TranscriptYTHow to get transcripts of a YouTube course
- 1
Copy the course playlist link
Or the link to one lesson. Full courses from freeCodeCamp, university channels, and creators are usually playlists.
- 2
Paste it and pick a lesson
Playlist links list every lesson; pick one to load its transcript.
- 3
Study from it
Search for a term, open Notes for an outline, or download each lesson as Markdown or PDF.
Skim before you watch
Read a lesson's transcript to see what it covers and skip what you already know. Search across lessons for the topic you need.
Keep a written copy of the course
Download each lesson as Markdown for Notion or Obsidian and build your own searchable course notes.
Need more?
Need transcripts at scale? Use the API
The same transcripts are available through the YouTube Transcript API: timestamped JSON, text, SRT, VTT, CSV, or Markdown, 150+ languages, and AI transcription for videos without captions. Or connect the YouTube MCP server to Claude, Cursor, or Codex and just paste links in chat.
curl "https://transcript-yt.com/v1/transcript?url=5f3Pn-N6yLc&format=text" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer ts_live_..."
Common questions
Can I download transcripts of a whole course at once?
In the free tool you open lessons one by one. The TranscriptYT API returns a whole playlist's transcripts in one request.
Does it work with one long video course?
Yes. Many courses are a single 5 to 10 hour video; the transcript loads with timestamps you can search.
Can I make study notes from a course?
Yes. The Notes tab writes headings and bullet points with timestamps for each lesson.
Can I take a course in another language?
Yes. Translate the transcript into 150+ languages, with the original above each line.
What if a lesson has no captions?
The free tool reads the captions YouTube already has, creator-uploaded or auto-generated, and most videos with speech have them. For a video with no captions at all, click Transcribe the audio with AI: it's on paid plans and credit packs, at 1 credit per minute.