A Step-by-Step Approach to Mastering Free YouTube Video Transcription

How to Transcribe a YouTube Video for FREE

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

If you want to transcribe your videos to make the dialogs and speeches available in text format, you can use YouTube Transcribe feature that the streaming site offers for free. In this article, I’ll share with you a couple of methods to transcribe a YouTube video for free.

• Part 1: Transcribe YouTube Video Automatically for Free [2 Ways]
• Part 2: Transcribe YouTube Video to Text Online with Third-Party Service
• Part 3: Benefits of Transcribing YouTube Videos
• Part 4: YouTube Video Transcription FAQs

Part 1: How to Transcribe YouTube Video Automatically for Free [2 Ways]

Besides the basic video editing features on the YouTube platform, you can now quickly transcribe YouTube videos to the text as well. The good thing is, you can either use the automatic transcription feature that YouTube offers, or upload it manually while adjusting the timing as you go further.

Below are the two methods to transcribe your YouTube videos for free:

Method 1: Use the Automated Transcription Service on YouTube

As the name suggests, YouTube automatic transcription service works automatically. This means you don’t even have to click the ‘Transcribe’ button anymore to transcribe a YouTube video, and the website takes care of it on its own. All you need to do is, choose English as the language of the video when setting up subtitles. You can follow the instructions given below to do so:

Step 1 Upload a Video

Sign in to your YouTube account, click your profile picture from the top-right corner, and click YouTube Studio from the menu. Next, click CREATE from the upper-right corner, click Upload videos from the menu, and drag and drop a video from your computer to the Upload videos box that appears next.

Step 2 Select Transcription Language

On the Details page of the next box that appears, scroll down and click MORE OPTIONS, and select English in the Video language drop-down list under the Language, subtitles, and closed captions (CC) section.

Step 3 Publish the Video

Follow the on-screen instructions from this point to publish the video, and wait while YouTube automatically transcribes and adds the close captions to it.

Note: Depending on the duration of the clip, the time YouTube would take to transcribe may vary.

After YouTube has transcribed the video, you can download the transcription file in your preferred format. The instructions are given below explain how you can do so:

1. Get to the Subtitles Window

While on the YouTube Studio page, click Subtitles from the left pane to go to the Channel subtitles page. And then click the video you want to modify.

1. Get to Classic Studio

In the video subtitle page of the target video, hover mouse on the Published Automatic status under the Subtitles column, click the Options icon (with three vertical dots) that appears, and click Edit on Classic Studio.

1. Download Transcription File

Click and open the Actions drop-down list from the top-left corner of the left pane, click your preferred transcription format including .vtt, .srt and .sbv from the list, and save the file on your local hard disk.

Method 2: Get YouTube Transcription when Watching

In addition, if you are watching any other video, you can make YouTube transcribe that for you as well. You can follow the instructions given below to get the YouTube video to text transcription:

Step 1: Play the Video

Go to the video on YouTube and start playing it. Make sure NOT to get to full-screen mode as doing so would hide the option to transcribe the clip.

Step 2: Enable Transcription

Click the More icon (with three horizontal dots) from under the bottom-right corner of the video player, and click Open transcript to see the video transcription in the Transcript pane that appears in the right.

Step 3: Manage Timestamps

Click the Options icon (with three vertical dots) from the top-right corner of the Transcript pane, and click Toggle timestamp to enable or disable the timestamps in the video transcription.

Limitations of Using YouTube Transcribe

Although YouTube’s automatic transcription is a decent feature that saves you a lot of time, since Google uses machine learning algorithms to convert the speech to text, the level of accuracy may vary depending on the accent of the speaker, and the clarity of the audio the video has. Also, even sometime you may not be satisfied with the end-results.

Alternatively, you can use Kapwing to transcribe a YouTube video and download the transcription file with the below step-by-step instructions:

Step 1: Add YouTube Video

Copy the URL of YouTube video you want to transcribe, go to https://www.kapwing.com/subtitles , paste the URL in the Paste a URL field, wait while Kapwing fetches the content of the video, and opens the Add subtitles to Video page.

Step 2: Transcribe the Video

Click Auto-generate from the right window, and follow the on-screen instructions to transcribe YouTube video to text.

Step 3: Download the Transcription File

Click Download SRT from the left pane, and follow the instructions from there to download the transcription file in *.srt format.

Pros

• Kapwing is free to use
• The auto-transcription process is quick and less tedious
• Kapwing also allows manual transcription and uploading of an existing *.srt file

Cons

• The auto-transcribed text might lack accuracy as the task is done by the speech-to-text tools that work in the background

You can follow the step-by-step instructions to transcribe a YouTube video and download the transcription file using Kapwing:

Step 1: Add YouTube Video

Copy the URL of YouTube video you want to transcribe, go to https://www.kapwing.com/subtitles , paste the URL in the Paste a URL field, wait while Kapwing fetches the content of the video, and opens the Add subtitles to Video page.

Step 2: Transcribe the Video

Click Auto-generate from the right window, and follow the on-screen instructions to transcribe YouTube video to text.

Step 3: Download the Transcription File

Click Download SRT from the left pane, and follow the instructions from there to download the transcription file in *.srt format.

Pros

• Kapwing is free to use
• The auto-transcription process is quick and less tedious
• Kapwing also allows manual transcription and uploading of an existing *.srt file

Cons

• The auto-transcribed text might lack accuracy as the task is done by the speech-to-text tools that work in the background

Part 3: Benefits of Transcribing YouTube Videos

You may need video transcriptions for several reasons, such as analyzing the summary of the entire speech in the video, extracting a single phrase or quote that was spoken in the clip, or making the video helpful even for those suffering from hearing impairment. When you transcribe a YouTube video, the transcript can be useful in many ways. Some of the most common benefits of transcribing a video include:

• Search Engine Optimization

When you add subtitles, the text can appear in Google search results when someone types a similar phrase in the search box. This helps get more views to your videos, thus giving your channel popularity, and you, monetary gains in the long run.

• Accent

If the speaker in the video is from a different region and is using an accent that you are not much comfortable with, you can turn on the subtitles and read the dialogs along with the video.

• Repurposing on Blogs

If you own a blog that you have embedded your video to, the transcription could be used to add text to it so the target audience can get a fair idea of what the video is all about. This is useful because many people prefer reading over watching.

YouTube Video Transcription FAQs

1. How to Transcribe YouTube Video to Text

Usually the transcription files have *.srt extension that are globally accepted and supported by almost all media players. However, there might be instances when you want to have the subtitles in plain text.

That said, to convert an SRT file to TXT, you can:

• Right-click the SRT file
• Go to Rename
• Replace srt with txt and press Enter
• Click OK on the confirmation box that appears next to convert SRT to TXT

After this, you can simply double-click the file, and read and modify the transcribed content as needed.

2. How to Edit and Upload Edited Transcript to YouTube

If you made any modifications to the transcript that was automatically generated by YouTube or any other third-party transcription tool, you can follow the steps given below to upload the new file to the YouTube video:

• Go to YouTube Studio and then to the Channel subtitles page as explained earlier
• Expand the Languages column of the target video
• Click the Options icon that appears under the Subtitles column when you hover mouse on to it
• Click Edit on Classic Studio
• On the next page, click Edit from the top-right corner

• Click to open the Actions drop-down list from the upper-left corner
• Click Upload a file
  • Follow the on-screen instructions from there to upload the modified transcription file
  • Click Save Changes from the top-right corner of the page when done

Conclusion

If you are looking for a quick and easy way of adding subtitles to your videos, letting YouTube transcribe for you could be a good approach. However, because these auto-generated transcriptions are created by machine learning algorithms, their accuracy cannot be counted on. Therefore, the best way to get the job done accurately is, let YouTube auto-transcribe your video, download the transcription file, make the necessary changes to it, and then upload the file back to the video.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

If you want to transcribe your videos to make the dialogs and speeches available in text format, you can use YouTube Transcribe feature that the streaming site offers for free. In this article, I’ll share with you a couple of methods to transcribe a YouTube video for free.

