How to Translate a YouTube Video: Transcript and Subtitles in Any Language

1. On a computer, open the video and turn on captions (the CC button).
2. Open Settings (the gear), then Subtitles/CC, then Auto-translate.
3. Pick your language. The subtitles switch while the video plays.

This is the quickest way to follow a video, but the translation lives only on the player: you cannot copy it, search it or save it.

1. Install the YouTube to Transcript extension and open any video. The transcript appears beside the player.
2. Open the language menu and pick a language under Translate to (the common ones) or All languages. These are YouTube's own translation languages for that video.
3. Search it, click a line to jump there, or copy the whole translated text.

Handy for studying a lecture in another language or quoting a foreign-language interview. Want it in ChatGPT or Claude next? See YouTube transcripts in ChatGPT.

Add translate= with a language code (es, de, zh-CN...) to a transcript request. Each caption line is translated in place, so the timestamps stay aligned, and the response says which language it was translated to. Same price as any transcript: 1 credit.

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $GYT_API_KEY" \
  "https://getyoutubetranscript.com/api/v1/transcript?v=VIDEO_ID&translate=es&timestamps=true"

Save it as an SRT subtitle file with a few lines of Python:

import os, requests

KEY = os.environ["GYT_API_KEY"]
r = requests.get(
    "https://getyoutubetranscript.com/api/v1/transcript",
    params={"v": "VIDEO_ID", "translate": "es", "timestamps": "true"},
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {KEY}"},
    timeout=120,
)
segments = r.json()["data"]["segments"]  # [{start, duration, text}, ...] in seconds

def ts(seconds):
    ms = int(round(seconds * 1000))
    h, ms = divmod(ms, 3_600_000)
    m, ms = divmod(ms, 60_000)
    s, ms = divmod(ms, 1000)
    return f"{h:02}:{m:02}:{s:02},{ms:03}"

with open("video.es.srt", "w", encoding="utf-8") as f:
    for i, seg in enumerate(segments, 1):
        end = seg["start"] + seg["duration"]
        f.write(f"{i}\n{ts(seg['start'])} --> {ts(end)}\n{seg['text']}\n\n")

Get an API key on your dashboard. The same request works for a whole channel or playlist in a loop: see the API docs.

1. In YouTube Studio, open the video and choose Subtitles.
2. Add language, pick the language of your file, then upload it as a file with timing.
3. Review a few lines against the video, then publish.

Subtitles in more languages make the same video watchable in more countries. Only do this for videos you own or have permission to subtitle.

• No captions, no translation: every method starts from the caption track. Our errors guide explains why a video can have none.
• Machine translation: review names, jargon and humour before publishing.
• Errors carry over: if the automatic captions misheard a word, the translation will too.