I have been watching a YouTube video that was so interesting that I would like to have the text transcribed for reviewing later on.

Is there a FREE and easy way to get a text transcript of a YouTube video ?

Answer :
Yes, there is.
It all depends on the quality of the transcription that you want ot get which type of transcription will suit you best. Previously, the three (‘other’) options listed at the bottom of this post were some of the best around, but things are developing fast in the world of AI, and there now is one FREE option that will probably suit everyone that has an M1 / M2 / M3 / M4 Mac :

Whisper AI – Speech to Text
– get it in the Mac AppStore (make sure you get the app that is by Rocket Techology Inc.) :
https://apps.apple.com/nl/app/whisper-ai-speech-to-text/id6738070552?l=en-GB&mt=12
– type : macOS native app for video/audio transcription ( for self-recorded, live or downloaded video )
– output : options to export to .txt, .docx or .html file
– accuracy : the ‘tiny’ Whisper-model that is preloaded is quite fast and rather accurate (and for more accuracy and or speaker recognition you can download more advanced Whisper-models using the ‘Manage Models’ option)
– privacy : high, as it runs entirely offline ( according to the developer )
– speed : made for Apple Silicon Macs, so extremely fast on M1/M2/M3/M4-Macs


Here are three other options :

Tactiq.io
– use it online at : https://tactiq.io
– type : online video/audio transcription ( for Youtube video ) – the FREE plan can now only be used through the Tactiq Chrome browser extension ( so no longer an option for Safari… )
– output : an auto-generated ( not very accurate ) subtitling .srt document converted into a plain text document
– privacy : low, as it runs online
– speed : extremely fast, but the output is just the subtitles-file converted into plain text ( so including all the time stamps – if you want to get rid of those, you can do that in ChatGPT or something )

Transcribe.mov
– use it online at : https://www.transcribe.mov
– type : online video/audio transcription ( for YouTube video )
– output : a rather accurate plain text document
– privacy : low, as it runs online
– speed : slightly faster that playing the original video : takes 7 minutes to transcribe 15 minutes of video

Aiko
– get it in the Mac AppStore : https://apps.apple.com/us/app/aiko/id1672085276&ved=2ahUKEwikv-LT85uLAxUpSf4FHZEZEisQFnoECAwQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1s9T7EI1AzX63HnIjAhNuZ
– type : macOS native app for video/audio transcription ( for self-recorded, live or downloaded video )
– output : a rather accurate plain text document
– privacy : high, as it runs entirely offline ( according to the developer )
– speed : made for Apple Silicon Macs, so extremely fast on M1/M2/M3/M4-Macs : takes just 1 to 5 minutes to transcribe 15 minutes of video – but very slow on Intel-Macs : takes about 5 hours ( ! ) to transcribe 15 minutes of video ( because Intel-Macs don’t have the neural engine )

So it all depends on your needs what the best solution is… so take your pick !

enjoy 😉