How to Download YouTube Subtitles & Transcripts (TXT/SRT)
If you need the text of a YouTube video, whether for research, translation, repurposing into a blog post, or simply reading along, you don't need to install software or pay for a subscription. You can pull the captions directly from any public YouTube video and save them as a plain text file or a timestamped subtitle file in just a few clicks, straight from your browser.
Step-by-step: getting subtitles and transcripts in TXT or SRT
The fastest route is using the Creatoolkit subtitle and transcript downloader, a free online tool built for creators who want clean text without ads, watermarks, or installs.
- Open the YouTube video you want and copy its URL from the address bar (or the share button).
- Go to Creatoolkit and open the subtitle and transcript downloader.
- Paste the link into the input field and confirm.
- Pick the available language. If the creator uploaded official captions, those will appear first; auto-generated captions are listed when no manual ones exist.
- Choose your format: .txt for a clean transcript without timestamps, or .srt for a subtitle file with time codes ready for video editors.
- Click download. The file lands in your downloads folder and is ready to open in any text editor or import into editing software.
Useful tips before you export
- Manual vs auto captions: manual captions are almost always more accurate. If you see both, prefer the human-made version.
- Pick TXT for reading and writing: it strips out time codes, leaving a continuous block of text that's easy to paste into Notion, Google Docs, or a CMS.
- Pick SRT for editing: tools like Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, CapCut, and most online editors import SRT directly to burn or overlay subtitles.
- Translate later: once you have a TXT, you can drop it into a translator to draft captions in another language, then re-time them in an SRT.
- Long videos: the transcript still works for hour-long podcasts or lectures, you just get a longer file.
- Check copyright: downloading captions for personal study or quoting is generally fine, but republishing someone else's full transcript needs permission.
Does the video need to have subtitles enabled?
Yes. The tool reads whatever captions YouTube has available for that video, either uploaded by the creator or generated automatically by YouTube. If the channel has disabled captions entirely, there's nothing to extract, and you'd need to transcribe the audio with a separate speech-to-text tool.
What is the difference between a .txt transcript and a .srt file?
A TXT file contains only the spoken words as plain text, which is ideal for reading, summarizing, or repurposing into articles. An SRT file is a subtitle format that pairs each line of text with start and end timestamps, so video editors and players know exactly when to display each caption on screen.
Is it really free and safe to use?
Yes, the Creatoolkit downloader runs in your browser without asking for an account, payment, or software install. It only processes the public caption data YouTube already exposes, so your downloads stay private and the original video remains untouched on the platform.