Documentation

Video Transcripts

A saved reel might contain the exact recipe, workout or explanation you were looking for — but you can't search a video. Transcripts convert the spoken words in your saved videos into text, so that everything said out loud becomes as searchable as a caption.

Included with Pro

Video transcription is part of every Pro plan — monthly, yearly and Lifetime. There is nothing extra to buy.

What It Does

Savebase extracts the audio from a saved video, runs speech recognition over it, and stores the resulting text against the post. From then on the transcript is searchable from the dashboard and readable by any AI assistant you've connected through the MCP Server.

  • Ask an AI assistant "what did that video say about sourdough starters?" and get a real answer
  • Find a video by a phrase somebody said in it, not just by its caption
  • Read a long video's contents in seconds instead of rewatching it

Requirements

  • A Pro plan — monthly, yearly or Lifetime
  • A saved post with a video — image-only and text posts have no audio to transcribe

Transcription works whether or not you have Permanent Media Backup switched on. If backup is enabled, Savebase transcribes its own stored copy, which means the transcript still works long after the original platform link has expired.

Transcribing Your Library

1

Open Settings → Service

Find the Video Transcripts panel. It shows how many saved videos are still waiting.
2

Click Transcribe All

Savebase queues your videos and works through them in batches, continuing automatically until the library is done. You don't need to keep clicking.
3

Leave it running

You can close the page — transcription carries on in the background. You'll get one email when the whole run finishes, not one per batch.

How long it takes

Videos are transcribed one at a time to keep quality high, so a large library takes hours rather than minutes. A few hundred videos is normally an afternoon's work in the background.

Transcribing a Single Video

If you only want one video, open the menu on its card and choose Transcribe video. The card shows Queued… and then Transcribing… while it runs, and a Transcript pill appears when it's ready.

Reading and Searching Transcripts

Click the Transcript pill on any transcribed post to read the full text. Transcripts are also included in ordinary dashboard search, so a phrase somebody said in a video will surface that post alongside matches in titles, captions and notes.

Through the MCP Server, the search_bookmarks tool searches transcripts too and returns the matching snippet, which is what lets an assistant answer questions about spoken content.

Languages

Speech is transcribed in whatever language it was spoken — the language is detected automatically rather than assumed, and the result is stored in the original language rather than translated. Hindi audio produces a Hindi transcript, English audio an English one.

FAQ

What happens to videos with no talking?

Music-only clips and silent videos are detected and skipped. They're marked as processed so they won't be retried on every run, and no transcript pill appears on them. Nothing is wrong when this happens — there was simply nothing said.

How accurate is it?

Accuracy is high for clear speech and drops with heavy background music, crosstalk or strong audio compression. Treat a transcript as a very good search index rather than a legal record.

One of my videos didn't transcribe

A video can fail if its audio is unreadable or the file is unusually large. Savebase retries a failing video a few times and then stops, so a permanently broken file can't consume your library's processing time forever. You can always retry one by hand from the post's menu.

What if I downgrade from Pro?

Transcripts already generated stay attached to your posts and remain searchable and exportable. You just can't transcribe new videos until you're back on Pro.

Are new videos transcribed automatically?

Not yet — transcription is started by you, either with Transcribe All or per post. Run it periodically as you save more videos.