Every day, you encounter content you want to keep — a great YouTube video, a useful Notion page, a Substack post you want to read offline, a ChatGPT conversation worth archiving. But most platforms make it surprisingly hard to actually download and convert the content you create or consume.
This is a practical guide to the best free tools for the most common conversion tasks in 2026. No fluff. No paid-only recommendations. Just the tools that actually work.
How I picked these tools
Three criteria:
- Free — No paywalls for the core feature. (Some have paid tiers for advanced features, which is fine.)
- No signup — Email-required services don’t make this list. If a tool asks for an account to do the thing it claims to do, it’s not actually free.
- Actually works in 2026 — Tested against current platform behavior. (Some tools that were great in 2023 don’t work anymore because platforms changed.)
Video tools
YouTube transcript download
Best for: Getting the text of any YouTube video with captions.
YouTube has transcripts for most videos but no “Download” button. This tool reads YouTube’s existing captions and gives you a clean transcript with timestamps, downloadable as TXT or PDF. Auto-generated captions work fine — usually 85-95% accurate for clear English speech.
Alternatives:
- YouTube’s built-in viewer (free but you have to manually copy-paste)
- Tactiq (browser extension, requires signup)
Loom video download
Best for: Saving public Loom share videos as MP4 files.
Loom’s built-in download only works if you’re logged in and own the workspace. For share links from other people, you need a third-party tool. This one fetches the public share page, extracts the video URL, and lets you watch in-browser or download as MP4.
Alternatives:
- Loom’s official download (only for your own videos)
- DevTools (technical, fragile)
Writing tools
Notion to Markdown
Best for: Converting Notion pages to clean Markdown files.
Notion’s official export gives you a zip of multiple files. This tool gives you a single clean .md file from a public Notion URL. Perfect for backing up pages, moving content to Obsidian, or using in static site generators.
Alternatives:
- Notion’s official export (gives zip, not single file)
- Copy-paste (loses formatting)
Substack / Medium reader
Best for: Reading Substack and Medium articles in a clean, distraction-free view, or saving them as PDFs.
→ Substack & Medium Reader tool
Strips the popups, signup walls, autoplay videos, and recommendation widgets from any Substack or Medium article. Renders in a typography-focused reader, or downloads as a clean PDF.
Alternatives:
- Print to PDF (works but includes all the chrome)
- Pocket or Instapaper (require accounts, save to a service)
AI tools
ChatGPT conversation to PDF
Best for: Archiving ChatGPT conversations as polished PDFs.
ChatGPT’s history can disappear (account issues, model updates, policy changes). This tool takes a public share link and produces a clean PDF with all messages, code blocks preserved, and proper formatting. Works with one conversation at a time.
Alternatives:
- ChatGPT’s built-in data export (gives JSON dump of everything)
- Manually copy-paste (tedious for long conversations)
Spotify to YouTube
Best for: Finding any Spotify track, album, or playlist on YouTube legally.
Spotify’s terms of service prohibit extracting audio. We don’t try — we just look up the track title on YouTube where you can find the official upload. Honest, legal, useful when you want to share a song with someone who doesn’t have Spotify.
Alternatives:
- Searching YouTube manually (works but tedious for playlists)
- Spotify’s share feature (gives a link, not a way to find on YouTube)
Design tools
Figma to SVG export
Best for: Step-by-step instructions to export Figma designs as SVG.
Figma’s export API requires authentication, so we don’t try to one-click export (asking for your Figma access token would be a security red flag). Instead, we give you the file metadata + 4 numbered steps to export as SVG in Figma itself. Takes about 60 seconds, works for every file type.
Alternatives:
- Figma’s built-in export (only if you’re logged in)
- Screenshot tools (raster, not vector)
What we left off this list
Three categories we considered but don’t recommend:
- TikTok / Instagram downloaders — Many exist but the legal status is unclear (you’re downloading other people’s content). Use carefully and ethically.
- General PDF converters — There are dozens, most are bloated with ads. We focused on tools that solve one specific problem well.
- OCR tools — Useful but specialized. If you need one, Google Docs’ built-in OCR or Adobe’s online converter handles most cases.
What we’re working on next
Three tools currently in development:
- Instagram to MP4 — Download public Instagram reels and videos
- Twitter / X video downloader — Save X videos as MP4
- PDF to Markdown — Convert PDFs to clean Markdown
If you have a tool suggestion, let us know.
The general pattern
Most “online content tool” sites fall into one of three traps:
- Free but requires signup — Email required = not actually free. Your email has value.
- Free but with limits — “First 3 downloads free, then $9.99/month.” The free tier is a teaser.
- Free but ads everywhere — Ads on the actual tool page = UX nightmare.
The tools on this list avoid all three. They’re free, no signup, no aggressive monetization on the actual tool page. That’s the bar we hold ourselves to, and it’s the bar we’d recommend for any tool you use.
A note on ethics
Most conversion tools sit in a legal gray area. Some quick guidelines:
- Always fine: Saving content you created for personal backup
- Usually fine: Saving content you have legitimate access to (public posts, member-only posts you subscribe to) for personal reference
- Not fine: Redistributing copyrighted content publicly, bypassing paywalls, scraping private content
The tools on this list are designed for the first two categories. Use them responsibly.
Try it now
Pick any of these tools and save something you’ve been meaning to keep. 30 seconds of work, permanent peace of mind.
All Pullsy tools: Homepage · YouTube Transcript · Notion to Markdown · Substack to PDF · ChatGPT to PDF · Loom to MP4 · Spotify to YouTube · Figma to SVG · Medium Reader