What this does
Caption files are made for players, not for reading. They're full of cue numbers, timestamps (00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:04,000), and formatting tags, and auto-generated captions repeat lines as they scroll. This tool strips all of that out and gives you the plain spoken text — cleaned, de-duplicated, and grouped into readable paragraphs. It's the fast way to get the words of a talk, lecture, interview, or tutorial into a form you can actually use.
Getting a transcript to paste
Two easy sources, both fully offline here:
A caption file. If you have an .srt or .vtt file (downloaded captions, an export from an editor), just drop it in.
YouTube's transcript panel. On a YouTube video, open “…more” → “Show transcript”, select the text, copy it, and paste it into the box. The tool handles the timestamps that come with it.
Why you can't just paste a link (the honest version)
You might expect to paste a YouTube URL and have captions appear automatically. We deliberately don't fake that: a web page in your browser can't fetch another site's captions — YouTube's caption endpoints block cross-origin requests, so any "paste a link" tool is really sending the link to its own server to do the fetch. That breaks the whole point of a no-upload tool. Working from the caption file or the copied transcript keeps everything on your device, with nothing sent anywhere.
Straight into your AI workflow
Cleaned transcript text drops perfectly into the Markdown tool, where you can count the tokens, apply a prompt preset ("summarise this lecture," "pull the action items"), and split a long transcript into chunks — all before it ever leaves your browser. It also pairs with MP4-to-MP3 when you need the audio too.
Frequently asked questions
Does it upload my file or transcript?
No. The parsing runs entirely in your browser; nothing is sent to a server.
Which formats does it read?
SubRip (.srt) and WebVTT (.vtt) files, plus plain pasted transcripts (including YouTube's "Show transcript" text).
Can I keep the timestamps?
Yes — tick "Keep timestamps" and each caption keeps its start time. Leave it off for clean, continuous prose.
Can I paste a YouTube link?
No — browsers can't fetch YouTube captions cross-origin without a server. Use the caption file, or copy the text from YouTube's "Show transcript" panel.