--- title: "Save YouTube transcripts as searchable Markdown | Keep" description: "Save YouTube videos with their transcripts as Markdown, search across every video you kept, and follow channels so new uploads arrive automatically. Included with Personal." canonical: "https://keep.md/features/youtube-transcripts" language: "en" --- # Search what was said in the videos you saved. Keep saves a YouTube video with its transcript as timestamped Markdown. Search across every video you kept, jump to the moment that matched, and follow channels so new uploads arrive on their own. [Create a free account](https://app.keep.md/signup?utm_source=keep.md&utm_medium=content&utm_campaign=features-youtube-transcripts) Video saves, transcripts, and channel follows are included with Personal for $10/month. Keep saves the transcript, not the video file. 01. ## Find the moment, not just the video. Search returns the videos that match and the transcript lines where the words were said. Open a result to read the transcript around that moment. **Search “rate limits”:** 3 matches in 2 saved videos. ### Designing APIs people do not hate Northwind Engineering · 42:18 - **18:21** · Let me talk about the part of the API nobody designs on purpose. - **18:42** · Rate limits are a contract. Publish the numbers, return the headers, and never change them without a version bump. - **19:05** · The mistake we made was rate limiting by IP. Half our customers sat behind one corporate gateway. - **19:30** · We moved to per-key limits with a burst allowance, and the support tickets stopped within a week. - **19:58** · The other thing worth copying: a Retry-After header that tells the truth. ### Queues, backpressure, and the day we lost an hour of orders Harbor Systems Talks · 31:04 - **06:48** · So here is the timeline. At 09:14 the queue depth starts climbing and nobody is paged. - **07:12** · The payment provider’s rate limits were documented. We just never read past the first paragraph. - **07:40** · Every retry we sent counted against the same limit, so the retries made the outage longer. - **08:03** · The fix was boring: a token bucket in front of the provider client, and a dashboard for queue age. **Followed channel:** Northwind Engineering (@northwindeng). Followed · Checks every few hours · 14 videos saved. [Read the YouTube docs](https://keep.md/docs/youtube) 02. ## Save a video, or follow a channel. Paste a video URL to save one video. Add a channel as a source when you want every new upload saved in the background. 1. **Save a single video.** Paste a YouTube URL into Capture, the browser extension, CLI, or API. Keep saves the title, metadata, and available transcript as Markdown. 2. **Follow a channel.** Open Settings → Sources → Add source → YouTube channel. Enter a handle, channel ID, channel URL, or any video URL from the channel. 3. **Choose a backfill.** Start from now, or import uploads from the past 1 to 90 days once. Keep then checks for new videos every few hours. [Read the setup steps](https://keep.md/docs/youtube) 03. ## Videos you would rather read than rewatch. A transcript is a document. Once Keep has it, you can search it, quote it, and hand it to an AI client like any other saved page. 1. ### Conference talks and lectures Find the ten seconds that mattered in a forty-minute talk by searching for the phrase you remember. 2. ### Channels you follow for work Follow a channel and let Keep save each new upload with its transcript. Skim the text, then watch only the parts worth watching. 3. ### Research across many videos Search for a term across every transcript you kept and see each match with its timestamp and video. 04. ## Transcripts stay searchable long after you watched. Each saved video is an item with a link back to YouTube and a transcript section with timestamps. It behaves like everything else you keep. [**Saved videos live in Saved**Each video keeps its title, channel, publish date, link, and a Transcript section with timestamped lines.](https://keep.md/docs/youtube#save-a-single-video)[**Search across transcripts**Search by words or meaning across transcripts, articles, X posts, and your notes together.](https://keep.md/docs/search)[**Quote a moment in a note**Highlight a transcript line and attach it to a Markdown note with the video kept as the source.](https://keep.md/docs/notes)[**Read transcripts from an AI agent**A connected agent can search your saved transcripts and quote the passage with its timestamp.](https://keep.md/docs/mcp) 05. ## Questions about YouTube transcripts. ### Does Keep download the video? No. Keep saves the title, metadata, link, and the available transcript as Markdown. It does not store the video file. ### What if a video has no transcript? Keep saves the link with the title and metadata it can find, but there is no transcript section to search. Transcripts depend on captions being available for the video. ### Do transcripts keep timestamps? Yes. Each transcript line is saved with its timestamp so you can find the moment a phrase was said and jump to it on YouTube. ### How often does Keep check a followed channel? Keep checks for new uploads every few hours and saves each one into your library. Videos already in your library are skipped. ### Can I import a channel’s older videos? When you add a channel, choose a one-time backfill of 1 to 90 days. After that import, the source captures only new uploads. ### Can I try this on Starter? You can create a Starter account for free. Video saves, transcripts, and channel follows require Personal, which costs $10/month. 06. ## Related ways to use what you saved. [**Guide: search YouTube transcripts**How to find a quote inside a video and keep the transcript for later.](https://keep.md/blog/search-youtube-transcripts)[**AI library**Let a connected AI client search your saved transcripts, articles, and notes.](https://keep.md/features/ai-library) ## Keep the talks worth quoting. Create a free account, then add Personal for $10/month to save videos with transcripts and follow channels. [Create a free account](https://app.keep.md/signup?utm_source=keep.md&utm_medium=content&utm_campaign=features-youtube-transcripts) [Read the YouTube docs](https://keep.md/docs/youtube)