• Part 1: Transcribe YouTube Video Automatically for Free [2 Ways]
• Part 2: Transcribe YouTube Video to Text Online with Third-Party Service
• Part 3: Benefits of Transcribing YouTube Videos
• Part 4: YouTube Video Transcription FAQs

Part 1: How to Transcribe YouTube Video Automatically for Free [2 Ways]

Besides the basic video editing features on the YouTube platform, you can now quickly transcribe YouTube videos to the text as well. The good thing is, you can either use the automatic transcription feature that YouTube offers, or upload it manually while adjusting the timing as you go further.

Below are the two methods to transcribe your YouTube videos for free:

Method 1: Use the Automated Transcription Service on YouTube

As the name suggests, YouTube automatic transcription service works automatically. This means you don’t even have to click the ‘Transcribe’ button anymore to transcribe a YouTube video, and the website takes care of it on its own. All you need to do is, choose English as the language of the video when setting up subtitles. You can follow the instructions given below to do so:

Step 1 Upload a Video

Sign in to your YouTube account, click your profile picture from the top-right corner, and click YouTube Studio from the menu. Next, click CREATE from the upper-right corner, click Upload videos from the menu, and drag and drop a video from your computer to the Upload videos box that appears next.

Step 2 Select Transcription Language

On the Details page of the next box that appears, scroll down and click MORE OPTIONS, and select English in the Video language drop-down list under the Language, subtitles, and closed captions (CC) section.

Step 3 Publish the Video

Follow the on-screen instructions from this point to publish the video, and wait while YouTube automatically transcribes and adds the close captions to it.

Note: Depending on the duration of the clip, the time YouTube would take to transcribe may vary.

After YouTube has transcribed the video, you can download the transcription file in your preferred format. The instructions are given below explain how you can do so:

1. Get to the Subtitles Window

While on the YouTube Studio page, click Subtitles from the left pane to go to the Channel subtitles page. And then click the video you want to modify.

1. Get to Classic Studio

In the video subtitle page of the target video, hover mouse on the Published Automatic status under the Subtitles column, click the Options icon (with three vertical dots) that appears, and click Edit on Classic Studio.

1. Download Transcription File

Click and open the Actions drop-down list from the top-left corner of the left pane, click your preferred transcription format including .vtt, .srt and .sbv from the list, and save the file on your local hard disk.

Method 2: Get YouTube Transcription when Watching

In addition, if you are watching any other video, you can make YouTube transcribe that for you as well. You can follow the instructions given below to get the YouTube video to text transcription:

Step 1: Play the Video

Go to the video on YouTube and start playing it. Make sure NOT to get to full-screen mode as doing so would hide the option to transcribe the clip.

Step 2: Enable Transcription

Click the More icon (with three horizontal dots) from under the bottom-right corner of the video player, and click Open transcript to see the video transcription in the Transcript pane that appears in the right.

Step 3: Manage Timestamps

Click the Options icon (with three vertical dots) from the top-right corner of the Transcript pane, and click Toggle timestamp to enable or disable the timestamps in the video transcription.

Limitations of Using YouTube Transcribe

Although YouTube’s automatic transcription is a decent feature that saves you a lot of time, since Google uses machine learning algorithms to convert the speech to text, the level of accuracy may vary depending on the accent of the speaker, and the clarity of the audio the video has. Also, even sometime you may not be satisfied with the end-results.

Alternatively, you can use Kapwing to transcribe a YouTube video and download the transcription file with the below step-by-step instructions:

Step 1: Add YouTube Video

Copy the URL of YouTube video you want to transcribe, go to https://www.kapwing.com/subtitles , paste the URL in the Paste a URL field, wait while Kapwing fetches the content of the video, and opens the Add subtitles to Video page.

Step 2: Transcribe the Video

Click Auto-generate from the right window, and follow the on-screen instructions to transcribe YouTube video to text.

Step 3: Download the Transcription File

Click Download SRT from the left pane, and follow the instructions from there to download the transcription file in *.srt format.

Pros

• Kapwing is free to use
• The auto-transcription process is quick and less tedious
• Kapwing also allows manual transcription and uploading of an existing *.srt file

Cons

• The auto-transcribed text might lack accuracy as the task is done by the speech-to-text tools that work in the background

You can follow the step-by-step instructions to transcribe a YouTube video and download the transcription file using Kapwing:

Step 1: Add YouTube Video

Copy the URL of YouTube video you want to transcribe, go to https://www.kapwing.com/subtitles , paste the URL in the Paste a URL field, wait while Kapwing fetches the content of the video, and opens the Add subtitles to Video page.

Step 2: Transcribe the Video

Click Auto-generate from the right window, and follow the on-screen instructions to transcribe YouTube video to text.

Step 3: Download the Transcription File

Click Download SRT from the left pane, and follow the instructions from there to download the transcription file in *.srt format.

Pros

• Kapwing is free to use
• The auto-transcription process is quick and less tedious
• Kapwing also allows manual transcription and uploading of an existing *.srt file

Cons

• The auto-transcribed text might lack accuracy as the task is done by the speech-to-text tools that work in the background

Part 3: Benefits of Transcribing YouTube Videos

You may need video transcriptions for several reasons, such as analyzing the summary of the entire speech in the video, extracting a single phrase or quote that was spoken in the clip, or making the video helpful even for those suffering from hearing impairment. When you transcribe a YouTube video, the transcript can be useful in many ways. Some of the most common benefits of transcribing a video include:

• Search Engine Optimization

When you add subtitles, the text can appear in Google search results when someone types a similar phrase in the search box. This helps get more views to your videos, thus giving your channel popularity, and you, monetary gains in the long run.

• Accent

If the speaker in the video is from a different region and is using an accent that you are not much comfortable with, you can turn on the subtitles and read the dialogs along with the video.

• Repurposing on Blogs

If you own a blog that you have embedded your video to, the transcription could be used to add text to it so the target audience can get a fair idea of what the video is all about. This is useful because many people prefer reading over watching.

YouTube Video Transcription FAQs

1. How to Transcribe YouTube Video to Text

Usually the transcription files have *.srt extension that are globally accepted and supported by almost all media players. However, there might be instances when you want to have the subtitles in plain text.

That said, to convert an SRT file to TXT, you can:

• Right-click the SRT file
• Go to Rename
• Replace srt with txt and press Enter
• Click OK on the confirmation box that appears next to convert SRT to TXT

After this, you can simply double-click the file, and read and modify the transcribed content as needed.

