Free · No signup · Auto-deletes in 1 hour

YouTube Subtitle Downloader

Paste a YouTube URL, pick a language, and download captions as SRT, VTT, ASS, or JSON3. Works with auto-generated and human-uploaded subtitles.

YouTube URL

Language

Format

Include auto-generated captions if no human-made track exists

Use cookies for age-restricted / private videos

Optional. Upload a Netscape-format cookies.txt exported from a logged-in YouTube session. Only needed for age-gated, members-only, region-locked, or private videos. How do I export cookies?

cookies.txt file

Treat cookies.txt like a password — it grants full access to your YouTube account. We use it only for this request, never store it on disk longer than the job, and never log its contents.

Free for personal use. Subtitle files auto-delete after 1 hour. No signup required.

How it works

1
Paste a YouTube URL
Copy the link from the YouTube share button or address bar — works with watch, share, Shorts, and embed URLs.
2
Pick language and format
Choose from 28 languages and 4 subtitle formats: SRT, VTT, ASS, or JSON3.
3
Download the file
We fetch the captions on our servers and hand you a direct download link. Files auto-delete after 1 hour.

Supported subtitle formats

All four formats are converted server-side from YouTube's native caption payload.

SubRip (.srt)

SRT

The universal subtitle format. Plays in VLC, MX Player, Premiere, DaVinci Resolve, OBS, and every modern media player.

WebVTT (.vtt)

VTT

The HTML5 video standard. Drop straight into a <track> element for closed-caption support in browsers.

Advanced SubStation (.ass)

ASS

Styled subtitles with positioning, colors, and karaoke effects. The format anime fansubs use.

YouTube JSON (.json3)

JSON3

YouTube's native caption payload — raw timing data with per-word timestamps, ideal for programmatic processing.

Supported languages

28 curated languages in the dropdown. Any ISO 639-1 code works via the API.

English (en)
Spanish (es)
French (fr)
German (de)
Portuguese (pt)
Italian (it)
Dutch (nl)
Polish (pl)
Russian (ru)
Turkish (tr)
Arabic (ar)
Japanese (ja)
Korean (ko)
Chinese (zh)
Hindi (hi)
Indonesian (id)
Vietnamese (vi)
Thai (th)
Swedish (sv)
Danish (da)
Norwegian (nb)
Finnish (fi)
Czech (cs)
Greek (el)
Hungarian (hu)
Romanian (ro)
Ukrainian (uk)
All available tracks

Frequently asked questions

Is the YouTube subtitle downloader free?: Yes — completely free, no signup required. Anonymous users can pull subtitles within the public rate limit (15/day per IP). Sign in for higher limits.
Do I need a YouTube account or an API key?: No. You only need the public URL of the video. We don't ask for your YouTube login, an OAuth token, or anything else.
What's the difference between auto-generated and human-uploaded captions?: Human-uploaded captions are the ones the creator (or a translator) wrote and timed by hand — they're more accurate and often available in multiple languages. Auto-generated captions are produced by YouTube's speech-recognition model and are available on almost every video, but they include misheard words and have no punctuation in some languages. By default we accept either — if no human track exists in your chosen language, we fall back to the auto-generated one.
Which subtitle formats do you support?: SRT, VTT, ASS, and JSON3. SRT is the most compatible (use it if you're not sure). VTT is the browser standard. ASS supports styling. JSON3 is YouTube's raw caption payload with per-word timing.
Which languages can I download?: Any language YouTube has captions for. We expose 28 common languages in the dropdown plus an "all available" option that returns every track on the video. You can also enter custom ISO 639-1 codes via the API.
Is it legal to download YouTube subtitles?: Captions and subtitles are uploaded by creators and YouTube alongside the video. Downloading them for personal use — accessibility, translation, research, language learning — is widely treated as fair use. We don't make any claim about your specific use case. Don't republish captions you don't have the rights to, and don't download content you'd be infringing by downloading the video itself.
How long do my files stay on your servers?: Subtitle files are stored on signed, time-limited download URLs and auto-delete after 1 hour. We don't keep your video URL after the job finishes.
Does this work with YouTube Shorts and live streams?: Shorts: yes, if the Short has captions enabled. Past live streams: yes, once the auto-caption pass has finished (usually a few hours after the stream ends). Live streams in progress: not supported — the caption stream isn't downloadable until the broadcast ends.
Can I download subtitles in bulk or via API?: Yes — POST a JSON body to /v1/media/subtitles with the URL, language code, and format. See the API docs at /api-docs for the full schema. Bulk usage requires an API key.
What other sites are supported besides YouTube?: Anything yt-dlp supports — Vimeo, Twitter/X, TikTok, Facebook Watch, Twitch VODs, and over 1,800 other sites. Caption availability depends on the platform.

