TRANSCRIPT TO CAROUSEL
Free Tool to Create LinkedIn Carousels from TikTok Video Transcripts
Let's be real: You've got a TikTok video that's packed with value — maybe it's a listicle, a step-by-step guide, a breakdown of a complex topic. And you think: "This would make a killer LinkedIn carousel." But the thought of manually transcribing, rewriting, and redesigning everything? That's a hard pass.
The good news? You can turn a TikTok video into a LinkedIn carousel completely for free — using a combination of open-source tools and AI. In this guide, I'll show you exactly how to extract the transcript from your TikTok video, then turn that transcript into a polished, professional LinkedIn carousel. No expensive subscriptions, no design skills required.
The Two-Step Workflow
This is the core of the process. You'll use one free tool to get the transcript, and another to turn that transcript into slides. Both are open-source or have generous free tiers, and both work together seamlessly.
Step 1: Extract the Transcript
Use tikslide — a free, open-source CLI tool that extracts the text from a TikTok carousel, slide by slide. It also transcribes any audio in the video. It's perfect for capturing the structure and content of a TikTok that's already formatted as a list or guide.
Step 2: Create the Carousel
Feed that transcript into carousels-mcp — another open-source tool that turns blog posts, articles, or transcripts into LinkedIn carousel PDFs. It automatically detects slide types (stats, lists, takeaways) and generates professional-looking slides.
Step 1: Extract a TikTok Transcript for Free with tikslide
tikslide is an open-source tool that answers the question: "What does this TikTok carousel actually say?" It pulls every slide from a TikTok photo post, OCRs the text slide by slide in order, transcribes the audio, and writes one clean Markdown file you can actually read, search, or feed to an LLM.
Unlike generic scrapers that just dump images, tikslide gives you the content — the text on each slide, in order, plus the spoken audio, as one Markdown document. Perfect for turning into a LinkedIn carousel. [citation:3]
How to Install and Use tikslide
pipx install tikslide # or: pip install tikslide
# Set up a free Gemini API key (Google AI Studio gives you a generous free tier)
export GEMINI_API_KEY="your_free_gemini_api_key"
# Extract the transcript from a TikTok video
tikslide "https://www.tiktok.com/@username/video/123456789" -o transcript.md
You need one free vision API key. Google Gemini's free tier is plenty for this use case. Get a key at ai studio.google.com/apikey. [citation:3]
The output is a clean Markdown file with each slide as a separate section:
"5 habits of highly productive founders"
# Slide 2
"Habit 1: Time blocking. Here's how to do it..."
# Audio
[Full transcript of the audio track]
This structure is perfect for feeding into the next tool.
Step 2: Turn That Transcript into a LinkedIn Carousel with carousels-mcp
carousels-mcp is an open-source MCP server that turns articles, transcripts, and markdown into LinkedIn carousel PDFs. It handles everything: content extraction, slide planning, SVG generation, and PDF output. No web UI, no cloud service — just your local machine. [citation:1]
The tool is actually quite smart about slide types. Numbers and percentages become stat slides. Ordered lists become step-by-step slides. Strong emphasis becomes takeaway callouts. "Before/after" language triggers comparison slides. [citation:1]
How to Use carousels-mcp
"Turn this transcript into a LinkedIn carousel: [paste your transcript.md]"
# Or use the full pipeline in one call
create_carousel topic="5 habits of productive founders" source="transcript.md"
The tool supports eleven slide types: cover, content, code, quote, list, cta, stat, comparison, steps, takeaway, and dataviz. [citation:1]
It also handles multi-platform output with the right dimensions for each platform [citation:1]:
- LinkedIn — 1080×1350, merged into a single PDF carousel
- Instagram — 1080×1080, individual PNG slides at 2x resolution
- Threads — 1080×1350, individual PNGs
Pro tip: You can preview the slides before generating the final PDF. Use preview_slides to see the slide plan, tweak the content, reorder slides, or change slide types. Then call render_slides to produce the final output. [citation:1]
The Full Workflow: From TikTok to LinkedIn in 5 Minutes
Here's the complete end-to-end process, using only free, open-source tools:
- Copy the TikTok video link — open the TikTok app, tap Share, and copy the link.
- Run
tikslideto extract the transcript. - Review the transcript.md — make sure the OCR captured everything correctly.
- Feed the transcript into
carousels-mcp— generate the LinkedIn carousel PDF. - Preview and tweak — use
preview_slidesto review the slide plan, adjust content or reorder slides. - Render and download — get your LinkedIn-ready PDF and post it.
The entire process takes under 5 minutes once you have the tools set up. And it's completely free — no subscription, no cloud service, no upload limits.
Alternative: All-in-One Mobile Apps (Free Tier)
If you'd rather not use the command line, there are mobile apps that combine transcription and carousel creation. Most have free tiers, though they may be more limited than the open-source tools.
Draft AI
Voice → carousels instantly. Free to start, in-app purchases. Also has a "remix from video link" feature that takes inspiration from any video URL. [citation:12]
IOSSlidy
Speak your idea → AI generates carousels. Free with in-app purchases. Supports voice transcription in 20+ languages. [citation:5][citation:6]
IOSCRLS (Carousel Maker AI)
Prompt-to-carousel in seconds. 3-day free trial. Creates stunning designs without templates. [citation:2]
IOSThese apps are great if you want a polished, design-forward carousel without touching code. However, the free tiers typically limit the number of carousels you can create, and they often require a subscription for unlimited use. [citation:2][citation:5][citation:12]
Final wisdom: The combination of tikslide and carousels-mcp is the most powerful free solution available — unlimited, open-source, and fully customizable. But if you're on iOS and want something more polished out of the box, the mobile apps are a good alternative. Pick the workflow that fits your style, and start turning your TikTok content into LinkedIn gold.
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