Paste a YouTube link and download the video's subtitles as SRT, VTT or plain text. Works on regular videos and Shorts that have captions. Free to try, no signup, no browser extension.
This is our tool's actual output for a 67-second NASA video on YouTube (NASA videos are public domain). Watch the video
America is set to return to the Moon to establish a permanent Moon Base, with NASA collaborating with various companies to develop new technologies and infrastructure by 2028.
It reads the captions that come with a YouTube video — the ones the creator uploaded or, if there are none, YouTube's automatic captions — and turns them into files you can keep. You get the same lines and times YouTube shows, as an SRT file, a VTT file or plain text. It does not create new subtitles, so a video without captions has nothing to download, and it does not translate them: you get the language the captions are in.
If you uploaded the video, YouTube Studio can give you its caption file. Open Subtitles, pick the video and download the caption track.
On the video's page, open the description and click Show transcript. You can read along and copy the lines, but there is no file and no download button.
Paste the link at the top of this page. You get the captions as SRT, VTT and plain text, ready for a video editor, a website or a document. This is the way to go when the video is not yours.
| File | What it is | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| SRT | Numbered lines with start and end times | Video editors (Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, CapCut) and most subtitle upload forms, including YouTube's |
| VTT | The same lines in the web format | HTML5 video players and websites |
| Plain text | Just the words, no times | Reading, notes, quotes, pasting into a document or an AI tool |
Here is the start of the SRT file for the NASA video in the example above:
1 00:00:00,900 --> 00:00:03,503 This is the moment where we should all start believing again. 2 00:00:03,503 --> 00:00:05,305 Now bound for the Moon.
And the same lines as VTT:
WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.900 --> 00:00:03.503 This is the moment where we should all start believing again.
The files can only be as complete as the captions behind them. You get an error, not a file, when:
In September 2026, 15 of the YouTube videos people pasted into our tool had no captions — most were talks in Chinese, Arabic or Urdu, plus a few music clips. When this happens, the tool says why, and the try does not count against your limit.
| Free | Pro ($13.50/month) | |
|---|---|---|
| Videos | 1 every 30 days without an account, +1 more when you sign in | Up to 250 every 30 days (up to 100 a day) |
| Length | First minute of each video (a minute or less comes back in full) | Full length |
| Links at once | 1 | Up to 10 |
| Files | SRT, VTT and plain text for the part shown | SRT, VTT and plain text for the whole video |
Copy the video's link, paste it into the box at the top of this page and click Generate Transcript. When the text appears, click Download and pick SRT subtitles, WebVTT subtitles or Plain text.
Yes, to try. Without an account you get 1 free video every 30 days, and signing in free gives you 1 more. Free results show the first minute, and the downloads cover that part — videos of a minute or less come back in full. Pro ($13.50/month) gives full-length subtitle files and up to 10 videos at once.
Both hold the same lines with start and end times. SRT is the older format that video editors and most upload forms accept. VTT is the web format that HTML5 video players use; it starts with a WEBVTT line and uses a dot instead of a comma in the times.
Yes. Paste the Short's link the same way. Shorts of a minute or less come back in full on the free plan.
They are the times stored in the video's captions, passed through unchanged. Each line starts and ends where the captions say, which is usually close to when the words are spoken.
No. The files come from the captions, so a video without captions gives nothing to download. The tool tells you so, and that try does not count against your limit. YouTube adds automatic captions to many videos, sometimes a while after upload.
No. It runs in the browser on a computer or a phone. No extension, no app.
Yes, in two ways. In YouTube Studio, open Subtitles, pick the video and use the download option for its caption track. Or paste the video's link here and download SRT, VTT or plain text.
Saving captions for your own reading, study or accessibility is a common use. Republishing someone else's captions, or using them commercially, may need the creator's permission. If you are unsure, ask the creator.
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