Youtube-dl Download [verified] Captions May 2026
For power users, youtube-dl offers granular control over how subtitle files are handled. Convert Subtitles to SRT Format
This will display language codes (like en , es , ja ) and the available formats (such as vtt or ttml ). 2. Download Specific Captions youtube-dl download captions
youtube-dl --write-sub --sub-lang en --convert-subs srt --skip-download [URL] Use code with caution. For power users, youtube-dl offers granular control over
Note: Converting subtitles usually requires having installed on your system. Download All Available Languages To download manual subtitles: Use --write-sub
YouTube distinguishes between (uploaded by creators) and auto-generated captions (created by AI speech recognition). To download manual subtitles: Use --write-sub . To download auto-generated captions: Use --write-auto-sub .
To download captions for a specific language (e.g., English) without downloading the video itself, use the --skip-download flag: youtube-dl --write-sub --sub-lang en --skip-download [URL] Use code with caution. --write-sub : Tells the tool to download the subtitle file. --sub-lang [lang] : Specifies the language code.