YouTubeForge

Chrome

YouTube transcript extension for Chrome

On a YouTube watch page, grab public captions in your browser and open them on YouTubeForge — searchable text, SRT, or audio next. Useful when the website’s server is rate-limited and your laptop is not.

The Web Store listing is not public yet. Load the unpacked folder from the GitHub repo (extension/) in chrome://extensions with Developer mode on.

extension/ on GitHub

What you get

  1. Watch page button

    Get transcript fetches captions in the tab, sends them to YouTubeForge, then opens /?v= with the text ready.

  2. Toolbar click

    If the tab is a YouTube video, same flow. Otherwise it opens the home paste box.

  3. Same tools after

    From the result: copy, download SRT/VTT, translate captions, or save MP3 — no second paste.

What it can access

The permission is activeTab, plus YouTube and YouTubeForge. On a watch page it reads the public caption track in that tab. It does not ask for your Google password, your subscriptions, or your watch history.

When to use the extension instead of the site

Paste the link on forgeyt.com when you already have the URL. Use the extension when you are already on the watch page and the site is rate-limited: captions are fetched in your browser, then opened here as searchable text. The result address uses ?v= and stays out of Google.

What gets sent

The caption lines for that one video are sent to YouTubeForge so the result page can show them. There is no account, so there is no profile to attach them to. The browser download of TXT, SRT, or VTT stays on your machine.

Install tips

Pin the extension after install. Use it on public videos that already have captions (human or auto). Private or age-gated videos usually cannot expose caption tracks.

Questions

Is the YouTubeForge Chrome extension free?

Yes. No account. It reads the public caption track on the YouTube watch page and opens that text on YouTubeForge.

What can the extension access?

activeTab, plus YouTube and YouTubeForge. It does not ask for your Google password, subscriptions, or watch history.

Does it work when a video has no captions?

No. It uses the caption track YouTube already published. Private and age-restricted videos usually cannot expose that track.

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