Terms of use

Last updated 21 October 2026

These are the terms for using youtubetranscripts.io. By using the site, with or without an account, you agree to them. They are deliberately plain: a free tool and a $5 pack do not need a contract the length of a lease.

What the tool is

youtubetranscripts.io takes the link to a public YouTube video and returns the spoken words as text, with punctuation added, and optionally as a subtitle file. It is operated by TranscriptFetch and powered by the TranscriptFetch API. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to YouTube or Google.

Acceptable use

• Use the tool for videos you are entitled to transcribe: your own, videos whose creators have made them public, and content you are quoting or studying within the limits of fair use in your jurisdiction.
• Respect the rights of the people who made the videos. A transcript does not transfer ownership of the words in it.
• Do not use the site to harvest transcripts with scripts or bots, to build a competing dataset, or to evade the per-visitor or per-account limits. The site is for people, including its bulk tool for playlists, channels and searches; programmatic access is what the TranscriptFetch API is for.
• Do not attempt to interfere with the service, probe it for weaknesses, or submit links to content that is unlawful to process.

Accuracy

Transcripts are produced by automatic speech recognition. Clear speech comes back at roughly 95 to 98 percent accuracy; music, heavy slang, crosstalk and poor audio reduce that. Always check a transcript before relying on it for anything that matters, such as a quotation or a legal or medical claim.

Availability and limits

The paste-a-link tool is free without an account, and the whole site is offered as is. We apply per-visitor rate limits to keep it free and may change those limits, suspend the tool, or take it down at any time without notice. We do not guarantee that any particular video can be transcribed.

Accounts and the transcript pack

An account is optional. Sign-in is handled by Clerk. A free account adds 25 transcripts a month on top of the free tool, with search, playlists and channels; unused ones do not carry over, and the allowance goes back to 25 each month.

The transcript pack is 1,000 transcripts for $5, paid once. It is not a subscription, and transcripts bought in a pack never expire. Payments are processed by Stripe; we never see your card number. If a payment is refunded or disputed, the matching share of the transcripts it bought is taken back from your balance.

Advertising

The site is supported by advertising served by Google. The ads are Google's, not ours, and we do not endorse what they promote. How advertising cookies are used is described in the privacy policy.

No warranty and limitation of liability

The site, including accounts and paid transcripts, is provided without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including fitness for a particular purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, TranscriptFetch is not liable for any loss or damage arising from your use of the site or of any transcript it produces, including indirect or consequential loss. Where liability cannot be excluded, it is limited to the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose. If you only used the free tool, that is nothing.

Copyright complaints

We do not host videos and we do not keep a library of transcripts. If you believe a transcript produced by the tool infringes your rights, write to [email protected] with the video link and a description of the claim, and we will respond.

Changes

We may update these terms. The date at the top shows the current version. Continued use after a change is acceptance of it.

Contact

Questions about these terms: [email protected], or see the about page.