How to Get YouTube Transcript Without Timestamps [2026]

Sometimes you want just the text—no timestamps cluttering your document. Whether you're writing an article, creating study notes, or just want readable text, here's how to get clean transcripts.

Why Remove Timestamps?

Method 1: NoteLM.ai Download Options

NoteLM.ai offers both timestamped and clean text downloads.

Steps

1. 1.Copy YouTube video URL
2. 2.Open NoteLM.ai
3. 3.Paste URL and click "Get Transcript"
4. 4.Click "Download TXT" (without timestamps option)
5. 5.Get clean text file

Output Example

With timestamps:

[0:00] Welcome to this video
[0:03] Today we'll discuss
[0:06] The most important topic

Without timestamps:

Welcome to this video. Today we'll discuss the most important topic.

Method 2: Copy and Find/Replace

Quick Regex Pattern

Copy your transcript, then use Find & Replace:

Pattern to find:

\[\d+:\d+\] |\[\d+:\d+:\d+\] 

In Different Apps

Microsoft Word:

1. 1.Ctrl + H (Find & Replace)
2. 2.Click "More" → "Use wildcards"
3. 3.Find: \[[0-9]@:[0-9]@\]
4. 4.Replace: (leave empty)
5. 5.Replace All

Google Docs:

1. 1.Ctrl + H
2. 2.Find: (paste each format manually, no regex)
3. 3.Replace: (empty)
4. 4.Or use Google Docs add-on

VS Code:

1. 1.Ctrl + H
2. 2.Enable regex (button with .*)
3. 3.Find: \[\d+:\d+(?::\d+)?\]\s?
4. 4.Replace: (empty)
5. 5.Replace All

Notepad++:

1. 1.Ctrl + H
2. 2.Search mode: "Regular expression"
3. 3.Find: \[\d+:\d+(?::\d+)?\]\s*
4. 4.Replace: (empty)
5. 5.Replace All

Method 3: YouTube Native (Toggle Option)

Some YouTube transcripts have a timestamp toggle:

Steps

1. 1.Open video on YouTube
2. 2.Click three-dot menu
3. 3.Select "Show transcript"
4. 4.Look for timestamp toggle
5. 5.Turn off timestamps
6. 6.Copy text

Availability

This toggle isn't always available. If you don't see it, use another method.

Method 4: Command Line with yt-dlp

Download Clean Text

# Download and process in one step
yt-dlp --write-auto-sub --sub-format vtt --skip-download -o "%(title)s" "VIDEO_URL" && \
cat *.vtt | grep -v "^WEBVTT" | grep -v "^$" | grep -v "^[0-9]" | grep -v -- "-->" > clean_transcript.txt

Python Script

import re

def clean_transcript(input_file, output_file):
    with open(input_file, 'r') as f:
        content = f.read()
    
    # Remove timestamps [00:00] or [00:00:00] format
    cleaned = re.sub(r'\[\d+:\d+(?::\d+)?\]\s*', '', content)
    
    # Remove SRT-style timestamps
    cleaned = re.sub(r'\d+:\d+:\d+,\d+\s*-->\s*\d+:\d+:\d+,\d+', '', cleaned)
    
    # Remove sequence numbers
    cleaned = re.sub(r'^\d+$', '', cleaned, flags=re.MULTILINE)
    
    # Remove extra blank lines
    cleaned = re.sub(r'\n{3,}', '\n\n', cleaned)
    
    with open(output_file, 'w') as f:
        f.write(cleaned.strip())

clean_transcript('transcript.txt', 'clean_transcript.txt')

Method 5: AI Tools

ChatGPT / Claude

Prompt: "Remove all timestamps from this transcript and format as continuous paragraphs:"

[Paste transcript]

Benefits of AI Processing

• Removes timestamps
• Can fix punctuation
• Combines fragments into sentences
• Corrects obvious errors

Example Transformation

Input:

[0:00] so today we're going to
[0:02] talk about something really
[0:04] important um its about

AI Output:

So today we're going to talk about something really important. It's about...

Formatting Clean Transcripts

Add Paragraphs

Raw transcripts are often one continuous block. Add breaks:

Every 4-5 sentences → new paragraph
Topic change → new paragraph
Speaker change → new paragraph

Add Headers

For long content, add section headers:

## Introduction
[First section content]

## Main Topic
[Main section content]

## Conclusion
[Final section content]

Fix Capitalization

Transcripts often have inconsistent caps:

• Sentence starts should be capitalized
• Proper nouns capitalized
• "i" should be "I"

Clean Text Best Practices

Maintain Readability

Good: Break into paragraphs of 3-5 sentences
Bad: One massive wall of text

Preserve Speaker Changes

If multiple speakers, indicate changes:

HOST: Welcome to the show.

GUEST: Thanks for having me.

HOST: Let's dive in.

Keep Reference to Original

At the top of your document:

Source: [Video Title]
URL: [Link]
Date: [Access date]

When to Keep Timestamps

Sometimes timestamps are useful:

Quick workflow:

1. 1.Get transcript from NoteLM.ai
2. 2.Download as TXT (without timestamps)
3. 3.Add paragraphs and formatting as needed
4. 4.Use for your article, notes, or project

Start getting clean, readable transcripts today.