YouTube Transcript for ChatGPT

Paste a link.
Ask your assistant.

Paste a YouTube link, press "Copy for AI," and paste the result into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Copilot to ask anything about the video. Free, no sign-up.

Works with youtube.com links, youtu.be short links, and Shorts. No account, no quotas, no catch.

1
Paste the link. Drop the YouTube URL into the box above and the transcript loads in seconds.
2
Press Copy for AI. One click copies the transcript with a summary prompt already attached.
3
Paste into your assistant. Ask ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Copilot anything about the video.

Why you have to paste the transcript in

ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini cannot reliably watch a YouTube video or pull its captions themselves. Handed a bare link, most assistants guess from the title, the description, and whatever comments they can see, which produces an answer that sounds confident and is often wrong. Pasting the real transcript replaces that guess with the video's actual words, so the assistant is answering from something it has actually read.

That is the whole idea behind this page. Paste a YouTube link above, get the transcript, press Copy for AI, and paste the result into whichever assistant you already use. The assistant does the reasoning. This site only gets the accurate transcript onto your clipboard.

What Copy for AI puts on your clipboard

Copy for AI copies the timestamped transcript wrapped in a fixed prompt. It asks for a one paragraph overview, the key points as bullets, and notable quotes each with its timestamp, and it appends the video's title, channel, and URL underneath the transcript so the assistant has context. That is all it does. It does not send the transcript anywhere by itself, it only prepares what lands on your clipboard when you press it.

Five prompts worth trying after you paste

The default Copy for AI prompt covers a general summary. Once the transcript is in the conversation, you can ask for something more specific without pasting it again. Try one of these underneath the pasted transcript, or as a follow up question.

Summary

Summarize this transcript in three sentences, then give me five key points as bullets.

Study notes

Turn this transcript into study notes with headings for each topic and a one line takeaway under each.

Action items

Pull out every action item or recommendation mentioned in this transcript as a checklist.

Quote check with timestamps

Give me the three strongest quotes from this transcript, each with its timestamp so I can verify it against the video.

Translation

Translate this transcript into Spanish, keeping the paragraph breaks and the timestamps.

Handling a very long video

A two hour lecture or a long podcast produces a long transcript, and very long transcripts may need to be pasted in parts rather than all at once. Use the timestamped view to split the transcript at a natural break, paste each part in turn, ask for a summary of that part, then ask for one combined summary once every part has gone in.

What happens to what you paste

The transcript is pulled from YouTube's own caption data and copied to your clipboard entirely in your browser. From there it goes only to whichever assistant you paste it into. This site never sees what you paste and is not part of the conversation you have with ChatGPT, Claude, or anyone else. Transcripts of public videos are cached so they can be served as readable pages in the transcript library, and that is caption data YouTube already publishes, not anything of yours.

Want the plain transcript instead of a summary workflow? Use the transcript copier, or read more about pairing a transcript with an assistant on the summarize a video page.

Getting the most out of a pasted transcript

Copy for AI does the setup for you, but a few habits make the paste more useful once it lands in your assistant of choice. Here is how to get a transcript into ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini and ask something worth asking.

Step by step

1
Paste the link and wait for the transcript to load
Drop the YouTube URL into the box above. The transcript appears within seconds, in whichever caption language the video has.
2
Press Copy for AI, not the plain copy button
Copy for AI wraps the transcript in a request for an overview, key points, and quotes with timestamps, along with the title, channel, and URL for context. The plain copy button leaves you to write that request yourself.
3
Paste into your assistant and read the first answer
Paste into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Copilot. The default prompt gets you a usable first answer, and you can follow up in the same conversation without pasting the transcript again.
4
Ask a specific follow up instead of a second summary
Once the transcript is in the conversation, the assistant already has it. Ask about one section, request a different tone, or ask it to check a claim, rather than asking for another general summary.

Good to know

Fix punctuation before you copy if the video only has auto generated captions, since a cleaned up transcript reads better once pasted.
Switch caption language in the picker before you press Copy for AI, since the copy exports whichever language is on screen.
A very long transcript may need to be pasted in parts, so split it at a natural break using the timestamped view.
Copy for AI only changes what is on your clipboard. It does not send anything anywhere by itself.
The assistant can still misread or overstate a point even from an accurate transcript, so check anything surprising against the actual timestamped line.

Worked examples

Deciding whether to watch a long talk

Paste the transcript into ChatGPT with Copy for AI, read the one paragraph overview and the bullet points, then decide whether the full video is worth your time.

Fact checking a quote before sharing it

Ask your assistant for the exact quote and timestamp behind a claim, then search the transcript for that timestamp to confirm the wording before you repeat it.

Getting the most out of a pasted transcript: frequently asked

Can ChatGPT read a YouTube link on its own?

Not reliably. ChatGPT cannot watch a video, so given a bare link it tends to guess from the title and description. Pasting the actual transcript is what lets it answer questions grounded in what was really said.

Does this work with Claude and Gemini too, not just ChatGPT?

Yes. The transcript is plain text, so it pastes the same way into Claude, Gemini, Copilot, or any assistant with a text box. Copy for AI is not tied to any one of them.

Do the timestamps survive the paste?

Yes, Copy for AI copies the timestamped view, so each line keeps its time marker. Ask the assistant for quotes with timestamps back and you can jump the player straight to the moment.

What if the video has no captions?

The tool reads whatever caption track YouTube already publishes for the video, creator uploaded or auto generated. If a video truly has neither, there is no transcript to pull yet.

Does it work with Shorts?

Yes. Paste a youtube.com/shorts link the same way you would any other video link, and the transcript loads the same way.

Is anything I paste stored anywhere?

Nothing you paste into an assistant ever reaches this site, and nothing about you is kept. Transcripts of public videos are cached so they can be served as readable pages in the transcript library, which is the caption data YouTube already publishes, not anything you typed.