2. How to Edit and Upload Edited Transcript to YouTube

If you made any modifications to the transcript that was automatically generated by YouTube or any other third-party transcription tool, you can follow the steps given below to upload the new file to the YouTube video:

• Go to YouTube Studio and then to the Channel subtitles page as explained earlier
• Expand the Languages column of the target video
• Click the Options icon that appears under the Subtitles column when you hover mouse on to it
• Click Edit on Classic Studio
• On the next page, click Edit from the top-right corner

• Click to open the Actions drop-down list from the upper-left corner
• Click Upload a file
  • Follow the on-screen instructions from there to upload the modified transcription file
  • Click Save Changes from the top-right corner of the page when done

Conclusion

If you are looking for a quick and easy way of adding subtitles to your videos, letting YouTube transcribe for you could be a good approach. However, because these auto-generated transcriptions are created by machine learning algorithms, their accuracy cannot be counted on. Therefore, the best way to get the job done accurately is, let YouTube auto-transcribe your video, download the transcription file, make the necessary changes to it, and then upload the file back to the video.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

If you want to transcribe your videos to make the dialogs and speeches available in text format, you can use YouTube Transcribe feature that the streaming site offers for free. In this article, I’ll share with you a couple of methods to transcribe a YouTube video for free.

• Part 1: Transcribe YouTube Video Automatically for Free [2 Ways]
• Part 2: Transcribe YouTube Video to Text Online with Third-Party Service
• Part 3: Benefits of Transcribing YouTube Videos
• Part 4: YouTube Video Transcription FAQs

Part 1: How to Transcribe YouTube Video Automatically for Free [2 Ways]

Besides the basic video editing features on the YouTube platform, you can now quickly transcribe YouTube videos to the text as well. The good thing is, you can either use the automatic transcription feature that YouTube offers, or upload it manually while adjusting the timing as you go further.

Below are the two methods to transcribe your YouTube videos for free:

Method 1: Use the Automated Transcription Service on YouTube

As the name suggests, YouTube automatic transcription service works automatically. This means you don’t even have to click the ‘Transcribe’ button anymore to transcribe a YouTube video, and the website takes care of it on its own. All you need to do is, choose English as the language of the video when setting up subtitles. You can follow the instructions given below to do so:

Step 1 Upload a Video

Sign in to your YouTube account, click your profile picture from the top-right corner, and click YouTube Studio from the menu. Next, click CREATE from the upper-right corner, click Upload videos from the menu, and drag and drop a video from your computer to the Upload videos box that appears next.

Step 2 Select Transcription Language

On the Details page of the next box that appears, scroll down and click MORE OPTIONS, and select English in the Video language drop-down list under the Language, subtitles, and closed captions (CC) section.

Step 3 Publish the Video

Follow the on-screen instructions from this point to publish the video, and wait while YouTube automatically transcribes and adds the close captions to it.

Note: Depending on the duration of the clip, the time YouTube would take to transcribe may vary.

After YouTube has transcribed the video, you can download the transcription file in your preferred format. The instructions are given below explain how you can do so:

1. Get to the Subtitles Window

While on the YouTube Studio page, click Subtitles from the left pane to go to the Channel subtitles page. And then click the video you want to modify.

1. Get to Classic Studio

In the video subtitle page of the target video, hover mouse on the Published Automatic status under the Subtitles column, click the Options icon (with three vertical dots) that appears, and click Edit on Classic Studio.

1. Download Transcription File

Click and open the Actions drop-down list from the top-left corner of the left pane, click your preferred transcription format including .vtt, .srt and .sbv from the list, and save the file on your local hard disk.

Method 2: Get YouTube Transcription when Watching

In addition, if you are watching any other video, you can make YouTube transcribe that for you as well. You can follow the instructions given below to get the YouTube video to text transcription:

Step 1: Play the Video

Go to the video on YouTube and start playing it. Make sure NOT to get to full-screen mode as doing so would hide the option to transcribe the clip.

Step 2: Enable Transcription

Click the More icon (with three horizontal dots) from under the bottom-right corner of the video player, and click Open transcript to see the video transcription in the Transcript pane that appears in the right.

Step 3: Manage Timestamps

Click the Options icon (with three vertical dots) from the top-right corner of the Transcript pane, and click Toggle timestamp to enable or disable the timestamps in the video transcription.

Limitations of Using YouTube Transcribe

Although YouTube’s automatic transcription is a decent feature that saves you a lot of time, since Google uses machine learning algorithms to convert the speech to text, the level of accuracy may vary depending on the accent of the speaker, and the clarity of the audio the video has. Also, even sometime you may not be satisfied with the end-results.

Alternatively, you can use Kapwing to transcribe a YouTube video and download the transcription file with the below step-by-step instructions:

Step 1: Add YouTube Video

Copy the URL of YouTube video you want to transcribe, go to https://www.kapwing.com/subtitles , paste the URL in the Paste a URL field, wait while Kapwing fetches the content of the video, and opens the Add subtitles to Video page.

Step 2: Transcribe the Video

Click Auto-generate from the right window, and follow the on-screen instructions to transcribe YouTube video to text.

Step 3: Download the Transcription File

Click Download SRT from the left pane, and follow the instructions from there to download the transcription file in *.srt format.

Pros

• Kapwing is free to use
• The auto-transcription process is quick and less tedious
• Kapwing also allows manual transcription and uploading of an existing *.srt file

Cons

• The auto-transcribed text might lack accuracy as the task is done by the speech-to-text tools that work in the background

You can follow the step-by-step instructions to transcribe a YouTube video and download the transcription file using Kapwing:

Step 1: Add YouTube Video

Copy the URL of YouTube video you want to transcribe, go to https://www.kapwing.com/subtitles , paste the URL in the Paste a URL field, wait while Kapwing fetches the content of the video, and opens the Add subtitles to Video page.

Step 2: Transcribe the Video

Click Auto-generate from the right window, and follow the on-screen instructions to transcribe YouTube video to text.

Step 3: Download the Transcription File

Click Download SRT from the left pane, and follow the instructions from there to download the transcription file in *.srt format.

Pros

• Kapwing is free to use
• The auto-transcription process is quick and less tedious
• Kapwing also allows manual transcription and uploading of an existing *.srt file

Cons

• The auto-transcribed text might lack accuracy as the task is done by the speech-to-text tools that work in the background

Part 3: Benefits of Transcribing YouTube Videos

You may need video transcriptions for several reasons, such as analyzing the summary of the entire speech in the video, extracting a single phrase or quote that was spoken in the clip, or making the video helpful even for those suffering from hearing impairment. When you transcribe a YouTube video, the transcript can be useful in many ways. Some of the most common benefits of transcribing a video include:

• Search Engine Optimization

When you add subtitles, the text can appear in Google search results when someone types a similar phrase in the search box. This helps get more views to your videos, thus giving your channel popularity, and you, monetary gains in the long run.

• Accent

If the speaker in the video is from a different region and is using an accent that you are not much comfortable with, you can turn on the subtitles and read the dialogs along with the video.

• Repurposing on Blogs

If you own a blog that you have embedded your video to, the transcription could be used to add text to it so the target audience can get a fair idea of what the video is all about. This is useful because many people prefer reading over watching.

YouTube Video Transcription FAQs

1. How to Transcribe YouTube Video to Text

Usually the transcription files have *.srt extension that are globally accepted and supported by almost all media players. However, there might be instances when you want to have the subtitles in plain text.

That said, to convert an SRT file to TXT, you can:

• Right-click the SRT file
• Go to Rename
• Replace srt with txt and press Enter
• Click OK on the confirmation box that appears next to convert SRT to TXT

After this, you can simply double-click the file, and read and modify the transcribed content as needed.

