YouTube Transcript Generator — Read, Copy & Download

How to get a YouTube transcript

1. Paste a link. Open the video on YouTube, copy its link and paste it into the field above. Use a single video, not a playlist. Standard watch links, short youtu.be links and individual Shorts links are accepted. You do not need an account to begin.
2. Get the transcript. Choose Get transcript. PasteQuill checks existing captions first and displays the available text with timestamps. Read the language and source labels before using the result. If no captions are available, eligible videos may offer a separate confirmation for automatic transcription.
3. Copy or download. Copy the words into your notes, or save a TXT or SRT file. Keep the original video link with your text so you can check a quotation later. Saved results last for 24 hours, so export anything you want to keep.

To copy the full text in one step, see how to copy a YouTube transcript. For other methods, including YouTube's own Show transcript button, see how to get a transcript of a YouTube video.

The generator works on one video at a time. A transcript is the spoken material in text form; it does not describe every chart, gesture or on-screen demonstration. If a speaker says “as you can see here,” return to the video for the missing visual context. The text helps you find a passage, but the recording remains the source. For a readable document, see our guide to turning a YouTube video into notes.

Download as TXT or SRT

Choose the format for your next step. Both downloads use the same transcript words. The difference is whether the file carries timing instructions. You can download both if you need a reading copy and a subtitle file. There is no need to submit the video twice to change formats.

A TXT file opens in a basic text editor. Search it for a name, topic or phrase, then copy the useful passage into your document. If you use an AI tool to summarize it, include the video title and ask the tool to separate the speaker’s words from its own interpretation. The file itself contains no summary or translation.

An SRT file preserves cue timing in hours, minutes, seconds and milliseconds. Import it into your editing software as subtitles. If you cut or move the original footage, the subtitle times will need adjusting too. Check the first and last cues against the audio before exporting your edited video. Downloading SRT does not burn captions into a video file.

To save the subtitles as an SRT or TXT file, use the YouTube subtitle downloader.

Use the YouTube transcript generator with timestamps

A timestamp gives a passage a place in the recording. Select the time beside a transcript segment to open that point on YouTube. This is useful when a sentence looks incomplete, a technical term seems wrong or you need to hear the speaker’s tone. Listen a little before and after the passage; a single line can lose its meaning outside the conversation.

For study notes, keep three things together: the original words, your explanation and the video link with the relevant time. That makes it easier to return to a lesson without replaying everything. For quotations, check names, numbers and the exact wording against the audio before publishing. A timestamp helps someone locate evidence; it does not verify that the transcript is correct.

TXT exports leave out times to keep reading simple. SRT exports retain them. If you only need one citation, copy the passage and save its timestamp link separately. You do not need to preserve an entire subtitle file just to reference a short answer. See a sample YouTube transcript to try the timestamp links.

When a video has no captions

AI transcription is available for eligible videos. Caption retrieval and automatic transcription are different steps. Retrieving captions uses a text track already associated with the video. Automatic transcription asks a service to recognize speech from audio, which can take longer and can introduce new mistakes.

When available, automatic transcription requires your confirmation after the caption check. It supports public, processed videos up to 3 minutes long. Live or upcoming broadcasts, restricted videos and videos whose eligibility cannot be verified cannot use this option. A video with music but no intelligible speech may produce no usable transcript. Turning the volume up on your device will not change the source audio sent for processing.

You can check progress on the video page. Closing the tab does not cancel a confirmed task. Avoid submitting the same video again while it is processing. If the service cannot establish whether a request completed, it keeps that request for checking instead of automatically starting another transcription.

Languages and transcript quality

By default, PasteQuill picks the caption track in the video's original language when it can identify one; otherwise it uses the default track, English or the first available track. The language is shown beside the transcript. If other languages are offered, a Caption language menu appears there so you can switch tracks. PasteQuill does not translate a transcript into another language. Check the result label rather than assuming that an English interface means English output.

For automatic transcription, the service detects the spoken language when it can support it. We do not publish a guaranteed language count. Availability and quality vary with the recording. Several speakers talking at once, background noise, unfamiliar names and rapid changes between languages can all make review harder. Use a short passage to judge whether the result is suitable before relying on the whole transcript.

Video access and common problems

Private videos cannot be retrieved. Age restrictions and regional restrictions can also block access even when you can watch the video in your own signed-in browser. PasteQuill does not use your YouTube login or bypass those restrictions. Unlisted videos are not guaranteed to return captions, and automatic transcription requires a public video.

If a stream is still live or has not started, wait until it finishes and its recording has been processed. For a missing transcript, check whether the video has usable captions or spoken audio. A deleted video, an unavailable track or a temporary service failure can all prevent a result. Read the message shown beside the tool before trying again; repeated submissions do not fix a missing source.

Free use, file limits and saved results

Existing captions do not use your free AI transcription minutes. Caption requests still have rate and daily limits, and new requests may pause when the shared service capacity is reached. The tool reports those limits when they affect a request. It does not promise unlimited caption retrieval.

Free automatic transcription, when enabled, supports two videos and 20 minutes per browser per UTC day, with a maximum of 3 minutes for each video. The day resets at 00:00 UTC. A confirmed processing failure returns the daily use; an attempt that completes but finds no speech still counts. If the outcome is uncertain, the reserved use stays in place while it is checked.

The 3-minute rule applies to automatic transcription. The caption-reading path does not impose that same duration cap. PasteQuill currently adds no separate character cap or export-count limit to a returned transcript, but that does not guarantee that every long video can be processed. Source availability, service responses and your browser’s resources still matter. TXT and SRT export the returned segments without deliberately shortening them.

Saved transcript text is available for 24 hours. Export the file while it is available if you need a lasting copy. Store it with the source link and any notes about corrections. You remain responsible for using the text with the permissions you need; extracting words does not transfer rights to the video or its content.