Everything you need to transcribe a YouTube video
Transcribe any public YouTube link
Paste a watch, youtu.be, Shorts, or Live URL. Captions are used when available; otherwise speech is transcribed from audio.
Plain text or timestamps
Export a clean readable transcript or keep [mm:ss] timestamps for notes, quotes, and editing workflows.
Copy, TXT, or SRT
Copy the transcript instantly, download a .txt file, or grab an .srt subtitle file for editors and players.
Free and fast
No account, install, or credit card. Prefer captions for speed, with speech transcription as a fallback for caption-free clips.
How It Works
Turning a YouTube video into text should be quick. Focera first checks for captions YouTube already has — manual subtitles when available, otherwise auto-generated captions. If there is no CC track, it transcribes speech from the audio for videos up to about 10 minutes.
- Paste the YouTube URL. Use a watch link, youtu.be short link, Shorts URL, Live URL, or the 11-character video ID.
- Choose plain text or timestamps. Plain text builds readable paragraphs; timestamps keep a line per cue or speech segment.
- Transcribe, edit, and export. Review the transcript, fix wording if needed, then copy, download TXT, or download SRT.
Jump back to the YouTube to text tool anytime to convert another video.
Popular Use Cases
- Research and notes — Capture quotes and summaries from talks, interviews, and lectures without scrubbing the timeline.
- Content repurposing — Turn video scripts into blog drafts, newsletters, show notes, or social posts.
- Accessibility drafts — Start from captions or speech transcription when building cleaner subtitles.
- Study and review — Keep a searchable transcript beside long tutorials or course videos.
Speech transcription works best on clear audio under 10 minutes. Very long videos still work when YouTube already provides captions.
Related Free Tools
Focera groups fast, privacy-friendly utilities in one hub. After you extract a transcript, these tools often fit the same workflow:
- Video to Text — Upload an MP4 or other local clip to transcribe speech without a YouTube link.
- Audio to Text — Upload an MP3 or other recording to transcribe speech you already have locally.
- Video Autocaption — Upload your own clip to generate timed captions and burn them into video.
- Text Case Converter — Change capitalization of the extracted transcript.
- All tools — Browse every free utility in the Focera catalog.