YouTube transcript for ChatGPT

ChatGPT may not be able to open a YouTube video for you, so give it the transcript. Paste the link below, pick a starter prompt and select Copy for ChatGPT. The clipboard gets the prompt, video title, URL, channel and the full transcript, ready to paste into a new chat.

How to give ChatGPT a YouTube video in 3 steps

Paste the YouTube link above and choose Get transcript.
Pick a starter prompt (summary, notes, flashcards, quotes or Q&A) and select Copy for ChatGPT.
Open a new ChatGPT chat, paste and send.

Example output

The first chunk of a real transcript from the public library: Moravec's Paradox - Why are machines so smart, yet so dumb? (Up and Atom). The text is shown exactly as stored, including recognition errors.

Summarize this YouTube video in 5–7 bullet points, then give a one-sentence takeaway. Use only the transcript below.

Title: Moravec's Paradox - Why are machines so smart, yet so dumb?
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcfVRkC3Dp0
Channel: Up and Atom

Transcript:
this episode was made possible by Robo race the world's first driverless racing series hi everyone jto have you ever wondered why it's so easy for machines to do things we find really hard hey Siri what's the square root of five thousand six hundred and ninety seven this square root of five thousand six hundred and ninety seven is approximately seventy five point four seven eight five but so hard to do

Five starter prompts

The prompt you pick is placed above the transcript. You can edit it after pasting.

Summarize: "Summarize this YouTube video in 5–7 bullet points, then give a one-sentence takeaway. Use only the transcript below."
Study notes: "Turn this YouTube transcript into structured study notes with headings, key terms and short explanations. Use only the transcript below."
Flashcards: "Create 10 question-and-answer flashcards from this YouTube transcript. Use only facts stated in the transcript."
Quotes with timestamps: "List the 5 most important quotes from this video, each with its [mm:ss] timestamp from the transcript below. Quote the transcript exactly." This is the only prompt that copies the transcript with timestamps.
Ask questions: "Read this YouTube transcript. Then answer my questions using only what the speaker says, and say so when the transcript does not cover something. Reply "Ready" when you have read it."

When the video is too long for one message

A one-hour talk can produce a transcript far longer than a chat message comfortably holds. When a transcript is over 12,000 characters, the result shows a link to the transcript splitter. It cuts the text at sentence boundaries into labelled parts and gives you instructions to paste first, so ChatGPT waits for every part before answering.

Limits you should know

ChatGPT can still misread or invent details. Ask it to quote the transcript, and check important claims against the video.
Captions and speech recognition contain mistakes, especially in names, numbers and noisy audio. Auto-generated captions often have no punctuation (see the example above).
Without an account you get 10 transcripts per 24 hours (up to 5 of them AI-transcribed); a free account gets 24. Pro raises this to 1,000 a day under fair use.
Free and guest transcripts are published to the public library. Pro transcripts stay private to your team.

FAQ

Can ChatGPT watch YouTube videos?

Depending on the plan and tools available, it may not be able to open a video. Pasting the transcript works in any chat.

Why include the title and URL?

They give ChatGPT context and let you, or anyone you share the chat with, find the source video.

Are timestamps included?

Only with the "Quotes with timestamps" prompt. The other prompts copy plain text to save space.

What if the transcript is too long?

Use the transcript splitter to send it in parts.

Does this cost anything?

Copying is free within the transcript allowance: 10 per 24 hours as a guest, 24 with a free account.

By Kenji Saito · Updated 2026-10-13