Transcript guide
Why is a YouTube transcript not available?
The common reasons a video has no transcript, and what you can do about each one.
Updated
The video has no captions
Transcripts come from captions. Some creators turn captions off, and YouTube does not generate automatic captions for every video — for example very new uploads, videos with music only, poor audio or unsupported languages.
The video is private, restricted or still live
Private, members-only and some age-restricted videos cannot be read without signing in. Live streams usually get captions only after the stream ends and the replay is processed.
The language you picked is not available
Each video offers its own set of caption languages. Choose another track from the language menu, or open the original language and translate it with AI.
The service is busy
If you see a waiting or limit message, try again in a minute. Transcripts other people already opened load instantly from the cache.
You have a subtitle file
If you already have captions as an SRT or VTT file, open it from the homepage. It is read privately in your browser with the same search, copy and export tools.