Copy the text on screen from a TikTok
Many TikToks say it all in on-screen text: a list, a recipe, a slideshow itinerary, captions burned into the video. Paste the link and get that text as words you can copy, with the time it appears or the slide number. In a video, text seen just once and away from where the captions sit, such as a sign or a label in the shot, is marked so you can leave it out. The reading happens on your device; you can also drop your own video or screenshots.
Added with TikTok's text tool: read from the post itself, at once. The video's frames are read next, for text drawn into the picture.
How to use it
- Paste the TikTok linkA video or a photo slideshow; or drop your own video or screenshots.
- Wait while it readsThe text reader downloads once (about 30 MB), then reads a frame every second (less often in a video over five minutes), skipping frames that did not change, or every slide.
- Check the textRepeats are merged into one line with its time or slide number; in a video, text seen only once and away from the captions is marked.
- Copy or saveCopy it, or save it as TXT, or as SRT subtitles for a video.
What you can download here
- Textwith times or slide numbers
- SRTfor a video: the on-screen text as subtitles, with its timing
Good to know
Reading happens in your browser: fast with WebGPU (Chrome or Edge on a computer), slower on the processor. A video up to five minutes long is checked once a second; a longer one evenly from start to end, 300 times at most (every 2 seconds for a ten-minute video).
Cuescribe for Chrome
Get the transcript while you watch: a side panel on every YouTube and TikTok video, click a line to jump there, copy or download it. It also makes YouTube links here faster.
Pro in the extension
Whole YouTube playlists to text in one go (up to 200 videos, zipped), an unlimited transcript library with full-text search, and Markdown or JSON export.
See ProNext steps
Questions
Is this the same as a transcript?
No. A transcript is what is said. This reads what is written on screen, which is often the only text in a slideshow or a silent video. For the spoken words use the TikTok transcript page.
Why does some text show up at once?
Text added to a video with TikTok's own text tool is stored with the post, so it is listed as soon as the link is looked up, marked as added with TikTok's text tool. The video's frames are still read, for text drawn into the picture itself, such as burned-in captions.
Does it work on photo slideshows?
Yes. Paste the link to a TikTok photo post and each slide is read, numbered in order.
How accurate is it?
On nine real TikTok frames and slides we checked word by word, it read 97% of the words. Small, curly or outlined fonts and text over busy backgrounds are harder, and the TikTok watermark and @name are left out.
What does "possibly text in the scene" mean?
Text in a video seen on just one of the frames checked, away from the height where the captions sit: often a sign, a product label or a screen in the shot rather than a caption. It is kept but marked, and you can hide it before copying. Text on photo slides is never marked.
Why does it say to try again in a minute?
TikTok only answers a limited number of lookups from our server at a time. Wait a minute and paste the link again.
Is my video uploaded?
Files you drop never leave your device. For a link, our server fetches the post from TikTok and passes it to your browser, which reads the text.