Hear2Text

YouTube to Text Converter

Paste a YouTube link, including Shorts and live replays, and get an editable, timestamped transcript of videos up to 6 hours long. The language is detected automatically. The free plan includes 120 minutes every week, no credit card.

Transcribe YouTube Video

Paste a YouTube URL to start

You do not need to download the video. Free plan: 120 minutes every week, videos up to 6 hours.

A transcript you can edit, not just read

YouTube shows its own transcript under many videos, but it is usually built from automatic captions: split into short lines, often without punctuation, and not something you can edit or export as a document. Hear2Text makes a new transcript from the audio, with punctuation and a timestamp on each segment, that you can edit, search and download. Regular videos, Shorts, unlisted videos and live replays all work, up to 6 hours long. Accuracy reaches up to 99% on clear speech; background music, crosstalk and distant microphones lower it.

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Read an hour of video in minutes

A long interview or lecture is hard to skim as video and easy to skim as text. Search the transcript for a name or term, jump to its timestamp, and ask the AI assistant what the speaker said about a topic. AI summaries on the paid plans turn an hour of talk into a short recap.

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What works and what does not

Paste one video per link. Playlists and channel pages are refused, and there is no bulk import, so a series goes in one video at a time. Private and members-only videos cannot be fetched; if the video is your own, download it from YouTube Studio and upload the file instead (up to 500 MB). On the paid plans you can translate the transcript, and export SRT or VTT captions in the spoken language to upload back to YouTube.

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Ask questions about the video

Once the video is text, the AI assistant answers questions about it. Ask what a two-hour talk concluded, where the speaker covered pricing, or which claims were backed by numbers, and get an answer drawn from the transcript instead of scrubbing through the timeline. The assistant is part of the paid plans.

  • Get the gist of a long video
  • Pull out key points and action items
  • Find the moment a topic comes up
  • Draft posts from what was said
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How it works

From a YouTube link to text you can search, edit and export, without downloading the video.

  1. Step 01

    Copy the YouTube link

    Copy the URL from the address bar, or tap Share and Copy link in the YouTube app. Shorts links work too.

  2. Step 02

    Transcription starts on its own

    Hear2Text fetches the audio, detects the language and writes the transcript with a timestamp on every segment. It takes minutes, not hours.

  3. Step 03

    Review and edit

    Read along, correct names and jargon the speech model misheard, and use the timestamps to check a line against the video.

  4. Step 04

    Export the text

    Download TXT on the free plan, or pick SRT, VTT, Word or PDF with a paid plan.

Who uses it

Anyone who would rather search and quote a video than watch it again: creators, students, researchers and marketers.

  • Students reviewing lectures

    A student turns a one-hour recorded lecture into searchable notes; the free plan covers about two of those every week.

  • Creators captioning their own videos

    A YouTuber pastes their latest upload, fixes a few names, and exports SRT captions to add back in YouTube Studio, then reuses the text for a blog post.

  • Researchers quoting from video

    A researcher transcribes recorded conference talks and interviews, then searches the text for quotes and checks each one at its timestamp.

  • Marketers studying talks and demos

    A marketer transcribes a competitor's product webinar replay and asks the assistant which features and prices were mentioned.

What you get from a YouTube transcript

  1. Paste a link, skip the download

    Works with public and unlisted videos, Shorts and live replays. One video per link; playlists and channels are not accepted.

  2. 100 languages, detected automatically

    100 languages are recognised automatically, so you never pick one before transcribing.

  3. AI assistant and summaries

    Ask the AI assistant what the video covered or where a topic comes up. Paid plans add a summary of the whole video.

  4. Speaker labels

    Interviews and panels get speaker labels such as Speaker 1 and Speaker 2 on every plan, so you can tell who said what.

  5. Exports for captions and documents

    TXT on the free plan. SRT and VTT for captions, and Word and PDF documents come with a paid plan.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How do I get the transcript of a YouTube video?
In three steps. Copy the video link, paste it into Hear2Text and press Transcribe. The language is detected automatically, and the transcript comes back with a timestamp on every segment. You can edit the text in the browser, ask the AI assistant about it and export it: TXT on the free plan, or SRT, VTT, Word and PDF on the paid plans. You need a free account.
Can I transcribe a long YouTube video, like a 3-hour livestream replay?
Yes. A single video can be up to 6 hours long on every plan, including the free one, so full lectures, conference sessions and long podcasts fit. Longer videos take longer to process, so start a long one and come back to it. On the free plan a long video uses your 120 weekly minutes quickly; the paid plans have unlimited minutes under a fair-use limit of 1,200 minutes a day.
Can I translate a YouTube transcript into another language?
Yes, on the paid plans. Translation is part of the Monthly ($9.99) and Yearly ($89.99) plans, along with AI summaries and speaker names. The original language is detected automatically from 100 languages, so a Spanish or Japanese video needs no setup. The free plan transcribes in the spoken language, with speaker labels, and exports TXT only.
Can I download a YouTube transcript as SRT or Word?
Yes, on the paid plans. The free plan exports plain TXT; the Monthly and Yearly plans add SRT and VTT subtitle files, which carry the segment timestamps and can be uploaded back to YouTube as captions, plus Word and PDF for reading and sharing. Timestamps are per segment, not per word, which is what caption files need.
Do I need to download the YouTube video first?
No. Copy the link from the address bar or the Share button and paste it in; Hear2Text fetches the audio itself. This works for public and unlisted videos, including Shorts. Private and members-only videos cannot be fetched. If such a video is yours, download it from YouTube Studio and upload the file instead, up to 500 MB and 6 hours.
Is the YouTube transcript tool free?
Yes. The free plan gives you 120 transcription minutes every week, reset on Monday, with no credit card. That covers two one-hour videos a week, labelled by speaker. It runs one transcription at a time and exports TXT. The Monthly plan ($9.99) or Yearly plan ($89.99, about $7.50 a month) adds unlimited minutes, every export format, AI summaries, translation and speaker names.

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Paste a YouTube link and read the video instead of watching it

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Transcribe your first YouTube video with 120 free minutes this week

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