Transcribe a YouTube Playlist
LinkTranscript transcribes one video per paste. A 12-video course or a conference playlist still fits in an evening, and you end up with something more useful than one giant file. This page is that workflow.
If you have a playlist in front of you now, open it in another tab, paste the first video below, and follow along.
Work the playlist in order
Open the playlist page on YouTube and copy each video's link from the list, in order. Paste one, wait for the transcript, export it as Markdown, and move to the next. Each export takes a few seconds. A 12-video playlist is under five minutes of clicking, and the videos never have to play.
Name the files so they sort
Every export is named after the video title by default. Before you save, put a number in front: '01 - Intro to X.md', '02 - ...'. Your file browser and your note app will then show the course in the right order, and searching across the folder works exactly like searching one document.
Combine them when you need one file
If you want a single document for the whole playlist, open the numbered Markdown files in any editor and paste them one after another; each already starts with its video title and link as a heading, so the combined file has a table of contents built in. On a Mac or Linux terminal, 'cat *.md > playlist.md' does the same in one line.
Search across the whole course
Once the files are in one folder, Obsidian, Notion, VS Code, or your operating system's search will find any phrase across every lecture. Search is the reason to transcribe a playlist. You are not going to reread twelve hours of talks, but you will want the fifteen seconds where the speaker explained the one thing you forgot.
What does not work
Pasting the playlist URL itself will not produce anything; the tool needs a link to a single video. Very large playlists (hundreds of videos) are a chore this way, and channels with no captions cannot be transcribed at all. If the transcript for one video in a series fails, it is almost always because that video has no caption track.
Frequently asked questions
Can I paste a playlist URL?+
No. Paste each video's own link. The playlist page on YouTube lists them in order.
How long does a 10-video playlist take?+
A few minutes. Each transcript loads in a second or two and exports instantly; the time is in copying links.
Which export format should I use for a series?+
Markdown. Each file starts with the video title and link, which makes the combined document readable and searchable.
Is there a limit on how many videos I can transcribe?+
There is a fair-use limit per hour to keep the service free for everyone. A course-sized playlist fits comfortably inside it.
Related tools
Try it on your video
Paste a YouTube link and get a clean transcript in seconds.