2. How to Edit and Upload Edited Transcript to YouTube

If you made any modifications to the transcript that was automatically generated by YouTube or any other third-party transcription tool, you can follow the steps given below to upload the new file to the YouTube video:

• Go to YouTube Studio and then to the Channel subtitles page as explained earlier
• Expand the Languages column of the target video
• Click the Options icon that appears under the Subtitles column when you hover mouse on to it
• Click Edit on Classic Studio
• On the next page, click Edit from the top-right corner

• Click to open the Actions drop-down list from the upper-left corner
• Click Upload a file
  • Follow the on-screen instructions from there to upload the modified transcription file
  • Click Save Changes from the top-right corner of the page when done

Conclusion

If you are looking for a quick and easy way of adding subtitles to your videos, letting YouTube transcribe for you could be a good approach. However, because these auto-generated transcriptions are created by machine learning algorithms, their accuracy cannot be counted on. Therefore, the best way to get the job done accurately is, let YouTube auto-transcribe your video, download the transcription file, make the necessary changes to it, and then upload the file back to the video.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

If you want to transcribe your videos to make the dialogs and speeches available in text format, you can use YouTube Transcribe feature that the streaming site offers for free. In this article, I’ll share with you a couple of methods to transcribe a YouTube video for free.

• Part 1: Transcribe YouTube Video Automatically for Free [2 Ways]
• Part 2: Transcribe YouTube Video to Text Online with Third-Party Service
• Part 3: Benefits of Transcribing YouTube Videos
• Part 4: YouTube Video Transcription FAQs

Part 1: How to Transcribe YouTube Video Automatically for Free [2 Ways]

Besides the basic video editing features on the YouTube platform, you can now quickly transcribe YouTube videos to the text as well. The good thing is, you can either use the automatic transcription feature that YouTube offers, or upload it manually while adjusting the timing as you go further.

Below are the two methods to transcribe your YouTube videos for free:

Method 1: Use the Automated Transcription Service on YouTube

As the name suggests, YouTube automatic transcription service works automatically. This means you don’t even have to click the ‘Transcribe’ button anymore to transcribe a YouTube video, and the website takes care of it on its own. All you need to do is, choose English as the language of the video when setting up subtitles. You can follow the instructions given below to do so:

Step 1 Upload a Video

Sign in to your YouTube account, click your profile picture from the top-right corner, and click YouTube Studio from the menu. Next, click CREATE from the upper-right corner, click Upload videos from the menu, and drag and drop a video from your computer to the Upload videos box that appears next.

Step 2 Select Transcription Language

On the Details page of the next box that appears, scroll down and click MORE OPTIONS, and select English in the Video language drop-down list under the Language, subtitles, and closed captions (CC) section.

Step 3 Publish the Video

Follow the on-screen instructions from this point to publish the video, and wait while YouTube automatically transcribes and adds the close captions to it.

Note: Depending on the duration of the clip, the time YouTube would take to transcribe may vary.

After YouTube has transcribed the video, you can download the transcription file in your preferred format. The instructions are given below explain how you can do so:

1. Get to the Subtitles Window

While on the YouTube Studio page, click Subtitles from the left pane to go to the Channel subtitles page. And then click the video you want to modify.

1. Get to Classic Studio

In the video subtitle page of the target video, hover mouse on the Published Automatic status under the Subtitles column, click the Options icon (with three vertical dots) that appears, and click Edit on Classic Studio.

1. Download Transcription File

Click and open the Actions drop-down list from the top-left corner of the left pane, click your preferred transcription format including .vtt, .srt and .sbv from the list, and save the file on your local hard disk.

Method 2: Get YouTube Transcription when Watching

In addition, if you are watching any other video, you can make YouTube transcribe that for you as well. You can follow the instructions given below to get the YouTube video to text transcription:

Step 1: Play the Video

Go to the video on YouTube and start playing it. Make sure NOT to get to full-screen mode as doing so would hide the option to transcribe the clip.

Step 2: Enable Transcription

Click the More icon (with three horizontal dots) from under the bottom-right corner of the video player, and click Open transcript to see the video transcription in the Transcript pane that appears in the right.

Step 3: Manage Timestamps

Click the Options icon (with three vertical dots) from the top-right corner of the Transcript pane, and click Toggle timestamp to enable or disable the timestamps in the video transcription.

Limitations of Using YouTube Transcribe

Although YouTube’s automatic transcription is a decent feature that saves you a lot of time, since Google uses machine learning algorithms to convert the speech to text, the level of accuracy may vary depending on the accent of the speaker, and the clarity of the audio the video has. Also, even sometime you may not be satisfied with the end-results.

Alternatively, you can use Kapwing to transcribe a YouTube video and download the transcription file with the below step-by-step instructions:

Step 1: Add YouTube Video

Copy the URL of YouTube video you want to transcribe, go to https://www.kapwing.com/subtitles , paste the URL in the Paste a URL field, wait while Kapwing fetches the content of the video, and opens the Add subtitles to Video page.

Step 2: Transcribe the Video

Click Auto-generate from the right window, and follow the on-screen instructions to transcribe YouTube video to text.

Step 3: Download the Transcription File

Click Download SRT from the left pane, and follow the instructions from there to download the transcription file in *.srt format.

Pros

• Kapwing is free to use
• The auto-transcription process is quick and less tedious
• Kapwing also allows manual transcription and uploading of an existing *.srt file

Cons

• The auto-transcribed text might lack accuracy as the task is done by the speech-to-text tools that work in the background

You can follow the step-by-step instructions to transcribe a YouTube video and download the transcription file using Kapwing:

Step 1: Add YouTube Video

Copy the URL of YouTube video you want to transcribe, go to https://www.kapwing.com/subtitles , paste the URL in the Paste a URL field, wait while Kapwing fetches the content of the video, and opens the Add subtitles to Video page.

Step 2: Transcribe the Video

Click Auto-generate from the right window, and follow the on-screen instructions to transcribe YouTube video to text.

Step 3: Download the Transcription File

Click Download SRT from the left pane, and follow the instructions from there to download the transcription file in *.srt format.

Pros

• Kapwing is free to use
• The auto-transcription process is quick and less tedious
• Kapwing also allows manual transcription and uploading of an existing *.srt file

Cons

• The auto-transcribed text might lack accuracy as the task is done by the speech-to-text tools that work in the background

Part 3: Benefits of Transcribing YouTube Videos

You may need video transcriptions for several reasons, such as analyzing the summary of the entire speech in the video, extracting a single phrase or quote that was spoken in the clip, or making the video helpful even for those suffering from hearing impairment. When you transcribe a YouTube video, the transcript can be useful in many ways. Some of the most common benefits of transcribing a video include:

• Search Engine Optimization

When you add subtitles, the text can appear in Google search results when someone types a similar phrase in the search box. This helps get more views to your videos, thus giving your channel popularity, and you, monetary gains in the long run.

• Accent

If the speaker in the video is from a different region and is using an accent that you are not much comfortable with, you can turn on the subtitles and read the dialogs along with the video.

• Repurposing on Blogs

If you own a blog that you have embedded your video to, the transcription could be used to add text to it so the target audience can get a fair idea of what the video is all about. This is useful because many people prefer reading over watching.

YouTube Video Transcription FAQs

1. How to Transcribe YouTube Video to Text

Usually the transcription files have *.srt extension that are globally accepted and supported by almost all media players. However, there might be instances when you want to have the subtitles in plain text.

That said, to convert an SRT file to TXT, you can:

• Right-click the SRT file
• Go to Rename
• Replace srt with txt and press Enter
• Click OK on the confirmation box that appears next to convert SRT to TXT

After this, you can simply double-click the file, and read and modify the transcribed content as needed.

