SubGrab

Every Video Link Format That Works (And Why Most Tools Reject Yours)

Share link, mobile link, embed link, short link — the same video has a dozen URLs, and most transcript tools only accept one. Here's every format that works, platform by platform.

You copy a link from the app on your phone, paste it into a transcript tool, and get "unsupported URL". You open the same video on your laptop, copy that link instead, and it works fine.

Nothing was wrong with the first link. The tool just didn't recognise that shape.

A single video usually has five or six valid URLs — the desktop permalink, the mobile app's share link, a shortened redirect, an embed URL, and whatever the "copy link" button produced this month. They all point at the same video. A transcript tool that only accepts the tidy desktop version fails on most of what people actually paste, because most people paste from their phone.

SubGrab accepts all of them. Below is the actual list, so you can stop reformatting links by hand.

YouTube

All of these work:

  • Standard: youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID
  • Short: youtu.be/VIDEO_ID — including the ?si= tracking suffix the share sheet adds
  • Mobile: m.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID
  • Music: music.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID
  • Shorts: youtube.com/shorts/VIDEO_ID
  • Live: youtube.com/live/VIDEO_ID
  • Embed: youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID and youtube-nocookie.com/embed/VIDEO_ID
  • HackerTube: hackertube.org/watch/VIDEO_ID. HackerTube plays YouTube videos, so its link is read as the YouTube video it shows (how it works)
  • Legacy: youtube.com/v/VIDEO_ID
  • With extras: timestamps (?t=), playlist position (&list=, &index=), and &app=desktop are all fine — they're ignored rather than rejected

A YouTube link with a playlist attached transcribes the single video you linked, not the whole playlist.

TikTok

  • Desktop: tiktok.com/@username/video/VIDEO_ID
  • Mobile share: vm.tiktok.com/XXXXX and vt.tiktok.com/XXXXX
  • Copy link: tiktok.com/t/XXXXX
  • Embed: tiktok.com/embed/VIDEO_ID
  • Old mobile: m.tiktok.com/v/VIDEO_ID

The vm. and vt. links are redirects that hide the real video ID, so they get resolved automatically before anything else happens. That's the format the TikTok app gives you, and it's the one most tools choke on.

Instagram

  • Reels: instagram.com/reel/SHORTCODE and the plural instagram.com/reels/SHORTCODE
  • Posts: instagram.com/p/SHORTCODE
  • IGTV: instagram.com/tv/SHORTCODE
  • Profile-scoped: instagram.com/username/reel/SHORTCODE — what you get copying a reel opened from someone's profile grid
  • With tracking: the ?igsh= suffix is ignored

The plural /reels/ form and the username-prefixed form are the two that quietly break most tools, and they're exactly what the mobile app produces.

Facebook

  • Watch: facebook.com/watch?v=ID and facebook.com/watch/?v=ID
  • Reels: facebook.com/reel/ID
  • Page videos: facebook.com/PageName/videos/ID — with or without an SEO slug in the middle
  • Posts: facebook.com/PageName/posts/ID
  • Groups: facebook.com/groups/GROUP/posts/ID — accepted, though most group videos are shown only to members, so they rarely transcribe
  • Stories and permalinks: story.php and permalink.php links
  • Short: fb.watch/v/XXXXX and the older fb.watch/XXXXX
  • Share: facebook.com/share/v/XXXXX and facebook.com/share/r/XXXXX — what each kind means, and which fail, is in Facebook share links
  • Any subdomain: www., m., web., mbasic. all work

Facebook also moved post IDs from plain numbers to opaque pfbid tokens. Both are accepted.

X (Twitter)

  • Standard: x.com/username/status/ID and twitter.com/username/status/ID
  • Mobile: mobile.twitter.com and m.twitter.com
  • No-profile permalink: x.com/i/web/status/ID
  • Legacy root: twitter.com/statuses/ID
  • Specific media: a trailing /video/1 or /photo/2 is fine
  • Spaces: x.com/i/spaces/ID and twitter.com/i/spaces/ID, including /peek links, for Spaces the host recorded — see how to transcribe an X Space

LinkedIn

  • Posts: linkedin.com/posts/SLUG
  • Feed updates: all three URN types — urn:li:activity:, urn:li:ugcPost:, and urn:li:share:

A LinkedIn Live recording is the exception, whatever its link looks like: LinkedIn does not put the video on the public page, so it cannot be transcribed from a link at all. LinkedIn Live transcripts covers what works instead.

