Put YouTube transcripts into Notion or Obsidian
A transcript is most useful next to your own notes: in the Notion page for a course, in an Obsidian vault where you can link ideas together, in whatever app you already search every day. TranscriptBinder exports plain Markdown, which both apps import directly. This guide shows the two ways to bring transcripts in — one big note, or one note per video — and how to keep them tidy.
What the Markdown export contains
- For a single video: a level-1 heading with the title, then an italic line with the channel, publish date, link and transcript language, then the text.
- For several videos: a title, a clickable table of contents, and each video as a level-2 heading (
## 1. Title) with the same information line. - With Timestamps Off, the text is in paragraphs. With timestamps On, each line begins with a time code in backticks, such as
`03:15`.
There is no formatting beyond headings, so the file pastes cleanly anywhere.
Option A: one note for the whole course
- Collect the playlist in the dashboard and press Markdown.
- Notion: in the sidebar choose Import → Text & Markdown and pick the file. Notion turns the headings into blocks and keeps the links.
- Obsidian: drop the file into your vault folder. Headings appear in the outline panel, so you can jump between videos.
This is the fastest route, and good for a course you will read start to finish.
Option B: one note per video
For a knowledge base you will link into, one note per video works better. Export TXT per video (zip) instead: the zip contains one text file per video, numbered in order (001_Title_[videoId].txt), each starting with the title, channel, date and link.
- Unzip the file into a folder named after the course or channel.
- Obsidian: move the folder into your vault. Rename
.txtto.mdif you want them treated as notes (select all files in Explorer or Finder and rename in one go, or use a batch-rename tool). - Notion: use Import → Text & Markdown and select all files at once; each becomes a page.
Keeping it tidy
- Tags and properties. In Notion, make the imported pages a database and add properties like Course, Lecturer, Watched, Rating. In Obsidian, add a few lines of front matter at the top of each note.
- Your notes above, transcript below. Keep the transcript as a reference section and write your own summary at the top, so what you see first is your thinking.
- Link ideas, not videos. In Obsidian, link from your concept notes to the passage of the transcript that explains it.
- Add new videos monthly. Press Get new videos under Past jobs, export again, and import only the new files.
Other apps
Logseq, Bear, Craft, Apple Notes, Google Docs and Evernote all open or import Markdown or plain text. If an app wants a document instead, use the Word booklet export.
Search across everything
Once transcripts live in your notes app, its search covers them too. A question like "where did the lecturer explain spaced repetition?" becomes a two-second search instead of a hunt through videos.