Export format
YouTube transcript to Claude
Anthropic recommends giving Claude long documents inside XML-style tags with their source. This export does exactly that: <document>, the video URL in <source>, then the title, channel and transcript in <document_content>. Paste it into a chat or add it to a Project.
How it works
- Paste a YouTube video link or ID.
- Turn on timestamps if you want Claude to cite moments as [m:ss].
- Copy it into Claude, or download the file and add it to a Project.
What the Claude export looks like
Real output for “Me at the zoo”, the first video on YouTube, produced by the same code as the tool above.
<document> <source>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw</source> <document_content> Title: Me at the zoo Channel: jawed Language: en All right, so here we are, in front of the elephants the cool thing about these guys is that they have really... really really long trunks and that's cool (baaaaaaaaaaahhh!!) and that's pretty much all there is to say </document_content> </document>
Who it's for
- Claude users analysing long talks and podcasts
- People comparing several videos in one Project
- Anyone who wants answers quoted back with sources
Other formats
Need this for many videos?
Pull a playlist's transcripts with the playlist tool, or get the same data from code with the transcript API and MCP server.
Full setup guide: How to get a YouTube transcript into Claude.
YouTube transcript to Claude: questions
Why the <document> tags?
Anthropic's long-context guidance suggests wrapping each document in tags with its source and content. It helps Claude keep several transcripts apart and quote the right one.
Can Claude fetch transcripts on its own?
Yes. Add the GetYouTubeTranscript connector under Customize, then Connectors, and Claude can read a video's transcript whenever you paste a link. In Claude Code, add the MCP server or the Agent Skill instead.
What if a video has no captions?
The tool can only export captions YouTube already has, creator-written or auto-generated. Videos with captions turned off have nothing to export, and the tool tells you so.
Can I export a whole playlist or channel?
This page exports one video at a time. For a playlist, the playlist tool pulls transcripts for its videos; for whole channels or recurring exports, the API and MCP server return the same data for every video.
