YouTube Transcript
Extract transcripts from YouTube videos using the youtube-transcript-api.
Usage
Run the script with a YouTube URL or video ID:
With timestamps:
Defaults
- Without timestamps (default): Plain text, one line per caption segment
- With timestamps:
[MM:SS] textformat (or[HH:MM:SS]for longer videos)
Supported URL Formats
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_IDhttps://youtu.be/VIDEO_IDhttps://youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID- Raw video ID (11 characters)
Output
- CRITICAL: YOU MUST NEVER MODIFY THE RETURNED TRANSCRIPT
- If the transcript is without timestamps, you SHOULD clean it up so that it is arranged by complete paragraphs and the lines don't cut in the middle of sentences.
- If you were asked to save the transcript to a specific file, save it to the requested file.
- If no output file was specified, use the YouTube video ID with a
-transcript.txtsuffix.
Notes
- Fetches auto-generated or manually added captions (whichever is available)
- Requires the video to have captions enabled
- Falls back to auto-generated captions if manual ones aren't available
