YouTube transcript to SRT and VTT subtitles

YouTube already auto-generates captions for most uploads, so the fastest path to a subtitle file is usually just exporting them. The catch is that auto-captions are timed to speech-recognition boundaries, not clean sentence breaks, so they often need retiming once they're in an editor — and for older uploads, livestream VODs, or heavily accented audio, there may be no usable caption track to start from at all.

Transcript.land handles both cases the same way: paste the URL and export SRT for an editor timeline (Premiere, Final Cut, CapCut, DaVinci) or VTT for a web player. If YouTube's own captions exist, you're effectively re-exporting them as a clean, standard file; if they don't, the same request transcribes the audio with AI and returns the same file format either way, so you don't have to check which situation you're in before you start.

• Works the same whether or not YouTube's auto-captions exist for that specific video.
• SRT for editing software, VTT for embedding directly in a web player.
• Segment-level timestamps make it straightforward to retime after a trim or cut.

Workflow

1. Run the YouTube video URL through transcript.land.
2. Export SRT for editing software, or VTT for a web player.
3. Import the file into your editor's caption track, or attach it to the <video> element.
4. If you trim the video after export, shift the subtitle file's timing to match — it's relative to the original.

FAQ