Get a transcript in 3 steps
No account, no software, no waiting. Paste a link or upload a file and TranscriptAny does the rest.
Start from a link or a file on your device
Grab the address bar URL from a YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, or X/Twitter video and drop it into the box. Don't have a link? Switch to the Upload tab and drag in a video or audio file instead — MP4, MOV, MKV, WEBM, MP3, WAV, or M4A, up to 100MB. Nothing to install, no account to create first.
Behind the scenes, one of two engines runs
What happens next depends on where the video lives. YouTube already has caption data sitting on Google's servers, so TranscriptAny simply requests that official track — no audio processing needed, which is why YouTube results land almost instantly. Everything else — TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X, uploaded files, or a YouTube video with captions turned off — has no existing caption track to pull, so the audio itself gets run through Groq's Whisper AI, a speech-recognition model, to generate the text from scratch.
The result lands on the same page, ready to use
There's no separate results page or email to wait for — the transcript renders right where you started, with timestamps you can click to jump to that point in the video. From there it's yours to copy, export, summarize, or translate, covered in detail below.
Supported platforms
One tool for every place you watch video.
Read the full guide for each platform: YouTube · TikTok · Instagram · Instagram Reels · Facebook · X/Twitter · MP3 · MP4 · WAV · M4A
AI summaries, translation & subtitles
The transcript is the starting point. Here's what TranscriptAny can do with it.
AI summaries & key takeaways
Once a transcript is ready, TranscriptAny can generate a concise summary and a list of key takeaways using Claude (Anthropic), written in the same language as the original video. Free accounts get a limited number of AI summaries per day; Pro unlocks unlimited summaries. See the full breakdown on the AI Video Summary page.
Translation
Pro users can translate any transcript into 15+ languages — Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Russian, Turkish, Dutch, Vietnamese, Indonesian, and more — without leaving the page.
Subtitles & captions
Every transcript can be downloaded as an .srt subtitle file, ready to drop into a video editor or upload alongside your content. See the Subtitle Downloader page for details.
Export options
Get the transcript in whatever format your workflow needs.
Free exports
- Copy to clipboard
- .txt with timestamps
- .srt subtitle file
Pro exports
- .docx (Word)
- Clean .txt without timestamps
- Summary & takeaways export
- Shareable image of the transcript
Where the free plan stops and Pro starts
The transcription itself is never gated — the daily caps only kick in around the AI-driven extras.
What's never limited
Getting the transcript itself — from any platform, in any of the 50+ supported languages, with .txt, .srt, or .pdf export — has no cap and needs no account. This is the core workflow described above, and it stays free regardless of how many videos you run through it in a day.
What has a daily cap on Free
Two features run through paid AI infrastructure on our end, so they're metered for free accounts: generating an AI summary, and transcribing an uploaded file. Both work a limited number of times per day for free; a Pro subscription removes that ceiling and adds translation, transcript history, and bulk processing on top.
Full pricing details are on the homepage's plans section.
Privacy, processing time & accuracy
What TranscriptAny actually keeps
Nothing, by default. The link or file you submit exists only long enough to generate your transcript, then it's gone — there's no library of past requests sitting on a server somewhere. The one deliberate exception is Transcript History, a Pro feature you have to turn on yourself for a specific transcript; without that action, nothing persists. The full policy covering third-party processors is on the Privacy Policy page.
Processing time
YouTube transcripts using existing captions typically appear in a few seconds. TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and X videos usually process in a few seconds as well. File uploads and AI-generated transcripts (when no captions exist) generally take anywhere from a few seconds to a couple of minutes, depending on length.
Accuracy expectations
YouTube transcripts are as accurate as the caption track the platform provides. For TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X, and file uploads, transcription runs on Groq's Whisper AI, which performs well on clear speech but can be less precise with heavy background noise, overlapping speakers, or strong accents.
Who uses TranscriptAny
Built for anyone who needs text from video, for any reason.
🎓 Students
Turn recorded lectures into searchable notes instead of transcribing by hand.
How to summarize lectures with AI →📰 Journalists & researchers
Pull accurate, quotable, timestamped text from interviews and recordings.
How to transcribe interviews →🎬 Content creators
Repurpose video into blog posts, show notes, and social captions.
Ways creators use AI transcripts →🎙️ Podcasters
Convert episodes into searchable text for show notes and SEO.
Transcribe podcasts for show notes →💼 Business teams
Turn recorded meetings and webinars into text your team can search.
Transcribe a recorded webinar →🏫 Educators & accessibility
Make course videos accessible with accurate, exportable captions.
Transcribe course videos →Frequently asked questions
Do I need to create an account or install anything first?
No. The whole flow described on this page — link or file in, transcript out — works without signing up or installing software. An account only becomes relevant if you want to keep using Pro features across sessions.
What if a YouTube video has captions disabled?
If a creator has turned off captions, there's no track for TranscriptAny to pull, so that video behaves like a platform with no built-in captions: upload the video or its audio directly instead, and Whisper AI will generate a transcript from the audio.
Can I transcribe a private or restricted video?
Not by URL — TranscriptAny needs to be able to access the video the same way a browser would, so private or restricted links won't work. If you have your own copy of the file, uploading it directly sidesteps that restriction entirely.
Does this work on mobile?
Yes — the same page works in any mobile browser. Paste a link from a share sheet or select a file from your phone's storage the same way you would on desktop.
Is there a limit on video length?
There's no hard cap on video length for link-based transcripts. Uploaded files are limited to 100MB, so a long file may need to be compressed or split if it exceeds that.
What is the maximum file size for uploads?
Uploaded video and audio files can be up to 100MB, including MP4, MOV, MKV, WEBM, MP3, WAV, and M4A formats.
Ready to try it? Paste a video link or upload a file — no account needed.
Get your transcript free →