Free YouTube transcript extractor
One video, no signup, no API key. The same extraction path our hosted tools use — this one is just capped at a single video.
This page does one video at a time. The hosted version takes a list, returns structured JSON or CSV, and does not charge for videos that come back empty.
Run it on a thousand videosWhat you get back
The transcript as plain text, plus the video title, channel and duration. The hosted version adds timestamped segments, language codes, view counts and a per-video failure reason.
Limitations
- One video per request, rate limited per IP. It is a demonstration, not an API.
- No bulk input and no programmatic access — that is what the hosted tool is for.
- Videos that are private, deleted, or region-locked return an error rather than a transcript.
- Live streams have no caption track until the recording is processed.
Frequently asked
Do I need a YouTube API key?
No. The official Data API cannot return auto-generated captions at all, which is most of what exists, so nothing here uses it.
Why does my own script work locally but fail on a server?
YouTube treats datacenter IP ranges differently to residential ones. We measured the gap: the reliability benchmarkhas the numbers.
Is the transcript stored?
No. The request runs, the text comes back, nothing is retained.