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Record & transcribe a YouTube video

Turn any YouTube video into a searchable transcript and summary — in your browser.

Start recording free → Download for Free
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Youtube
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What You Get

More than just recording

Invisible recording

No one in the call knows you are recording. No bot joins, no popup appears, no recording badge shows up.

AI transcription

Automatic speech-to-text powered by on-device and cloud AI models. Supports 90+ languages with speaker identification.

AI summaries

Get action items, decisions, and key points extracted automatically after every call. Never write meeting notes again.

Flashback

Forgot to hit record? Flashback saves the last 2 minutes of audio retroactively. Capture what you missed.

Local-first

Recordings stay on your device by default. No cloud upload, no third-party access, no data leaving your machine.

See all features → The 10 best meeting productivity tools (2026) →

From Recording to Action

Turn every recording into assets

AudioScreenScreenshot
Summary

Three ways to do this

Three ways to transcribe a YouTube video

Recommended

SeaMeet browser recorder

Play the video, capture the tab, done. Works on livestreams, Premieres, members-only videos, and embedded players — anywhere you can watch, SeaMeet can transcribe.

Best for: Lectures, interviews, and talks you want searchable notes from.

See how →

Paste the link on app.seameet.ai

Don't want to babysit the tab? Drop the YouTube URL into the app and it opens and records the video for you.

Best for: Batch-transcribing a watch list of videos.

YouTube's "Show transcript" panel

The built-in transcript shows auto-generated captions when the uploader hasn't disabled them. Machine quality, no summary, no search across videos, and often missing entirely.

Best for: A quick skim of one English video in a pinch.

Method 2 · SeaMeet browser recorder

How to transcribe a YouTube video in your browser (no signup)

Runs in Chrome, Edge, or Safari on desktop. Free for the first 15 minutes — Sync Pro removes the cap. No download, no extension, nothing changes on YouTube's side.

  1. 01

    Open the video in a browser tab

    A watch page, a livestream, a Premiere, or a video embedded on any site — the tab just needs to be the one playing the sound.

  2. 02

    Open app.seameet.ai in a second tab

    Same browser, desktop. Chrome, Edge, or Safari. No signup for the first 15 minutes of transcription.

  3. 03

    Pick "A browser tab" and select the YouTube tab

    In the share dialog, choose the YouTube tab and tick "Also share tab audio" — the checkbox is the difference between a transcript and silent video.

  4. 04

    Start recording, then press play

    SeaMeet begins transcribing from the first audio it hears. Set the language explicitly for non-English videos — accuracy on a monolingual Japanese or Spanish upload is a notch higher than auto-detect.

  5. 05

    Stop when the video ends

    You get a timestamped, searchable transcript plus an AI summary of the whole video. Both land in your library next to your meeting recordings — one search box covers everything.

Try in browser (no signup) →

15 min free · works on Chrome, Edge, Safari desktop

Why SeaMeet

What SeaMeet does that YouTube's transcript panel doesn't

  • Works where captions don't

    Auto-captions are missing on livestreams, disabled by some uploaders, and thin in many languages. SeaMeet transcribes what you actually hear — captions or not.

  • Timestamped and searchable

    Jump to the exact moment a phrase was said, and search across every video you've transcribed — not just inside one player.

  • AI summary of long videos

    A two-hour lecture becomes a skimmable summary with the key points pulled out. The transcript panel gives you a wall of text and good luck.

  • No downloaders, no workarounds

    You record the tab you're legitimately watching, for personal reference. No third-party ripping tools that violate YouTube's terms just to get a transcript.

Common questions

Transcribing YouTube videos — questions & answers

Is it legal to record a YouTube video? +
For personal reference, generally yes — same territory as taking notes or screen-shotting a slide. Redistribution is not: don't re-upload the recording or share the full copy publicly. The transcript you make is your notes; the video stays the creator's. Quote and cite rather than republish.
Why not just use YouTube's transcript feature? +
"Show transcript" gives you raw auto-captions: no punctuation or speakers, rough accuracy, no summary, no cross-video search — and it's simply absent on livestreams and videos where the uploader disabled captions. SeaMeet produces a real transcript you own, with timestamps.
Does it work on livestreams and Premieres? +
Yes. You capture the tab while it plays live, so the recording is exactly what you watched, as you watched it. Stop when the stream ends; the transcript covers everything from when you started.
What about members-only or paid videos? +
If your signed-in account can watch it in the tab, tab capture records it. That also means keep it to yourself — sharing recordings of paid content outside the membership is piracy, and we don't want that either.
Can I transcribe videos in other languages? +
Yes — 20+ languages with auto-detect for mixed audio. This is one of the bigger gaps in YouTube's own captions, which are patchy outside English; SeaMeet transcribes what's actually spoken.
Can I transcribe my own uploads without recording live? +
Yes — if you have the source file, use the "Import file" flow and skip live capture entirely. For other people's videos, tab capture is the path (Sync Pro allows 50 hr/mo of import).
Does the uploader know I recorded it? +
No. Playback happens in your tab as a normal view — nothing about it signals transcription. Your viewing is between you and your watch history.

Recording in your browser

SeaMeet records the YouTube tab straight from the browser. Pick the tab in Chrome's share dialog, keep tab audio on, press play, and the video is transcribed with timestamps — no download and nothing installed on YouTube's side.

Why SeaMeet?

Auto-generated captions are rough and hard to search across a long video. SeaMeet transcribes what you actually hear, adds timestamps and an AI summary, and lets you search a two-hour lecture or interview in seconds — all in the browser.

Common Use Cases

01

Lectures and courses you want to search and quote

02

Long interviews and podcasts published on YouTube

03

Webinars and conference talks you're watching

04

Research where you need an accurate, timestamped transcript

Start recording in your browser today

Free to start right in your browser — no account needed.

Start recording free → Download for Free
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Also works with:

Podcast (web player) Loom / video links Zoom Microsoft Teams