Export Captions as SRT, VTT, or Plain Text
Subtitle files and transcripts are the same words in different containers. SRT and VTT carry timing so a player can show each line at the right moment; TXT drops the timing so a person can read. LinkTranscript exports all three from any YouTube video with captions, and this page explains which one you want and what to do when a file does not behave.
Paste the link, wait for the transcript, and pick SRT, VTT, or TXT from the Export row. The file is named after the video.
What is inside each file
An SRT file is a numbered list of cues: an index, a start and end time written as HH:MM:SS,mmm with a comma before the milliseconds, then the text, then a blank line. A VTT file starts with the line WEBVTT, uses a period instead of a comma in the times, drops the index numbers, and allows notes and styling; LinkTranscript puts the video title, channel, source link, and date in a NOTE block at the top. A TXT file has a short header with the same details and then the transcript, with each line's start time in brackets if you left Timestamps on, or as flowing prose if you turned them off.
Which tool wants which format
Video editors take SRT almost universally: Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro (through its caption import), and CapCut all read it. Web video wants VTT: HTML5 players, Vimeo, Wistia, and most course platforms (Teachable, Kajabi, Moodle) expect WebVTT. Media players such as VLC and Plex read both, and will pick up a subtitle file automatically if it sits next to the video with the same name. Word processors, note apps, and AI assistants want TXT. When in doubt, SRT is the safer subtitle format to hand to a person, and VTT the safer one to put on a website.
Where the timings come from
Cue times are YouTube's own caption timings, so they line up with the video as YouTube plays it. Each cue's end time is its start plus its duration; on the rare track where YouTube omits durations, the tool estimates one from the number of words so no cue has a zero length, which some players reject. Uploaded captions tend to be timed by a person and read naturally; auto-generated captions are timed by the speech recognizer and sometimes split a sentence across two cues.
Three problems and their fixes
Subtitles show up early or late by a constant amount: the video you are playing was trimmed differently from the YouTube upload. Most players and editors have a subtitle offset setting; shift by the difference and everything lines up. Strange characters where apostrophes or accents should be: the file is UTF-8, so pick UTF-8 when the application asks for an encoding on import. Lines too long for the screen: auto-generated cues can run long; editors like Resolve and Premiere have a reflow or line-length setting, and Subtitle Edit (free) can re-break cues in one pass.
Turning a subtitle file back into reading text
If someone hands you an SRT and you want the words, the fastest route with this tool is the video link, not the file: paste the YouTube URL and export TXT. LinkTranscript does not accept file uploads; it reads captions from YouTube directly. For a subtitle file that did not come from YouTube, Subtitle Edit or a two-line script will strip the timings.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get an SRT file from a YouTube video?+
Paste the link, wait for the transcript, and click SRT in the Export row. The file downloads named after the video.
SRT or VTT, which should I choose?+
SRT for video editors and desktop players; VTT for websites, HTML5 players, and course platforms. Both hold the same words and times.
Can I upload my own SRT or VTT file?+
No. LinkTranscript works from a YouTube link, not an uploaded file. Paste the video URL and export the captions as SRT, VTT, or TXT.
Does the TXT export keep timestamps?+
Only if the Timestamps toggle is on when you export. Turn it off for clean prose.
Are the subtitles the auto-generated ones?+
If the video has uploaded captions, those are used. Otherwise you get YouTube's auto-generated track, timings included.
Is this free?+
Yes. All exports are free, unwatermarked, and need no account.
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Try it on your video
Paste a YouTube link and get a clean transcript in seconds.