It extracts existing transcripts from YouTube videos and other captioned pages, then saves them as TXT (free) or SRT subtitles (Pro). It does not record audio and it does not run speech recognition. It reads the transcript that the page already has.
Yes. The free tier extracts plain text transcripts. An optional Pro upgrade ($14.99 one-time, not a subscription) unlocks SRT subtitle export with timestamps and additional features.
Simple Transcript Capture works with Google Chrome and Chromium-based browsers (Edge, Brave, Arc, Opera, Vivaldi). It uses Chrome’s Side Panel and Scripting APIs.
No. The extension reads existing transcript text from the page (YouTube captions or visible transcript blocks). It never accesses your microphone, never records audio, and never performs speech recognition.
The extension fetches captions from YouTube’s public InnerTube endpoint, the same API that delivers captions to the player on youtube.com. The video must have captions available (auto-generated or human-authored). Videos with captions disabled cannot be transcribed.
For other pages, the extension scans the DOM for visible transcript blocks: lecture transcripts, podcast player captions, court reporter transcripts, anything with on-page text. If the page has a transcript visible, the extension can extract it.
Accuracy is whatever the source page provides. YouTube auto-captions can be imperfect on accented speech or noisy audio. Human-authored captions are typically very accurate. The extension does not transform the text; it extracts what is already there.
The extension itself runs offline, but YouTube transcript fetches require an internet connection because they pull from YouTube’s public servers. DOM-based extraction on a page already loaded in your browser does not require new network requests.
SRT (SubRip Subtitle) is a standard subtitle format that includes timestamps with each line of text. It can be imported into video editors, media players, and subtitle tools. SRT export is a Pro feature.
Transcripts are saved to your default Downloads folder. The filename includes the page title, a timestamp, and a word count so transcripts are easy to find.
The transcript itself is saved locally to your computer. The only network requests the extension makes are: a fetch to YouTube’s public captions endpoint when you extract a YouTube transcript, and a one-time license key validation if you activate Pro. See the Privacy Policy for full details.