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How to get a transcript of a YouTube video, with timestamps

Paste a YouTube link and download the transcript as text, subtitles or a PDF in seconds. What you get, what you don’t, and what to do when a video has no captions.

October 10, 2026 · 3 min read

You want the words from a YouTube video: to quote it, search it, translate it, or turn it into notes. Watching it again at double speed is still half the length of the video. This is the quickest path from a link to a transcript you can search, quote and download, with timestamps that line up with the video.

1. Copy the video link

Any form works: the address bar on a desktop, the Share button on a phone, a youtu.be short link, a Shorts link. Channels and playlists do not: one link, one video.

2. Paste it on the dashboard

Create a free account (an email code, no password, no card), open the Transcriptions tab and paste the link under Transcribe from a link. The import usually finishes in a few seconds, because we read the video’s existing caption track instead of listening to the audio.

3. Download the files

The transcription appears in your list with five downloads: TXT for reading and searching, SRT and VTT for subtitles, JSON for code, and a PDF that looks like a document. Timestamps come with every cue, so the subtitle files line up with the video.

What you get, and what you don’t

• The video’s own captions. If the creator uploaded captions, you get those. If YouTube generated them automatically, you get YouTube’s automatic captions, which are good on clear speech and rougher on music, accents and crosstalk.
• No speaker labels. Captions do not record who is talking. If you need “Speaker 1 said, Speaker 2 said”, download the audio and upload it as a normal transcription instead; that path uses speech recognition and labels every speaker.
• English by default. We ask for the language you choose, or English, and fall back to the video’s original track if that language does not exist. For a video in Spanish, set the language to Spanish and you get the Spanish track.
• A video without captions cannot be imported. You will see a clear message. Download its audio and upload the file; that costs minutes rather than a video.

How it is counted

YouTube imports are counted per video, not per minute: a two-hour lecture costs the same as a two-minute clip. Every plan includes a number of videos a month alongside its hours of audio, and the free account includes a couple to try.

For developers

The same endpoint that takes media URLs takes YouTube links, and the MCP server accepts them too, so Claude or ChatGPT can fetch a transcript when you paste a link in chat.

curl -X POST https://api.audiotranscribr.com/v1/transcriptions \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"}'

Poll the returned id until status is completed, then download from results. The API reference has the rest.

Frequently asked questions

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