Get the Transcript of a YouTube Video
Turn the audio of any public YouTube video into readable text: copy the transcript or download it as a .txt file, ready to read, summarize, or quote.
Why use PullVid for YouTube?
Available qualities
How to download YouTube videos?
Copy the YouTube video link.
Paste it into the field above and click Search.
Choose the transcript language from the list.
Copy the text or download it as a .txt file.
A YouTube video's transcript is the full text of what's said, with no timestamps or line numbers — just the words, in order, ready to read. Unlike a subtitle file (SRT or VTT), which is built to play back in sync with the video, a transcript is a plain-text document meant for reading, searching, summarizing, or translating at your own pace.
Transcript or subtitles? The difference matters
Both tools draw on the same source — the captions YouTube already has for the video — but they solve different problems. If you want to add subtitles to a video, edit it, or watch it with synced on-screen text, you need the SRT or VTT file: use the YouTube subtitle downloader. If instead you want to read, copy, summarize, or translate what's said in the video without playing it, the plain-text transcript on this page is what you're after.
Where the text comes from
PullVid doesn't transcribe the audio itself: it pulls the captions the video already has on YouTube — manual ones reviewed by the creator, or auto-generated (CC) captions produced by YouTube's own speech recognition — and strips out the timestamps and formatting codes to leave you with clean, readable text. If the video has manual captions, the transcript will be very accurate; if it only has auto-generated ones, accuracy depends on the quality of the original audio. If the video has no captions at all, there's no text to extract.
What having the text of a video is good for
- Read a lecture, interview, or tutorial without playing the video.
- Paste the text into an AI tool to get a summary or the key points.
- Search for a specific line inside the content with Ctrl+F.
- Translate the full content with DeepL or Google Translate.
- Quote the video accurately in an academic paper or an article.
- Turn an educational video into study notes.
Extracting the text for personal use — reading, studying, summarizing — is common practice and causes no harm: it's the same as reading captions on YouTube itself. What's not allowed is publishing the full transcript as if it were your own content or using it commercially without the creator's permission. For a full walkthrough of transcribing a video step by step, with accuracy tips and use cases, read our complete guide to transcribing YouTube videos.
Frequently asked questions about YouTube
Where does the transcript text come from?
PullVid takes the captions the video already has on YouTube — manual or auto-generated (CC) — and strips out the timestamps and technical formatting, leaving just the text, ready to read. We don't run any speech recognition of our own: the text is only as reliable as the captions available on the video.
Does it work with videos that have no captions?
No. If the video has no manual or auto-generated captions on YouTube, there's no text to extract, and the tool will let you know. Try a different language from the list or check whether the creator added captions.
What languages can I get the transcript in?
Any caption language the video has available, whether that's the creator's own captions or YouTube's automatic translations and auto-generated captions.
Is it free?
Yes, completely free with no usage limit. No account or install needed.
What's the difference from downloading SRT subtitles?
This tool gives you clean text to read, copy, or paste into a document. If you need the file with timestamps to add subtitles to a video, use the YouTube subtitle downloader, which delivers SRT and VTT.
Can I use the text to summarize or translate it?
Yes. Since it's plain text, you can paste it straight into an AI tool, a translator, or an editor to summarize, translate, or analyze it — no need to clean up timestamps first.