# Download YouTube Auto-Generated Captions as SRT

Source: https://b-roll-6hk.pages.dev/guides/download-auto-generated-captions/
Published: 2026-09-25
Updated: 2026-09-25
Author: Ema Zamboni, video editor (https://b-roll-6hk.pages.dev/about/)
Section: Guides (https://b-roll-6hk.pages.dev/guides/)

**In short:** B-ROLL downloads YouTube's auto-generated captions as .srt files: set Subtitles to SRT and tick the language under AUTO-GENERATED in the Subtitles dialog. Only official subtitles skips the automatic tracks when the creator uploaded real ones. Expect misheard names and lines that often repeat across cues, so clean the file before it reaches your timeline.

## What are YouTube auto-generated captions?

YouTube auto-generated captions are subtitle tracks that YouTube creates with speech recognition, without a person typing them. As of September 2026, [YouTube Help on automatic captioning](https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6373554) says they are generated by machine learning algorithms, that their quality may vary, and that they are available in a long list of spoken languages.

Auto-generated captions matter to an editor because a video often has no other text track. An interview, a talk or a vlog with no uploaded subtitles still usually carries an automatic track in its spoken language, and that track downloads as a timed .srt file like any official one.

The table compares official subtitles with auto-generated captions on the points that change how you use them in an edit.

| Aspect | Official subtitles | Auto-generated captions |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Who makes them | The creator uploads or writes them | YouTube's speech recognition |
| Group in B-ROLL's Subtitles dialog | "OFFICIAL: uploaded by the creator" | "AUTO-GENERATED" |
| Availability | Only when the creator adds them | Often present, but missing for some audio, lengths and languages |
| Accuracy | Usually checked by a person | Names, jargon and accents are often misheard |
| Structure of the downloaded file | Usually one cue per line | Lines often repeat across consecutive cues |
| Best use in an edit | On-screen subtitles after a proofread | Paper edits, search and a first draft of subtitles |

B-ROLL's language picker separates official subtitles from auto-generated captions, so you always know which kind of track you are about to download.

> **Careful:** Download only footage you have the right to use: your own uploads, Creative Commons, licensed or permitted material.

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## How do you download auto-generated captions with B-ROLL?

B-ROLL downloads auto-generated captions with the video: set the **Subtitles** menu to **SRT**, paste the link, and tick your language under **AUTO-GENERATED** in the **Subtitles** dialog. Five steps cover the job, from the **Subtitles** menu to the finished `Title.lang.srt` file.

B-ROLL, a free Windows app for editors, asks yt-dlp for both kinds of track. The [yt-dlp README](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp) describes `--write-auto-subs` as the option that writes the automatically generated subtitle file, and B-ROLL passes it on every subtitle download. The captions come in a separate pass after the video, with pauses and retries against YouTube's rate limit, so a caption error never costs you the footage.

The **Subtitles** dialog pre-ticks the video's original language, the app's language and English. Untick any you do not need, or each one adds a file. The full option matrix, including Embedded, ASS and VTT, lives on the [YouTube subtitle downloader for SRT, ASS or VTT](https://b-roll-6hk.pages.dev/features/youtube-subtitle-downloader/) page.

SRT is the format to keep for editing, because it is plain text that DaVinci Resolve and Premiere Pro both import. Why it beats VTT and ASS on a timeline is explained in [SRT vs VTT vs ASS: which subtitle format to keep](https://b-roll-6hk.pages.dev/formats/srt-vs-vtt-vs-ass/).

## How accurate are YouTube auto-generated captions?

YouTube auto-generated captions are a draft, not a finished transcript. As of September 2026, YouTube Help warns that automatic captions can misrepresent speech because of mispronunciations, accents, dialects or background noise, and it asks creators to review and edit them.

Expect the errors where speech recognition is weakest. Proper names, brand names and technical terms come out as similar-sounding words. Music beds and room noise drop or invent words. Overlapping speakers blur into one line.

For a rough cut the errors rarely matter: a timed transcript with a few wrong words still finds a quote. That is why an automatic track works well for a [paper edit from a YouTube transcript](https://b-roll-6hk.pages.dev/guides/youtube-transcript-paper-edit/). For subtitles a viewer reads on screen, every line needs a proofread against the audio.

## Why do auto-generated captions repeat lines?

Auto-generated captions repeat lines because, as of September 2026, YouTube often shows them as rolling captions: each new line appears under the previous one, and the previous line stays on screen for a moment. A file converted to SRT keeps that structure, so the same words sit in two consecutive cues.

On a timeline the rolling structure looks like doubled text: each sentence closes one cue and opens the next, with overlapping timings. Official subtitles written by a person rarely have this problem, which is one more reason to pick the official track when a video has one.

## How do you clean up auto-generated captions for an edit?

Clean auto-generated captions in five passes, in order: prefer an official track, collapse the repeated lines in the .srt file, fix the words, add punctuation, then shift the timing.

