how-to-guide

Transcription Options for MarkItDown's YouTube Converter: Complete Guide

April 11, 2026 microsoft/markitdown ↗

The only transcription option available is the youtube_transcript_languages keyword argument, which accepts an ordered list of ISO language codes to fetch and translate YouTube video transcripts.

The Microsoft MarkItDown library converts YouTube videos to Markdown format, optionally embedding transcript content when the youtube-transcript-api dependency is present. Understanding the available transcription options helps you control which language transcript appears in your converted documents and how the converter handles translation fallbacks.

How Transcription Works in YouTubeConverter

Transcription support is conditional on the `IS_YOUTUBE_TRAN

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