Transcript Cleaner – Remove Timestamps from YouTube & SRT
Copied a YouTube transcript or opened an SRT subtitle file and got a mess of timestamps, numbers and broken lines? Paste it below or upload the file. The tool removes every timestamp and turns the captions into clean, readable paragraphs.
How to clean a transcript
- Paste the transcript in the box, or click Upload file to open a .srt, .vtt or .txt file.
- Choose how long the paragraphs should be, and whether to keep speaker names.
- Click Copy or Download. Use the text for blog posts, notes, show notes, captions or ChatGPT prompts.
Example
What this transcript cleaner removes
- Timestamps in every common style:
0:05,01:02:33,[00:00:05]and(1:23) - SRT and VTT timing lines like
00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:04,000, cue numbers and the WEBVTT header - Sound tags such as [Music], [Applause], [Laughter] and ♪ symbols (optional)
- Repeated lines from YouTube auto-captions, where each line appears twice
- Broken lines: every caption is joined into full sentences and grouped into paragraphs
How to copy a YouTube transcript
- Open the video on a computer and click ...more under the video title.
- Scroll down and click Show transcript.
- Select all the lines in the transcript panel, copy them, and paste them in the tool above. The timestamps are removed automatically.
Zoom, Teams and podcast transcripts
Transcripts from Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Otter and podcast tools usually have speaker names such as John Smith:. Keep Keep speaker names ticked and each new speaker starts a new paragraph. Untick it to get one clean block of text.
Frequently asked questions
How do I remove timestamps from a YouTube transcript?
Copy the transcript from the "Show transcript" panel, paste it into this tool and the timestamps disappear instantly. Click Copy to get the clean text.
How do I convert an SRT file to plain text?
Click Upload file and choose your .srt file, or paste its content. The cue numbers and timing lines are removed and the subtitles become normal paragraphs. Click Download to save them as a .txt file.
Does it work with VTT subtitles?
Yes. The WEBVTT header, timing lines, position settings and word-level timing tags are all removed.
Why does the text have no punctuation?
YouTube auto-generated captions often have no full stops. The tool then splits the text into paragraphs of similar length so it is still easy to read.
Is my transcript uploaded anywhere?
No. Everything runs in your browser. Your text and files are never sent to a server.
Step-by-step guides
Need other fixes? Try Fix ChatGPT Text, Remove Paragraph Breaks or the main Remove Line Breaks tool.