--- title: "Automatically create YouTube video transcripts" description: "Whether you're a video content creator or someone who relies on YouTube for research and learning, this tutorial will help you automate transcript generation and storage." image: "https://images.ctfassets.net/lzny33ho1g45/6gP386tJzSlcZp7SLl4PLj/d384f894a78e0f4bde6fd98ec5efd45a/Hero.jpg" --- # Automatically create YouTube video transcripts Whether you're a video content creator or someone who relies on YouTube for research and learning, this tutorial will help you automate transcript generation and storage. If you run a YouTube channel or (like me) consume a ton of videos yourself, you may have wanted a transcript at some point—and discovered how tedious the manual process can be. Typically, you have to navigate to your transcription app, copy-paste a video link or upload a file, then twiddle your thumbs until you get the notification that your transcription is ready. Instead of all that needless context switching, try automation. You can build a Zap—that's what we call an automated workflow—that does all the work for you. Want to learn how? Keep scrolling. ### Skip ahead - [The benefits of YouTube video transcripts](#benefits) - [How to automatically generate transcripts from a video file](#file) - [How to automatically generate transcripts from a YouTube video](#video) - [Other ways to automatically generate transcripts](#other) ## The benefits of YouTube video transcripts If you manage a YouTube channel (or intend to), having a transcript lets you easily repurpose your video content into written assets, like blog posts or social media snippets. That's particularly valuable if you don't have an up-to-date script you can later reference or feed to your AI tools for content repurposing. And if you're just watching videos? Creating transcripts from published videos you want to learn from is a huge work hack. Let's say you're an analyst engaged in intensive research. You probably don't have 17 free hours to watch all the latest content on why the price of silver is surging. (And if you do, please share your time management secrets with me.) You can [grab transcripts from YouTube](https://zapier.com/blog/youtube-video-transcript/), but that's a very manual process. And as of now, you can't just give ChatGPT or Claude a YouTube link and ask it to summarize a video for you. It can't watch or listen to a video. It may pull metadata and related content to _try_ to give you a relevant response, but…the accuracy won't be great. Gemini has a native YouTube extension and can therefore "fetch" the actual transcript if a video has one, or just pull the auto-generated captions produced by YouTube. Still, Gemini will likely sample or compress the data it gets, so it can respond to you as quickly and efficiently as possible. In other words, you still might not get the most accurate answers. Having a transcript—grounded in exactly what was said in the video—enables you to ask super detailed questions about a video to any AI assistant and get back reliable answers. ## How to automatically generate transcripts from a video file You can automatically generate a transcript whenever you upload an edited video to a Google Drive folder. (This works with other cloud storage apps, too, but I'll show you how to do it here with Google Drive.) You'll need two Zaps for this: - [Zap 1](#zap1) watches for new video files in a [Google Drive](https://zapier.com/apps/google-drive/integrations) folder, then sends them to [Rev](https://zapier.com/apps/rev/integrations) for transcription. - [Zap 2](#zap2) watches for a new completed transcription order, then creates a new [Google Doc](https://zapier.com/apps/google-docs/integrations). ### Zap 1 To get started, click into the first Zap template below. Or go straight to the [Zap editor](http://zapier.com/editor) and begin from scratch. Set up your trigger. If you're using the Zap template, this will be done for you. If not, pick **Google Drive** as your trigger app and for your trigger event, **New File in Folder**. Then connect your Google Drive account and click **Continue**. In the _Configure_ tab, choose which folder to monitor, like a YouTube upload queue. Add a video to the folder to help you test this step. When ready, click **Continue**. In the _Test_ tab, test your trigger and select a test file. Then click **Continue**. Next, add a new action step by clicking the **plus sign** (**+**) under your Google Drive step. If you started with a template, this will have already been done for you. If you started from scratch, search for and choose **Rev** as your action app, select **Create Automated Transcription Order** as your action event, and connect your Rev account. (You can choose other transcription apps, too, but I'll use Rev as an example.) Then click **Continue**. In the _Configure_ tab, you'll need to map your video file—for this workflow specifically, the web content link—from your trigger step to the _Media URL_ field. To map data, click the **plus sign** (**+**) in the field or type a forward slash (/). A modal will open where you can select the data you need. Click **Continue**, then click **Test** step. This will place an automated transcription order in Rev. If you go to your Rev account and see the transcript, or get an email notification that an order was successfully placed, you were successful! Just remember to publish your Zap. ### Zap 2 Now, let's create the second Zap. Click into the Zap template below, or go straight to the [Zap editor](http://zapier.com/editor). Set up your trigger. If you're using the Zap template, this will be done for you. If not, pick **Rev** as your trigger app and for your trigger event, **New Automated Transcript**. Then connect your Rev account and click **Continue**. There's nothing to configure with this step—just click **Test trigger** to find recent automated transcripts. (You should see a record of the most recent order you placed. If the video was particularly long, though, you may need to wait until it finishes transcribing.) Click on a record, then **Continue with selected record**. For your second action, search for and select **Google Docs** as your action app and **Upload Document** as your action event. (You can also choose whichever app you