Questions
Do YouTube Shorts have transcripts?
No. Long-form YouTube videos have a Show transcript button under the description. Shorts do not have one at all: no transcript panel, no caption download, no copy option. The words in a Short are effectively locked inside the video, which is the gap this tool fills.
How do you get a transcript of a YouTube Short?
Save the video file, then drop it into this page. Your browser separates the audio and returns the spoken words with timings, usually in well under a minute. You can then copy the script or download it as an SRT caption file, a VTT file, a blog draft or a description with timestamps. Clips run up to sixty seconds, nothing is uploaded, and there is no account.
Is my video uploaded anywhere?
No. Your file is read by your own browser and never leaves your computer. The one request this page makes off our site is a one-time download of the speech recognition model from a public package CDN, which your browser then caches. The video itself is never sent anywhere, and you can confirm that by watching the network tab while it runs.
Why does it need a file instead of a URL?
Pulling a video down from YouTube by URL means downloading it, which their terms do not allow, and we do not build tools that work around a platform policy. So the tool takes a file you already have: your own export, your own Short, or a client video you are working on.
How do I add the SRT file to my Short on YouTube?
Download the .srt, then in YouTube Studio open the video, go to Subtitles, choose Add and then Upload file, pick With timing, and select the file. It attaches to the caption track on the timeline, so YouTube uses your words instead of its own guess at them. Do this before you publish where you can, because captions you supply are indexed as written and automatic ones frequently are not.
How accurate is it?
Good but not perfect. Accents, background music and trade vocabulary all cost accuracy, and the more accurate model setting costs a longer download. Treat the output as a draft you will edit. It is not trying to be final copy, it is trying to save you from typing out a script by hand.
How long can the video be?
Up to one minute. Longer files are turned away before anything starts rather than left to grind, because transcription cost rises with every second of audio and the wait stops being worth it. Nearly every Short is inside sixty seconds anyway. If yours is longer, trim it and drop the trimmed copy in.
Can I use it to convert a YouTube Short to text for a blog post?
Yes, that is one of the export formats. The blog draft turns the pauses in your delivery into paragraphs, so it reads like writing rather than a wall of transcript. You still have to edit it, but the thinking is already done because you did it out loud when you filmed.
What can I do with the output?
The pack gives you title options with character counts, tags ranked by how often you said the words, hashtags, and a description with the story timeline. Upload the SRT so the words are indexed as written. Paste the blog draft into a post and edit it up. The point is to get one Short working as several pieces of content.
Do the timestamps create chapters on a Short?
No. Chapters are a standard upload feature and Shorts do not render them. The timestamps are still worth including because the description is indexed and read by people, and because they map the story for you. What actually carries the timeline on a Short is the caption file, so upload the SRT as well.
Are the tags based on search volume?
No, and that matters. They are ranked by how often you said the words, which tells you what your video is genuinely about. That is the right starting point, but it is not keyword research. Check anything you plan to build a title around against real search data before you commit to it.
Built and maintained by the Ciphers Digital video team in Gilbert, Arizona, who wanted
the words out of a Short without retyping them.
Last reviewed August 2026.
Found something it gets wrong? Tell us.
