Transcribe YouTube videos without usable captions

When a video has no usable captions, choose AI transcription to work from its audio. Review the quote and access requirements before starting.

Start with your recording

If captions fail to load temporarily, try again first. AI transcription starts only when you choose it. Private, restricted or unavailable recordings may not be accessible.

Transcribe audio or video

AI transcription uses credits on eligible paid plans. If a recording trial is available for your account, its allowance appears before you start. Review the quote before confirming.

Check the caption problem before starting AI transcription

Check whether the video offers a transcript or another caption language. An empty loading result is not proof that captions do not exist.
Retry an available track before choosing paid transcription. If speech needs to be transcribed, review the estimate and eligibility shown for the video.
Once processing finishes, check the detected language and important passages. Translate the finished transcript separately if you need a different output language.

When audio transcription can help

AI transcription is useful when the recording is accessible, contains audible speech and has no usable caption text. It cannot make a private or removed video accessible, and silent sections do not provide speech to transcribe. Background music, overlapping voices and unclear audio can require more manual correction.

If an English video has a Spanish caption track, you may need another track or translation rather than new audio transcription. If the English track exists but fails to load, retrying it may recover the text without spending transcription credits.

Troubleshoot missing or unavailable captions

Use your transcript

Once the transcript is ready, search it, download it or continue with summaries and questions. Keep the video available to check names and important details.