YouTube has
the video.You just want
the words.

Paste a public YouTube link into ClearScript and it retrieves the video's existing caption track — manually written or auto-generated — and lays it out as a clean, readable transcript with timestamps. If the video has no caption track at all, no tool can produce a transcript for it; checking for the CC icon on YouTube first tells you whether one exists.

TXT is plain, flowing text with no timestamps — good for reading, searching, or pasting into a document. SRT is a structured subtitle file with timestamped blocks, built for video editors and media players. Both come from the same transcript, so you're never locked into one or the other.

If you want to read, search, or quote the words themselves, TXT is the better choice. If you're adding captions to a video or need the text synced to exact moments, SRT is built for exactly that. The full comparison covers compatibility and editing differences in more detail.

Most of the time it's about the video itself, not the tool — no caption track exists, the uploader never added one, or the video is private, unlisted, or region-restricted. A missing transcript usually isn't a sign that anything is broken.

Automatic captions are a machine's best guess at what was said, not a human-verified record — accents, background noise, overlapping speakers, and fast speech can all throw it off. Manually written captions are generally far more accurate, when they're available at all.

Clicking “Copy all” puts one line per caption segment on your clipboard, each starting with a full timestamp — useful for pasting notes into a document, referencing an exact moment, or building a shot list, without needing to download a separate file.

Once a transcript has loaded, open the Summary tab and click “Create summary.” ClearScript reads the transcript and produces a short overview — a few sentences — plus a handful of key points, generated only from what's actually said in the video. It's created on demand rather than automatically, and nothing is added beyond what the transcript itself contains.

Open the Study tab and click “Create study guide.” ClearScript builds a set of key concepts, organized notes using the video's own terms, and a five-question quiz — three multiple-choice and two short-answer — with the correct answers already included, so checking yourself doesn't need another request. Everything is grounded strictly in the transcript; if a video genuinely doesn't have enough substance for a study guide, ClearScript says so rather than inventing one.

Open the Translate tab, choose a target language, and click “Translate.” Each line is translated faithfully in place — timestamps are never touched by the translation itself, so the result stays lined up with the original, even on longer videos. Once it's ready, you can copy the translated transcript directly.