I Built a Chrome Extension to Extract YouTube Transcripts in Bulk

Hey folks! 👋

So, I had this problem. I was working on a personal project where I wanted to develop an information retrieval system from transcripts from about 300 YouTube videos. Sounds fun, right? Wrong. Try manually clicking "Show transcript" → Copy → Paste → Save as file... 300 times. Yeah, I made it through about 5 videos before I said "nope, there's gotta be a better way."

Spoiler alert: there wasn't. At least not one that did exactly what I needed. So I built one.

The Problem Was Real

Here's the thing - YouTube has transcripts for most videos (thank you, auto-captions!), but getting them out is... tedious. Sure, you can click and copy one at a time, but when you're dealing with:

• An entire playlist of educational content
• All videos from a specific channel
• A curated list of videos for research

...you're looking at hours of repetitive clicking. And let's be honest, we became developers specifically to avoid repetitive clicking.

What I Built

Meet the YouTube Transcript Extractor - a Chrome extension that does three main things:

1. Single video extraction - One click, get a JSON file with the transcript
2. Playlist/Channel scraping - Grab all video IDs from a playlist or channel
3. Batch processing - Process dozens (or hundreds) of videos automatically

The best part? It handles all the annoying stuff automatically:

• Clicks the "Show transcript" button for you
• Waits for transcripts to load
• Adds smart delays to avoid rate limiting
• Retries failed extractions
• Gives you real-time progress updates

How It Actually Works

For a Single Video

It's stupid simple:

1. You're on a YouTube video
2. Click the extension icon
3. Click "Extract Transcript"
4. Boom - JSON file downloads

The output looks like this:

{
  "channel_username": "veritasium",
  "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "transcript": "Full transcript text here..."
}

Perfect for feeding into your text analysis pipeline, building datasets, or just archiving content you care about.

For Entire Playlists

This is where it gets fun. You give it a playlist URL:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxxxxxx

The extension:

• Auto-scrolls through the entire playlist
• Extracts all video IDs
• Saves them to your browser storage
• Lets you download them as a text file

Then you can either process them immediately or save them for later. I've found this super useful for tracking new uploads from channels I follow.

Batch Processing (The Real MVP)

Here's the workflow that saves hours:

1. Load your video IDs (from playlist extraction or manual paste)
2. Set your batch size (I usually go with 15-20 videos)
3. Click "Start Batch Process"
4. Go grab coffee ☕

The extension will:

• Navigate to each video automatically
• Extract the transcript
• Download it as JSON
• Wait 5-15 seconds (random delay to be nice to YouTube)
• Move to the next one

You get real-time updates like:

Processing video 23/150 (Batch 2/10)
✅ Success: 22 | ⏭️ Skipped: 1 | ❌ Failed: 0

The Technical Bits (For Fellow Nerds)

Built with:

• Manifest V3 (because V2 is being phased out)
• Chrome's Side Panel API (way better UX than popups)
• Content Scripts for DOM manipulation
• Chrome Storage API for persistence
• Vanilla JavaScript (keeping it simple)

Some challenges I ran into:

Challenge 1: The Transcript Button

YouTube doesn't always show transcripts immediately. Sometimes you need to click a button first. My solution? The extension automatically finds and clicks it:

const transcriptButton = document.querySelector('[aria-label*="transcript"]');
if (transcriptButton) {
  transcriptButton.click();
  // Wait for transcript to load
  await sleep(2000);
}

Challenge 2: Rate Limiting

YouTube isn't thrilled when you hit their servers 100 times in 5 minutes. Fair enough. So I added:

• Random delays (5-15 seconds between requests)
• Configurable batch sizes
• Automatic retry logic with exponential backoff

Haven't been rate-limited since. 🎉

Challenge 3: Playlist Pagination

Playlists don't load all videos at once - you have to scroll to trigger lazy loading. The extension handles this:

function autoScroll() {
  return new Promise((resolve) => {
    let scrollCount = 0;
    const maxScrolls = 50; // Safety limit

    const interval = setInterval(() => {
      window.scrollBy(0, 1000);
      scrollCount++;

      // Check if we've reached the bottom
      if (scrollCount >= maxScrolls || isAtBottom()) {
        clearInterval(interval);
        resolve();
      }
    }, 1000);
  });
}

Real-World Use Cases

This can be used for:

1. Information retrieval

I personally worked on this use case. I Collected transcripts from 300+ videos. Extracted the information each transcript in question-answer format and converted them into a vector database for chatbot interface. Would have taken days manually - took 40 minutes with the extension.

2. Content Monitoring

Track new uploads from favorite tech channels. Run it once a week, compare video IDs, process only new content. Built a simple notification system around it.

3. Podcast Transcription Analysis

Many podcasts are on YouTube now. Grabbed transcripts from entire podcast series to analyze conversation patterns and topics.

4. Language Learning

Downloaded transcripts from language-learning channels in my target language. Now I have a searchable corpus of natural conversation.

The Gotchas

Not everything is perfect (yet):

• Some videos don't have transcripts - The extension will skip these and note them in the log
• YouTube's rate limits are real - Don't try to process 500 videos in one go
• Auto-generated transcripts aren't perfect - Expect some "lol" instead of "LOL" situations
• It only works in Chrome - Firefox support is on my TODO list

Want to Try It?

The extension is open source! Here's how to get started:

Installation (2 minutes)

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/youtube-transcript-extractor.git

# Open Chrome
chrome://extensions/

# Enable Developer Mode (top right)
# Click "Load unpacked"
# Select the extension folder

That's it!

Quick Test

1. Go to any YouTube video
2. Click the extension icon
3. Click "Extract Transcript"
4. Check your downloads folder

You should see a JSON file. If you do, you're ready to rock!

What's Next?

I'm actively working on:

• Firefox support - Because not everyone uses Chrome
• Export formats - SRT, VTT, plain text
• Timestamp preservation - Keep the timing data from transcripts
• Better error handling - More descriptive error messages
• Progress persistence - Resume batch processing after browser crash

Contributing

This project started as a personal tool, but I'd love to make it better with your help! Whether it's:

• Bug reports
• Feature suggestions
• Code contributions
• Documentation improvements

All are welcome! Check out the GitHub repo and feel free to open issues or PRs.

Real Talk: Why Build This?

I could have probably found something that did parts of what I needed. Maybe some Python script, maybe some paid service. But here's what I learned building this:

1. Sometimes the best tool is the one you build - It does exactly what you need, nothing more
2. Side projects teach you stuff - I learned a ton about Chrome extension APIs
3. Automation is worth it - Even if building it takes 10 hours, saving 20 hours is worth it
4. Open source feels good - Knowing others might find this useful is cool

Plus, it's just satisfying watching the extension churn through 300 videos while you do literally anything else.

Wrapping Up

If you ever find yourself manually copying YouTube transcripts, give this extension a shot. It's not perfect, but it's saved me countless hours, and I hope it does the same for you.

Got questions? Drop them in the comments! Found a bug? Please let me know - I promise I don't bite. 😊

And if you build something cool with the transcripts you extract, I'd love to hear about it!

Happy automating the boring stuff! 🎬📝

P.S. - If you found this useful, a star on GitHub would make my day! ⭐