Does it download an SRT or VTT file?

No — outputs caption text as plain text. Paste into a subtitle editor (Subtitle Edit, Kapwing, CapCut) to convert to SRT/VTT.

Does the output include timestamps?

No — paragraph-formatted plain text by default. Use a subtitle editor if you need timestamps.

What if the video has no captions?

Falls back to AI speech recognition of the audio. Slower but still produces usable caption text.

Free · No signup required

YouTube Captions Generator

Generate accurate captions from any YouTube video automatically. Paste your URL and get text in seconds.

Generate YouTube Captions →

Exportable YouTube Captions for Cross-Posting and Subtitles

YouTube videos almost always have captions already — either creator-uploaded or auto-generated. The problem is getting them out: YouTube doesn't give you a 'download caption file' button for videos you don't own, and copy-pasting from the transcript panel is awkward and slow. This tool extracts the caption text cleanly, so you can use it for cross-posting (turning a YouTube video into an Instagram Reels or TikTok caption), building subtitle files (SRT/VTT via a subtitle editor), or for accessibility copy on an embedded video. The captions come back as clean text you can select-all and copy, with no YouTube UI noise around them.

How It Works

1.Paste a YouTube URL (works with regular videos and /shorts/ URLs).
2.The tool fetches the existing caption track — usually in under 10 seconds for captioned videos.
3.Caption text renders on-page as a clean block. Copy it for social posts, subtitle files, or accessibility copy.

Why Use This Tool?

✓Skips YouTube's clunky transcript-panel copy-paste flow
✓Uses the caption track YouTube already has — faster and more accurate than re-transcribing
✓Output is clean text with no timestamps, speaker names, or YouTube UI artifacts
✓Works for captions in 100+ languages supported by YouTube
✓Handles Shorts and long-form videos identically

Use Cases

—Cross-posting a YouTube video to TikTok or Reels — grab the captions to use as post copy
—Generating an SRT file for a YouTube video you're embedding on your landing page
—Creating accessibility captions for a hearing-impaired viewer workflow
—Writing video-description summaries from caption text
—Building a captions archive of a YouTube series for blog-post repurposing

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this download an actual SRT or VTT file?

No — the output is the caption text as a readable block, not a timestamped subtitle file. To get SRT/VTT (which require precise timestamps), paste the text into a subtitle tool like Subtitle Edit, Kapwing, or CapCut, which will time it. The hard problem — accurate speech-to-text — is solved; timing is straightforward once you have clean text.

What languages are supported?

Any language YouTube supports for captions — 100+, including creator-uploaded captions in the original language and YouTube's auto-translated captions in major languages. Language detection is automatic.

Does the tool include timestamps in the caption output?

By default, no — the output is paragraph-formatted plain text, not a .srt timestamp format. This is more useful for social post captions and written content. If you need timestamped captions specifically, use a subtitle editor after copying the text out.

What if the video doesn't have captions at all?

If no creator or auto-generated captions exist (rare on YouTube but it happens), the tool falls back to AI speech recognition of the audio. It's slower than the captions path but still produces usable caption text.

Ready to get started?