Get the transcript of any YouTube video through an API, even when it has no captions. Send the URL, get timestamped text or SRT back as JSON.
Free account: 30 minutes of video and 10 exports.
How It Works
The short version first, then the details.
Upload a video to ShortsHero with a free account.
Download captions, transcripts or clips ready for every platform.
YouTube Transcript API: transcripts for any YouTube URL. This page answers it directly, then lets you try ShortsHero's free tools on your own file.
Transcripts for any YouTube URL.
Why Use This Tool
The strongest 30–60 second segments, ranked by how likely they are to hold attention.
Face tracking keeps the speaker in frame at 9:16.
Word-by-word captions in 36 styles, editable before export.
Export every clip at once, ready to post or schedule.
A free account includes 30 minutes of video and 10 exports, with a small watermark. Paid plans remove the watermark and add more minutes.
Uploads can be up to 2 GB, and links have no length cap. One credit covers one minute of source video.
YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, Instagram, X, Facebook, LinkedIn, Loom, Google Drive, Dropbox, Dailymotion and more — or upload the file directly.
ShortsHero turns long videos into short vertical clips with AI moment detection, face tracking and animated captions — and has free tools for subtitles, transcripts and video formats.
Upload once and ShortsHero finds the best moments, reframes them to 9:16 with face tracking, and adds animated captions — ready for TikTok, Reels and Shorts.
Start freeFree to start · No credit card required
Keep Going
Give your AI assistant real transcription. Connect the MCP server and Claude or ChatGPT can transcribe, caption and clip videos for you on request.
A free speech-to-text API for developers. Send audio or a URL, get a transcript with timestamps and speakers in 99 languages. Simple REST, free tier.
Generate SRT or VTT subtitles with one API call. Send a video URL, choose a language and line length, and receive a ready caption file back.