How to see the transcript on YouTube

Paul By Paul, who built Transcript Any Video
Published

Open the video, expand the description under the title, scroll to its end and click Show transcript. The transcript opens next to the video, and it only exists on videos that have captions.

The steps are almost the same on a computer, in the YouTube app and on an iPad. Each one is below. If the button isn't there at all, jump to the last section.

Where is Show transcript on YouTube?

At the very end of the video description, not on the player. YouTube's help page gives a single step: in the video description, click Show transcript.

Many guides still send you somewhere else. Rev's guide says to click the menu button under the video and pick Open Transcript. A 2019 thread on YouTube's help forum says the same. That three-dot path is how it used to work. Ekstrakt notes that some layouts still keep the button behind the ⋯ menu under the player, so look there only if the description has nothing.

How to view the transcript on a computer

  1. Open the video on youtube.com, in any browser.
  2. Click ...more under the title. The full description opens.
  3. Scroll to the bottom of the description, to the Transcript section.
  4. Click Show transcript. The panel opens next to the video.
  5. Click any line to jump to that moment. As the video plays, the transcript scrolls to the current line.

Looking for one word in a long video? See how to search a YouTube video for a word. Want it in another language? See how to change transcript language in YouTube.

How to open the transcript in the YouTube mobile app

On iPhone and Android, the button lives in the same place. You tap the title instead of clicking ...more.

  1. Open the video in the YouTube app.
  2. Tap the title or the description area under the player to expand it.
  3. Scroll down to the end of the description.
  4. Tap Show transcript. The transcript appears below.
  5. Tap a line to jump to that part of the video.

Two things catch people out. First, the button moves. WhispriNote, which checked the steps in August 2026, says its place varies by app version and screen size. Second, you can read the transcript in the app, but don't count on copying it. Brevyd says the app has no copy control at all. SkyScribe found that selection, when it works, resets as you scroll.

Not in the app? Use the desktop site on your phone

This is the fix a user gave on YouTube's help forum back in 2020: go from mobile to desktop. It still works, and it lets you select the text. Brevyd gives the steps:

  1. Open the video at youtube.com in your browser, not in the app.
  2. Switch to the desktop site. On iPhone in Safari, tap AA in the address bar, then Request Desktop Website. On Android in Chrome, tap ⋮ at the top right and tick Desktop site.
  3. Tap ...more under the title, then Show transcript.
  4. Long-press a line to start selecting text.

It's cramped on a phone screen. Brevyd also warns that long transcripts only load near where you've scrolled, so a fast scroll can skip the middle.

How to see the transcript on an iPad

In the YouTube app, use the same steps as on an iPhone: tap the title, scroll to the end of the description, tap Show transcript. A guide from youtube-transcript.ai, a transcript tool, says the iPad app hides it one step deeper, behind a ⋯ button in the description. Try that if the button isn't in plain sight.

If you need the text, not just to read it, the desktop site is the better bet. Brevyd notes that Safari on iPad handles the desktop site well, so the steps above are more comfortable there than on a phone.

Why does the transcript look different on some videos?

YouTube now shows two versions of the panel. In 2026, users on the Readlang forum, a language-learning site, described a new one with much larger text. In it, the three dots at the top and the language button at the bottom are gone, and timestamps copy as words, like “3minutes29seconds”. One of them still got the classic panel on older videos and auto-captioned ones.

If the times get in the way, here is how to remove timestamps from a YouTube transcript. Other glitches of the new panel are in YouTube transcript not working.

What if there's no Show transcript button?

Then YouTube most likely has nothing to show. Its help page says you can see the transcript of any video that has captions. Ekstrakt puts it plainly: the feature reads an existing caption track, it doesn't transcribe the audio on demand.

Play the video and look for the CC button in the player. Captions on, but no button: the problem is your page or your app. No captions: the transcript can't appear. The three cases, and what fixes each one, are in YouTube transcript not showing.

When the video really has no captions, the free route is Whisper, OpenAI's open-source speech recognition model, run on the audio yourself. The steps are in how to transcribe YouTube audio, and every other option is in how to get a transcript of a YouTube video without captions.

No captions, and no time to set up Whisper? That's the case I built Transcript Any Video for. You paste the YouTube link, and it transcribes the video's audio, up to 2 hours, with the spoken language detected on its own. Copy it all, or download it as a .txt or .md file, each line starting with its time, like [0:31]. A video without captions costs 1 credit per 30 minutes. Credits are bought once, 10 for $1.99, and never expire. No subscription, sign-in with just your email, and you can ask for a refund. If the video has captions, use YouTube's free Show transcript: you'd get the same text.

Transcribe a video

FAQ

Can you copy the whole YouTube transcript at once?

On a computer, yes. Select the text in the panel and press Ctrl+C, or Cmd+C on a Mac, as TechSmith shows. The timestamps come along: Claras notes they get copied even when toggled off in some browsers. Paste it into a document and check that the last line made it.

Why is the transcript on my computer but not in my app?

Because the apps don't handle it the same way. Ekstrakt reports that the iOS and Android apps have hidden, restored and re-hidden transcripts across versions, so it depends on your app version, not on the video. Update the app, or open the same link on a computer.

What else does the transcript panel show?

YouTube's help page says you can also use it to find the video's chapters, when there are any, plus people and places mentioned in the video and affiliate products.

Sources