prefer for file storage.) If you're using the Zap template, this will already be done for you. Connect your account and click **Continue**. In the _Configure_ tab, click into the _File_ field and map the transcript file from your previous Rev step. To do this, just click the **plus sign** (+) or type a forward slash (**/**) and map to the _Public Content Link_. If you'd like, you can map the transcription file name to the _Specify Document Name_ field. I recommend creating a dedicated Google Drive folder where your transcription files will live, to keep everything organized. When you're done, click **Continue**. Click **Test step** to make sure your file gets properly created and is sent to the correct folder, then turn on and publish your Zap. And there you have it—an easy, two-Zap solution for handling transcriptions. ## How to automatically generate transcripts from a YouTube video Now let's set up a workflow that creates transcripts from published YouTube videos. You'll need two Zaps for this one as well: - [Zap 1](#zap1-vid) watches for new video files in a [YouTube](https://zapier.com/apps/youtube/integrations) channel, then sends it to Rev for transcription. - [Zap 2](#zap2-vid) watches for a new completed transcription order, then creates a new [Google Doc](https://zapier.com/apps/google-docs/integrations). To get started, click into the first Zap template below. Or go straight to the [Zap editor](http://zapier.com/editor) and begin from scratch. ### Zap 1 First, set up the trigger. If you're using the Zap template, this will be done for you. If not, pick **YouTube** as your trigger app and for your trigger event, **New Video in Channel**. Then connect your YouTube account and click **Continue**. When configuring this step, you'll need to enter the ID of the YouTube channel you want to monitor. To find the ID, go to the YouTube channel, click **More** to expand the channel's description, click **Share**, then click **Copy channel ID**. Back in the Zap editor, enter that in the _Channel_ field. Click **Continue,** then **Test trigger.** This should find new records from your channel of choice. Select one and click **Continue with selected record**. If you're building without the Zap template, add your next action, choosing **Rev** as the app and **Create Automated Transcription Order** as the action event. In the _Configure_ tab, you'll need to map your video file—for this workflow specifically, the YouTube URL—from your trigger step to the _Media URL_ field. To map data, click the **plus sign** (**+**) in the field or type a forward slash (/). A modal will open where you can select the data you need. When you're done, click **Continue**, then test the step. This will place an automated transcription order in Rev. If you go to your Rev account and see the transcript, or get an email notification that an order was successfully placed, you were successful! Just remember to publish your Zap. ### Zap 2 Now, let's create the second Zap. Click into the Zap template below, or go straight to the [Zap editor](http://zapier.com/editor). Set up your trigger. If you're using the Zap template, this will be done for you. If not, pick **Rev** as your trigger app and for your trigger event, **New Automated Transcript**. Then connect your Rev account and click **Continue**. There's nothing to configure with this step—just click **Test trigger** to find recent automated transcripts. (You should see a record of the most recent order you placed. If the video was particularly long, though, you may need to wait until it finishes transcribing.) Click on a record, then **Continue with selected record**. For your second action, search for and select **Google Docs** as your action app and **Upload Document** as your action event. If you're using the Zap template, this will already be done for you. Then connect your account and click **Continue**. In the _Configure_ tab, click into the _File_ field and map the transcript file from your previous Rev step. To do this, just click the **plus sign** (+) or type a **forward slash** (**/**) and map to the _Public Content Link_. If you'd like, you can map the transcription file name to the _Specify Document Name_ field. I recommend creating a dedicated Google Drive folder where your transcription files will live, to keep everything organized. When you're done, click **Continue**. Click **Test step** to make sure your file gets properly created and is sent to the correct folder, then turn on and publish your Zap. ## Other ways to automatically generate transcripts Beyond traditional Zaps, you have two other powerful options for generating transcripts: **Zapier Agents** and **Zapier MCP**. [Zapier Agents](https://zapier.com/agents) are AI-powered assistants you can chat with to accomplish tasks or run work in the background. You could build an agent that you instruct to transcribe YouTube videos and have it handle the entire process—from pulling the video to generating the transcript to saving it wherever you need it. [Learn how to build an agent in our feature guide.](https://zapier.com/blog/zapier-agents-guide/) [Zapier MCP](https://zapier.com/mcp) lets you access more than 30,000 Zapier actions directly from AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude. If you're already using AI assistants for your work, you can equip them with actions and ask them to generate a YouTube transcript without ever leaving your chat window. [Learn how to set up Zapier MCP in our feature guide.](https://zapier.com/blog/zapier-mcp-guide/) When should you pick either choice? Pick Agents if you want a dedicated AI assistant for transcription that your whole team can access and easily build onto. Choose Zapier MCP if you prefer working inside your existing AI tool and want transcription as an on-demand capability alongside your other tasks. And stick with traditional Zaps if you want fully automated, deterministic workflows. ## Take the hassle out of video transcription with Zapier Whether you're a video content creator or just use YouTube for research and learning, these automated workflows turn transcription from a tedious chore into a hands-off process. Ready to get started? [Jump into the Zap editor](https://zapier.com/app/editor) and build your transcription workflow today.