2. How to Edit and Upload Edited Transcript to YouTube

If you made any modifications to the transcript that was automatically generated by YouTube or any other third-party transcription tool, you can follow the steps given below to upload the new file to the YouTube video:

• Go to YouTube Studio and then to the Channel subtitles page as explained earlier
• Expand the Languages column of the target video
• Click the Options icon that appears under the Subtitles column when you hover mouse on to it
• Click Edit on Classic Studio
• On the next page, click Edit from the top-right corner

• Click to open the Actions drop-down list from the upper-left corner
• Click Upload a file
  • Follow the on-screen instructions from there to upload the modified transcription file
  • Click Save Changes from the top-right corner of the page when done

Conclusion

If you are looking for a quick and easy way of adding subtitles to your videos, letting YouTube transcribe for you could be a good approach. However, because these auto-generated transcriptions are created by machine learning algorithms, their accuracy cannot be counted on. Therefore, the best way to get the job done accurately is, let YouTube auto-transcribe your video, download the transcription file, make the necessary changes to it, and then upload the file back to the video.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Snapshots of Opposites: YouTube Video Inverts

Best YouTube Video Reverser Online

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

While working on the movies in a professional post-production environment, there might be instances where you want to reverse YouTube video to show flashback effect, or to replay a sequence so the audience can experience more thrills while watching.

With that said, not every media player or video editing application is capable enough to reverse a movie clip, not at least with merely a few mouse clicks. Therefore, the following sections suggest some such programs that can help you play YouTube video backward.

Part 1: Best Free YouTube Video Reversers Online

There are a few online web programs that are capable of reversing YouTube videos with efficiency. However, some of them may have certain restrictions like file size limit, number of supported formats, fewer or absolutely no editing options, etc.

Nevertheless, the best five online solutions to reverse YouTube video along with the process of using them are discussed below:

1. Clideo

Clideo is not merely a video reverser, but can also convert media files to your preferred format. You can paste the URL of a YouTube video to upload or import the videos from your computer, Dropbox or Google Drive storage. At the time of this writing, Clideo allows only up to 500MB videos to be uploaded to reverse or convert. As for the acceptability, the portal supports almost all the commonly used formats.

To play YouTube video backward with Clideo:

• Visit Clideo’s online reverse tool page: https://clideo.com/reverse-video ;
• Hover mouse over the down arrow icon next to the Choose file button and paste the URL of the YouTube video that you want to reverse;
• After Clideo fetches the video and opens the next page, choose your preferred speed from the right section
• Leave the Mute video box checked, or uncheck it if required and then click Reverse button to reverse YouTube video. The maximum reverse speed that you can apply is 2X.

2. Kapwing

This web solution also supports almost all types of video formats including 3GPP, AVI, MP4, etc. When talking about the limitations of a free user, you can only upload the videos that are up to 7 minutes long. At the time of this writing, Kapwing can accept the source files from your computer, and from the YouTube URL.

To reverse YouTube video with Kapwing:

• Go to Kapwing’s online video reverser page: https://www.kapwing.com/tools/reverse-video ;
• Paste the URL of the YouTube video in the Paste a URL field;
• Select your preferred playback speed of the reversed video from the Reverse speed section in the left pane;
• Choose whether or not Kapwing should mute the output video;
• Optionally, click Trim video from the upper-left corner of the right window to edit the footage if needed;
• Click CREATE from the bottom-left corner to play YouTube video backward. The maximum reverse speed that you can apply on Kapwing is also 2X.

3. EZGIF

With the ability to support almost all major video formats, and the capability to accept the media files of up to 100MB, Ezgif allows you to upload the footages from your PC, or paste their URL if they are published on YouTube. Even though the landing page has a few distracting adverts, the overall process to play YouTube video backward and save it to your PC is simple.

To reverse YouTube video with Ezgif:

• Go to the reverser tool page: https://ezgif.com/reverse-video and then paste the URL of the YouTube video in the available field;
• Click Upload video and optionally click the speed icon from the toolbar at the top;
• Use the checkboxes and input fields to mute the audio and adjust the playback speed as needed;
• Choose your preferred encoding method from the Output format and encoding drop-down list and then click Reverse video to reverse the video.

Note: It seems that you can’t customize the reverse speed on EZGif but you can choose to mute the reversed audio or not.

4. VideoReverser

Although this web solution has an extremely simple interface, the files that you can upload must not exceed 10MB in size. The portal supports formats like MPG, MPEG, MP4, AVI, M4V, 3GP, etc. for reversing. In addition to uploading the clips from your PC, VideoReverser also allows you to paste the URL of the footages if they are published on YouTube.

To play YouTube video backward with VideoReverser:

• Launch your favorite Internet browser, and then visit https://www.videoreverser.com/ ;
• Paste the URL of the YouTube video in the available text field;
• Choose your preferred output format from the Select output format drop-down list;
• Use the Remove audio track checkbox to get rid of the acoustics or leave the sound enabled;
• Click Start to reverse YouTube video.

5. Pixiko

With almost all formats’ support, Pixiko is yet another web-based media editor that can also reverse YouTube video with a few mouse clicks. At the time of this writing, Pixiko only accepts the source files from your PC, which means you can’t paste the YouTube link to it directly. At first, you need to download or save the YouTube video on computer and then either drag those clips from your local hard drive to the portal.

To play YouTube video backward with Pixiko:

• On the page https://pixiko.com/editor/video-reverse , click anywhere inside the Blue rectangle;
• Locate, select, and upload the downloaded YouTube source video from your PC;
• Click Reverse from the lower-right section of the video player window;
• Follow the on-screen instructions from there to manage and reverse YouTube video as needed;

Bonus: Reversing YouTube Video with Wondershare Filmora

With easily reachable editing options and self-explanatory buttons, Wondershare Filmora has gained a decent amount of popularity in the recent years. The program is available for both Windows and Mac platforms, and gives tough competition to other leading tools of the industry such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro X, etc.

Download Mac Version ](https://tools.techidaily.com/wondershare/filmora/download/ )

When talking about the playback speed, with the help of available presets, it can be increased or decreased by 100x or 0.01x respectively. One of the presets also enables you to reverse the direction of the playback quite easily, i.e. while keeping the speed intact. In addition, the ‘Custom Speed’ option lets you control the preferences more granularly.

You can follow the simple instructions given below to reverse YouTube video with Wondershare Filmora:

Note: To remain compliant with the terms and conditions, and to respect the copyright policies, Wondershare Filmora doesn’t allow you to download other people’s videos from YouTube. However, once you have a footage on your PC, you can jump to the following step-by-step process to reverse its playback.

1. Import the Source Video to the Timeline

Launch Wondershare Filmora on your Windows or Mac computer (Windows 10 here), making sure that the Media button in the standard toolbar at the top is selected, click inside the Media window, and select and import the YouTube source video to the program. Next, drag the YouTube video clip to the Timeline, and when the confirmation box appears, click the Match to Media or Keep Project Settings button as needed to get the footage to the Timeline.

2. Reverse the Video (Using the Preset)

Click and select the media clip in the Timeline, click the Speed icon present above the Timeline itself, and click the Reverse option from the menu that appears to reverse the video playback.

3. Reverse the Video (Manual Control)

Select the media clip in the Timeline and click the Speed icon as explained in the previous step. From the menu that appears, click Custom Speed this time. When the Custom Speed box appears, use the Speed slider to adjust the playback speed of the media clip, and check the Reverse box to reverse YouTube video. Optionally, you can also modify the Duration and Ripple options to customize the preferences. Finally, click OK to save the changes.

4. Export the Video or Upload to YouTube Directly

Back on the main window, click EXPORT from the top. Filmora provides several ways to saving and sharing the video.

You can select the Local tab, choose your preferred output format from the list in the left, in the right window, define a name and location for the file that you are about to export, and click EXPORT from the bottom-right corner to export the video with the reverse playback.

