YoutubeIQ turns the speech in a public YouTube video into text you can read, search, copy and download. This guide walks through the whole process, what to expect while it runs, and what to do when a video will not transcribe.
Before you start: what will work
- Public videos only. Private and unlisted videos cannot be transcribed.
- Up to two hours long. Longer videos are declined up front.
- Videos with speech. Music, sound effects and silence produce no useful text.
- A normal YouTube video link. Links in the forms
youtube.com/watch?v=…,youtu.be/…,youtube.com/shorts/…andyoutube.com/embed/…are accepted. Links to a channel, a playlist or a search page are not.
Step by step
- Copy the video's link. On YouTube, use the Share button or copy the address from your browser's address bar.
- Paste it into the box on the YoutubeIQ home page and press Transcribe. You do not need an account.
- Wait while it processes. You can leave the page: a progress badge follows you around the site, and a message appears when the transcript is ready. If your browser asks about notifications, allowing them lets YoutubeIQ tell you even when the tab is in the background.
- Read the result. Use Full Text for a continuous read, or Timestamps for one line per moment, each with a link that opens the video at that point.
- Go further if you need to. You can search the transcript, download or copy it, or ask for an AI summary and key points in the “Understand this video” section.
How long it takes
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. If someone has already transcribed the same video, the saved transcript is shown straight away, because a finished transcript is reused rather than made again.
Getting the most accurate result
You cannot change a video's audio, but you can choose well between versions of it. A clean upload of a talk will transcribe better than a recording of it off a speaker, and a single clear voice will transcribe better than a crowded discussion. Whatever the source, read the result with the video's likely trouble spots in mind: names, brand names, technical terms and numbers are where an AI transcript is most often wrong.
When a video will not transcribe
These are the messages you may see, and what each one means:
- “Invalid YouTube URL”
- The link is not one of the video link forms above. Open the video itself and copy its link again.
- “This video is too long to transcribe in one go.”
- The video is over two hours, or its transcript would be too large for one request. Trying again will not help.
- “Our transcription provider declined it”
- The AI model refused this video. This happens with music (especially copyrighted songs) and occasionally with well-known talks. It is not always final: the same video can be refused once and transcribed on a later attempt, so it is worth trying again in a few minutes.
- “Our transcription service is busy right now”
- The AI service is overloaded. Try again in a few minutes.
- “Too many requests”
- To keep the service fair, new transcriptions are limited per visitor and per video. Wait a moment and try again.
- “We've reached our transcription limit for now”
- The service has a monthly processing budget and it has been used up. Videos that are already transcribed still open normally. New ones will work again when the budget resets.
What this transcript is not
- It is made by an AI model, so it contains mistakes. It is a strong draft, not a verified record.
- It does not label who is speaking, and it does not describe music or other sounds.
- Timestamps are approximate. They are good enough to jump to the right part of a video, but check the exact second against the video if it matters.
- It does not include the video itself, only the words spoken in it.
What happens to the transcript afterwards
A finished transcript is saved, so that the same public video does not have to be processed twice. That means someone else who submits the same video is shown the saved transcript, and if you are signed in a copy is added to your history. Read the Privacy Policy for the details and for how to ask for something to be deleted.
Want to go deeper on putting transcripts to work? The blog covers studying with transcripts and when AI transcription is enough and when it is not.
Frequently asked questions
- Do I need an account to transcribe a video?
- No. You can transcribe without signing in. Signing in adds a copy of each transcript to your history so you can find it again.
- Can I transcribe a private or unlisted video?
- No. The AI service reads the video directly from YouTube, which only works for public videos.
- Does it use YouTube’s own captions?
- No. An AI model listens to the video’s speech and writes the transcript itself, so it works on videos with no captions at all. That also means it can make mistakes that YouTube’s captions would not, and the reverse.
- Why did my video work on the second try?
- The AI service sometimes declines a video or is briefly overloaded, and neither is always permanent. If a first attempt fails with a message that says to try again, it is worth trying again.