Search a transcript properly
YouTube's own transcript panel has no search box. As plain text, the transcript behaves like any other document: find a phrase, copy the part you need, move on.
Search inside a YouTube video
YouTube shows a transcript panel but gives you no way to search it, so finding the moment someone said a particular thing means scrubbing back and forth. Take the transcript out as text and you can search it properly — one video, or every video in a channel at once.
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Try it on a video now
Paste a YouTube link and read the transcript right here. No account, nothing to install.
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How it works
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Paste the video link
Drop in the address of the video you want. If you already know roughly where the line is, turn Timestamps on before you fetch — every line then comes back with the time it was said.
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Search the text
The transcript appears as plain text you can read and search in the page, the same way you would search any document. No scrubbing, no guessing where the section starts.
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Or take it somewhere else
Download as TXT to search with your editor, or as CSV or Excel to get one row per line with its timestamp — which is what you want when you are searching across many videos rather than one.
Why use Free YT Bulk Transcripts
A whole channel in one sheet
Fetch a playlist or channel as CSV or Excel and you get one row per caption line across every video. Filter that and you are searching hundreds of videos at once, not one.
Timestamps lead back to the moment
With Timestamps on, every line carries the time it was spoken, so once you have found the sentence you know exactly where to jump back to in the video.
A miss costs nothing
Videos with captions switched off, private videos and deleted videos are listed in your result and never use a credit.
Good to know
- This searches a transcript you have fetched. It does not search across the whole of YouTube to find which video contains a phrase — tools that do that keep their own index of billions of captions, which is a different kind of product. If you do not already know which video you want, this is not the tool for the job.
- Searching a channel works best as a spreadsheet. One row per caption line, with the video title and the timestamp beside it, means a single filter searches every video you fetched.
- YouTube's automatic captions have no punctuation and misread names and technical words, so a phrase you remember may be spelled oddly in the text. Where the creator uploaded their own captions, those are the accurate ones, and we list them first.
- Your first 10 videos each day are free with no account and no email.
Frequently asked questions
Can I find which YouTube video contains a phrase?
Not with this. We fetch the transcript of a video you point us at; we do not keep a searchable index of every video on YouTube, which is what finding a phrase across the whole platform requires. If you already know the video or the channel, this does the job well. If you are trying to identify an unknown video from something said in it, you need a caption search engine instead.
Why can I not just search YouTube's transcript panel?
Because it has no search box. The panel scrolls and highlights along with playback, but there is nothing to type a phrase into, which is why most people end up scrubbing the timeline. Taking the text out solves it in a few seconds.
Can I search across a whole channel at once?
Yes. Paste a playlist or channel address and export as CSV or Excel. You get one row per caption line, with the video title and timestamp, so filtering the sheet searches every video in the run at the same time.
Will the timestamps take me back to the right moment?
Yes, as long as Timestamps is turned on before you fetch. Each line carries the time it was spoken, so you can jump straight to it in the video.
Does it cost anything?
Ten videos a day are free with no account at all. A free account adds 25 credits and the download formats, and only videos that actually return captions use one.
More guides
A time on every lineYouTube transcripts with timestamps
Spreadsheet-ready transcriptsExport YouTube transcripts to Excel and CSV
Whole channels, newest firstDownload transcripts from an entire YouTube channel
Whole playlists in one pasteDownload the transcripts of a whole YouTube playlist
Uploaded or automatic captionsDownload YouTube captions
For researchersYouTube transcripts for research and content analysis
The appBulk YouTube transcripts for videos, lists, playlists and channels