Or, go to the YouTube tab and sign in your YouTube account to upload the reversed video to YouTube directly. In the YouTube upload interface, you can optimize the YouTube SEO elements and revise the video title, description, category and tags.

Download Mac Version ](https://tools.techidaily.com/wondershare/filmora/download/ )

Conclusion

Even though the online video reversers are free and offer simple process to get the job done, the desktop programs like Wondershare Filmora offer more flexibility when it comes to making changes to the media clips, controlling the playback speed, adding effects, applying the modifications only to certain sections of the footage, selecting output preferences, etc. before you can reverse YouTube video.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

While working on the movies in a professional post-production environment, there might be instances where you want to reverse YouTube video to show flashback effect, or to replay a sequence so the audience can experience more thrills while watching.

With that said, not every media player or video editing application is capable enough to reverse a movie clip, not at least with merely a few mouse clicks. Therefore, the following sections suggest some such programs that can help you play YouTube video backward.

Part 1: Best Free YouTube Video Reversers Online

There are a few online web programs that are capable of reversing YouTube videos with efficiency. However, some of them may have certain restrictions like file size limit, number of supported formats, fewer or absolutely no editing options, etc.

Nevertheless, the best five online solutions to reverse YouTube video along with the process of using them are discussed below:

1. Clideo

Clideo is not merely a video reverser, but can also convert media files to your preferred format. You can paste the URL of a YouTube video to upload or import the videos from your computer, Dropbox or Google Drive storage. At the time of this writing, Clideo allows only up to 500MB videos to be uploaded to reverse or convert. As for the acceptability, the portal supports almost all the commonly used formats.

To play YouTube video backward with Clideo:

• Visit Clideo’s online reverse tool page: https://clideo.com/reverse-video ;
• Hover mouse over the down arrow icon next to the Choose file button and paste the URL of the YouTube video that you want to reverse;
• After Clideo fetches the video and opens the next page, choose your preferred speed from the right section
• Leave the Mute video box checked, or uncheck it if required and then click Reverse button to reverse YouTube video. The maximum reverse speed that you can apply is 2X.

2. Kapwing

This web solution also supports almost all types of video formats including 3GPP, AVI, MP4, etc. When talking about the limitations of a free user, you can only upload the videos that are up to 7 minutes long. At the time of this writing, Kapwing can accept the source files from your computer, and from the YouTube URL.

To reverse YouTube video with Kapwing:

• Go to Kapwing’s online video reverser page: https://www.kapwing.com/tools/reverse-video ;
• Paste the URL of the YouTube video in the Paste a URL field;
• Select your preferred playback speed of the reversed video from the Reverse speed section in the left pane;
• Choose whether or not Kapwing should mute the output video;
• Optionally, click Trim video from the upper-left corner of the right window to edit the footage if needed;
• Click CREATE from the bottom-left corner to play YouTube video backward. The maximum reverse speed that you can apply on Kapwing is also 2X.

3. EZGIF

With the ability to support almost all major video formats, and the capability to accept the media files of up to 100MB, Ezgif allows you to upload the footages from your PC, or paste their URL if they are published on YouTube. Even though the landing page has a few distracting adverts, the overall process to play YouTube video backward and save it to your PC is simple.

To reverse YouTube video with Ezgif:

• Go to the reverser tool page: https://ezgif.com/reverse-video and then paste the URL of the YouTube video in the available field;
• Click Upload video and optionally click the speed icon from the toolbar at the top;
• Use the checkboxes and input fields to mute the audio and adjust the playback speed as needed;
• Choose your preferred encoding method from the Output format and encoding drop-down list and then click Reverse video to reverse the video.

Note: It seems that you can’t customize the reverse speed on EZGif but you can choose to mute the reversed audio or not.

4. VideoReverser

Although this web solution has an extremely simple interface, the files that you can upload must not exceed 10MB in size. The portal supports formats like MPG, MPEG, MP4, AVI, M4V, 3GP, etc. for reversing. In addition to uploading the clips from your PC, VideoReverser also allows you to paste the URL of the footages if they are published on YouTube.

To play YouTube video backward with VideoReverser:

• Launch your favorite Internet browser, and then visit https://www.videoreverser.com/ ;
• Paste the URL of the YouTube video in the available text field;
• Choose your preferred output format from the Select output format drop-down list;
• Use the Remove audio track checkbox to get rid of the acoustics or leave the sound enabled;
• Click Start to reverse YouTube video.

5. Pixiko

With almost all formats’ support, Pixiko is yet another web-based media editor that can also reverse YouTube video with a few mouse clicks. At the time of this writing, Pixiko only accepts the source files from your PC, which means you can’t paste the YouTube link to it directly. At first, you need to download or save the YouTube video on computer and then either drag those clips from your local hard drive to the portal.

To play YouTube video backward with Pixiko:

• On the page https://pixiko.com/editor/video-reverse , click anywhere inside the Blue rectangle;
• Locate, select, and upload the downloaded YouTube source video from your PC;
• Click Reverse from the lower-right section of the video player window;
• Follow the on-screen instructions from there to manage and reverse YouTube video as needed;

Bonus: Reversing YouTube Video with Wondershare Filmora

With easily reachable editing options and self-explanatory buttons, Wondershare Filmora has gained a decent amount of popularity in the recent years. The program is available for both Windows and Mac platforms, and gives tough competition to other leading tools of the industry such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro X, etc.

Download Mac Version ](https://tools.techidaily.com/wondershare/filmora/download/ )

When talking about the playback speed, with the help of available presets, it can be increased or decreased by 100x or 0.01x respectively. One of the presets also enables you to reverse the direction of the playback quite easily, i.e. while keeping the speed intact. In addition, the ‘Custom Speed’ option lets you control the preferences more granularly.

You can follow the simple instructions given below to reverse YouTube video with Wondershare Filmora:

Note: To remain compliant with the terms and conditions, and to respect the copyright policies, Wondershare Filmora doesn’t allow you to download other people’s videos from YouTube. However, once you have a footage on your PC, you can jump to the following step-by-step process to reverse its playback.

1. Import the Source Video to the Timeline

Launch Wondershare Filmora on your Windows or Mac computer (Windows 10 here), making sure that the Media button in the standard toolbar at the top is selected, click inside the Media window, and select and import the YouTube source video to the program. Next, drag the YouTube video clip to the Timeline, and when the confirmation box appears, click the Match to Media or Keep Project Settings button as needed to get the footage to the Timeline.

2. Reverse the Video (Using the Preset)

Click and select the media clip in the Timeline, click the Speed icon present above the Timeline itself, and click the Reverse option from the menu that appears to reverse the video playback.

3. Reverse the Video (Manual Control)

Select the media clip in the Timeline and click the Speed icon as explained in the previous step. From the menu that appears, click Custom Speed this time. When the Custom Speed box appears, use the Speed slider to adjust the playback speed of the media clip, and check the Reverse box to reverse YouTube video. Optionally, you can also modify the Duration and Ripple options to customize the preferences. Finally, click OK to save the changes.

4. Export the Video or Upload to YouTube Directly

Back on the main window, click EXPORT from the top. Filmora provides several ways to saving and sharing the video.

You can select the Local tab, choose your preferred output format from the list in the left, in the right window, define a name and location for the file that you are about to export, and click EXPORT from the bottom-right corner to export the video with the reverse playback.

Or, go to the YouTube tab and sign in your YouTube account to upload the reversed video to YouTube directly. In the YouTube upload interface, you can optimize the YouTube SEO elements and revise the video title, description, category and tags.