Vimeo

  • Standard: vimeo.com/VIDEO_ID
  • Unlisted: vimeo.com/VIDEO_ID/PRIVACY_HASH — the hash is required and is preserved
  • Player: player.vimeo.com/video/VIDEO_ID, with ?h= for unlisted
  • Channels and groups: vimeo.com/channels/NAME/ID
  • Showcases: vimeo.com/showcase/ID?video=VIDEO_ID
  • Events and your own dashboard URL: vimeo.com/event/ID and vimeo.com/manage/videos/ID
  • Review links: vimeo.com/reviews/CODE/videos/VIDEO_ID, while the owner keeps the review link active — see Vimeo review links

Vimeo unlisted links are the classic case where people paste half a URL. If your link has a second string of characters after the number, keep it — that's the privacy hash, and the video won't load without it.

Everything Else

Dailymotion accepts video pages, dai.ly short links, embed URLs, and the geo.dailymotion.com/player.html?video= form that news sites embed. Twitch takes both VODs and clips, in either clip URL shape. Google Drive works via /file/d/, ?id=, and direct download links. Dropbox handles both the legacy /s/ and modern /scl/fi/ shapes, keeping the rlkey intact. Kick, Odysee, SoundCloud, Loom, Wistia, Vidyard, Bilibili, Apple Podcasts, Niconico, CHZZK, SOOP, WeTV and Weibo each accept their standard and short forms too.

Reddit takes post links (reddit.com/r/SUB/comments/ID), the app's Share links (reddit.com/r/SUB/s/CODE) and v.redd.it links. Rumble takes video pages and embed links, Brightcove takes players.brightcove.net player links and bcove.video short links, TED takes talk pages in any language and embed links, and Telegram takes t.me/CHANNEL/POST links from public channels. JW.org takes the Share link (jw.org/finder?…), the video page it opens (?item=…) and the address bar of its video library.

Wrapped links are unwrapped automatically: a link rewritten by Outlook's Safe Links, or a Google redirect such as google.com/url?… or google.com/goto?…, is read as the video link inside it. A share.google link hides the address instead, so open it first — see share.google links.

What Genuinely Won't Work

Being honest about the limits saves you a credit:

  • Photo carousels. A TikTok or Instagram post with no video has nothing to transcribe.
  • Private and unlisted-without-the-hash links. If the video needs a login you have and we don't, extraction stops there — see why transcription fails and what to do.
  • Playlists, channels, and profiles. Link one video, not a collection.
  • Live streams still in progress. Wait for the VOD.

If a Link Still Gets Rejected

Two things usually fix it:

1. Open the video and copy the address bar URL rather than using a share button. Some share sheets produce app-only deep links (the ones starting with a protocol like instagram://) that aren't web URLs at all.

2. Check nothing got truncated. Links pasted through chat apps sometimes lose the tail — which for Vimeo unlisted videos means losing the privacy hash.

If you have the video file itself, you can skip links entirely and upload the file — your browser extracts the audio locally, so even a 500 MB recording uploads in seconds.

FAQ

Does the link format change the price?

No. The price depends on the video, not the link: 1 credit when SubGrab reads the video's own captions, whatever its length, or 1 credit per started hour of audio when AI transcribes it — whichever URL shape you paste.

Why do short links take a moment longer?

vm.tiktok.com, fb.watch and b23.tv are redirects. Resolving them to the real video takes one extra request — usually under a second.

Do tracking parameters matter?

No. ?si=, ?igsh=, ?is_from_webapp= and friends are ignored, so you can paste share links exactly as copied.

What if my platform isn't listed?

Tell us. Most requests come down to one URL shape, and adding a format is usually quick.