How to search inside a YouTube video for a word or phrase
YouTube's search finds videos. It does not tell you where in a video something is said.
One video. On a computer, open the video, open the description and choose "Show transcript". The transcript opens beside the video. Look through it for the word. Click a line to jump there. This only works when the video has captions, and only for one video at a time.
Many videos. Save the videos to YouTube Collector. Each one gets a full transcript with timestamps. Type a phrase once and search every saved transcript. Each match shows the video and the timestamp. Click a match and the player starts at that second.
Useful for:
- finding the lecture where a formula or definition came up
- finding a quote in a long interview or podcast
- checking what a speaker said before you cite it
If a video has no captions, an AI transcript can be made from the audio. It does not work on every video. The first two are free, then they cost credits.
The free plan covers 30 videos. Transcript search is on every plan.