Download Mac Version ](https://tools.techidaily.com/wondershare/filmora/download/ )

Conclusion

Even though the online video reversers are free and offer simple process to get the job done, the desktop programs like Wondershare Filmora offer more flexibility when it comes to making changes to the media clips, controlling the playback speed, adding effects, applying the modifications only to certain sections of the footage, selecting output preferences, etc. before you can reverse YouTube video.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

While working on the movies in a professional post-production environment, there might be instances where you want to reverse YouTube video to show flashback effect, or to replay a sequence so the audience can experience more thrills while watching.

With that said, not every media player or video editing application is capable enough to reverse a movie clip, not at least with merely a few mouse clicks. Therefore, the following sections suggest some such programs that can help you play YouTube video backward.

Part 1: Best Free YouTube Video Reversers Online

There are a few online web programs that are capable of reversing YouTube videos with efficiency. However, some of them may have certain restrictions like file size limit, number of supported formats, fewer or absolutely no editing options, etc.

Nevertheless, the best five online solutions to reverse YouTube video along with the process of using them are discussed below:

1. Clideo

Clideo is not merely a video reverser, but can also convert media files to your preferred format. You can paste the URL of a YouTube video to upload or import the videos from your computer, Dropbox or Google Drive storage. At the time of this writing, Clideo allows only up to 500MB videos to be uploaded to reverse or convert. As for the acceptability, the portal supports almost all the commonly used formats.

To play YouTube video backward with Clideo:

• Visit Clideo’s online reverse tool page: https://clideo.com/reverse-video ;
• Hover mouse over the down arrow icon next to the Choose file button and paste the URL of the YouTube video that you want to reverse;
• After Clideo fetches the video and opens the next page, choose your preferred speed from the right section
• Leave the Mute video box checked, or uncheck it if required and then click Reverse button to reverse YouTube video. The maximum reverse speed that you can apply is 2X.

2. Kapwing

This web solution also supports almost all types of video formats including 3GPP, AVI, MP4, etc. When talking about the limitations of a free user, you can only upload the videos that are up to 7 minutes long. At the time of this writing, Kapwing can accept the source files from your computer, and from the YouTube URL.

To reverse YouTube video with Kapwing:

• Go to Kapwing’s online video reverser page: https://www.kapwing.com/tools/reverse-video ;
• Paste the URL of the YouTube video in the Paste a URL field;
• Select your preferred playback speed of the reversed video from the Reverse speed section in the left pane;
• Choose whether or not Kapwing should mute the output video;
• Optionally, click Trim video from the upper-left corner of the right window to edit the footage if needed;
• Click CREATE from the bottom-left corner to play YouTube video backward. The maximum reverse speed that you can apply on Kapwing is also 2X.

3. EZGIF

With the ability to support almost all major video formats, and the capability to accept the media files of up to 100MB, Ezgif allows you to upload the footages from your PC, or paste their URL if they are published on YouTube. Even though the landing page has a few distracting adverts, the overall process to play YouTube video backward and save it to your PC is simple.

To reverse YouTube video with Ezgif:

• Go to the reverser tool page: https://ezgif.com/reverse-video and then paste the URL of the YouTube video in the available field;
• Click Upload video and optionally click the speed icon from the toolbar at the top;
• Use the checkboxes and input fields to mute the audio and adjust the playback speed as needed;
• Choose your preferred encoding method from the Output format and encoding drop-down list and then click Reverse video to reverse the video.

Note: It seems that you can’t customize the reverse speed on EZGif but you can choose to mute the reversed audio or not.

4. VideoReverser

Although this web solution has an extremely simple interface, the files that you can upload must not exceed 10MB in size. The portal supports formats like MPG, MPEG, MP4, AVI, M4V, 3GP, etc. for reversing. In addition to uploading the clips from your PC, VideoReverser also allows you to paste the URL of the footages if they are published on YouTube.

To play YouTube video backward with VideoReverser:

• Launch your favorite Internet browser, and then visit https://www.videoreverser.com/ ;
• Paste the URL of the YouTube video in the available text field;
• Choose your preferred output format from the Select output format drop-down list;
• Use the Remove audio track checkbox to get rid of the acoustics or leave the sound enabled;
• Click Start to reverse YouTube video.

5. Pixiko

With almost all formats’ support, Pixiko is yet another web-based media editor that can also reverse YouTube video with a few mouse clicks. At the time of this writing, Pixiko only accepts the source files from your PC, which means you can’t paste the YouTube link to it directly. At first, you need to download or save the YouTube video on computer and then either drag those clips from your local hard drive to the portal.

To play YouTube video backward with Pixiko:

• On the page https://pixiko.com/editor/video-reverse , click anywhere inside the Blue rectangle;
• Locate, select, and upload the downloaded YouTube source video from your PC;
• Click Reverse from the lower-right section of the video player window;
• Follow the on-screen instructions from there to manage and reverse YouTube video as needed;

Bonus: Reversing YouTube Video with Wondershare Filmora

With easily reachable editing options and self-explanatory buttons, Wondershare Filmora has gained a decent amount of popularity in the recent years. The program is available for both Windows and Mac platforms, and gives tough competition to other leading tools of the industry such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro X, etc.

Download Mac Version ](https://tools.techidaily.com/wondershare/filmora/download/ )

When talking about the playback speed, with the help of available presets, it can be increased or decreased by 100x or 0.01x respectively. One of the presets also enables you to reverse the direction of the playback quite easily, i.e. while keeping the speed intact. In addition, the ‘Custom Speed’ option lets you control the preferences more granularly.

You can follow the simple instructions given below to reverse YouTube video with Wondershare Filmora:

Note: To remain compliant with the terms and conditions, and to respect the copyright policies, Wondershare Filmora doesn’t allow you to download other people’s videos from YouTube. However, once you have a footage on your PC, you can jump to the following step-by-step process to reverse its playback.

1. Import the Source Video to the Timeline

Launch Wondershare Filmora on your Windows or Mac computer (Windows 10 here), making sure that the Media button in the standard toolbar at the top is selected, click inside the Media window, and select and import the YouTube source video to the program. Next, drag the YouTube video clip to the Timeline, and when the confirmation box appears, click the Match to Media or Keep Project Settings button as needed to get the footage to the Timeline.

2. Reverse the Video (Using the Preset)

Click and select the media clip in the Timeline, click the Speed icon present above the Timeline itself, and click the Reverse option from the menu that appears to reverse the video playback.

3. Reverse the Video (Manual Control)

Select the media clip in the Timeline and click the Speed icon as explained in the previous step. From the menu that appears, click Custom Speed this time. When the Custom Speed box appears, use the Speed slider to adjust the playback speed of the media clip, and check the Reverse box to reverse YouTube video. Optionally, you can also modify the Duration and Ripple options to customize the preferences. Finally, click OK to save the changes.

4. Export the Video or Upload to YouTube Directly

Back on the main window, click EXPORT from the top. Filmora provides several ways to saving and sharing the video.

You can select the Local tab, choose your preferred output format from the list in the left, in the right window, define a name and location for the file that you are about to export, and click EXPORT from the bottom-right corner to export the video with the reverse playback.

Or, go to the YouTube tab and sign in your YouTube account to upload the reversed video to YouTube directly. In the YouTube upload interface, you can optimize the YouTube SEO elements and revise the video title, description, category and tags.

