Video transcripts by platform and use case
23 guides covering how to get a transcript from YouTube, TikTok, X, Instagram, Bilibili, Facebook, RedNote — and what to actually do with it once you have one: subtitles, repurposing, research, a searchable archive, show notes, or accessibility.
This isn't every platform crossed with every use case. Each guide below exists because that specific pairing has something genuinely different to say — caption availability, typical content length, and the right export format all vary by platform, and the workflow varies by what you're trying to do with the output. Where a combination wouldn't (a searchable archive of 15-second TikToks, for instance), it isn't here.
YouTube
Most videos carry YouTube's automatic captions, which cover dozens of spoken languages, plus a smaller set of creator-uploaded caption tracks. Coverage drops for older uploads, livestream VOD replays, and heavily accented or noisy audio, where auto-captions technically exist but are unreliable enough that transcribing the audio directly is often the better source anyway.
TikTok
TikTok's "Auto captions" sticker is opt-in per upload — plenty of creators never turn it on, and reposts or re-uploads usually lose it entirely. Where it is on, it's a burned-in on-screen sticker, not a separate downloadable caption file.
X
Auto-generated captions have rolled out unevenly across X's video posts — coverage is inconsistent between the native app, embeds, and older uploads, with no reliable way to know in advance whether a given post has one.
Reels support an "Auto captions" sticker a creator has to add manually; a large share of Reels — especially reposts and older content — ship with none. When present, it's an on-screen graphic, not a text file.
Bilibili
Real closed captions are inconsistent, especially for non-Mandarin audio. Bilibili's signature "danmaku" — the scrolling comment overlay — is not a caption track; it's viewer commentary and doesn't contain the video's actual spoken content. A meaningful share of the platform's video (especially fan-subbed or reposted content) has subtitles hardcoded into the image instead of stored as a separate file.
Facebook auto-generates captions for a lot of native uploads, but feed video has historically autoplayed muted, so caption presence is inconsistent — and video cross-posted from another platform frequently loses its original captions in the process.
RedNote
RedNote (Xiaohongshu) is a photo-carousel-first platform with video as a secondary format, and caption tooling on it is noticeably less mature than on video-first platforms — real, extractable caption tracks are the exception, not the norm.
Not sure where to start?
If you know who you are more than which platform you're working with, the persona pages cover the same ground from that angle: for researchers, for content creators, and for developers. Every export format, the free tier, and full pricing are covered on the homepage.
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