Free YouTube tool
YouTube to Text
Turn a supported YouTube video's available captions into plain text you can copy, search, and paste anywhere.
Free · No sign-up · Requires retrievable captions
Video in, plain text out
Text is portable in a way video is not. Once a video is text you can search it, quote it, translate it, drop it into an AI tool, or keep it in your notes without needing the video again.
This tool gives you exactly that: the spoken content of the video as ordinary text, with timestamps you can strip out or keep.
Paste-anywhere output
Ordinary text with no proprietary formatting — it lands cleanly in Docs, Notion, Obsidian, or a chat box.
Feed it to any AI
A full transcript is the ideal input for ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini when you want your own custom analysis.
Searchable text
Find a single sentence in a three-hour video without touching the scrubber.
How to convert a YouTube video to text
- 1
Grab the link
Copy the URL of the YouTube video you want as text.
- 2
Paste and convert
Drop it into the box above and run it. The text is extracted from the video's captions.
- 3
Copy it out
Take the text into your notes, a document, or an AI assistant.
Common uses
Anyone using AI tools
Give ChatGPT or Claude the full transcript and ask it whatever you actually want to know.
Creators
Mine podcasts and interviews for quotes, scripts, and references, or repurpose your own videos into blog posts and show notes.
Students
Turn a long lecture into text you can search, quote, and revise from without scrubbing the video for one definition.
Professionals
Catch up on webinars, earnings calls, and industry talks by searching or skimming their transcripts before deciding what to watch.
YouTube to text FAQ
How do I convert a YouTube video to text?
Paste the video link above. The spoken content is extracted from the video's caption track and shown as plain, copyable text.
Can I remove the timestamps?
Yes. The timestamps are part of the displayed text, so you can copy the portion you want and drop them if you prefer clean prose.
Is the text accurate?
It reflects the caption track JumpWatch retrieves. Accuracy depends on that source; automatic captions can misread names, jargon, accents, and unclear speech, so verify important quotes against the video.
Do I need an account or an extension?
No account or extension is required for the public transcript tool, which is free and subject to rate and capacity limits. The JumpWatch Chrome extension is free to install; its AI summaries and chat require sign-in and follow your account's plan limits.
Keep the context
Take transcripts, summaries, and Ask onto YouTube.
Add the free extension for transcript search and assistant handoffs. Premium adds server-powered Brief and Ask on the video page.
Add to Chrome — FreeOr browse recent transcripts.