YouTube Summarizer Chrome Extension

Reduz summarizes the YouTube video you have open in Chrome. The extension reads the active video transcript when you click it, then turns a 40-90 minute video into clear bullets, timestamped key moments, full study notes, or a social post — all in seconds. Anya uses it to decide whether a long product walkthrough is worth watching end-to-end. Cleo turns recorded lectures into exportable study notes. No upload step, no copy-paste into a separate chat tab — the video stays where it is in YouTube.

Illustration of a person watching and uploading video content from a laptop — Photo by Storyset on Pixabay

What you get

Embedded YouTube panel so the summary appears next to the video, not buried in a popup.
Clickable timestamps that jump the YouTube player back to the moment the summary references.
Multiple output styles: concise bullets, full notes, social post, or YouTube Moments artifact.
Local SQLite history — summaries survive closing the tab, the browser, and the next laptop reboot.
Hosted Free: 100 monthly credits, no card. Your own AI key: unlimited with your own provider key.
Export to Markdown, PDF, DOCX, JSON, or ZIP — summaries become portable artifacts, not throwaway chat replies.

Sample youtube video summary

A 42-minute product demo with chapters, technical caveats, and three setup walkthroughs.

Three setup stages explained: install the SDK, connect a provider key, and pick an output style.
Key limitation (12:34): transcript quality matters. Heavily-accented dialogue produces noisier summaries.
Timestamped moments for the configuration walkthrough, the rate-limit warning, and the dark-mode toggle.
Action items Anya pulled from the demo: try the BYOK setup before subscribing to a hosted tier.
Recommended next steps: read the OpenAI quickstart, then return to chapter 4 for the streaming flow.

How it compares

Compared with Eightify, Glasp YouTube Summary, and other YouTube-only extensions, Reduz covers the same in-tab YouTube workflow with timestamps and extends to PDFs, articles, webpages, transcripts, and selected text in one tool. Compared with all-in-one AI assistants like Sider and Monica, Reduz uses click-only permission instead of permission to read every page — the extension can only read a page when you click it. BYOK is the default mode, not a paid-tier unlock, and 100 monthly hosted credits without a card means the free path does not run out of "shots" at noon.

Embedded YouTube panel and clickable timestamps

Reduz injects a small Summarize button onto the YouTube watch page. Click it and the summary streams into a side panel next to the video — no need to keep the extension popup open while the request runs. Timestamps in the summary are clickable: they jump the YouTube player to the moment the summary references. For longer videos, generated YouTube Moments appear as a separate artifact with 5-10 key beats and their start times. The same artifact saves to local history alongside the bullet summary.

Output styles for the same video

From one YouTube source, generate a concise bullet summary for triage, a full notes version for deeper review, a social post draft for sharing on LinkedIn or X, or a study outline for revisiting later. Switch styles without re-summarizing — the extension keeps the transcript in memory while the active tab is open.

Hosted Free vs your own AI key for YouTube videos

Hosted Free processes the transcript through the Reduz relay using a hosted AI model and counts 1 credit per YouTube summary. 100 monthly credits with no card cover roughly 100 videos a month. Your own AI key sends transcript text direct from your browser to your selected provider (Anthropic Claude, OpenAI, Google Gemini, DeepSeek, or xAI Grok) using your own API key. A YouTube transcript summary on Claude Haiku 4.5 or GPT-5.4 Mini typically costs a fraction of a cent.

Local history, search, and export

Every summary saves to a your device on your device — searchable by source title, channel, or date, filterable by output style. Export a single summary to Markdown, PDF, or DOCX, or bundle a month of summaries into a JSON or ZIP archive. Optional zero-knowledge encrypted cloud backup is available if you want a copy off-device; the encryption passphrase never leaves your browser.

Privacy on YouTube transcripts

Reduz only reads the YouTube page when you invoke the extension — click-only permission, no permission to read every page. The transcript text leaves your browser only in the direction you chose: directly to your AI provider when you bring your own AI key, or to the Reduz relay in Hosted Free mode (with an installation identifier for quota only, not a profile). No analytics, no telemetry, no behavioral profile, no cross-context tracking.

Frequently asked questions

Does Reduz need a YouTube API key?

No. Reduz summarizes the transcript available directly from the active YouTube page. An optional YouTube Data API key can be added to enrich summaries with channel and video metadata (title, channel, duration, statistics), but it is not required for basic summarization.

Can Reduz summarize YouTube videos without captions?

A reliable summary depends on usable transcript or caption data. If YouTube has not generated auto-captions and the creator has not uploaded subtitles, Reduz cannot produce a useful summary for that video. Auto-captions on heavily-accented dialogue will produce noisier output than clean captions.

Do timestamps in the summary actually jump the YouTube player?

Yes. Timestamps in the bullet summary and the generated Moments artifact are clickable — they seek the YouTube player back to that moment. This works for MM:SS and H:MM:SS formats. If the active YouTube tab is closed, the timestamps fall back to opening the timestamped YouTube URL in a new tab.

Does Reduz work on YouTube Shorts and live streams?

Shorts work when YouTube's auto-caption system has processed the video, which is usually fast but not instant. Live streams are partial — the transcript is incomplete during the broadcast. Reduz works best on completed videos with finalized captions.

Is the YouTube summary saved if I close the tab?

Yes. Every summary saves to local storage history on your device immediately after generation. You can revisit it from the Reduz history view weeks later, search by channel or title, and re-export to Markdown, PDF, or DOCX.

Is Reduz free?

Yes. Reduz includes 100 free credits a month. Using your own AI key removes the credit limit.

Do I need an account?

Not when you use your own AI key. An account is only needed for free credits, paid plans, or cloud backup.

Where is my data stored?

Summary history is stored in your browser. Cloud backup is opt-in and encrypted on your device before upload.

Which AI providers does Reduz support?

Reduz supports OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, DeepSeek, and xAI Grok. You can also use free credits without setting up an AI account.