YouTube Transcript Generator

When a link is enough

Many people only have a YouTube URL: a lecture they own, a tutorial they published, or a talk they were cleared to process. Retyping from the player is slow, and YouTube's on-page transcript panel is awkward for long quotes.

mydubly accepts one public video link, asks you to confirm rights, then runs Whisper on a soundtrack you provide from your computer (yt-dlp or the built-in ingest helper). That path avoids cloud bot-blocks and needs no operator cookies. Speech is recognised in about 100 languages (or detected automatically), priced like any other transcript job.

It does not open playlists, private or age-gated videos, or live streams. It does not hand you the media file. For dubbing or burned subtitles upload a file on the video translator or subtitle generator.

Generate a transcript from a YouTube link

1. Paste exactly one public watch, Shorts or youtu.be URL.
2. Pick the spoken language or leave automatic detection.
3. Confirm you own the video or have permission to transcribe it.
4. Download the soundtrack with yt-dlp (or copy the one-shot ingest command) and upload it — under ~30 MB speech mp3.
5. Start Whisper at normal transcript pricing (1 credit/min, 5-minute minimum).
6. Toggle timestamps on or off, then copy the text.

Example

Tips

• Use the one-shot ingest command when you want download + upload in one step.
• Quiet dialogue beats loud music under speech.
• Use timestamps for citations; turn them off for clean paragraphs.
• Shorts still hit the five-minute minimum — check the cost hint.
• Read acceptable use before processing others' channels.

Limits

• One public video per run — not playlists.
• Soundtrack uploads stay under Cloud Run's ~30 MB body limit (speech mp3 via the helper).
• Maximum two hours of speech; soundtrack deleted after ASR.
• Output is Whisper text, not YouTube's caption export.
• No Instagram, TikTok or Vimeo links.

How the soundtrack reaches Whisper

YouTube blocks most datacenter downloads. The reliable path is user-side: run [yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp) on your computer (or use the one-shot helper on the tool), upload the soundtrack, and mydubly runs Whisper. No Google cookies for the operator to maintain. The file is used only for transcription and then deleted — mydubly never returns a downloadable video.

Pricing

Transcripts from a YouTube link use the same rate as file transcripts: 1 credit per minute (0.1¢), minimum 5 credits per file. A 5-minute floor applies even to short clips, so a 90-second Short still costs 5 credits (0.5¢). There is no separate YouTube surcharge. Credits last 30 days per top-up; free daily credits also apply when your account has them.

Rights and honest use

Only transcribe videos you own or have clear permission to process. Confirming that right is required before a job starts. Soundtrack audio is used solely to produce the transcript and is then deleted; mydubly does not return the video or audio file. Playlists, private videos, age-gated content and live streams are refused. Republishing someone else's words without permission can still infringe copyright — the tool does not grant rights. See the acceptable use policy.

Using the tool on this page

• Paste one public YouTube video link (not a playlist or channel). Confirm you have the right to transcribe it before you start.
• Whisper recognises speech in about 100 languages, or detects the language automatically. Videos can be up to 2 hours.
• You get text you can show with timestamps or as plain copy. The soundtrack is used only to make the transcript, then deleted within 30 minutes — mydubly does not hand you the video or audio file.
• Pricing matches other transcripts: 1 credit per minute (0.1¢), minimum 5 credits per file. More detail is on the YouTube transcript generator page.