Links that work
Paste the Short’s link exactly as you copied it. youtube.com/shorts/VIDEO_ID links work, and so do the youtu.be short links the YouTube app shares. On a phone, tap Share, then Copy link, and paste it into the box above.
Why some Shorts have no transcript
- Many Shorts are music-only or have no speech, so YouTube has nothing to caption.
- Auto-generated captions can take time to appear after upload, so very new Shorts may not have them yet.
- Text shown on screen as part of the video is not a caption track and can’t be extracted as text.
- If a Short fails, the Caption Checker will confirm whether any caption track exists.
What people use Shorts transcripts for
- Writing a caption or description that matches exactly what was said.
- Repurposing a series of Shorts into a thread, newsletter, or blog post.
- Studying a creator’s hooks: the first line of a Short’s transcript shows exactly how it opens.
- Accessibility: sharing the text version with viewers who can’t play audio.