption track YouTube already has for that video — it does not re-transcribe the audio, so it works instantly even on long videos.
3. Choose your language and format
If a video has captions in several languages, pick the one you want. Then choose a file format: plain TXT for reading or pasting elsewhere, SRT or VTT if you need timestamped subtitles, or JSON/CSV if you are going to process the transcript programmatically. You can also choose whether to include timestamps in a plain-text export.
4. Preview or download
You can read the transcript in the browser first to make sure it is the right video and language, or download the file straight away. Anonymous visitors get a few free downloads per day; creating a free account removes that limit and keeps a searchable library of everything you have downloaded, so you never have to re-fetch the same video twice.
What if the video has no captions?
A transcript downloader can only pull captions that YouTube already has for the video — either auto-generated or uploaded by the creator. If a video genuinely has no captions in any language, there is no transcript to extract; you would need a separate audio-transcription tool instead.
Is this allowed?
Downloading a transcript for your own use — notes, research, accessibility — is generally fine. Reusing or republishing someone else's transcript is a separate question and depends on the license or permission the creator has given; when in doubt, ask the creator or check the video's license.