Facts from each service's own public pages, checked on 2026-09-26 and linked below. Where a page did not say, the table says “not stated”.
ChannelText
| Pricing | $0.008 per delivered transcript; one-time $10 prepaid top-up (1,250 transcripts), USD |
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| Free use | No free sample; videos without a transcript are not charged |
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| Playlists, channels, bulk | Videos, playlists and whole channels; up to 50 links and 500 videos per run |
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| Formats | TXT, SRT, WebVTT, JSON; ZIP with all files and a CSV report |
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| API | REST API (Bearer API keys), OpenAPI 3.1 |
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| MCP server | Remote MCP server (Streamable HTTP) |
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| Without subscription | Yes: prepaid balance, no subscription |
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| Source | pricing, API docs, MCP docs |
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youtube-transcript.io
| Pricing | Plus $9.99/month (1,000 transcripts), Pro $24.99/month (3,000), Enterprise custom |
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| Free use | Free plan with 25 tokens per month |
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| Playlists, channels, bulk | Playlist and CSV extraction; bulk transcripts and a Channels API on Plus/Pro (5 / 50 channels per request) |
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| Formats | not stated |
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| API | REST API, up to 50 video IDs per call; Channels API for Plus/Pro users |
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| MCP server | not stated |
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| Without subscription | not stated |
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| Source | pricing, API (checked 2026-09-26) |
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Tactiq
| Pricing | Meeting plans: Pro €6.67, Team €13.33, Business €25.50 per user/month, billed annually |
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| Free use | Free YouTube transcript generator; meeting Free plan with 10 transcripts/month |
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| Playlists, channels, bulk | not stated |
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| Formats | TXT download (YouTube tool) |
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| API | not stated |
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| MCP server | Tactiq MCP (beta) listed in the Business meeting plan |
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| Without subscription | not stated |
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| Source | YouTube tool, pricing (checked 2026-09-26) |
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NoteGPT
| Pricing | Billed yearly: Pro $108/year, Unlimited $239/year, Max $829/year |
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| Free use | YouTube transcript generator: free online tool, no login |
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| Playlists, channels, bulk | Batch videos and playlists; paid plans process 5 to 20 videos at once |
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| Formats | TXT download; copy without timestamps |
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| API | not stated |
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| MCP server | not stated |
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| Without subscription | not stated |
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| Source | YouTube tool, pricing (checked 2026-09-26) |
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Scribefy
| Pricing | Credit packs $5 (10), $15 (35), $30 (80); Pro $9/month (30 credits); API + MCP $25/month (150 credits) |
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| Free use | 2 free credits for new accounts; cached transcripts free |
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| Playlists, channels, bulk | not stated |
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| Formats | TXT and Markdown (with metadata and timestamps) |
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| API | REST API key on the API + MCP plan |
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| MCP server | MCP server (scribefy-mcp on npm) for Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf |
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| Without subscription | Yes: one-time credit packs that never expire |
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| Source | pricing, home (checked 2026-09-26) |
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DownSub
| Pricing | Free $0; Premium $5/month with a 3-day free trial |
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| Free use | Free plan, no card required; free subtitle downloads |
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| Playlists, channels, bulk | Whole playlists and batch download with Premium |
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| Formats | SRT, VTT, TXT |
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| API | REST API in Premium: 2,000 credits/month, top-ups available |
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| MCP server | not stated |
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| Without subscription | Extra credits listed (10,000 credits for $5); purchase without a subscription not stated |
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| Source | home, Premium and API (checked 2026-09-26) |
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Prices and features change. Each row shows only what that service's linked page said on 2026-09-26; check the page before you buy. ChannelText is not affiliated with any of these services.
Pricing
$0.008 per delivered transcript ($8 per 1,000). No subscription.
- Prepaid balance: add $10 (1,250 transcripts) when your balance is short. You only pay at that point, after you have seen how many videos your link has and the most it can cost.
- Videos without captions, private or removed videos and videos YouTube blocked are free. You pay only for transcripts you get. “Update this channel” skips the videos of that channel you already received.
- No free sample. Transcripts come from the captions YouTube publishes (the creator's or YouTube's automatic ones); there is no speech-to-text, so a video with no captions has no transcript.
Questions
Is ChannelText a subscription?
No. You add a prepaid $10 balance (1,250 transcripts) and each delivered transcript costs $0.008. There is no monthly fee.
Can I try ChannelText without paying?
No. There is no free sample or free tier, and videos without a transcript are not charged. For a single video, YouTube's own “Show transcript” panel costs nothing.
Where do these facts come from?
From each service's public pricing and product pages, opened on 2026-09-26 and linked in the table. “not stated” means the page did not say. Prices change, so check the linked page before you buy.