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How to Get a YouTube Transcript into ChatGPT (Any Plan, Business Plugins and Codex)

ChatGPT needs a video's transcript, not just its link. Paste or upload it on any plan, add our MCP server as a plugin on Business, Enterprise or Edu, or connect it to Codex. Setup, cost and limits for each.

00:06:00 · OCT 19, 2026

Quick answer

Give ChatGPT the transcript, not just the link. On any plan, get it from our YouTube to ChatGPT page and paste or upload it. On Business, Enterprise or Edu, an admin can add our MCP server as a plugin so ChatGPT fetches transcripts itself. Developers can connect the same server to Codex.

Why the link alone is not enough

ChatGPT works from text. A YouTube video's words are in a separate caption track, not in the page text. When we fetched a TED talk's page as text, it held the title, the footer and a copyright line, and nothing the speaker said.

So the reliable route is to hand ChatGPT the transcript, or give it a tool that fetches one. Which route you can use depends on your plan:

Method	Plans	Setup
Paste or upload the transcript	Every plan, including Free	None
Custom MCP plugin	Business, Enterprise, Edu (web)	An admin adds a URL once
Codex	Anyone using Codex	A few lines of config

Paste or upload the transcript (every plan)

Open YouTube to ChatGPT and paste the video link. Shorts links work too.
Keep timestamps on if you want ChatGPT to point to moments in the video.
Copy the text into a chat, or download the file and attach it. Attaching works better for long videos and for keeping several transcripts in one Project.

The export starts with a short header (title, link, channel and length) so ChatGPT can say which video a quote came from, then the transcript in clean paragraphs.

Prompts that work well:

"Summarize this talk in five bullets, each with its timestamp."
"List every tool the speaker recommends and what they say about it."
"Turn this into a blog post outline. Quote the speaker where it helps."

Already on YouTube? The Chrome extension shows the transcript beside the video with a copy button.

Add the plugin (Business, Enterprise, Edu)

With our MCP server added as a plugin, ChatGPT fetches the transcript whenever you paste a link, and can also search YouTube and list a channel's or playlist's videos. According to OpenAI's help center (updated October 2026), custom MCP servers work on Business, Enterprise and Edu, on ChatGPT web. In a Business workspace only admins and owners can add one; Enterprise and Edu admins can grant that permission to others.

Go to Plugins, select +, then Add custom MCP server. Developer mode is no longer needed.
Name it GetYouTubeTranscript and enter this URL:

https://getyoutubetranscript.com/api/mcp

Choose OAuth sign-in, accept the risk warning and select Create as a plugin. Sign in to GetYouTubeTranscript when asked; new accounts get 100 free credits.
Install the plugin, start a new chat, type @ and pick GetYouTubeTranscript.

Full steps and the tool list are on our ChatGPT integration page.

Connect it to Codex

Codex, OpenAI's coding agent, reads MCP servers from ~/.codex/config.toml. Create an API key on your dashboard, add this to the file:

[mcp_servers.getyoutubetranscript]
url = "https://getyoutubetranscript.com/api/mcp"
bearer_token_env_var = "GYT_API_KEY"

Then set the key in your shell, with your key in place of sk_live_...:

export GYT_API_KEY="sk_live_..."

Codex can then pull transcripts while it works, for example to turn a conference talk into notes in your repo. Other clients are in the MCP setup guide, and apps that call OpenAI's API can fetch transcripts from our transcript API before sending them to the model.

Cost and limits

Cost: the website is free to try. The plugin and Codex use API credits: 100 free on signup, then 1 per call that succeeds, from $5.00/month for 1,000 credits. See pricing.
No captions, no transcript: some videos have none. Our errors guide covers why.
Words only: slides, code on screen and charts are not in a transcript.
Automatic captions: they can get names and jargon wrong, so check exact quotes against the video.

Frequently asked questions

Q01

Can ChatGPT watch YouTube videos?

It works from text, so what it needs is the transcript. The spoken words sit in a caption track, not in the page text: when we fetched a TED talk's YouTube page as text, it held the title and footer and not one spoken sentence. Give ChatGPT the transcript and it can summarize, quote and answer questions about the video.

Q02

Can I add the YouTube connector on ChatGPT Plus or Pro?

OpenAI's help center lists custom MCP servers for Business, Enterprise and Edu workspaces, on the web. It does not describe them for Free, Plus or Pro. On those plans, paste or upload the transcript instead.

Q03

What does it cost?

Copying a transcript from our website is free to try with no account. The plugin and Codex setup use our API: new accounts get 100 free credits, each transcript, search or list call that succeeds costs 1 credit, and failed calls cost nothing. Plans start at $5.00/month for 1,000 credits.

Q04

Does this work for YouTube Shorts?

Yes. Paste the Shorts link, including one copied from the Share button in the YouTube app. Every Short we tested used automatic captions, so check names and numbers against the video. More on our YouTube Shorts transcript page.

Q05

What if the video is very long?

Upload the transcript as a file instead of pasting it, or ask for one section at a time. With timestamps on, you can point ChatGPT at a time range, such as "summarize 20:00 to 35:00".

Q06

What if the video has no captions?

Then there is no transcript to give ChatGPT. Captions can be missing because the creator turned them off, the video is very new, or it is mostly music. Our plugin returns an error in that case rather than an empty transcript.