BLACK FRIDAY OFFER: 30% off for first 2 months! Use "BF2024" at checkout
In this guide, we’re teaching you how to:
This guide works for both long videos and YouTube Shorts.
You can get any YouTube video’s transcript for free by expanding its description and clicking “Show transcript” — it will open next to the video.
This is the short answer though. Bear with me as we go into the detailed, step-by-step process.
A YouTube transcript is a text version of the spoken content in a YouTube video. It includes every word spoken, often with timestamps, allowing viewers to follow along, search specific parts of the video, or read the content without sound.
Transcripts improve accessibility for viewers with hearing impairments, support language comprehension for non-native speakers, and help with SEO, making the video more searchable by capturing all the dialogue and key phrases.
The main reason to get a YouTube video’s transcript is to improve accessibility.
Transcripts allow viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing to engage with the content fully, making your video more inclusive and accessible to a broader audience.
Transcripts allow viewers to quickly review and locate key information, which is especially useful for educational or informational videos.
Having a transcript simplifies the process of creating translated captions, making your content accessible to a broader, international audience.
Transcripts can be easily repurposed into videos, social media content, or summaries, allowing you to expand your content reach without additional effort. Hence, transcripts increase accessibility, improve SEO, and offer flexibility in how the content is used and shared.
Answer: To get a YouTube video’s transcript, open the description and click “Show transcript”. You can then copy all the text.
Feel free to paste the text anywhere else (e.g. in a Google Docs or Microsoft Word document).
You can use this transcript as inspo (inspiration) for your own videos or for any other project.
Answer: You can open any YouTube video’s transcript on mobile by clicking “Show transcript” after you’ve opened the video’s description.
Transcript should now be visible under the video.
Here’s the step-by-step process:
You’ll now see a pop-up with the full video’s transcript.
Useful Links: YouTube app for iOS & YouTube app for Android. Though you probably have the app installed already.
Note that the same process is followed when opening a YouTube video in web browsers using a mobile device (e.g. phone or tablet).
Answer: Copy the Shorts video’s ID from the URL(youtube.com/shorts/
videoID) and paste it in a regular YouTube video’s URL: “youtube.com/watch/?v=videoID“.
Hit enter, open the video’s description, and click “Show transcript”.
This is the step-by-step process:
Here’s what we’re essentially doing:
Here are five alternative ways to download YouTube transcripts.
These methods offer convenient ways to access and download YouTube transcripts for repurposing or accessibility purposes.
SendShort allows you to generate and download YouTube video transcripts with ease. Simply input the video link to get an accurate, downloadable transcript, making it ideal for repurposing content or improving accessibility.
Websites like DownSub and SaveSubs allow you to enter the YouTube video URL and download the transcript directly in various formats, including .txt or .srt.
For videos without transcripts, you can use third-party tools like 4K Video Downloader to download the auto-generated captions as a transcript.
Extensions like Transcripto or YouTube Transcript provide easy access to download transcripts directly from YouTube, often with additional formatting options.
SendShort is the best tool for transcribing YouTube videos, providing fast and accurate transcripts that make your content accessible and easy to repurpose.
Here’s why SendShort is ideal for YouTube transcription:
Using SendShort, you get reliable, high-quality transcriptions for your YouTube videos, helping you connect with viewers and improve content reach.
Yes, you can turn a YouTube video into a transcript by using its transcript feature: open the video’s description and click “Show transcript” to reveal it.
Unfortunately, neither the paid version of ChatGPT is capable enough to do this.
Yes, there are apps like Otter.ai, Sonix, and Temi that can transcribe YouTube videos. These services allow you to upload the video or provide a URL for transcription.
Thanks a lot for reading this,
David Ch
Head of the Editing Team at SendShort
David leads the editing team at SendShort. With this help, the team delivers the latest guides on using your favorite social media apps and creating short-form content.
