Skip to content
← Back to Blog

How to Transcribe a YouTube Video in 2026

Need the text from a YouTube video? Whether you’re a student taking notes from a lecture, a researcher gathering quotes, a content creator repurposing material, or just someone who reads faster than they watch - getting a YouTube transcript can save you serious time. In this guide we’ll cover three ways to do it: the fastest AI-powered method, YouTube’s built-in captions, and the manual approach.

Why Transcribe a YouTube Video?

Video is the dominant content format online, but it’s locked inside a player. You can’t search it, skim it, copy a quote, or reference a specific point without rewatching. A transcript turns a 45-minute video into a document you can read in five minutes, search with Ctrl+F, paste into your notes, or feed into an AI tool for further analysis.

  • Students - Turn recorded lectures into searchable study notes
  • Researchers - Extract quotes and data points without re-watching
  • Content creators - Repurpose video content into blog posts, social threads, or newsletters
  • Professionals - Get meeting notes, training summaries, or conference recaps
  • Accessibility - Make video content available to people who are deaf or hard of hearing

Method 1: Use Scrivi (Fastest)

Scrivi’s YouTube transcript generator is the quickest way to get a full transcript from any YouTube video. Here’s how:

  1. Copy the YouTube URL - Go to the video on YouTube and copy the URL from your browser’s address bar. Standard watch links, Shorts URLs, and shared links all work.
  2. Paste it into Scrivi - Open scrivi.app, paste the URL, and click Transcribe. The full transcript appears in seconds - pulled directly from YouTube’s caption data, so there’s no slow audio processing.
  3. Read, copy, or export - Scroll through the transcript, search for keywords, copy the text to your clipboard, or export as a formatted PDF.
  4. Generate an AI summary (optional) - Click Summarize to get an AI-powered summary with key points, auto-generated chapters, topics, and action items. Pro users can also ask follow-up questions about the video content.

Scrivi’s free plan gives you 3 transcriptions per day with 3 AI summaries. The Pro plan removes all limits and adds batch transcription, Ask AI, collections, and research reports.

Method 2: YouTube’s Built-In Captions

YouTube auto-generates captions for most videos. You can view them directly on the platform:

  1. Open the video on YouTube
  2. Click the three-dot menu (…) below the video
  3. Select “Show transcript”
  4. A transcript panel appears to the right of the video with timestamps

Limitations: Not all videos have captions enabled. You can’t export the text easily - you have to manually select and copy. There are no AI summaries, no search, and no way to organize or save transcripts for later.

Method 3: Manual Transcription

You can always transcribe a video by hand - play the video, pause, type what you hear, and repeat. This is the most time-consuming method (expect roughly 4× the video’s length in transcription time), but it gives you full control over formatting and accuracy.

Manual transcription makes sense for very short clips or when you need to add custom formatting, speaker labels, or annotations that automated tools don’t provide.

Tips for Better YouTube Transcripts

  • Check caption availability - Automated transcription tools rely on the video’s caption data. If a video has captions disabled entirely, no tool can extract text from it.
  • Prefer manual captions over auto-generated - Videos with creator-uploaded captions tend to be more accurate than YouTube’s auto-generated ones.
  • Use AI summaries for long videos - For lectures, podcasts, or interviews over 30 minutes, generating an AI summary with key points can save significant review time.
  • Organize with collections - If you transcribe multiple related videos, use Scrivi’s collections feature to group them by topic or project.
  • Export as PDF - Save transcripts as PDFs for offline reading, printing, or sharing with people who don’t use Scrivi.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it free to transcribe YouTube videos?

Yes. Scrivi’s free plan allows 3 transcriptions per day with 3 AI summaries. YouTube’s built-in transcript feature is also free but limited in functionality.

Can I transcribe a YouTube video that doesn’t have captions?

If a video has no captions at all (neither auto-generated nor manually uploaded), automated tools cannot extract text from it. Most public YouTube videos do have auto-generated captions enabled by default.

What’s the fastest way to transcribe a YouTube video?

Paste the URL into Scrivi’s YouTube transcript tool. Transcripts are fetched from caption data, so even multi-hour videos complete in seconds.

Can I download the transcript as a file?

With Scrivi, you can copy the transcript to your clipboard or export it as a formatted PDF. You can also export just the AI summary separately.

Try Scrivi free - 3 transcriptions per day, no credit card required. Paste a YouTube URL and get the full transcript in seconds.