How to get a transcript of a YouTube Short

Shorts move fast, and rewatching one to catch a line is tedious. This guide shows how to get a YouTube Short transcript on the page so you can read it, jump to any moment, and copy it as text — free and without an account.

Do YouTube Shorts have transcripts?

Most Shorts do. YouTube generates captions for Shorts the same way it does for regular videos, so whenever a Short has captions available, a transcript exists for it. The only Shorts without one are those where captions haven't been generated or the creator has turned them off.

The catch is that the Shorts player is built for quick vertical viewing and doesn't show a roomy transcript panel. That's why reading a Short as text usually needs a little help.

Get the transcript on the page

With the free gistcap extension installed, the transcript shows up for Shorts just like it does on standard videos. Here's the flow:

1. Open the Short. Play it as you normally would.
2. Open the transcript panel. The transcript appears whenever the Short has captions.
3. Read, jump or copy. Click a line to replay it, or copy the text as plain notes.

Jump, search and copy

Even on a short clip, the transcript is useful. Click any line to replay that exact moment instead of scrubbing a tiny timeline. Copy the text to save a quote, a recipe step, or a quick tip without pausing and retyping. For a Short packed with fast talking, reading the text is often quicker than watching twice.

Because the transcript is real text on the page, you can also search it. That helps when a creator lists several items quickly and you only want one of them.

When a Short has no transcript

If nothing appears, the Short most likely has no captions yet. Brand-new uploads can take a little while before captions are ready, and some creators disable them. In those cases there's no transcript to show for that particular Short — trying another clip from the same creator usually works.

Frequently asked questions

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