YouTube Sermon Transcript — the Full Text, Not Caption Fragments
Your church's sermons are on YouTube. YouTube's auto-captions are built to read along with the video, not to read on their own. Save the file, upload it here, and get a punctuated, timestamped transcript back in about five minutes — plus an .srt you can put back on the video. First sermon free, up to 90 minutes.
Turnaround
~5 min / 45-min sermon
Accuracy
99% on clear audio
First sermon
Free, 90 min
Auto-captions vs a transcript
These are two different artefacts that happen to contain similar words. A caption track exists to be shown a line at a time, in sync with playback: it is chopped into short timed cues, and formatting that would help a reader — paragraphs, punctuation, speaker breaks — is not its job. A transcript exists to be read, edited, searched and filed.
| YouTube auto-captions | A transcript from here | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Reading along with the video | Reading, editing and searching on its own |
| Shape of the text | Short timed cues | Punctuated prose with timestamps |
| Works when the video is not on YouTube | No | Yes — any file, from anywhere |
| Scripture references detected | No | Yes |
| Downloads | Caption formats | .txt, .docx, .srt, .vtt |
How to get the transcript
- 1
Start from a video you own or have permission to use
In practice that is almost always your own church channel — the Sunday livestream archive, or a message uploaded during the week. If the video is someone else’s, get permission first.
- 2
Save the file to your computer
Audio only is smaller and uploads faster than the full video, but either works. The methods for pulling a file out of YouTube — a command-line tool, a browser extension, or your channel’s own download of your original upload — are walked through on our YouTube to transcript page.
- 3
Upload it
Drag the file into the upload zone on /transcribe. Files up to 150MB are accepted, audio or video, no conversion needed.
- 4
Enter an email address
One field, no password. The transcript shows on the page and a copy goes to your inbox so a long upload does not have to be babysat.
- 5
Download the transcript — and the captions
.txt to edit, .docx with timestamps for the archive, and .srt or .vtt to upload back to YouTube as a real caption track in place of the automatic one.
The loop this closes
A sermon uploaded to YouTube is findable by people who already search YouTube. It is close to invisible to everyone searching the web in words the preacher actually said. Publishing the transcript alongside the video puts the message into text that can be searched, quoted, translated and linked — and the .srt you get back replaces the automatic caption track on the video itself, so the same work improves both.
YouTube sermon transcript FAQ
Does YouTube not already give me a transcript?+
YouTube generates automatic captions on most uploads, and you can open them in the transcript panel under a video. They are built for reading along with playback, though, not for reading on their own: the text arrives as short timed fragments with no paragraphs and, on many uploads, no punctuation or capitalisation. That is usable as captions and awkward as a document. If what you want is something to edit into a blog post, hand to a small group, or file in an archive, you want a proper transcript.
How do I get the sermon out of YouTube to upload it?+
Save the audio or video from the video you have the rights to — your own church channel, or a recording you own. Our step-by-step guide for that is on the YouTube to transcript page. Once you have the file on your computer, the rest is a normal upload.
Can I transcribe any preacher’s sermon from YouTube?+
Downloading and reusing someone else’s video is governed by YouTube’s terms and by copyright, so this page assumes you are working with your own church’s channel or a recording you have permission to use. For studying other preachers, we publish transcript and notes pages for a number of well-known preachers already — start from the famous sermons index.
How long does it take?+
About five minutes for a typical 45-minute sermon, once the file is uploaded. The upload itself depends on your connection; a video file is larger than an audio-only export, so saving audio only is faster if you have the choice.
How accurate is it compared with YouTube auto-captions?+
We transcribe at 99% on clear audio and return punctuated, timestamped text with scripture references detected. Auto-caption quality varies a lot by channel and by audio quality, and even at its best it is optimised for on-screen captions rather than for a readable document.
Can I get captions back for the video too?+
Yes. Every transcript downloads as .srt and .vtt as well as .txt and .docx, so you can upload the .srt back to YouTube as a proper caption track and replace the automatic one on your own video.
What does it cost?+
Your first full sermon is free, up to 90 minutes, with no credit card. After that the Church Plan is $5 first month, then $19/month for unlimited sermons, or $48 every 3 months quarterly. One account for the whole church.
Transcribe one from your channel
First full sermon free, up to 90 minutes, no card. After that, $5 first month, then $19/month for unlimited sermons.
Upload the sermon