How do I get a transcript of a YouTube video for free?

YouTube gives it to you. On a computer, open the video, expand the description and click Show transcript: the text scrolls along with the video, and clicking any line jumps to that moment, so you can select and copy what you need. It works for any video with captions, including automatic ones, which YouTube makes in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi and many more languages; those are machine-made, so check names and numbers. For your own videos, YouTube Studio's Subtitles page lets you edit the captions and download the caption file. To summarise the video or ask questions about it, paste its link into Gemini Notebook as a source: it imports the text transcript of public videos with captions, though a video uploaded in the last 72 hours may not import yet. Skip the 'YouTube transcript download' sites, which mostly wrap the same text in ads. Rule: Show transcript to read or copy, Gemini Notebook to work with it.