Does it work on videos without captions?

The web page reads the caption track YouTube provides, manual or auto-generated, so a video with captions disabled has nothing to fetch there. On a paid plan the API can transcribe the speech instead (mode=auto falls back to it, priced like Speech to Text), or you can upload the audio to 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 opens the English auto-generated track by default; switch to a manual track in the language menu when the video has one.

Can I get transcripts for a whole playlist?

Yes, on Pro or API. Paste the playlist link or a list of up to 25 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: click a line to play that moment, search it, download Markdown, Word or SRT, or summarize it.

Fetch a YouTube transcript See pricing and plans

Published 24 September 2026 · Last updated 29 September 2026 · Reviewed 29 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, picks your preferred languages when you set them and English auto-generated captions otherwise, keeps the timestamps, and caches the result so a repeat request is instant. The transcript plays along with the video, keeps the video's chapters, and downloads in the format your next tool reads. A playlist or a batch of links runs together on Pro.

Capabilities

A transcript you can click

Click a line to play that moment in the embedded player, search the transcript and step through the matches, and copy a selection with a link to its second.

Benefit: Check the exact words and the moment they were said without scrubbing through the video.

Fetch a YouTube transcript

Markdown, Word, PDF, TXT and SRT

Markdown with Obsidian-ready frontmatter and linked timestamps, Word, a page to print as PDF, plain text, and SRT or VTT subtitles. Caption fragments are merged into paragraphs under the video's chapters.

Benefit: The transcript lands in your notes, your document or your video editor ready to use. Downloads cost no units.

Download a transcript as Markdown or Word

Chapters and your languages

The video's chapters play in the page's player and head the exports. Every caption language is listed, and up to five preferred languages set in Settings are tried first.

Benefit: Navigate a long video by topic, in the language you read.

See the available transcript languages

Batches and playlists

Paste up to 25 links or a playlist and download everything at once (Pro and API).

Benefit: Turn a series 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.
Downloads in every format are free; only the fetch uses a unit.

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, in your preferred languages when you set them; when YouTube blocks the request a fallback fetcher retries.
Step 3
Use it
Click a line to play it, search, copy with a link, download Markdown, Word, PDF, TXT or SRT, or summarize with AI.

Integrations and formats

REST API with API keys
Markdown (Obsidian-ready), Word, PDF, TXT, SRT and VTT export
Chapters and video details from the API's metadata endpoint
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