Download YouTube subtitles as SRT or VTT

Which format should you use?

What the download includes

SRT and VTT are generated from the transcript's timed chunks. They may need adjustment for subtitle line length, reading speed or synchronization in your editor. Empty and zero-length cues are omitted; no timing is invented for them.

This workflow does not provide playlist/channel bulk download, a caption-language selector or guaranteed translation. Missing captions may use an audio fallback, which has availability and duration limits. Troubleshoot unavailable transcripts.

To pick a caption language and read the transcript next to the video while you watch, use the free Chrome extension. It exports the same formats from the captions YouTube has.

Where each file goes next

The same transcript can end up in very different places. Pick the format for the program that will open it, then follow the matching step below.

Video editors: Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, CapCut

Download SRT. All three editors import SRT as a captions or subtitle track that you can restyle and retime. Step-by-step import instructions, and what to do when the timing is off after you trim the start of a clip, are on the YouTube to SRT page for video editors.

Your own website or web player

Download VTT. Browsers only accept WebVTT in the HTML5 <track> element. The YouTube to VTT page has a copy-ready <video> example and notes on CORS when the file lives on another domain.

Desktop players such as VLC

Download SRT, save it next to the video file with the same name (for example talk.mp4 and talk.srt), and most desktop players load it automatically. In VLC you can also add it from the Subtitle menu. Menu names differ between versions.

Re-uploading captions to your own YouTube video

If you own the video, YouTube Studio accepts SRT and VTT files with timing on its Subtitles page. Check the text first: automatic captions and AI transcription repeat the source's recognition errors, and uploading them as-is makes those errors official.

Translation tools, notes and AI assistants

Use TXT, or Copy text, when timing does not matter. For ChatGPT or Claude, the Copy for ChatGPT button adds the video title, link and a starter prompt. Keep JSON when a script needs the start and duration of every passage.

Already have a subtitle file?

You do not need to extract the video again to change formats. These converters run in your browser and do not upload the file:

• SRT to VTT converter for web players.
• VTT to SRT converter for editors, including VTT files without hours, cue IDs and styling tags.
• SRT to text when you only need the words.

Before you publish subtitles

• Cue length. Each cue is one transcript passage, often 20 to 30 seconds of speech. That reads well as a transcript but is too long for on-screen subtitles; split long cues in your editor.
• Accuracy. Names, numbers and technical terms are the usual errors. Watch the passages that matter before you rely on them.
• Language. The file is in the language of the captions or the spoken audio. There is no caption-language selector and no translation.
• Privacy. Free and guest transcripts are published to the public library. Use Pro for videos whose transcript should stay private.

Try a small sample file

These two sentences were written by TubeTranscript to demonstrate the formats. They are not a transcript of a real video.

Import the SRT or VTT sample into your editor to check compatibility before exporting a longer transcript.

Subtitle download questions