Paste a Video Link, Get the Summary and Transcript
AI video summarizer turns a video into a written summary you can read in a couple of minutes. Paste a link from YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and most other public video links (Twitch, Loom, Dropbox, Google Drive, Pinterest, X, Threads, Douyin, Kuaishou, Bilibili) through a generic importer, or upload a file, and ScreenApp transcribes the audio, labels the speakers, splits the video into chapters, and writes the summary with timestamps that jump back to the moment in the video.
You get a document, not a wall of text: a short overview, chapters with start times, quotes attributed to who said them, and any decisions or action items that came up. The full transcript stays attached. You can also ask questions about the video and get answers that point to the timestamp. 3,660+ people signed up from this page in the last 90 days. Here is a real example: a sample summary PDF ScreenApp produced from an interview, and the same output as a Word file.
What you get with every video:
- A summary with chapters with timestamps and speaker identification
- A full transcript in any of 99 languages, auto-detected
- AI chat with any recording, so you can ask what was said about a topic
- Exports as PDF, DOCX, TXT, SRT and VTT
- Uploads up to 2 GB, or links from YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and most other public video links (Twitch, Loom, Dropbox, Google Drive, Pinterest, X, Threads, Douyin, Kuaishou, Bilibili) through a generic importer
- Free plan: one recording of up to 45 minutes, with AI chat on it
How to Summarize a Video
- Paste a link or upload a file: Paste a public or unlisted link from YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and most other public video links (Twitch, Loom, Dropbox, Google Drive, Pinterest, X, Threads, Douyin, Kuaishou, Bilibili) through a generic importer, or drop in a video file of up to 2 GB. Private videos need to be downloaded and uploaded as a file.
- Let it process: The audio is transcribed, speakers are labelled, and the video is split into chapters. AI reads video frames, not just the audio, so slides and on-screen text make it into the notes.
- Read, ask, export: Read the summary, click a timestamp to jump to that moment, or ask a question about the video. Export as PDF, DOCX, TXT, SRT and VTT.
Summary quality follows transcript quality. A talking-head video with a clear microphone transcribes well; a phone recording of a panel in an echoing room will have gaps, and the summary inherits them. See how we measure accuracy.
Where It Struggles
The summary is only as good as the transcript, and the transcript depends on the audio. The accuracy page publishes measured word error rates under three conditions and is retested quarterly; the short version is what breaks the summariser:
- Several people talking over each other. Speaker labels drop and quotes get attributed to the wrong person. Panel recordings with a single room mic are the worst case.
- Music, crowd or traffic under the speech. Field recordings on a phone lose words, and a missed word in a decision or a number carries straight into the summary.
- Slides with no narration. Chapters follow the audio. A section where the speaker stops talking and the slides carry the content will be thin, even though AI reads video frames, not just the audio.
- Private or region-locked links. The importer takes YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and most other public video links (Twitch, Loom, Dropbox, Google Drive, Pinterest, X, Threads, Douyin, Kuaishou, Bilibili) through a generic importer, but a private post has to be downloaded and uploaded as a file first.
If the transcript looks wrong, fix it before trusting the summary: the summary is generated from the transcript, not from the audio directly.
AI Video Summarizer vs Other Apps
| Feature | ScreenApp | NoteGPT | Notta | AI Video Summarizer (aivideosummarizer.io) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | one recording, up to 45 min, with AI chat | Free tier, limits not stated | 120 min/month, 3 min per conversation, 10 AI summaries/month | Free, no login |
| Upload video files | Up to 2 GB | Up to 1 GB on Pro, 5 GB on its higher plans | Yes, up to 5 hours per recording on Pro | Up to 1 GB |
| Speaker identification | speaker identification | "Separate Speaker" option | Included | Yes |
| Languages | 99 | 60+ | Not stated | 100+ |
| Paid plan | $19/month annual | $9/month annual | $8.17/month annual | None stated |
Sources, checked 2026-09-12: screenapp.io/accuracy, screenapp.io/accuracy#languages, screenapp.io/pricing, screenapp.io/help/how-many-minutes-can-i-record, notta.ai/en/pricing, aivideosummarizer.io, notegpt.io/pricing, notegpt.io/audio-summary, notegpt.io/youtube-video-summarizer
- vs NoteGPT: NoteGPT is built around YouTube links and processes videos without subtitles up to 120 minutes on Pro, with file uploads up to 1 GB on that plan. Pro is $9 a month. It transcribes 60+ languages; ScreenApp transcribes 99. See the full NoteGPT vs ScreenApp comparison.
