MediaScribeCopy the transcript
How to copy a YouTube transcript
To copy a YouTube transcript cleanly, paste the video link below, choose timestamps on or off, and hit copy. The whole thing lands on your clipboard, ready to paste — no dragging messy times along with it. Free, no sign-in.
Works on any video with captions · or add the Chrome extension for one-click transcripts on every video.
On this page
Why YouTube’s own panel fights you
YouTube does show a transcript — open the “…more” menu under a video and click Show transcript. The trouble starts when you try to copy it. Every line carries a timestamp glued to its left, so selecting the text drags all the times in too, and you paste a column of numbers you didn’t want. There’s no “copy all” button, the panel scrolls as the video plays, and on a phone you can barely select it at all.
So the words are right there, but getting them out cleanly is the hard part. The fix is to read the same captions through a tool built for copying — one block, no glued-on times unless you ask for them. For the wider picture, the YouTube transcript overview goes deeper.
Copy it cleanly in one step
No install, no account. Copy the video URL, paste it into the box above, and the transcript appears as one clean, selectable block — then copy the whole thing at once.
- Copy the link from the address bar or Share button.
- Paste it into the tool above.
- Hit copy — the full transcript goes to your clipboard.
That’s it: no scrolling the panel, no fighting the selection — the whole way to copy YouTube transcript text without the mess. If you copy transcripts often, the Chrome extension puts a copy button right beside the player — one click on any video. For the full walkthrough, see how to get the transcript of a YouTube video.
One block, one click. The words on your clipboard — not a column of times.
With or without timestamps
This is the choice YouTube’s panel doesn’t give you. Toggle the timecodes off and you copy clean, readable prose — the words running on, ready for an essay or a note. Leave them on and every line is tagged with its moment, so you can quote a passage and cite exactly when it was said.
Both copy the same way; the toggle just decides what rides along. If timing is the whole point for you, a transcript with timestamps covers that in full.
Copying on a phone
The mobile app is the worst place to copy a transcript — selection barely works and the panel keeps moving. The way around it is the same tool in a phone browser: paste the video link, tap copy, and the full transcript is on your clipboard, ready to drop into Notes, a message or a doc. No precise text-dragging on a small screen.
Paste it into notes or an AI assistant
Once it’s copied, it goes wherever you work. Paste it into your notes app, a Google Doc or Notion. Drop it into an AI assistant and ask for a summary, the key points, or a rewrite — it has the exact words, so the result isn’t a guess from audio. Pull a quote into an article with its timestamp. The point of copying cleanly is that the text arrives usable, not tangled with stray numbers. If you want plain prose to begin with, YouTube captions to text covers that side.
Copy, or save as a file
Copying is the quick path, but you can keep the transcript instead of pasting it straight away. Export it as TXT or Markdown for notes and docs, or as SRT and VTT if you want a timed caption file. Each format keeps or drops the timecodes, the same as the copy toggle — a clean read, or working captions, whichever the job needs.
The split is simple: copy when you’re moving the words somewhere right now, export when you want a file to come back to. Copying a long transcript into a doc and exporting the same one as Markdown land in the same place; the only difference is whether it goes through your clipboard or straight to a file. Either way the words arrive clean, in the shape you chose — which is the whole reason to skip the panel’s glued-on times. For the broader picture of turning a video into reusable text, YouTube to text covers it.
Frequently asked questions
How do I copy a YouTube transcript?
Paste the video link into the tool above. The transcript appears as one clean block — click copy to put the whole thing on your clipboard, with or without timestamps. It is free, with no sign-in.
Why is copying from YouTube’s transcript panel so messy?
YouTube’s panel glues a timestamp onto every line, so selecting and copying drags all the times in with the words. The tool above lets you turn the timestamps off and copy clean prose instead.
Can I copy a YouTube transcript on my phone?
Yes. The mobile app makes selecting transcript text hard, but the tool works in a phone browser — paste the link, tap copy, and the full transcript is on your clipboard.
Can I copy it without the timestamps?
Yes. Toggle the timecodes off before copying and you get clean, readable prose with no times in the way.