How to Copy a YouTube Transcript With Timestamps

Clicking "Copy all" puts one line per caption segment on your clipboard, each starting with a fullHH:MM:SS timestamp. As an illustrative example of the format (not real transcript content from any video):

00:14:32 Example transcript line goes here.
00:14:38 Another example transcript line.

That's plain, readable text — nothing wrapped in file formatting — so it pastes cleanly into whatever you're writing in. Every line keeps its own timestamp, so once it is pasted somewhere else, you can still tell exactly where in the video each line came from without needing the video open. The timestamp always shows hours, minutes, and seconds, even for a short video where the hour is just "00" — so every line has the same shape and lines up cleanly when pasted as a block.

Copying gives you timestamped text, one line per moment in the video — built for pasting straight into something else. The TXT download is different: plain, flowing transcript text with no timestamps at all, closer to a normal document. Use TXT when you want a clean file of just the words; use Copy when you want the timestamps to come with you. Both come from the same transcript, so you're not choosing between different data — just different shapes of the same text. See how to download a YouTube transcript as TXT or SRT for the file-based options.

SRT is a structured subtitle file — numbered blocks with start and end timestamps, built for video editors and media players to read as captions, not for a person to read as a document. Copying is the opposite: plain, human-readable timestamped text meant to be pasted into notes or writing, not loaded into a subtitle track. See TXT vs SRT: What's the Difference? for a closer comparison of the two file formats.

• Pasting timestamped notes into a doc while you work through a long video, without switching back and forth to check where you are.
• Referencing the exact moment something was said in an email or message, without opening a separate file or scrubbing back through the video to find it.
• Building a shot list or editing notes for a video project, where each line already has the timestamp it needs.
• Adding a timestamped excerpt from a video into a document, report, or write-up as a direct reference point.
• Drafting a summary while keeping the original timestamps nearby, so you can trim it down later without losing track of where each point came from.

Copy all doesn't produce anything useful. Some browsers block clipboard access until you interact with the page first, or block it entirely in certain privacy settings — try clicking directly on the button, then paste into a plain text field first to check what actually copied. If pasting still comes back empty, check your browser's clipboard permissions for the site.

There's no transcript to copy in the first place. The Copy all button only has something to copy once a transcript has actually loaded. If ClearScript couldn't generate one for the video, there's nothing yet to copy — see why a video might not have a transcript.