Download Mac Version ](https://tools.techidaily.com/wondershare/filmora/download/ )

Conclusion

Even though the online video reversers are free and offer simple process to get the job done, the desktop programs like Wondershare Filmora offer more flexibility when it comes to making changes to the media clips, controlling the playback speed, adding effects, applying the modifications only to certain sections of the footage, selecting output preferences, etc. before you can reverse YouTube video.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

While working on the movies in a professional post-production environment, there might be instances where you want to reverse YouTube video to show flashback effect, or to replay a sequence so the audience can experience more thrills while watching.

With that said, not every media player or video editing application is capable enough to reverse a movie clip, not at least with merely a few mouse clicks. Therefore, the following sections suggest some such programs that can help you play YouTube video backward.

Part 1: Best Free YouTube Video Reversers Online

There are a few online web programs that are capable of reversing YouTube videos with efficiency. However, some of them may have certain restrictions like file size limit, number of supported formats, fewer or absolutely no editing options, etc.

Nevertheless, the best five online solutions to reverse YouTube video along with the process of using them are discussed below:

1. Clideo

Clideo is not merely a video reverser, but can also convert media files to your preferred format. You can paste the URL of a YouTube video to upload or import the videos from your computer, Dropbox or Google Drive storage. At the time of this writing, Clideo allows only up to 500MB videos to be uploaded to reverse or convert. As for the acceptability, the portal supports almost all the commonly used formats.

To play YouTube video backward with Clideo:

• Visit Clideo’s online reverse tool page: https://clideo.com/reverse-video ;
• Hover mouse over the down arrow icon next to the Choose file button and paste the URL of the YouTube video that you want to reverse;
• After Clideo fetches the video and opens the next page, choose your preferred speed from the right section
• Leave the Mute video box checked, or uncheck it if required and then click Reverse button to reverse YouTube video. The maximum reverse speed that you can apply is 2X.

2. Kapwing

This web solution also supports almost all types of video formats including 3GPP, AVI, MP4, etc. When talking about the limitations of a free user, you can only upload the videos that are up to 7 minutes long. At the time of this writing, Kapwing can accept the source files from your computer, and from the YouTube URL.

To reverse YouTube video with Kapwing:

• Go to Kapwing’s online video reverser page: https://www.kapwing.com/tools/reverse-video ;
• Paste the URL of the YouTube video in the Paste a URL field;
• Select your preferred playback speed of the reversed video from the Reverse speed section in the left pane;
• Choose whether or not Kapwing should mute the output video;
• Optionally, click Trim video from the upper-left corner of the right window to edit the footage if needed;
• Click CREATE from the bottom-left corner to play YouTube video backward. The maximum reverse speed that you can apply on Kapwing is also 2X.

3. EZGIF

With the ability to support almost all major video formats, and the capability to accept the media files of up to 100MB, Ezgif allows you to upload the footages from your PC, or paste their URL if they are published on YouTube. Even though the landing page has a few distracting adverts, the overall process to play YouTube video backward and save it to your PC is simple.

To reverse YouTube video with Ezgif:

• Go to the reverser tool page: https://ezgif.com/reverse-video and then paste the URL of the YouTube video in the available field;
• Click Upload video and optionally click the speed icon from the toolbar at the top;
• Use the checkboxes and input fields to mute the audio and adjust the playback speed as needed;
• Choose your preferred encoding method from the Output format and encoding drop-down list and then click Reverse video to reverse the video.

Note: It seems that you can’t customize the reverse speed on EZGif but you can choose to mute the reversed audio or not.

4. VideoReverser

Although this web solution has an extremely simple interface, the files that you can upload must not exceed 10MB in size. The portal supports formats like MPG, MPEG, MP4, AVI, M4V, 3GP, etc. for reversing. In addition to uploading the clips from your PC, VideoReverser also allows you to paste the URL of the footages if they are published on YouTube.

To play YouTube video backward with VideoReverser:

• Launch your favorite Internet browser, and then visit https://www.videoreverser.com/ ;
• Paste the URL of the YouTube video in the available text field;
• Choose your preferred output format from the Select output format drop-down list;
• Use the Remove audio track checkbox to get rid of the acoustics or leave the sound enabled;
• Click Start to reverse YouTube video.

5. Pixiko

With almost all formats’ support, Pixiko is yet another web-based media editor that can also reverse YouTube video with a few mouse clicks. At the time of this writing, Pixiko only accepts the source files from your PC, which means you can’t paste the YouTube link to it directly. At first, you need to download or save the YouTube video on computer and then either drag those clips from your local hard drive to the portal.

To play YouTube video backward with Pixiko:

• On the page https://pixiko.com/editor/video-reverse , click anywhere inside the Blue rectangle;
• Locate, select, and upload the downloaded YouTube source video from your PC;
• Click Reverse from the lower-right section of the video player window;
• Follow the on-screen instructions from there to manage and reverse YouTube video as needed;

Bonus: Reversing YouTube Video with Wondershare Filmora

With easily reachable editing options and self-explanatory buttons, Wondershare Filmora has gained a decent amount of popularity in the recent years. The program is available for both Windows and Mac platforms, and gives tough competition to other leading tools of the industry such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro X, etc.

Download Mac Version ](https://tools.techidaily.com/wondershare/filmora/download/ )

When talking about the playback speed, with the help of available presets, it can be increased or decreased by 100x or 0.01x respectively. One of the presets also enables you to reverse the direction of the playback quite easily, i.e. while keeping the speed intact. In addition, the ‘Custom Speed’ option lets you control the preferences more granularly.

You can follow the simple instructions given below to reverse YouTube video with Wondershare Filmora:

Note: To remain compliant with the terms and conditions, and to respect the copyright policies, Wondershare Filmora doesn’t allow you to download other people’s videos from YouTube. However, once you have a footage on your PC, you can jump to the following step-by-step process to reverse its playback.

1. Import the Source Video to the Timeline

Launch Wondershare Filmora on your Windows or Mac computer (Windows 10 here), making sure that the Media button in the standard toolbar at the top is selected, click inside the Media window, and select and import the YouTube source video to the program. Next, drag the YouTube video clip to the Timeline, and when the confirmation box appears, click the Match to Media or Keep Project Settings button as needed to get the footage to the Timeline.

2. Reverse the Video (Using the Preset)

Click and select the media clip in the Timeline, click the Speed icon present above the Timeline itself, and click the Reverse option from the menu that appears to reverse the video playback.

3. Reverse the Video (Manual Control)

Select the media clip in the Timeline and click the Speed icon as explained in the previous step. From the menu that appears, click Custom Speed this time. When the Custom Speed box appears, use the Speed slider to adjust the playback speed of the media clip, and check the Reverse box to reverse YouTube video. Optionally, you can also modify the Duration and Ripple options to customize the preferences. Finally, click OK to save the changes.

4. Export the Video or Upload to YouTube Directly

Back on the main window, click EXPORT from the top. Filmora provides several ways to saving and sharing the video.

You can select the Local tab, choose your preferred output format from the list in the left, in the right window, define a name and location for the file that you are about to export, and click EXPORT from the bottom-right corner to export the video with the reverse playback.

Or, go to the YouTube tab and sign in your YouTube account to upload the reversed video to YouTube directly. In the YouTube upload interface, you can optimize the YouTube SEO elements and revise the video title, description, category and tags.

Download Mac Version ](https://tools.techidaily.com/wondershare/filmora/download/ )

Conclusion

Even though the online video reversers are free and offer simple process to get the job done, the desktop programs like Wondershare Filmora offer more flexibility when it comes to making changes to the media clips, controlling the playback speed, adding effects, applying the modifications only to certain sections of the footage, selecting output preferences, etc. before you can reverse YouTube video.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

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