from the Verli guides
How to get a transcript of a YouTube video
Most YouTube videos already have a transcript hiding one click away, and when they do not, there are two decent fallbacks. Fastest first.
Method 1: YouTube's built-in transcript panel
- Open the video and expand the description.
- Click Show transcript at the bottom of the description.
- The transcript opens beside the player; click the three-dot menu to toggle timestamps off for cleaner copying.
- Select the text and copy it. Clicking any line jumps the video to that moment.
This works whenever the video has captions, manual or auto-generated, which covers most uploaded videos in major languages.
Method 2: when there is no Show transcript button
A missing button means the video has no caption track: the creator disabled captions and auto-captioning failed or was turned off. It is common for music-heavy audio, low-quality recordings, and less-supported languages. No extension can reveal a transcript that does not exist; the text has to be generated from the audio.
Method 3: generate a transcript from the audio
Playing the video into a live transcription tool produces a transcript for any video, including livestreams, premieres, and no-caption uploads. With Verli, share the YouTube tab's audio and the transcript scrolls as the video plays; if the video is in another language, the English translation appears alongside. Save the session for the full text and an AI summary. Free for 60 minutes a month.