Frequently Asked Questions

YoutubeIQ is a free online tool that uses AI to transcribe YouTube videos into readable text with timestamps. You paste a YouTube link, and YoutubeIQ delivers a full transcription, usually within a few minutes — no software to install and no account required.

Simply copy the URL of any YouTube video and paste it into the input field on the YoutubeIQ homepage. Click "Transcribe" and wait while it is processed. Once the transcription is ready, you can read it on the page, search it, copy it to your clipboard, or download it as a text or Markdown file.

Yes, YoutubeIQ is completely free. We support the service through non-intrusive advertising. There are no hidden charges or premium tiers. To keep the service available to everyone, there are fair-use limits: new transcriptions are rate-limited per visitor and per video, videos are limited to two hours, and the service can briefly stop accepting new videos if it reaches its monthly processing budget.

No account is required to transcribe videos. However, if you sign in with your Google account, YoutubeIQ will save your transcription history so you can access past transcriptions anytime.

The AI model behind YoutubeIQ can transcribe speech in many languages, and it works out the spoken language itself. Quality varies by language and audio, and we have not tested every language, so check important passages against the video. English is the language we have tested most.

YoutubeIQ uses an AI model to transcribe the speech in a video. Accuracy is best with clear audio and one speaker at a time, and worse with background noise, overlapping speakers, strong accents or technical jargon. We have not measured an accuracy figure, so treat the transcript as a very good draft, and check anything you plan to quote against the video.

It depends on the video's length and on how busy the AI service is. A 15-minute talk has taken about two minutes in our testing; longer videos take longer. You can leave the page while it works: the progress badge follows you around the site, and you get a notification when it is ready.

YoutubeIQ accepts public videos up to two hours long. Longer videos are declined, because they cannot be transcribed reliably in a single request.

Every line in your transcription includes a clickable timestamp that corresponds to the exact moment in the original YouTube video. Clicking a timestamp opens the video at that precise point, making it easy to verify quotes or find specific sections.

Yes. After a transcription is complete, you can download it as a plain text (.txt) file or a Markdown (.md) file, where each timestamp links to that moment in the video. You can also copy the transcription to your clipboard with a single click.

Yes. A finished transcript is saved, so that a video someone has already transcribed does not need to be processed again. This means another visitor who submits the same public video is shown the saved transcript. If you sign in, a copy is also added to your transcription history. We do not currently delete transcripts automatically; you can ask us to delete yours with the request form on the Privacy Policy page. Video links and, if you ask for a summary, the transcript text are sent to Google's Gemini AI service to produce the results.

YoutubeIQ works well with any YouTube video that contains speech — lectures, tutorials, interviews, podcasts, vlogs, news segments, conference talks, and more. Videos with clear audio and minimal background music produce the best results.

YoutubeIQ can only transcribe YouTube videos that are publicly accessible. Private videos cannot be accessed by our service. Unlisted videos are not supported either.

We don't download or store the videos themselves, we don't sell personal data, and we use a consent management platform to give you control over cookies and advertising. Read our full Privacy Policy for details of what we store, who processes it, and how to make a request about your data.

Transcription accuracy can be affected by poor audio quality, heavy background music, overlapping speakers, strong accents, or technical jargon. If a video has low audio quality, the AI may struggle with certain words. You can use the timestamps to verify unclear sections against the original video.