Convert YouTube videos to text

Paste a video, playlist or channel link and get the words as plain text files, without timestamps. Text is already selected below.

In short: ChannelText downloads the transcripts of YouTube videos, Shorts, playlists and whole channels as TXT, SRT, WebVTT or JSON files, in one ZIP with a CSV report. It costs $0.008 per delivered transcript from a prepaid balance topped up with $10 (1,250 transcripts): a one-time payment in USD, no subscription, no free sample, and videos without a transcript are not charged. Up to 50 links and 500 videos per run; it uses the captions YouTube publishes, so a video without captions has no transcript. Also available as a REST API and an MCP server.

Result

#	Video	Result	Files

API keys

Get transcripts from your own code with the ChannelText API, paid from the same balance. A new key is shown once; keep it secret and revoke it if it leaks.

Name	Key	Created	Last used

Plain text, no timestamps

Each Text file starts with a short header (title, channel, link, publish date and caption language) followed by the words, with no timestamps or line numbers. Check Subtitles (SRT) as well if you also want the timing.

It converts the video's captions

ChannelText turns the captions YouTube publishes for a video into text: the creator's captions when there are some, YouTube's automatic captions otherwise. It does not listen to the audio, so a video without captions has no text. That video is reported with the reason and not charged.

One video, a playlist or a whole channel

Paste one link or many, one per line, up to 500 videos per run. You get one text file per video and all-transcripts.txt with every transcript in one file.

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

How to convert youtube subtitles to text?

Paste the video link above with “Text” checked. ChannelText turns the subtitles into a .txt file without timestamps.

How to transcribe a youtube video to text without paying?

For one video, YouTube shows the transcript under the description (“Show transcript”), where you can read and copy it. ChannelText is paid ($0.008 per delivered transcript) and is for text files and many videos at once.

Can you get a transcript from a youtube video?

Yes, when the video has captions: the creator's or YouTube's automatic ones, which exist for most videos. Music, very new and very short videos often have none; ChannelText reports those and does not charge for them.