Read, summarize, and ask a captioned YouTube video.

Read the available transcript for free. Use a limited hosted-AI allowance or your own provider key for summaries and chat.

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 for transcript, search, copy, or export.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.

Limited hosted AI. No API key for the initial allowance.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 structured study summary when the lecture has an available transcript
  • "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.

The transcript workflow stays free.

Reading, searching, copying, and exporting available captions are not gated by an AI subscription.

Hosted AI starts free.

Summary and chat start without an API key. Limits apply; Google sign-in extends the daily allowance, and power users can optionally use their own provider 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.

Choose by the job you need to finish

A transcript tool retrieves and exports available caption text. A summarizer condenses that text. Video chat answers follow-up questions over the transcript. Compare current workflows and limits in our transcript tool guide and summarizer comparison.

Close your research by evening, not by Sunday.

Install Vidskim and keep the next available transcript, summary, and follow-up questions beside the source video.

Add to Chrome, free