Everyday AI · School & study
Summarize a YouTube video
Do you have a long YouTube tutorial or lecture and want the main points first?
Listen to this guide
AI narration · English · Prompt text stays on the page
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What to do
- Copy the public YouTube link from the address bar or Share. Skip private or members-only videos.
- Open Gemini on the web or the official app.
- Paste the link, then paste the prompt below (or type “summarize this video”).
- Open the video and check one fact, name or step before you use the summary. For a study notebook with citations, add the same link as a source in NotebookLM.
Try this prompt
Paste the YouTube URL into Gemini, then this prompt.
Summarize this YouTube video only from content you can actually access (transcript/captions/text I provide). Do not pretend you watched or heard material you cannot access.
SOURCE
Video title: [TITLE / TO CONFIRM]
Transcript/captions: [PASTE OR ATTACH AVAILABLE TEXT]
My goal: [QUICK SUMMARY / STUDY NOTES / ACTION ITEMS / KEY CLAIMS]
FIRST
- State what source you actually have: full transcript, partial transcript, captions, description only, or no usable content.
- If the transcript is partial or has obvious transcription errors, state that limitation.
- Do not infer unseen visuals, demonstrations, charts or tone from transcript text alone.
OUTPUT
1. 5–10 bullet summary, proportional to source length.
2. Main points/claims with timestamps only if timestamps exist in the supplied source.
3. Important examples/evidence actually mentioned.
4. Unclear/transcription-problem sections.
5. For study mode: key terms + 5 review questions.
6. For action mode: actions explicitly recommended by the speaker, separated from your own suggestions.
RULES
- Do not invent quotes, timestamps, statistics, sponsors, links or conclusions.
- Preserve uncertainty and attribution (“speaker claims…”) when the video makes a claim rather than establishing a fact.
- Distinguish the video’s claims from independent truth; summarizing is not fact-checking.
End with “Source coverage” explaining how much of the video the summary is based on.See a sample result
Illustrative example. Your answer may differ.
Input (illustrative): You paste https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=… for a 20-minute cooking tutorial. Example result: Two-sentence topic, five steps, and “To confirm: heat setting mentioned around the middle.” You still open that part of the video.
Before you use it: Pasting the public YouTube link is enough in Gemini. Watch the part that matters. Private videos and videos without captions may fail. This is not exam or professional advice. NotebookLM is optional if you want citations from the captions.
