Translate a YouTube transcript into your language

Read the whole video in the language you choose, as text you can scroll, search and copy. Not subtitles that only play along with the video.

Three ways to do it

1. In the browser, with the Chrome extension

  1. Open any YouTube video. The transcript opens beside the player.
  2. Open the language menu above the transcript.
  3. Pick from Captions (tracks the video really has) or Translate to (machine translations).
  4. Search the text, copy it, or download it.

Get it on the extension page.

2. From code, with one extra parameter

Add translate to a transcript request. The response says which language you got in translated_to, and language_code still names the original track.

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

# => { "success": true, "data": { "language_code": "en", "translated_to": "es",
#      "transcript": "...", "segments": [ { "start": 0.0, "duration": 3.2, "text": "..." } ] } }

Full parameter list in the transcript API docs.

3. Ask your AI assistant

Connect the MCP server to Claude or ChatGPT, then paste a video link and say what you want, for example “get the transcript of this video in Spanish.” The assistant passes the language along and works from the translated text.

What to know before you rely on it

  • It is machine translation. Good for understanding and note-taking, check anything you will quote.
  • Translating automatic captions copies their mistakes. Names and jargon are the usual casualties.
  • If a creator-written track exists in your language, it beats any translation. Look in the Captions group first.
  • No captions on the video means nothing to translate.
  • Very long videos take longer, because every caption line is translated.

Just need the original text?

Paste a link on the home page to get a transcript in the video's own language, then export it as text, Markdown, SRT, VTT, CSV or JSON.

Translating YouTube transcripts: questions

How do I get a YouTube transcript in another language?

Open the video with our Chrome extension and pick a language from the menu above the transcript. Captions lists the tracks the video really has. Translate to lists machine translations, which you can read, search, copy or download. From code, add translate=es (or any language code) to a transcript API request.

Do I have to watch the video to read the translation?

No. The whole translated transcript is on screen as text, so you can scroll, search and copy it without playing the video. YouTube's own translated subtitles show one line at a time as the video plays.

Is the translation accurate?

It is machine translation, so treat it as a reliable gist rather than a finished document, and check any quote you plan to publish. It also inherits the source: a translation of YouTube's automatic captions carries over any mistakes in those captions, such as misheard names. If the video has a caption track written by the creator in your language, pick that one from the Captions group instead.

Does the translated transcript keep timestamps?

Through the API and MCP server, yes. Each caption line is translated in place, so every start time and duration still matches the video. Add timestamps=true to get them.

Which languages can I translate into?

In the extension, the languages YouTube offers for that video (over 150, with the common ones listed first). In the API, pass a language code such as es, de, pt-BR or zh-CN.

What does translating cost through the API?

The same 1 credit as a normal transcript request. Translating does not add a charge.

What if the video has no captions?

There is nothing to translate. Translation starts from the captions YouTube already has, creator-written or automatic, so a video with captions turned off cannot be translated.