- vs Notta: Notta’s free plan gives you 120 minutes a month but caps each conversation at 3 minutes, so a full video needs Pro at $8.17 a month annual. Notta’s own FAQ says a summary with chapters and action items takes 2 to 4 minutes.
- vs AI Video Summarizer (aivideosummarizer.io): Free, no login, files up to 1 GB, 100+ languages. It is a summary-only tool; ScreenApp keeps the recording in a library with the transcript, AI chat, and exports attached.
Who Uses an AI Video Summarizer
Students paste a recorded lecture or a YouTube explainer and read the chapters before the exam instead of rewatching an hour of video. The transcript is searchable, so a term the lecturer defined at minute 40 is one search away.
Teams run their Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams recordings through it for decisions and action items with the name of whoever said them. The meeting recorder does this automatically for calendar meetings.
Creators and editors summarize a long interview or podcast episode to find the quotes worth clipping, then jump to the timestamp in the source file.
Researchers process interviews, conference talks, and panel recordings into transcripts with speaker labels they can quote with a timestamp.
Marketers and analysts summarize competitor webinars, product demos, and TikTok or Instagram clips without sitting through them, and ask follow-up questions about what was claimed.
Anyone with audio-only files, such as podcasts and voice memos, uses the AI audio summarizer, which runs the same pipeline without the video layer.
FAQ
What is an AI video summarizer?
A tool that turns a video into written notes. You paste a link or upload a file, and it transcribes the audio, labels who is speaking, pulls out the main points, and creates chapters with timestamps. ScreenApp does this for links from YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and most other public video links (Twitch, Loom, Dropbox, Google Drive, Pinterest, X, Threads, Douyin, Kuaishou, Bilibili) through a generic importer and for uploaded files, so you are not limited to YouTube.
Is the AI video summarizer free?
Free to try. The free plan includes one recording of up to 45 minutes, with the transcript, summary, and AI chat on that recording. Paid plans start at $19 a month billed annually; see pricing.
Can AI summarize a YouTube video?
Yes. Paste any public or unlisted YouTube URL and ScreenApp fetches the video itself, no download needed. The summary comes with timestamps that link back to the video. For private, age-restricted, or members-only videos, download the file and upload it instead. The YouTube video summarizer page covers those cases in detail.
Can I summarize a TikTok, Instagram, or Facebook video?
Yes. Paste a TikTok link, an Instagram Reel, or a Facebook Watch or Live link the same way you would a YouTube URL. Private or restricted posts need to be downloaded first and uploaded as a file.
How is this different from ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is a chat model you give text or images to. ScreenApp is the workflow around the video: it imports the recording from a link or a file, extracts the audio, transcribes it in the detected language, identifies the speakers, keeps every timestamp, splits the recording into chapters, reads the video frames so slides and on-screen text count, and then writes the summary from that transcript. You can paste ScreenApp’s transcript into ChatGPT if you want to; ScreenApp is what produces it.
How accurate is the transcription?
It depends on the audio. Clean, single-speaker audio transcribes with few errors; noisy, multi-speaker recordings have more. Every summary line links to its timestamp, so you can check a quote against the video. Per-language and per-condition word error rates are on the accuracy page.
How long does processing take?
A few minutes for most videos. The transcript and summary arrive together, and the AI chat is ready as soon as the transcript is. Longer videos take longer, and the timing depends on the queue at the time.
What file formats and sizes can I upload?
Common video formats, including MP4, MOV, and WebM, up to 2 GB per file. Audio files work too. Recording length on the free plan is capped at 45 minutes; Pro raises that to 2 hours per recording and Max to 3 hours.
Do you support British English and other languages?
Yes. Spell it summarise or summarize, the transcript reads British and international English along with 99 languages, auto-detected. The summary, transcript, and AI chat come back in the language of the video.
