# Convert a YouTube transcript to SRT, Markdown or plain text

> Get a YouTube, TikTok or Instagram transcript as plain text, Markdown with timestamp links, or an SRT subtitle file, with a short Python script for each.

Updated 2026-10-06. HTML: /blog/transcript-to-srt-markdown-text

One transcript request gives you everything for plain text, Markdown and SRT. Plain text is already in the response; Markdown and SRT take a few lines of code, so you control how they look.

Ask for `lines` so you have caption times:

```python
# pip install cleanscript-ai
from cleanscript_ai import CleanScript

client = CleanScript()
result = client.transcript("https://youtu.be/jwnez8HdN7E", include=["lines"])
```

## Plain text

```python
open("transcript.txt", "w").write(result.text)
```

`text` is the paragraphs separated by blank lines, with punctuation and capitals.

## Markdown with timestamp links

A heading per section, linked to its start, with the paragraphs under it:

```python
def stamp(seconds):
    m, s = divmod(int(seconds), 60)
    return f"{m}:{s:02}"

post = result.post
out = [f"# {post.title or post.description}", f"By {post.author.name}. [Watch]({post.url})", ""]
for section in result.sections:
    out.append(f"## [{stamp(section.start)}]({section.url}) {section.title or ''}".strip())
    out += [p.text + "\n" for p in section.paragraphs]
open("transcript.md", "w").write("\n".join(out))
```

`post.title` exists only on YouTube; TikTok and Instagram have a caption instead, in `post.description`. On those platforms a section's `url` is the post link, since their links can't open at a moment.

## SRT subtitles

SRT numbers each block and gives it a start and end as `hh:mm:ss,mmm`:

```python
def srt_time(seconds):
    ms = round(seconds * 1000)
    h, ms = divmod(ms, 3_600_000)
    m, ms = divmod(ms, 60_000)
    s, ms = divmod(ms, 1000)
    return f"{h:02}:{m:02}:{s:02},{ms:03}"

blocks = (
    f"{i}\n{srt_time(line.start)} --> {srt_time(line.end)}\n{line.text}\n"
    for i, line in enumerate(result.lines, 1)
)
open("subtitles.srt", "w").write("\n".join(blocks))
```

Run on [Le Monde's TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@lemondefr/video/7449782721947241750) about its explainer videos, the file starts:

```text
1
00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:04,560
Comment réalisons nos vidéos verticales au Monde ? Bienvenue dans notre open space.

2
00:00:04,680 --> 00:00:08,880
C'est ici qu'on fabrique les vidéos d'explication qui sont publiées sur les réseaux sociaux du journal

3
00:00:09,040 --> 00:00:12,760
le monde. On existe depuis deux-mille-seize, et avant ça ressemblait à ça,
```

Lines are caption-sized, so they work as subtitles as they are. For shorter blocks on screen, split long lines at sentence ends.

## Before you publish subtitles

Corrected automatic captions still contain some errors, so read the file once before you upload it. If the video isn't yours, keep the file for your own use.

## Next steps

- What the lines contain: [YouTube transcript as JSON with timestamps](/blog/youtube-transcript-json-timestamps).
- What the correction fixes: [clean up YouTube auto captions](/blog/clean-youtube-auto-captions).