# ChannelText

> ChannelText turns YouTube videos, Shorts, playlists and whole channels into text and subtitle files (TXT, SRT, VTT, JSON) from the captions YouTube publishes, with a per-video status for videos that have none. It is available on the web, as a REST API and as a remote MCP server for LLM clients and agents, all paid from the same prepaid balance.

Pricing: $0.008 per delivered transcript ($8 per 1,000) from a prepaid balance topped up in $10 steps. Jobs are capped by the balance; videos without captions, private, removed or blocked videos are free. No subscription, no free sample. There is no speech-to-text: a video without captions has no transcript. Limits: up to 50 URLs and 500 videos per job.

## Docs

- [Full documentation in one file](https://channeltext.com/llms-full.txt): product, pricing, formats, limits, every API endpoint, MCP tools and setup, as plain text
- [REST API](https://channeltext.com/docs/api): API keys, jobs, results, files, balance, error codes
- [MCP server](https://channeltext.com/docs/mcp): Streamable HTTP endpoint https://channeltext.com/mcp with the tools get_transcripts, get_job, get_balance; setup for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor and other clients
- [OpenAPI 3.1 document](https://channeltext.com/api/v1/openapi.json): machine-readable API contract

## Pages

- [YouTube transcript generator](https://channeltext.com/): Paste a YouTube video, playlist or channel link and download every transcript as TXT, SRT, VTT or JSON. One transcript or thousands, in one ZIP.
- [Transcript downloader](https://channeltext.com/youtube-transcript-downloader): Download YouTube transcripts without a browser extension. Paste a video, playlist or channel and get every transcript in one ZIP.
- [Download subtitles](https://channeltext.com/download-youtube-subtitles): Download YouTube subtitles and closed captions as SRT, VTT or TXT files, in the original language or another available one. Works for playlists and channels.
- [Playlist transcripts](https://channeltext.com/youtube-playlist-transcripts): Paste one YouTube playlist link and download the transcript of every video as TXT, SRT or JSON, with a report of the videos that had none.
- [Channel transcripts](https://channeltext.com/youtube-channel-transcripts): Download the transcripts of every video on a YouTube channel, filter by date, and update later with only the new videos.
- [Bulk transcripts](https://channeltext.com/bulk-youtube-transcripts): Paste a list of YouTube links, playlists or channels and download all transcripts at once. Pay $0.008 per delivered transcript; failed videos cost nothing.
- [YouTube to text](https://channeltext.com/youtube-to-text): Convert YouTube videos to clean plain text without timestamps. One video, a playlist or a whole channel.
- [Transcripts for AI](https://channeltext.com/youtube-transcript-for-ai): Get clean YouTube transcripts ready to paste into ChatGPT, Claude or NotebookLM — one video or a whole channel as one text file.
- [Copy a transcript](https://channeltext.com/copy-youtube-transcript): Three ways to copy a YouTube transcript: in the YouTube player, on your phone, or as files for many videos at once.
- [En español](https://channeltext.com/es/transcribir-video-de-youtube-a-texto): Pega un vídeo, una lista o un canal de YouTube y descarga todas las transcripciones en TXT, SRT o JSON.
- [YouTube transcript API](https://channeltext.com/api): REST API for YouTube transcripts: one endpoint for videos, playlists and channels, JSON or SRT, $0.008 per delivered transcript, no subscription.
- [YouTube transcript MCP](https://channeltext.com/mcp): Give your AI assistant YouTube transcripts: an MCP server for single videos, playlists and whole channels.
- [Compare](https://channeltext.com/compare): How ChannelText compares with youtube-transcript.io, Tactiq, NoteGPT, Scribefy and DownSub on price, playlists and channels, formats, API and MCP, from each site's public pages.

## Optional

- [MCP server manifest](https://channeltext.com/server.json): server.json for MCP registries
- [Terms](https://channeltext.com/terms), [Privacy](https://channeltext.com/privacy), [Refunds](https://channeltext.com/refunds)