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Free YouTube tool

YouTube Speech Transcript

Paste a speech's YouTube link to get the full text with timestamps: political speeches, debates, keynotes, and commencement addresses. Quote it accurately and cite the moment. Free, no sign-up.

How to get the transcript of a speech

  1. 1

    Copy the speech link

    From a news channel, a campaign or government channel, or a university's YouTube page. Finished livestreams work too.

  2. 2

    Paste it above

    The whole speech loads as text, with a timestamp on every line.

  3. 3

    Quote and cite

    Search for a phrase, click to hear it in context, then copy the exact words and link to the moment.

For students, journalists, and researchers

Analyze rhetoric, quote a speaker accurately, or compare what was said across several speeches. The timestamps let anyone verify a quote against the video.

Read it in a few minutes

An hour-long address reads in ten minutes. Search for the topics you care about and skip the rest.

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_..."
Get a free API key See the API

Common questions

Can I get a transcript of a political debate?

Yes. Debates and town halls work once YouTube has captions for them, usually within hours of the broadcast. Captions don't label speakers, so use the timestamps to check who said what.

How accurate are speech transcripts?

Prepared speeches with a good microphone usually have accurate captions. Check names, numbers, and statistics against the audio before you publish a quote.

Can I summarize a speech?

Yes. The Summary tab gives the main points, and Notes gives an outline with timestamps.

Can I get a speech in another language?

Yes. Translate the transcript into 150+ languages, with the original above each line.

What if the video 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.