Why can't I just paste the website's URL like I do for YouTube?

For YouTube and Twitch, LiveScript can fetch the stream's audio directly from the URL, so the web app works on its own. Most other sites do not expose their audio that way - there is no public stream address to hand a server. The extension solves it from the other direction by capturing the audio already playing in your browser tab, so no URL is required.

Which websites can the extension transcribe?

Anything that plays audio in a Chrome tab: earnings and conference calls, investor webcasts, webinars, news and live-TV streams, sports feeds, Kick streams, and more. The rule of thumb is simple - if you can hear it in the tab, the extension can transcribe it.

Does it record my microphone or the whole screen?

Neither. It captures the audio output of the one tab you are transcribing, and only while you are transcribing. Your microphone is never used, nothing is recorded from other tabs or apps, and there is no video capture.

Where does the transcript go after I capture it?

It is saved to your LiveScript account as you go, tagged with the page's URL, so it is not trapped inside the extension. To open it on the web later, go to the Enter a stream URL page and paste the same page address - LiveScript matches it to the saved transcript and opens it. As long as you are signed into the same account, it is there.

How does pasting the URL later find the right transcript?

Each page URL is reduced to a stable key, using identical logic in the extension and on the website, so the address you captured on and the one you paste later resolve to the same transcript. Paste the same page address you transcribed and it will find it.

Is a transcript from the extension searchable like the rest of LiveScript?

Yes. Everything captured through the extension behaves like any other LiveScript transcript: full-text search across the whole session, keyword alerts that flag a phrase the moment it is spoken, click-to-seek timestamps, and export to SRT or WebVTT.

Do I need a paid plan?

There is a free plan with a starter pool of minutes, and no credit card to try it. Transcription draws from the same monthly minute pool as the rest of LiveScript, and you are only charged for the minutes of audio actually transcribed.

How to Transcribe a Website That Isn't YouTube

Short answer first: paste-a-URL transcript tools stop at YouTube and Twitch because those are the platforms that hand out their audio by URL. For everything else on the web, there is no address to paste - so the LiveScript browser extension captures the audio your tab is already playing and transcribes that instead. No stream URL, no microphone, no download. Here it is on a live earnings call.

A non-YouTube webcast, captured and searched in the extension side panel.

Key takeaways

URL tools work for YouTube and Twitch because those platforms expose audio by URL. Most sites do not.
The extension captures the audio playing in your tab, so any site that makes sound can be transcribed - no URL needed.
It uses tab audio only. Not your microphone, not other tabs, and only while you are transcribing.
Transcripts save to your account tagged with the page URL, so you can reopen them on the web by pasting the same address.

Why paste-a-URL tools stop at YouTube

It looks like an arbitrary limitation, and it isn’t. When you paste a YouTube or Twitch link into the LiveScript web app, a server can take that URL and fetch the stream’s audio directly, because those platforms publish it in a known, addressable form. That is the whole reason the web app needs nothing but a link for them.

The open web does not work like that. An earnings webcast embedded in a company’s investor page, a hearing on a government site, a webinar behind a player widget - the audio is playing, but there is no public URL that points at the audio itself for a server to grab. The page plays it inside your browser and nowhere else. So a tool that only knows how to fetch a URL has nothing to fetch, and that is exactly the set of sites people most often need transcribed and can’t.

How tab capture closes the gap

The extension approaches it from the opposite end. Instead of asking a server to go find the audio, it captures the audio that is already playing in your tab and streams that to LiveScript for speech-to-text. The browser is the one place every site’s audio has to surface - it has to come out of the tab for you to hear it - so capturing there works no matter how the site delivers it.

Two things are worth being precise about, because they are the common worries:

It is tab audio, not your microphone. The extension taps the sound the tab is outputting. Your mic is never opened, and no other tab or application is captured.
It runs only while you are transcribing. Capture starts when you click Transcribe tab and stops when you press stop. Nothing is listening in the background.

From your side it is one button. Open the page, hit Transcribe tab, and the words start appearing in the side panel next to the video you are already watching.

What it looks like, step by step

The clip above runs through this on a live earnings call. In writing, it is five steps:

Install the LiveScript extension. Add the free LiveScript extension to Chrome. It puts a side panel next to whatever tab you are on, so nothing about your normal browsing changes until you ask for a transcript.
Open the page that is playing audio. Go to the site you want transcribed - an earnings webcast, a council stream, a webinar, a sports feed - and start it playing in the tab as you normally would. No stream URL to find or paste.
Click Transcribe tab. Open the side panel and hit Transcribe tab. The extension captures the audio already playing in that tab and streams it to LiveScript for transcription. It never touches your microphone.
Read and search the transcript live. Words appear in the side panel as they are spoken. Search the whole session, set keyword alerts, and click any line to jump the audio back to that moment.
Reopen it later on the web by URL. The transcript is saved to your account and tagged with the page's address. Go to livescript.live, open Enter a stream URL, and paste the same page URL to reopen it full-screen on any device.

The last step is the part that surprises people. The transcript is not stranded in the extension - it is saved to your account as it is captured, tagged with the page’s URL. Go to the web app, open Enter a stream URL, and paste the same page address you transcribed on. LiveScript reduces both URLs to the same stable key and opens the saved transcript full-screen, on whatever device you are signed in from.

What counts as “any site”

The test is whether the tab makes sound. If you can hear it, it can be transcribed. In practice that covers most of what does not have a pasteable stream URL:

Earnings, conference, and investor calls on a company’s own site.
Webinars and virtual events behind a player widget.
Government and council live streams on public-sector sites.
News and live-TV streams, sports feeds, and Kick streams.

The one thing it cannot do is invent audio that is not there. A silent page has nothing to transcribe. And for the two platforms that do expose audio by URL - YouTube and Twitch - you do not need the extension at all; pasting the link into the web app is faster. The extension is for everywhere else.

Try it on the next thing you can’t paste

Next time you are watching something that matters in a tab and there is no transcript button and no URL to paste - install the extension, hit Transcribe tab, and search the words as they are spoken. For the full walkthrough with screenshots, see transcribe audio from any website, and for the platforms that still work by URL, see getting a transcript of a live YouTube stream.

How to get a transcript of a website that isn’t YouTube