Does it work on videos without captions?

No. The tool reads the caption track YouTube provides, manual or auto-generated. A video with captions disabled has no transcript to fetch; for those, download the audio and use Speech to Text.

Is the transcript accurate?

As accurate as the captions: manual captions are usually excellent, auto-generated ones vary with audio quality. The tool prefers manual captions whenever the video has them.

Can I get transcripts for a whole playlist?

Yes, on Pro or API. Paste the playlist link or a list of video links and download the results together.

Do I need an account?

Not for a few transcripts. An account adds history, API keys and the monthly quota; Pro adds batches, playlists and every AI feature.

Free to start

YouTube Transcripts

Get the full transcript of any YouTube video in seconds: copy it, download TXT or SRT, or send it straight to an AI summary.

Fetch a YouTube transcript See pricing and plans

Published 24 September 2026 · Reviewed 24 September 2026

Who it is for

Content creators
Researchers and students
Marketers
Developers

The problem

YouTube's own transcript panel is hard to copy, has no download, and a long video becomes a wall of three-second fragments. Copying by hand takes longer than watching, and doing it for a playlist is not realistic.

How GistCite solves it

GistCite fetches the caption track the same way a browser would, prefers manual captions over auto-generated ones, keeps the timestamps, and caches the result so a repeat request is instant. A whole playlist or a batch of links runs as one job on Pro.

Capabilities

Full transcript with timestamps

Every caption segment with its start time, or a clean paragraph view without them.

Benefit: Jump to the exact second a claim was made, or paste readable prose into your notes.

Fetch a YouTube transcript

TXT and SRT downloads

Save the transcript as plain text or as SRT subtitles that any video editor reads.

Benefit: Subtitle a repost, or keep an archive of what was said.

Download a transcript as SRT

Languages and translation

Lists every caption language the video offers and can translate the transcript.

Benefit: Work with sources in languages you do not read.

See the available transcript languages

Batches and playlists

Paste many links or a playlist and download everything at once (Pro).

Benefit: Turn a channel's back catalogue into a corpus in one sitting.

Compare Free and Pro for batch transcripts

Benefits

Free to start: the transcript tool needs no account for a few videos, and the free plan covers 100 units a month.
Repeat requests are cached, so the second person to ask for the same video gets it instantly and it costs one unit either way.
The transcript feeds the rest of the toolkit: AI summary, Ask This Source, Create From Source and clip ideas.

How it works

Step 1
Paste the link
A watch URL, a short link, or a bare video id all work; playlists and batches on Pro.
Step 2
Fetch
Manual captions are preferred over auto-generated ones; when YouTube blocks the request a fallback fetcher retries.
Step 3
Use it
Copy, download TXT or SRT, translate, or summarize with AI.

Integrations and formats

REST API with API keys
TXT and SRT export
AI Summary, Ask and Create
Media Tools clip ideas

Security and data handling

Read the full picture on the security and compliance page.

Uploads are processed in memory and never written to disk or object storage; only the extracted text is kept.
Every extraction endpoint is rate-limited per IP; signed-in use is metered against the plan's monthly quota.
TLS in transit; passwords bcrypt-hashed; API keys stored only as SHA-256 digests.

Evidence

Retrieval runs on youtube-transcript-api with a yt-dlp fallback, both open-source. Check this
Transcripts are cached per video and language, so repeat requests are instant. Check this
Quota headers on every metered response tell you exactly what a call cost. Check this

Worked examples

Independent podcaster

From a one-hour podcast episode to a newsletter, captions and three clips

One public episode on YouTube becomes a transcript, a chaptered summary, a newsletter draft, SRT captions and three short clips, all from one upload.

Read the independent podcaster walkthrough

Graduate student

From a twelve-lecture playlist and two textbooks to a searchable study corpus

A public lecture playlist and two public-domain textbooks become one set of transcripts, summaries and chunked JSON, ready for revision or a personal AI index.

Read the graduate student walkthrough

Pricing

Plans: Free, Pro and API
Cost per action: 1 unit per transcript; cached repeats also 1 unit; anonymous visitors get a small per-session allowance without an account.
How it is priced: Batches, playlists and AI features need Pro or API. Prices are on the pricing page and are charged by Stripe.

Compare the Free, Pro and API plans