How to Download Subtitles From Multiple YouTube Videos at Once

Published on September 19, 2026

To download subtitles from multiple YouTube videos at once, paste up to 50 video links, one per line, into Bulk Transcripts, then choose a format when the batch finishes and download everything as a single ZIP file. You can pick TXT, PDF, DOCX, SRT or VTT. Bulk runs on paid plans, and playlist links aren't expanded automatically, so you paste the individual video links. For just one or two videos, it's simpler to download the YouTube subtitles one video at a time.

How bulk subtitle downloads work

Here's what the bulk tool does, and what it doesn't:

• Up to 50 YouTube URLs per batch, one per line.
• One ZIP file at the end, in the format you choose: TXT, PDF, DOCX, SRT or VTT.
• Individual video links only. Playlist and channel URLs aren't expanded. If you paste a playlist link, you won't get every video in it.
• Paid plans. A free account can queue a batch, and it starts once you upgrade. See plans.
• English first. When a video has an English caption track, bulk uses it.

The SRT and VTT files use YouTube's own caption timing, unchanged, just as they do for a single download.

Step by step

1. Collect the video links

Gather the URLs of every video you want in a plain text file or a spreadsheet column first. It's easier to check and tidy the list there than in a browser box. The next section explains how to get links out of a playlist.

2. Clean up the list

Before you paste, check the list:

• One link per line. No commas, bullets or numbering.
• No duplicates. Sorting the list in a spreadsheet makes repeats easy to spot.
• 50 or fewer lines. If you have more, split them into batches of 50.
• Plain video links. A link copied from inside a playlist often has extra parameters on the end, such as &list=...&index=3. To be safe, trim each one down to the video part:

Copied from a playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID_1&list=PLAYLIST_ID&index=1

Trimmed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID_1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID_2
https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID_3
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VIDEO_ID_4

3. Paste the links and start the batch

Open Bulk Transcripts, paste your list and submit it. The batch then appears on your bulk jobs page while it runs.

4. Pick a format and download the ZIP

When the batch finishes, select the transcripts on your bulk jobs page, choose the export format and download the ZIP. If you're unsure which format to pick, the section below on formats will help. You can export the same batch again later in another format. Unzip it on your computer. On a phone, unzipping works but is awkward. Large batches are much easier to handle on a desktop.

Getting video links from a playlist or channel

There's no playlist import, so you need to collect the video links yourself. It's a manual step, but it only takes a few minutes for a typical course or series.

On a desktop:

1. Open the playlist page on YouTube, so you can see the list of videos.
2. Right-click each video title and choose your browser's "Copy link address" (the wording varies by browser).
3. Paste each link on a new line in your text file or spreadsheet.
4. Trim the extra playlist parameters as shown above.

For a channel, open the channel's Videos tab (or Shorts tab) and do the same thing. Scroll down first so the videos you want have loaded.

On a phone: in the YouTube app, tap the three-dot menu next to a video in the playlist, choose Share, then Copy link, and paste it into a notes app. It works, but for more than a handful of videos a desktop is faster.

Keep the finished list. It's a useful record of exactly what went into the batch, and you can reuse it if you need the same videos in a different format later.

Which format to choose for a batch

For a research corpus or study notes, TXT is usually the most practical because every tool can open it. If you're weighing the timed formats, SRT vs VTT vs TXT shows what each file looks like.

Organizing the files

Fifty transcripts turns into a mess quickly without a system. A few habits that help:

• One folder per project. For example course-name/ with the ZIP, the unzipped files and your link list side by side.
• Keep an index. A spreadsheet with columns for video URL, title, channel, date published and the date you downloaded it. This matters most for research, where you'll need to cite sources.
• Rename consistently if order matters. For a course, prefixes like 01-, 02- keep lectures in sequence in any file browser.
• Note which videos had auto-generated captions. They'll have more transcription errors. The transcript files don't label this, so check the CC menu on YouTube, where auto-generated tracks say "(auto-generated)". See downloading auto-generated captions for what to expect.

Common use cases

A course or lecture series

Paste every lecture link, choose DOCX or TXT, and you have searchable notes for the whole course. Choose SRT if you want subtitle files to use with offline copies of the videos you're allowed to keep.

A research corpus

Researchers use batches of transcripts to study how a topic is discussed, compare speakers, or search many videos for specific terms. Choose TXT for easy processing. Keep your link list and index so the corpus can be described and reproduced, and remember that auto-caption errors can affect word counts and searches.

Repurposing your own channel

If you run a channel, a batch of your own videos in TXT or DOCX is a quick starting point for blog posts, show notes or a searchable archive. Since it's your own content, you can publish from it freely.

Language study

A set of videos from one channel gives you a consistent speaker and vocabulary to study. Bulk prefers the English track, so if you're studying another language, fetch those videos one at a time in the Subtitle Downloader, where you can pick the caption track. Downloading subtitles in another language covers that in detail.

Things that trip people up

• Pasting a playlist URL and expecting every video. Playlist and channel URLs aren't expanded. Paste the individual video links.
• More than 50 lines. Split long lists into several batches.
• Videos without captions. If a video has no caption track, there's nothing to fetch for it. Why some YouTube videos have no subtitles explains the causes. If it's your own video, you can upload the file to Video to SRT to generate subtitles from the audio.
• Needing a non-English track. Use the single-video tool for those.
• Private or removed videos. If a link doesn't open on YouTube for you, it won't work here either.

A note on permissions

Downloading captions in bulk for your own study, research or accessibility is generally fine. Publishing that material, for example posting other creators' transcripts or reusing their subtitles on re-uploads, needs their permission. With your own channel's videos, there's no issue.

For the basics of single downloads, including YouTube's built-in options, see the main guide on how to download YouTube subtitles.

FAQ

Can I paste a YouTube playlist link?

No. Playlist and channel URLs aren't expanded. Open the playlist, copy each video's link, and paste them one per line.

How many videos can I do at once?

Up to 50 YouTube URLs per batch. For more, run several batches.

Is bulk downloading free?

Bulk runs on paid plans. A free account can queue a batch, and it starts once you upgrade. Free accounts can still use the single-video Subtitle Downloader, with 1 transcript every 24 hours.

What's inside the ZIP?

A transcript for each video in the batch, all in the one format you chose: TXT, PDF, DOCX, SRT or VTT.

Can I choose the subtitle language for a batch?

Bulk prefers the English track. For videos where you need another language, use the single-video downloader, which has a language dropdown.