How to Get a YouTube Video Transcript (3 Methods, 2026)

Whether you need a transcript for research, content creation, accessibility, or study notes, there are several ways to extract the spoken text from a YouTube video. This guide walks you through the three most practical methods in 2026, compares them side by side, and helps you pick the right one for your workflow.

TubeScript is a free web tool that extracts the full transcript from any YouTube video in seconds. No account, no extension, no software to install. You paste a URL, and you get clean, readable text.

Step-by-step

1. Go to tubescript.cc in any browser (desktop or mobile).
2. Paste the YouTube URL into the input field at the top of the page. You can use the full URL (e.g., youtube.com/watch?v=...) or the short link (youtu.be/...).
3. Click "Get Transcript" and wait a few seconds. TubeScript fetches the available captions and formats them into clean, readable paragraphs with timestamps.
4. Copy or download the transcript. Use the "Copy" button to get the full text on your clipboard, or download it as a .txt file.

Why TubeScript works well

• Clean text, not a caption dump. Unlike YouTube's raw captions, TubeScript formats the transcript into natural paragraphs. No repeated lines, no broken sentences.
• Works with Shorts. YouTube Shorts don't have a "Show Transcript" button, but TubeScript handles them just like regular videos. Learn more about Shorts transcripts.
• No account needed. You get 3 free transcripts per day without signing up. No credit card, no email, nothing.
• Works on any device. The interface is fully responsive, so you can use it on your phone, tablet, or desktop.

YouTube has a native transcript feature that lets you view the captions of most videos. It's free and doesn't require any third-party tools, but the process is less streamlined.

Step-by-step (desktop)

1. Open the YouTube video in your browser.
2. Click the three-dot menu (•••) below the video player, next to the Like/Share/Save buttons.
3. Select "Show transcript" from the dropdown menu.
4. Copy the text by selecting all the text in the transcript panel (Ctrl+A or Cmd+A inside the panel), then copying it (Ctrl+C or Cmd+C).

For a more detailed walkthrough with screenshots and tips, see our guide on how to show a transcript on YouTube.

Limitations of YouTube's transcript feature

• No copy button. You have to manually select and copy text. There is no one-click copy or download option.
• Raw caption format. The transcript is shown as timestamped caption fragments (usually 2-4 words per line), not as readable paragraphs.
• Doesn't work on Shorts. YouTube Shorts have no transcript panel at all.
• Mobile is painful. On the YouTube mobile app, the transcript feature is harder to access and the text is difficult to select and copy.
• Uploader can disable it. Some creators disable captions on their videos, which removes the transcript option entirely.

If a video has no captions at all (rare, but it happens), your last resort is to transcribe it by hand or hire a transcription service.

When manual transcription makes sense

• The video has captions completely disabled and no auto-generated subtitles.
• You need 100% accuracy for legal, medical, or academic purposes and the auto-captions aren't reliable enough.
• The audio quality is so poor that automated tools can't transcribe it accurately.

The reality of manual transcription

Manual transcription is slow. A skilled typist working from audio typically takes 4-6 hours to transcribe 1 hour of video. Professional transcription services charge $1-3 per minute of audio, which means a 10-minute YouTube video could cost $10-30 and take hours to deliver.

For the vast majority of use cases, automated tools like TubeScript or YouTube's built-in captions provide accuracy that's good enough, and they deliver the result in seconds rather than hours.

• For most people: Use TubeScript. It's the fastest way to get a clean, formatted transcript. Paste the URL, get the text, done.
• If you're already on YouTube: The built-in transcript is fine for a quick glance at what was said. But if you need to copy or save the text, TubeScript saves you the hassle of manual selection and cleanup.
• For legal or medical accuracy: Consider professional manual transcription if you need word-perfect accuracy with speaker identification and timestamps.