How to Remove Timestamps from a YouTube Transcript (Free)
YouTube shows a full transcript for most videos, but when you copy it you get a timestamp on every line: 0:00, 0:03, 0:07.... This guide shows how to get the transcript as clean, readable text in under a minute, without installing anything.
Step 1: Open the transcript on YouTube
- Open the video on a computer (the transcript button is easier to find there than in the app).
- Click ...more under the video title to expand the description.
- Scroll to the end of the description and click Show transcript. A panel opens on the right with the text and timestamps.
No "Show transcript" button? The video owner has turned off captions, or the video is too new. Auto-generated captions usually appear a few hours after upload.
Step 2: Copy the whole transcript
Click the first line in the panel, scroll to the end, hold Shift and click the last line. Then press Ctrl+C (Cmd+C on Mac). If the selection stops halfway, drag from the first line to the last while the page scrolls.
Step 3: Remove the timestamps in one click
- Open our free Transcript Cleaner.
- Paste the text. Every timestamp, the [Music] tags and the repeated lines disappear instantly.
- Pick how often a new paragraph should start, then click Copy or Download.
Can I remove timestamps with Find and Replace?
Yes, if you have a text editor that supports regular expressions, such as Notepad++ or VS Code. Search for this pattern and replace it with nothing:
^\d{1,2}(:\d{2}){1,2}\s*This removes the timestamps, but the text is still broken into short lines. You then need a second step to join the lines, which the online tool does for you automatically.
What can you do with a clean transcript?
- Study notes: read a lecture in two minutes instead of watching for an hour.
- Blog posts and show notes: turn your own videos into articles, which helps them rank on Google.
- ChatGPT summaries: paste the clean text into an AI tool and ask for a summary or key points. Without timestamps, the AI uses fewer tokens and gives better answers.
- Quotes: find and copy an exact sentence from a podcast or interview.
Downloaded the subtitles as a file instead? See our guide on converting SRT to text.
Frequently asked questions
Is it legal to copy a YouTube transcript?
Copying a transcript for personal notes or study is generally fine. If you want to publish someone else's words, ask for permission or quote only short parts with credit.
Can I get the transcript on my phone?
Yes. In the YouTube app, open the description and tap Show transcript. Copying long text is harder on a phone, so a computer is faster.
Why is there no punctuation in the transcript?
Auto-generated captions often have no full stops or capital letters. Our tool still splits the text into readable paragraphs of similar length.
Does this work for other languages?
Yes. The timestamps are removed the same way for any language, including Urdu, Hindi, Arabic and Spanish transcripts.