How it works

Paste a YouTube URL

Copy the link from the YouTube share button or address bar — works with watch, share, Shorts, and embed URLs.

Pick language and format

Choose from 28 languages and 4 subtitle formats: SRT, VTT, ASS, or JSON3.

Download the file

We fetch the captions on our servers and hand you a direct download link. Files auto-delete after 1 hour.

Supported subtitle formats

All four formats are converted server-side from YouTube's native caption payload.

SubRip (.srt)

SRT

The universal subtitle format. Plays in VLC, MX Player, Premiere, DaVinci Resolve, OBS, and every modern media player.

WebVTT (.vtt)

VTT

The HTML5 video standard. Drop straight into a <track> element for closed-caption support in browsers.

Advanced SubStation (.ass)

ASS

Styled subtitles with positioning, colors, and karaoke effects. The format anime fansubs use.

YouTube JSON (.json3)

JSON3

YouTube's native caption payload — raw timing data with per-word timestamps, ideal for programmatic processing.

Supported languages

28 curated languages in the dropdown. Any ISO 639-1 code works via the API.

English (en)

Spanish (es)

French (fr)

German (de)

Portuguese (pt)

Italian (it)

Dutch (nl)

Polish (pl)

Russian (ru)

Turkish (tr)

Arabic (ar)

Japanese (ja)

Korean (ko)

Chinese (zh)

Hindi (hi)

Indonesian (id)

Vietnamese (vi)

Thai (th)

Swedish (sv)

Danish (da)

Norwegian (nb)

Finnish (fi)

Czech (cs)

Greek (el)

Hungarian (hu)

Romanian (ro)

Ukrainian (uk)

All available tracks

Frequently asked questions

Is the YouTube subtitle downloader free?

Yes — completely free, no signup required. Anonymous users can pull subtitles within the public rate limit (15/day per IP). Sign in for higher limits.

Do I need a YouTube account or an API key?

No. You only need the public URL of the video. We don't ask for your YouTube login, an OAuth token, or anything else.

What's the difference between auto-generated and human-uploaded captions?

Human-uploaded captions are the ones the creator (or a translator) wrote and timed by hand — they're more accurate and often available in multiple languages. Auto-generated captions are produced by YouTube's speech-recognition model and are available on almost every video, but they include misheard words and have no punctuation in some languages. By default we accept either — if no human track exists in your chosen language, we fall back to the auto-generated one.

Which subtitle formats do you support?

SRT, VTT, ASS, and JSON3. SRT is the most compatible (use it if you're not sure). VTT is the browser standard. ASS supports styling. JSON3 is YouTube's raw caption payload with per-word timing.

Which languages can I download?

Any language YouTube has captions for. We expose 28 common languages in the dropdown plus an "all available" option that returns every track on the video. You can also enter custom ISO 639-1 codes via the API.

Is it legal to download YouTube subtitles?

Captions and subtitles are uploaded by creators and YouTube alongside the video. Downloading them for personal use — accessibility, translation, research, language learning — is widely treated as fair use. We don't make any claim about your specific use case. Don't republish captions you don't have the rights to, and don't download content you'd be infringing by downloading the video itself.

How long do my files stay on your servers?

Subtitle files are stored on signed, time-limited download URLs and auto-delete after 1 hour. We don't keep your video URL after the job finishes.

Does this work with YouTube Shorts and live streams?

Shorts: yes, if the Short has captions enabled. Past live streams: yes, once the auto-caption pass has finished (usually a few hours after the stream ends). Live streams in progress: not supported — the caption stream isn't downloadable until the broadcast ends.

Can I download subtitles in bulk or via API?

Yes — POST a JSON body to /v1/media/subtitles with the URL, language code, and format. See the API docs at /api-docs for the full schema. Bulk usage requires an API key.

What other sites are supported besides YouTube?

Anything yt-dlp supports — Vimeo, Twitter/X, TikTok, Facebook Watch, Twitch VODs, and over 1,800 other sites. Caption availability depends on the platform.