How to Download YouTube Subtitles and Transcripts (SRT, VTT, TXT)
A practical guide to downloading subtitles and transcripts from any YouTube video — including auto-generated captions — in SRT, VTT, or plain text.
Subtitles are useful for far more than accessibility. Creators repurpose transcripts into blog posts, translators work from them, students study from them, and AI tools summarize them. Here's how to get a clean transcript from almost any public video.
Which format should you choose?
- SRT — the most widely supported subtitle format, with numbered cues and timestamps.
- VTT — WebVTT, used by web players and the HTML5 <track> element.
- TXT — plain text with no timestamps, ideal for reading, translation, or feeding into an AI summarizer.
Manual vs auto-generated captions
Many videos include captions the creator uploaded, which are usually accurate. When those aren't available, YouTube's automatic speech recognition often provides auto-generated captions. These are good enough for most uses, though they may miss punctuation or mishear names.
Download in three steps
- Paste the video URL into the Subtitle Downloader.
- Pick the language track and your preferred format (SRT, VTT, or TXT).
- Preview the text, then download or copy it.
If you plan to summarize a long video, download the transcript as TXT and paste it into an AI tool — or use our Video Summarizer, which does both steps for you.
Try the tool from this article:
YouTube Subtitle Downloader