How to Get a YouTube Video Transcript (2026)

To get the transcript of a YouTube video, open it on youtube.com, expand the description and click Show transcript. That works only if the video has captions. When it does not, or when you need something better than YouTube's captions, the route depends on whose video it is: for your own video you can download the file and transcribe it, and for somebody else's we cannot help directly, because Scriptorium does not take links, only uploaded files. This guide is the 2026 decision tree, with each branch checked against YouTube's own help pages.

Step 1: try YouTube's own transcript panel

YouTube's help page View video transcripts says you can see the full transcript of any video that has captions. For a computer it gives two steps: in the video description, click Show transcript, then click any caption line to jump to that point in the video. The transcript follows the current caption as the video plays.

What that page does not give is a set of steps for the mobile apps. We could not verify from YouTube Help where, or whether, the mobile app shows the control, so we will not describe a menu path we have not seen. If you are on a phone, check YouTube Help for the current wording, or open the video in a desktop browser, where the steps above are the documented ones. If you want the older, shorter walkthrough with a table of when to use which route, it is in our original guide.

1. Open the video on youtube.com in a desktop browser and expand the description under the player.
2. Click Show transcript in the description. The transcript opens with a line per caption and follows the video as it plays.
3. If the button is missing, the video probably has no caption track; the reasons are listed below.
4. Select and copy the text, or move to the next route if captions are off.
5. For your own video: in YouTube Studio open Content, select the video, open the three-dot Menu and choose Download, then upload that file for a fresh transcript.

Step 2: why the button is missing

The panel exists only when there is a caption track to show. YouTube's page on automatic captions lists the reasons captions may not be there, and they are worth knowing because only some can be fixed:

• The captions are not ready yet: YouTube says processing time depends on the complexity of the video's audio, so a new upload may need time.
• The language is not supported, or the video is too long.
• Sound quality is poor or speech is not recognised, or there is a long silence at the start.
• Several speakers overlap, or several languages are spoken at once.
• The uploader turned captions off (this one you cannot change from the viewer side).

The same page says automatic captions come from machine learning, that quality varies, and that creators should always review and edit them. A YouTube transcript is therefore a quick reference, not a verified record. If you will quote it, check the quote against the audio.

Step 3: your own video, download it and transcribe the file

For a video you uploaded, YouTube Help's download your own videos page gives the route: in YouTube Studio click Content in the left panel, select the video, open the three-dot Menu and choose Download. It also lists cases where you cannot download: the video has been removed, it has a copyright or Community Guidelines strike, it uses a preapproved audio track, or you already downloaded that video five times in the last 24 hours.

Then upload the downloaded file to our video-to-text page. The no-account preview takes one file at a time, up to 15 minutes and 25 MB, with 3 tries a day, and deletes the file after 24 hours. That covers a short video; for a longer one, a free account has no monthly minute limit. You export TXT, timestamped TXT, SRT, VTT, Markdown, JSON and CSV, and you can set the language yourself from 33 options or let it detect the language.

The advantage over YouTube's panel is control: you can correct the text, export SRT or VTT, and upload the corrected subtitle file back to YouTube. The cost is an extra download and upload.

Step 4: somebody else's video with no captions

This is the case with no clean answer from us. Scriptorium does not take links: you cannot paste a URL, only upload a file. It also has no API and does not burn captions into video. To transcribe a video you do not own, you would need the file itself, and downloading someone else's video is restricted by YouTube's terms of service. We will not walk you around that. The realistic options are: ask the uploader for the file or a transcript, check whether the video has captions in another language, or listen and take notes.

You will also find websites that take a YouTube link and return text. We have not vetted them, so we cannot say how they work, what they keep, or whether they are reliable. If you use one, treat the output the way you would treat YouTube's own captions: as unverified.

Which route fits which situation

Related questions

If what you want is the transcript as a file, see how to download a YouTube transcript. If you are a creator doing this for many videos, how to transcribe YouTube videos covers the workflow, and transcript vs subtitles explains which output you actually need.

If YouTube's transcript is wrong

Because YouTube's captions are automatic, the usual problems are names, product terms and words said quickly. For your own video you can fix them in YouTube Studio's caption editor, or transcribe the downloaded file, correct it once, and upload the corrected SRT or VTT. For someone else's video you can only read around the errors, so if a quote matters, listen to that part of the video.