Transcopy by Colluvio

Transcopy copies the transcript YouTube shows for a video to your clipboard, so you can paste it into a document, a notes app or an AI assistant.

<b>How to use it</b>
1. Open a video on youtube.com.
2. Click the Transcopy button in the toolbar (or press Alt+Shift+T).
3. Paste.

If the transcript panel is closed, the extension opens it with YouTube's own "Show transcript" button and waits until the whole transcript has loaded. By default the transcript comes after the video's title, URL, channel and publication date; untick "Include title, URL, channel and date" to copy the transcript alone. Tick "Include timestamps" to get a [MM:SS] timestamp ([HH:MM:SS] for videos over an hour) before every line. Both choices are remembered.

<b>What it copies</b>
• The text YouTube displays in its transcript panel, in the language shown there. Nothing is translated, summarized or rewritten.
• One line per transcript segment, in the original order, including repeated lines. Chapter titles are left out.
• Nothing at all if the transcript is missing or doesn't finish loading: you get a message instead of a partial copy.

<b>Limitations</b>
• Works on youtube.com video pages in Firefox for desktop. Not on Shorts, embedded players, YouTube Music or Firefox for Android.
• Videos without captions have no transcript to copy.
• YouTube's current transcript panel has no language selector, so the copy is in the language YouTube uses for that panel.
• YouTube sometimes fails to load a transcript (for example while an ad is playing). Reloading the page usually helps.
• YouTube changes its pages from time to time. If copying stops working, please report it on GitHub.

<b>Privacy</b>
No data collection, no analytics, no accounts and no remote code. The extension sends nothing anywhere and contacts no other service. It only reads the YouTube tab when you click its button, and the transcript goes straight to your clipboard. If the transcript panel is closed, it presses YouTube's own "Show transcript" button, and YouTube loads the transcript just as it would for you. Permissions: activeTab and scripting (read the current tab when you click), clipboardWrite (copy) and storage (remember the two checkboxes).

Free and open source under the MIT license: https://github.com/colluvio/transcopy

An independent Colluvio.org project. Not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by YouTube or Google.