The clearer your transcripts are, the easier for you (and others) to follow along later. Whether you’re cooking, cleaning, driving or walking your dog (I know, not the safest ideas), transcripts can help. For non-native speakers, following along with a video where the speakers don’t talk clearly or slowly can be difficult. This information makes the video more accessible and understandable to everyone. It takes time but it’s probably the most accurate of them all.
For that, there’s YouTube’s automatically generated transcript. A transcript turns everything spoken in a video into clear, searchable text you can copy, scan, and reuse however you like. It makes your content accessible to a wider audience and even helps search engines figure out what your video is about.
You will be able to do this by clicking on the 3 dots appearing in the top right corner of the transcript box. Once you click that button you will see the option to “Toggle Timestamps”. Selecting this option will turn the timestamps off and enable you to copy the text without the timestamps. The transcript will appear along with the timestamps as a default option but you can turn the timestamps off if you want. The next step is to copy the text with or without the timestamps.
Click “Open transcript” to view the video’s transcript. Unless the video publisher has uploaded their own transcript, YouTube defaults to an automatic caption generator. The transcript feature uses these automatically-generated captions to display the full text of the video. Can I use transcripts to improve my own videos’ SEO? If you want more than just YouTube’s built-in transcript feature — like downloadable text, better formatting, or even translations — these tools can help. They’re great for creators, students, marketers, or anyone who needs a clean transcript to save or repurpose.
Built-in YouTube Transcript
And that hour-long video essay on symbolism in “The Shining”? Maybe it’ll make more sense when you’ve got the text laid out right in front of you. Whether you want to deeply study a video’s content or take brief notes from a video’s transcript, having the text version of a video is handy. However, if you want downloadable, formatted, or translated transcripts, you might consider paid tools like Descript, Sonix, or Simplified (which also has a free tier). While accuracy is high with this YouTube transcription option, turnaround times can be slow. It’s also more expensive since you’re paying a person (not a free tool) to transcribe the content for you.
- From transcription to audio cleanup, streamline your process with top-notch automation.
- Overall, transcripts streamline lesson creation and encourage active learning.
- We test and review software products based on an independent, multi-point methodology.
- Using a video (or multiple ones) to create blog posts, whitepapers, social media posts, etc, is easier when you have all the information in text format.
- From there, you can edit the transcript and download it in your chosen format.
- Even today, manual transcription is preferred for important projects like legal cases or qualitative research.
How Much Does TikTok Pay Creators in 2025? Full Guide & Tips to Earn More
This process saves lots of time compared to generating new ideas and starting from scratch. Using APIs to get video transcripts is probably not something the average user would want to do. However, it’s good to know there is this ability for the more advanced user. Now, here’s the thing – This method works well and it works often.
Or perhaps you’re trying to transform that brilliant interview into social media posts without transcribing it manually—a task about as enjoyable as untangling earbuds. Providing multilingual transcripts respects your audience’s diverse backgrounds and can even uncover new growth opportunities as more people discover your videos. Employing ITS 2.0 markup ensures that vital metadata, like language identifiers, remain intact throughout translation.
Step 3: Tap “Show transcript” button
To download subtitles you previously uploaded, go to your channel dashboard through the YouTube left-hand side menu. Then, click on the video whose subtitles you want to download. YouTube generally refers to closed captions as subtitles (even though there’s a difference – check out the FAQ section for this distinction). Another way to transcribe your videos is the manual way. This might either sound obvious or something that you wouldn’t think of. Also, note that some software works with both audio and video files while others only work with audio.
Editing And Formatting Transcripts
To improve your own video SEO — Adding accurate captions and transcripts to your own videos helps search engines index your content better. Descript can distinguish between different speakers and label them accordingly in the transcript. Your transcript is also time-coded and synced with the audio or video. So, you can click on a word in the transcript and immediately jump to that part in the audio or video—a feature that makes navigating long content much easier. Unfortunately, YouTube doesn’t provide a direct download option for transcripts.
On YouTube, you can choose the language from the dropdown in the transcript panel. Tools like Simplified also let you translate transcripts into other languages. By combining both captions (for accessibility) and translated subtitles (for language), you can connect with a broader range of users. On mobile, you won’t be able to copy or save the text directly. If you just need a short quote, you can type it out manually into a note or document.
- Depending on how accessible a creator is, you may be able to reach out and request a transcript directly.
- We’re biased, but Descript is the best YouTube transcription tool for YouTubers.
- If you want the transcript of your own video, only then you get the option for downloading the transcript.
- It makes your content accessible to a wider audience and even helps search engines figure out what your video is about.
How To Start A Fitness Blog And Monetize It
You need to expand the description box by clicking “more”. A YouTube video transcript is a text version of everything that is being said in a YouTube video. You can access the transcript directly from YouTube in a few simple steps.
High-speed, high-accuracy YouTube transcription.
With it, you can automatically transcribe audio and video files. You can even import YouTube videos with just a link, making it a powerful YouTube transcript generator for content creators. For publicly available videos, the W3C’s WCAG guidelines help ensure transcripts assist those who are d/Deaf or hard of hearing, as well as anyone who prefers text. They specify that transcripts must accurately reflect all spoken words, plus meaningful non-speech sounds, to meet WCAG 2.1 standards. Inaccurate or incomplete transcripts can lead to inadvertent exclusion of some viewers. By including speaker identification and relevant visual context, you align with W3C-recommended inclusivity principles.
Are YouTube’s Automatically Generated Transcripts Accurate?
Our AI-powered transcription tool gives you 99% accuracy, supports 100+ languages, and lets you download in formats perfect for captions, content, or repurposing. Whether you’re uploading a YouTube video or recording from scratch, Riverside makes transcription effortless. YouTube’s automatically generated captions often support multiple languages. Above the transcript, there is a dropdown menu where you can pick the language you want.
And let Riverside’s AI handle post summaries, descriptions and short clips, so you can do more with less. Transcribe YouTube videos in 100+ languages, including English, Chinese, French, Spanish, and more. While I edit and write “how-to” articles, I also sometimes find myself in need of how-to directions myself.
Tools like Simplified and Descript allow you to edit and improve the transcript. Scroll down through the video’s details — here you’ll see info like likes, views, publish date, and the description. Keep scrolling until you find the Show transcript button, then tap it to display the transcript. It’s easier than ever to start making videos from home, but making good videos is a different story. Discover 6 AI tools for seamless podcast production. From transcription to audio cleanup, streamline your process with top-notch automation.