How to Create YouTube Summaries with AI (March 2024)

Being able to understand video content quickly can save you a lot of time in many situations.

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This article is all about using artificial intelligence to make short summaries of YouTube videos, which makes watching videos faster and easier and helps with learning and accessibility.

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Whether you are a student wanting to learn from video lessons, a content creator looking for video references, or just a simple human being wanting to know what is in the news, these AI tools will help you soak up information without spending hours watching videos.

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I tested 3 different methods for summarizing YouTube videos by seeing how well they would make summaries of the same video.

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Our top choice

In my opinion, using custom GPTs inside ChatGPT was the most effective method in this test. Some of these GPTs made it easy, even fun, to create detailed summaries. The GPTs I tested gave a good balance of detail while also ensuring the summary was succinct enough to be easily readable.

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In particular, the Video Summarizer AI GPT stands out because it can create detailed and engaging summaries. What makes it unique is how it sums up the main points and important data from YouTube videos in a style that is visually appealing and is easy to read. The tool can also handle multiple languages and it gives detailed time stamps too. This makes it super useful and flexible for anyone wanting to really get what's in video content across different languages.

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Method 1: Using GPTs in ChatGPT

GPTs for summarizing videos are a new way to digest content on YouTube more easily and efficiently.

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Whether for educational purposes, content research, or simply catching up on your favorite video content, GPTs for summarizing videos cater to a wide range of needs, offering summaries in various languages and formats.

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GPT 1. Video Summarizer AI

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Video Summarizer AI stands out by generating highly readable summaries in bullet point format, making it easy to understand and remember key ideas from a video. This tool not only makes content easier to digest but also engages users further by including exploratory questions, encouraging a deeper exploration of the subject matter. I also tested the summary capabilities in the Tagalog language – it successfully maintained the key points and clarity even in a non-English language.

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Adding to its versatility, Video Summarizer AI offers a unique feature that allows users to request detailed time stamps, making it easier to navigate specific parts of the video. This functionality enhances the tool's utility, providing a comprehensive and efficient way to understand and interact with video content.

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GPT 2. Video Insights: Summaries/Vision/Transcription

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Video Insights: Summaries/Vision/Transcription offers a quick summarization of YouTube videos, performing the task with apparent ease. In my experience, I was using a video that discussed scientific techniques to maintain calmness under stress, and I noticed that this GPT interpreted it inaccurately. The GPT summarized it using a different subject, explaining the videos as “The Art of Misdirection” and relating it to “magic,” which veered the summary away from the original and scientific nature of the video. This inclination towards adding irrelevant information might become an issue for people writing with sensitive data.

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The tool claims proficiency in generating summaries across different languages, a feature I put to the test by requesting a summary in Tagalog of an English video. While it efficiently delivered the summary, it unfortunately retained the unrelated content mentioned above. Also, even though their guide didn't mention it, I tried out asking for time stamps along with the summaries. However, it didn't work as well as I had hoped, as it didn’t generate any time stamps, only another summary.

GPT 3. Video Summarizer

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Video Summarizer is pretty efficient at summarizing YouTube content, but with the few tests I did, I was disappointed that some summaries were incomplete. Upon testing this GPT, there were two instances where it gave me summaries that were cut mid-sentence. This is quite a big deal as it might cause delays, especially for users who need summaries for a large number of videos, by eating up the Chat GPT cap limit (40 messages every 3 hours).

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Again, I also tried making the summary in Tagalog language, to see how it would perform in a non-English language, and it surprisingly did so. Plus, it does keep its word about adding time stamps to the summaries, which helps you navigate through the video better. But, when I compare it to the first GPT above (Video Summarizer AI), this GPT’s way of doing time stamps wasn't as detailed as I was hoping for.

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Method 2: Using Chrome extension

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Chrome extension 1: YouTube Summary with ChatGPT & Claude

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To test this method, I used YouTube Summary with ChatGPT & Claude, which is available to download from the Chrome web store.

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YouTube Summary with ChatGPT & Claude promises to sum up YouTube videos, web articles, and PDFs, which sounds like a versatile tool for lots of different digital content. It's supposed to work by analyzing the Youtube transcript and turning it into a shorter written summary, which could help you get the gist of things faster.

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But unfortunately, this was not how I experienced it. I was hoping for a neat summary that got to the heart of the video, but all I got was a copied version of the transcript with lesser time stamps. It wasn't the analysis or polished summary I was looking for. Also, the configuration settings was pretty complicated and may confuse a lot of new users. For users looking for accurate transcripts of the whole video though, this could be a good choice.

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Method 3: Using a web-based tool

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For the last method, I used a browser based tool called Note GPT. It’s a bit like the Chrome extension I talked about before, where it aims to shorten YouTube videos by looking at their transcripts. Unlike the extension, however, Note GPT actually made a summary that's quite different from the original transcript text from Youtube.

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When I tested this tool, I was actually impressed, especially since it's free. It gives you three things: a brief summary, timestamps with the main points, and some key takeaways, which together help you get a good grip on what the video's about. It even usews emojis in its summaries, which makes things a bit more fun, though it does make the summaries seem less formal.

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Chrome extension 2: Eightify

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Eightify is another chrome extension designed for summarizing Youtube videos. It uses AI to quickly analyze video content and transcript to present the most important information in a summary. Its features span from key insights, summary with timestamps, top comments summary and video transcripts.

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This AI tool was able to provide a short and precise summary in a listed down format through the key insights feature. It captured all the important points of the video, albeit being concise. Their summary with timestamps was also informative and extensive, which can be useful for navigating the video further. However, their free access only offers one free summary each day of use. Additionally, the free access only summarizes videos of up to 30 minutes. To surpass these limitations, you will need to subscribe to their Pro plan that charges $47.99 per year.

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Conclusion

If you need a summarized version of a movie you’re interested in or want to learn how to use an app from a video, YouTube summary tools can help you achieve this without spending long hours watching the videos yourself.

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There are different methods presented in this article, and while results may vary per user, using GPTs for summarizing videos proved to be the most effective in our experiment.

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So whether you want a comprehensive, bulleted style of summarization or a brief summary in a non-English language, using GPTs can give you the most effective and efficient shortcut to achieve this task, compared to the other methods we’ve tested.

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This article not only highlighted the importance of choosing the best and the right tool for your summarization needs but also showcased how helpful and practical today’s AI is, even if it’s still continuously developing.

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And by the way – if you're looking for a curated list of the world's top GPTs, not just for video summarisation but for many more tasks you can use AI for, you're in the right place. Just head to the home page to see our ranked, categorized and searchable list of the best GPTs.