Tools/Transcripts & subtitles

YouTube Subtitle Downloader

The caption file itself, as SRT or VTT, with the timings left as YouTube has them.

Input

Caption file

Paste a video link. The caption file comes back as SRT or VTT, timings intact.

Free · needs a video link
Reads public data only
Cached to protect quota

What this does

This returns the caption file itself, as SRT or VTT, with the in and out times YouTube sent. It is the same track as the transcript generator, in a player format.

SRT is free. VTT is on Pro. We write the millisecond separator each format expects, so a player does not reject a file that looks fine in a text editor.

Use cases

01Load cues into Premiere, Resolve, or a browser <video> element.
02Hand a client a caption file instead of a wall of text.
03Keep timings when you translate or edit the words later.

Glossary

Captions vs subtitles WebVTT Closed captions

FAQ

Questions, answered.

Is VTT better than SRT?

No. The words and times are the same. VTT can store voices and placement. SRT is accepted in more editors.

Do I need an account?

Not for SRT. VTT is a Pro format.

What if there is no track?

There is no file to download. We do not invent cues.

From the notebook

SRT vs VTT vs TXT: which subtitle format to useWhat each format carries, which players accept it, and the exact styling rules YouTube applies to each file you upload.Free YouTube subtitle extractor: every method that still worksFour ways to pull captions out of a YouTube video, what each one costs you in time, and the six official reasons a video has no track to pull.Free YouTube subtitle extractor: the complete guideThe law that made captions normal, how to judge a free extractor on privacy rather than speed, and what caption accuracy actually measures.