Is YouTube transcription free?

Yes. Dokitscript offers 5 free transcriptions per month with a free account, no credit card required.

Does it work on YouTube Shorts?

Yes. Dokitscript supports YouTube Shorts as well as regular YouTube videos.

How to Transcribe YouTube Videos to Text Free (2026)

YouTube has over 800 million videos. Educators, journalists, students, and content creators all need to extract the spoken words from videos regularly. Whether you want to quote a speaker, repurpose content, create subtitles, or study a lecture, getting a YouTube transcript used to be painful. Today, it takes about 20 seconds.

Two Ways to Get a YouTube Transcript

Option 1, YouTube's built-in captions (limited)

YouTube offers auto-generated captions on some videos. You can access them by clicking the three dots below the video → Open transcript. The problem: they're often inaccurate, not available for all videos, and can't be exported cleanly.

Option 2, AI transcription with Dokitscript (recommended)

Dokitscript uses advanced AI with human-level accuracy to transcribe YouTube videos with much higher accuracy, in 90+ languages, directly from the URL. No download, no extension needed.

Works on YouTube Shorts too. Dokitscript supports both regular YouTube videos and YouTube Shorts, same URL paste workflow.

How to Transcribe a YouTube Video, Step by Step

Copy the YouTube URL

Go to the YouTube video. Copy the URL from your browser's address bar, or tap Share → Copy link on mobile.

Paste into Dokitscript

Go to dokitscript.com, paste the URL, and choose your language (or keep Auto-detect).

Read, copy or save your transcript

Click Transcribe. Your full transcript appears in 15–45 seconds depending on video length. Copy it or find it later in your history.

YouTube Auto-Captions vs Dokitscript

Feature	YouTube captions	Dokitscript
Accuracy	Medium	High (advanced AI with human-level accuracy)
Languages	~20 auto	90+
Always available	No	Yes
Clean export	No	Yes
Works on Shorts	No	Yes
Free	Yes	Yes (5/mo)

Common Use Cases

Students, Transcribe lectures, interviews, or documentaries for notes.
Journalists, Quote speakers accurately without replaying the video.
Content creators, Repurpose your YouTube video into blog posts, newsletters, or social media content.
Researchers, Analyze spoken content at scale across multiple videos.
Language learners, Read along while listening to improve comprehension.

Plans & Limits

Plan	Videos/month	Price
No account	1 try	Free
Free account	5/month	$0
Starter	Unlimited	$9.99/mo
Pro	Unlimited	$39.99/mo
Business	Unlimited	$119.99/mo

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. Dokitscript offers 5 free transcriptions per month, no credit card required. Try 1 without even creating an account.

Yes. Dokitscript supports both regular YouTube videos and YouTube Shorts with the same URL paste workflow.

Yes. YouTube's auto-captions are often inaccurate and not available for all videos. Dokitscript uses advanced AI with human-level accuracy, which is significantly more accurate, especially for non-English content and technical vocabulary.

Dokitscript is optimized for short-form content (up to a few minutes). For long videos, consider uploading the audio file directly using the file upload feature.

90+ languages with automatic detection, including English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and more.

Transcribe YouTube Videos for Free

5 transcriptions per month, no credit card required.

Try It Now

Also available: YouTube Shorts Transcription Tool · TikTok to Text · Instagram to Text · Audio to Text · How to Transcribe a Podcast