How to summarize a YouTube video in Chrome

Long videos are hard to skim. A transcript helps, but reading forty minutes of captions is its own chore. Reduz turns the captions into a short summary you can read next to the player, then lets you jump back to the parts you care about.

Before you start

You need two things: the Reduz extension, and an API key from a provider such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, DeepSeek, or xAI. Add the key in Reduz settings and click Test once to make sure it works.

You also need captions. Reduz summarizes the transcript YouTube already provides on the watch page, including auto-generated captions. If a video has no caption track at all, there is nothing to summarize, and a provider key cannot change that.

Summarize from the watch page

1. Open the video on YouTube.
2. Click Summarize under the video, next to Like and Share.
3. Reduz opens beside the player and starts your default format.
4. Switch to another format if you want a different length.

The panel next to the player is the same Reduz as the toolbar popup and the side panel. You get the same formats, the model picker, Save image, export, and history. You can also start from the toolbar icon if you prefer.

Pick a format

• Bullets: one sentence with the main point, then three to five short bullets.
• Post: one short paragraph of up to 300 characters, handy for sharing.
• Full: continuous notes that follow the video's argument from start to finish.

For a lecture or an interview, Full is usually worth the extra seconds. For a news clip, Bullets is often enough.

Jump back to the moment

Timestamps in a YouTube summary are clickable. Click one and the video jumps to that point, whether you are reading in the panel, the popup, or the side panel, as long as the video's tab is still open. For a longer saved transcript, you can also generate Moments: a short list of timestamped sections you can revisit later.

Optional: richer video details

A YouTube Data API key is optional. With one, Reduz adds the video's title, channel, duration, and view counts to the request, which helps the summary name things correctly. Transcripts still come from the watch page either way.

Check what matters

Auto-generated captions mishear names and numbers. Before you quote a figure or a person, click the timestamp and listen to that part yourself. It takes a few seconds.