1. **Check for an official track first.** Before you tick anything, read the "OFFICIAL: uploaded by the creator" group in the **Subtitles** dialog; **Only official subtitles** ticks every official track and unticks the automatic ones, so untick the official languages you do not need.
2. **Collapse the repeated lines.** Open the .srt in a free subtitle editor and use its tools for overlapping times and duplicate text, so each spoken line becomes one cue.
3. **Fix names and jargon.** Use find and replace for every name the recognizer got wrong, then read the file once against the audio.
4. **Add punctuation and break long cues.** Split lines at natural pauses so each cue is comfortable to read.
5. **Shift the timing for clips.** B-ROLL's subtitles for a clip cover the whole video and are named after the video, not the clip (read from the app's code, not tested), so a caption spoken at 2:10 in the source sits at 2:10 in the file; move the track earlier by the clip's in point.

The import itself differs per editing app. Follow [importing YouTube subtitles into DaVinci Resolve](https://b-roll-6hk.pages.dev/guides/youtube-subtitles-in-davinci-resolve/) or [importing YouTube subtitles into Premiere Pro](https://b-roll-6hk.pages.dev/guides/youtube-subtitles-in-premiere-pro/), and bring in the cleaned file, not the raw download. More workflows sit in the [guides for YouTube footage from download to timeline](https://b-roll-6hk.pages.dev/guides/).

## What if auto-generated captions fail to download?

Auto-generated captions fail to download most often because the language you ticked has no automatic track, or because the video has no caption track at all. B-ROLL's **Subtitles** dialog lists only the tracks a video really has, so paste the link again and read both groups before you retry.

Three common mistakes cause the rest:

- **Only official tracks on a video without any.** Clicking **Only official subtitles** on such a video leaves nothing to fetch.
- **Embedded instead of SRT.** **Embedded** puts the captions inside the video and deletes the loose files. The embed fails with WEBM output (WebM accepts only WebVTT tracks) and is skipped for titles with square brackets; then the .srt files stay next to the video (read from the app's code, not tested).
- **One language choice for a batch.** The **Subtitles** dialog asks once per batch, so a video without the chosen language gets no file.

When the files still do not appear, work through [YouTube subtitles not downloading: causes and fixes](https://b-roll-6hk.pages.dev/troubleshooting/youtube-subtitles-not-downloading/), which lists each error message and its cause.

## How to download YouTube auto-generated captions with B-ROLL

1. **Set Subtitles to SRT.** Open the Subtitles menu next to Format in B-ROLL and choose SRT. The choice is remembered for the next session.
2. **Choose the video settings.** Set Type to Video and pick a Quality and a Format. B-ROLL fetches the captions in a separate pass after the video finishes.
3. **Paste the YouTube link.** Paste a regular YouTube watch link into the paste box and press Enter. The Subtitles dialog opens with the languages the video really has.
4. **Tick the automatic track.** Tick your language in the AUTO-GENERATED group and untick any pre-ticked language you do not need. Click Only official subtitles instead when you want the creator's tracks only.
5. **Open the SRT file.** When the download ends, find Title.lang.srt next to the video. Several subtitle files move into a folder named Title - subtitles.

## Frequently asked questions

Q: Are auto-generated captions available for every video?
A: No. YouTube Help lists several reasons automatic captions can be missing. The audio may still be processing, the language may be unsupported, or the video may be too long. Poor sound, a long silence at the start, and overlapping speakers or mixed languages also block them. When a video has no caption track at all, B-ROLL's Subtitles dialog shows No subtitles available for this video.

Q: Can I download only official subtitles?
A: Yes. In B-ROLL's Subtitles dialog, click Only official subtitles: every track in the OFFICIAL group, the ones uploaded by the creator, gets ticked and every automatic track is unticked. Untick any official language you do not need. When a video has no official track, the button leaves nothing ticked, and an auto-generated track is all the text the video offers.

Q: Which B-ROLL option saves auto-generated captions as an SRT?
A: The SRT option in the Subtitles menu next to Format. With SRT set, tick a language in the AUTO-GENERATED group of the Subtitles dialog, and B-ROLL saves the captions next to the video as Title.lang.srt. ASS and VTT work the same way, and Embedded puts the track inside the video file instead of saving a separate file.

## Sources

1. [YouTube Help: Use automatic captioning](https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6373554)
2. [yt-dlp README on GitHub](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp)

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B-ROLL is a free, donation-supported desktop YouTube downloader for video editors: it downloads videos, clips, playlists and channels, converts them automatically into edit-ready ProRes or DNxHR (or saves MP4, MKV, WEBM or audio), and includes built-in trimming, subtitles and automatic creator credit files. Part of [Guides: YouTube Footage from Download to Timeline](https://b-roll-6hk.pages.dev/guides/) on the B-ROLL website. Download B-ROLL, free for Windows 10 and 11 (macOS and Linux planned): https://b-roll-6hk.pages.dev/download/