YouTube transcripts, now with extra ChatGPT copy-paste

What it does

This extension adds a “Transcript & Summary” box to YouTube pages. It pulls the video transcript manually, then copies a formatted prompt to your clipboard and opens ChatGPT in a new tab. You paste, and ChatGPT does the summarizing. The heavy lifting is still OpenAI’s; this is mostly plumbing and UI glue.

The interesting bit

The clever part isn’t the AI — it’s the transcript scraping. The author notes YouTube could break this at any time, which is refreshingly honest for a browser extension. The manifest v3 architecture keeps it compliant with Chrome’s increasingly strict extension rules.

Key highlights

• Runs entirely client-side; no backend server or API key management
• Manifest v3 compliant (Chrome’s newer, more locked-down extension format)
• Available on Chrome Web Store, not just sideload
• Author also building Glasp, a social annotation tool with AI summarization — this extension may be a funnel
• 861 stars suggests it solved a real, if narrow, friction point

Caveats

• Requires manual paste into ChatGPT; not a fully integrated API call
• Transcript fetching is brittle by the author’s own admission
• Free ChatGPT availability is explicitly not guaranteed

Verdict

Useful if you summarize YouTube videos regularly and don’t mind the copy-paste dance. Skip it if you want true automation or already pay for tools with direct API integration.