Free YouTube transcripts in seconds

TRANSCRIBE AUDIO, VIDEO & YOUTUBE.

Upload a recording or paste a YouTube link and get a clean, timestamped transcript. Play the audio and read along word for word, or click any line to jump straight to that moment.

Transcribe audio or video Drop the file here Uploading... Transcribing your recording... Audio or video: MP3, WAV, M4A, MP4 and friends, up to 100 MB

Sample files

Audio files Videos

Sample recording 00:23 Pulp Fiction dialogue 02:28

Sample audio: an MP3 turned into a video with captions

This is an MP3. It is playing as a video, with the captions burned in, ready to post.

Every word is timed, so the caption lights up with the voice.
A podcast episode or an interview becomes a video without opening an editor.
Set the look once and every upload after it starts that way.

DE EN

Caption settings

Phrase Word

Wide, 16:9 Tall, 9:16 for shorts

Nothing to pair it with: this recording is already in your language UPPERCASE Highlights

A Speaker A 00:00 Danke, dass Sie sich die Zeit nehmen. Ich starte die Aufnahme jetzt. Copy

B Speaker B 00:05 No problem at all. Let us go through the points one by one. Copy

A Speaker A 00:11 Der erste Punkt betrifft den Zeitplan fuer die naechste Woche. Copy

B Speaker B 00:17 That works for me. I will send the details over by Friday. Copy

Follow playback

What people transcribe

interview recordings university lectures meeting minutes customer phone calls voice messages doctor dictation translated transcripts video subtitles official appointments field research notes

Features

Everything you need to turn video and audio into text

AudioCap is a free online transcription tool: generate YouTube transcripts, convert audio and video to text, export SRT subtitle files and burn captions straight into your videos.

Free YouTube transcript generator

Paste any YouTube or Shorts link and read the full transcript in seconds, with timestamps and clickable playback. No signup needed.

Audio and video to text

Drop an MP3, WAV or MP4 up to 100 MB and get an accurate transcript with automatic speaker detection, powered by professional speech recognition.

Word-synced transcript player

Press play and watch every word light up as it is spoken. Click any sentence to jump straight to that moment in the audio or video.

SRT subtitle generator

Download every transcript as a plain text file or an SRT subtitle file that drops straight into CapCut, Premiere Pro or YouTube Studio.

Add captions to your video

Burn the subtitles permanently into your uploaded video and download a ready-to-post MP4, perfect for Shorts, Reels and TikTok.

Free and private, no signup

Transcribe as a guest, your history stays private on this device. A free account adds favorites and keeps your transcripts across devices.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

How do I get the transcript of a YouTube video?

Paste the video link into the field on this page. AudioCap reads the video captions and shows the full transcript with timestamps in a few seconds, free and without an account. It works for normal videos and Shorts.

Is the YouTube transcript generator really free?

Yes. Reading and downloading transcripts of YouTube captions costs nothing and needs no signup. Transcribing your own uploaded audio and video files runs on professional speech recognition and stays free within a fair usage limit.

What is an SRT file and what do I need it for?

SRT is the standard subtitle format: numbered blocks with a start time, an end time and the spoken text. Video editors such as CapCut, Premiere Pro and Final Cut import it directly as a subtitle track, and YouTube Studio accepts it for clean captions on your own videos.

How accurate are the transcripts?

YouTube transcripts are exactly as good as the captions of the video: uploader-written captions are usually excellent, auto-generated ones can contain recognition errors. Uploaded files are transcribed with professional AI speech recognition including automatic speaker detection; clear audio without background noise gives the best results.

Why does a YouTube video have no transcript?

A transcript only exists when the video has captions. They can be missing because the creator disabled them, because YouTube has not finished auto-generating them yet (new videos can take a few hours), or because the video is private. In that case you can still download the audio or video yourself and upload the file here.

Can I download the transcript as a text or subtitle file?

Every transcript can be downloaded as a plain text file (TXT) or as a subtitle file (SRT). You can also select several transcripts and download them together as one ZIP.

How do I add subtitles to a video?

Upload your video, let AudioCap transcribe it, then click "Video with captions". The subtitles are burned permanently into the picture and you download a ready-to-post MP4, ideal for Shorts, Reels and TikTok.

Is it legal to transcribe YouTube videos?

Reading a transcript for personal use, study or research is generally fine, and the captions are public on YouTube itself. The content still belongs to the video creator, so republishing or selling whole transcripts needs the rights holder's permission. This is general information, not legal advice.