How to get transcript of a youtube video

There are two different ways to get the transcript of a YouTube video. We will cover both of them for you. The difference is practically what kind of transcription format you need and how much effort you want to put into reformation. So let's jump right into the first solution with the help of Type Studio.

Extract audio from any video automatically

In a nutshell, Type Studio is an online video editor that lets you automatically generate transcripts and subtitles for your videos. Here’s how you can use it to create and download a transcript for a YouTube video for free.

#1 Copy YouTube URL

Go to the YouTube video that you want to transcribe and copy the URL of the site to your clipboard.

#2 Sign up to Type Studio and paste in the YouTube link

Go to the signup page of Type Studio and easily create an account. You only need your name, email address and a password. You can also just signup with your Google login. No worries creating an account in Type Studio is free though.

When you are logged in you only have to paste the YouTube link in the input field and hit "enter". Hold on! You also have to select the language that the video is in otherwise our engine can't recognize any spoken words. Right now we support over +30 different languages that you can transcribe your video in.

Type Studio grabs the YouTube video and transcribes the spoken word in text automatically. That is literally all you have to do! The result will look like this.

#3 Export transcript

You have actually several different option to export the transcribed text. You can either copy the text to your clipboard. You can also export the text as a .txt file or as specific subtitle files such as SRT and VTT. To learn more about subtitle files read here.

Get the transcript right from YouTube

The fastest way is to get the transcript of a video right from YouTube. Although there is a downside that might need some manual editing I will show you how to extract the transcribed video.

#1 Open transcript

Next to the sharing and saving options you will find the three dots that opens a menu where you can open the transcript.

#2 Remove timestamps

The next step is to disable the timestamps. Click again on the three dots to open the menu. If you want to have the timestamps exported you should, of course let them enabled.

#3 Copy transcript

Now you only have to highlight the transcript and copy it to your clipboard.

#4 Paste and save it in a notepad

Paste your transcript where ever you need it, for example in a text document or notepad. As you can see the format is not ideal since it separated with the subtitle breakpoints.

How to extract YouTube transcriptions on your phone?

You may ask yourself if you can extract the video transcriptions on your phone as well. The answer is yes and no.

The mobile YouTube app doesn't allow you to see the transcription of any YouTube video. Maybe this functionality will come in the future.

For now you need to use a tool like Type Studio that lets you upload your YouTube video from your phone. But to actually extract the transcript you need to hover over to your pc since Type Studio is build desktop first.

What else can you do with a YouTube transcript?

If you never transcribed a video into text you might also ask yourself what can I do with a transcript. Here are some ideas that could help you to find a suitable use-case.

#1 Hand it out to people who have hearing problems or are deaf

The might be people in your community or surrounding that would prefer reading a transcript over watching a video. Especially when it comes to educational videos a transcript is a great way to give people an alternative.

#2 Turn your video into a blog

In terms of repurposing video content you can turn a video easily into a written blog article. Type Studio automatically generates a page that you can embed into your website or share with others online. It is the fasted way to create a proper article based on the YouTube video.

#3 Adding subtitles

If you want to burn in subtitles to the video you can do so with Type Studio as well. The generated transcript will be used as closed captions. Of course you can do some text editing before and also style the subtitle with the simple drag and drop editor.

#4 Translate in different languages

If you have an international audience or people who don't speak the language your video is in you can translate it into a different language. Type Studio has a build in translation function that allows you to translate your YouTube videos into 30 different languages.

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How do I turn YouTube videos into transcripts?

How can I get a transcript of a video?