Read, summarize, and ask any YouTube video.

Full transcript free and unlimited. One-click summary and AI chat, right inside the player.

Add to Chrome, freeSee how it works
Vidskim on a real YouTube page: the panel shows an AI answer about the video with clickable timecode citations

Sound familiar?

You found the perfect 90-minute talk. Your task needs one hour, total.

The rewatch loop. Scrubbing back and forth because the one insight you need is somewhere in minute forty.
The quote you can't cite. You heard it, you half-remember it, and now you need the exact words with a timestamp.
The tool wall. Free tools give you three summaries, then a paywall. Or a transcript in another tab, stripped of context.
Two moments, no setup

From video to answer in one panel

One click. Full transcript.

Open any YouTube video with captions, click Vidskim, and the complete transcript appears beside the player. Read it, search it, copy it, export it.

No signup. No limit. Free forever.Vidskim panel on a YouTube page: searchable transcript with timestamps, the current line highlighted

Ask the video anything.

Type "what did they say about hidden layers?" and get the answer with timecodes back to the exact moments. Follow up like you would ask the speaker.

Free hosted AI. No API key required.Vidskim Ask AI tab: a real answer about hidden layers with clickable timecode citations

Stop watching just to find three insights.

The summary and transcript surface the substance in seconds, with clickable timestamps back to the source.

02:14 "the real bottleneck is retention"17:48 "we tested this on 400 users"41:02 "here is the caveat everyone misses"

Trust what you cite.

Every answer links to the exact moment in the video. Your conclusions stay checkable, your quotes stay accurate.

Ask follow-ups, not one-shot prompts.

Real chat over the video, not a single summary dump. Clarify, dig deeper, ask for a simpler explanation.

Built for how you actually use YouTube

For researchers and knowledge workers

  • Full transcript to read and search, so nothing slips past your ear
  • Summary with timecodes, structure and takeaways in seconds
  • Ask the video in plain language, get quote plus timecode back
  • Export to Markdown and text for your notes
  • Bulk questions across a playlist coming soon

For students

  • A clean study summary of any lecture, free and unlimited
  • "Explain this simpler" without rewinding ten times
  • Search the transcript, jump straight to the moment
  • Translate the transcript into your language
  • Flashcards from the video coming soon

The honest part

Most tools in this niche hide the wall until you hit it. Here is exactly where ours stands.

Free means free.

Transcript, translate, and export are free and unlimited, forever. Not a trial, not three-uses-then-wall.

Hosted AI starts free.

Summary and chat work with no API key. Use the initial free runs, then sign in free for a daily allowance; power users can still bring their own key.

Answers you can verify.

Every AI answer is tied to a timecode in the transcript. If it cannot point to the moment, do not trust it blindly.

How Vidskim compares

VidskimGlaspNoteGPTEightify
Unlimited free transcriptYesYesQuotaLimited
Chat with the video, in the playerYesNo chatDashboard chatNo
Answers with timecode quotesYesNoPartialNo
Translate and export, freeYesPartialQuotaNo

Feature notes verified on public pages, July 2026. Competitors ship updates; check their sites for current details. More detail: our full comparison.

Close your research by evening, not by Sunday.

Install Vidskim and turn the next long video into a two-minute read and a conversation.

Add to Chrome, free