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YouTube Transcript Without Timestamps
Clean, continuous text from any YouTube video — no timestamps, no broken lines, ready to paste anywhere.
Extracts existing captions and outputs plain text — no timestamps, no line fragments
Extract captions, transcribe videos that have none, or skip straight to an AI summary. YouTube Transcript, YouTube Transcriber and YouTube Summary
No Timestamps, Ever
Output is pure continuous text. Nothing to strip, find-and-replace, or clean up by hand.
No Broken Lines
YouTube's transcript panel splits speech into timestamped fragments. We join them into clean, continuous text.
AI-Ready Output
ChatGPT and Claude can't read YouTube URLs. Clean transcript text is exactly what they need.
Copy or Download
One click to copy the whole transcript or save it as a TXT file.
How It Works
Paste the URL
Works with youtube.com links, youtu.be short links, and Shorts URLs.
Run
We pull the video's captions — manual or auto-generated — in seconds.
Copy clean text
Get one continuous block of text with zero timestamps. Copy it or download as TXT.
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Pro plan includes 2,500 credits/mo · Cancel anytime
Use Cases
Feed it to ChatGPT or Claude
AI chatbots can't open YouTube links. Paste clean transcript text instead and ask for summaries, analysis, or answers.
Quote videos in articles
Pull exact wording without timestamps cluttering every line — ready to cite in blog posts, essays, and reports.
Translate the full script
Translation tools work best on continuous text. No timestamps means nothing breaks mid-sentence.
Build notes and docs
Drop lecture or tutorial transcripts into Notion, Google Docs, or Obsidian without an hour of cleanup.
Repurpose your own videos
Turn your video scripts into newsletters, threads, or show notes — starting from clean text, not fragments.
RunCLI vs copying from YouTube's Show transcript
| Feature | RunCLI | YouTube's Show transcript |
|---|---|---|
| Timestamps in output | None | Every line |
| Line breaks | Continuous text | One fragment per line |
| Finding the button | Paste URL, done | Hidden in the description box |
| Works on Shorts | Yes | No Show transcript button |
| Download as TXT | One click | Not available |
| Cleanup needed | Zero | Manual find-and-replace |
No Data Stored
Transcripts are extracted on the fly. We never store your video data.
No Extension Needed
Works in any browser. Nothing to install, no permissions to grant.
Seconds, Not Minutes
We read existing captions instead of re-transcribing audio, so results are nearly instant.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get a YouTube transcript without timestamps?
Paste the video URL into RunCLI and click Run. The output is already timestamp-free — one continuous block of clean text you can copy or download as TXT. No manual cleanup needed.
Why does YouTube's own transcript have timestamps on every line?
The Show transcript panel is built for jumping around the video, so every caption fragment gets its own timestamped line. That's fine for navigation but terrible for copying — paste it anywhere and you get hundreds of broken lines.
Can I just remove the timestamps myself?
You can, with find-and-replace or a script, but you'd still be left with one fragment per line. RunCLI strips timestamps and joins the fragments into continuous text in one step.
Does this work with auto-generated captions?
Yes. We extract whatever captions the video has — manually uploaded or auto-generated — and clean both the same way. If a video has no captions at all, use our YouTube Transcriber for AI transcription instead.
Does it work on YouTube Shorts?
Yes. Paste a youtube.com/shorts link and it works like any other video — handy, because the Shorts player doesn't have a Show transcript button at all.
Is it free?
It's free to try, no sign-up needed to start. Signing up adds free credits, and after that it's 3 credits per video — no subscription required.
Can I paste the text into ChatGPT?
That's one of the most common uses. ChatGPT can't read YouTube URLs directly, so grab the clean transcript here and paste it in with your prompt.
What if I actually want timestamps?
This tool is deliberately timestamp-free. If you want key points tied to moments in the video, YouTube Summary gives you a structured AI summary with timestamps instead.