What’s the best YouTube video summarizer right now?

Each tool has its unique interface, but generally, you can copy and paste the YouTube video URL into the tool, select the desired summary length, and get the summary in return. The effectiveness of these tools varies based on video quality, content, and the complexity of the video's content. Some may require you to sign up or use a browser extension, but most are accessible directly through their websites.

If you want a free, easy, and reasonably effective YouTube video summarizer, the "YouTube Summary with ChatGPT" extension is one of your best bets right now. Just keep in mind its limitations and consider customizing prompts for length and detail.

Video Abstract is a web-based tool specifically designed for YouTube video summarizer. Like Summarize.tech, you simply paste the URL and get a summary.

How It Compares to Your Original Request:
✅ Works from URL - Yes
✅ Free - Yes, completely
✅ Key points + timestamps - Yes
✅ Handles videos without captions - Should work with auto-generated subtitles
🔄 Chapter-aware - Unclear if it specifically leverages existing chapters
🔄 Exports - Likely copy/paste rather than direct file export
🔄 Length customization - Basic summary length, but less control than some tools

Video Abstract is absolutely worth trying - especially if you're hitting the time limits on other free tools. It's particularly good for:

• Longer videos (beyond 1 hour)
• Quick, no-fuss summaries
• Users who don't need advanced export features

Since you're exploring options, try Video Abstract with one of your longer videos, and compare the output quality with Summarize.tech and the Chrome extension I mentioned earlier. Different YouTube video summarizer can sometimes produce meaningfully different summaries based on the same video.

Trimit is a popular tool for YouTube video summarizer, and it offers a free tier that might suit your needs. Trimit offers a free plan that allows you to summarize videos, though there might be some limitations on the number of videos or length per day. For more advanced features or higher usage, they might offer paid plans.

How to use YouTube video summarizer:

• You paste the YouTube video URL into Trimit.
• It processes the transcript or captions (if available).
• It generates a summary with key points and sometimes timestamps.
• You can review the summary directly on their platform.

Pros

• Easy to use.
• Supports videos with or without captions.
• Provides concise summaries and key points.

Cons

• Free tier may have limitations on usage.
• Quality depends on the video's captions or transcript availability.
• Not always perfect for very long videos.

For a best YouTube video summarizer that can give you solid key points and timestamps directly from the URL, your best bet right now is Microsoft's own tools or integrated solutions. 

Microsoft Designer / Bing Chat / Edge AI Features:

• Bing Chat (with GPT-4) integrated in Microsoft Edge now offers some video summarization features, especially if captions are available.
• You can paste the YouTube URL into Bing Chat and ask for a summary, key points, or timestamps.
• Note: While not fully automated for chapter-aware summaries, it can give decent summaries for videos with captions or transcripts.

Why this works:

• Free with a Microsoft account.
• Easily accessible from Edge browser.
• Supports URL input.
• Handles videos with or without captions.
• Can generate short or detailed summaries on demand.

Additional suggestions about YouTube video summarizer:

• Microsoft Edge Sidebar + Bing Chat:  
• Open Edge, go to Bing Chat (or press the sidebar icon).
• Paste the YouTube URL.
• Ask for a summary, key points, and timestamps.
• Specify length: TL;DR or detailed.

What is the best YouTube video summarizer right now? yt-dllp is free and powerful for downloading videos, captions, or audio. Whisper (by OpenAI) is open-source and free to run locally if you have the hardware, allowing transcription without additional costs. GPT API can be used for summarization, but note that the API has usage limits and costs beyond free tiers. For a fully free solution, you might want to explore open-source summarization models like GPT-J or Llama. Parsing timestamps from captions or transcripts helps generate timestamps in summaries, which is exactly what you want for key points with timestamps.

Workflow:

• Download captions or audio with yt-dllp.
• Transcribe with Whisper (if no captions).
• Summarize with GPT API or an open-source YouTube video summarizer.
• Optionally, parse timestamps from captions or transcript.

If you have technical skills, this workflow is cost-effective (mostly only hardware and time).
If you prefer a more straightforward, less technical method, then web apps or browser extensions might be more practical, but they might not be entirely free or customizable.

The YouTube Summary with ChatGPT Chrome extension is one of the best tools currently available for quick YouTube video summaries. It offers a straightforward way to generate summaries directly on YouTube pages without needing to manually extract transcripts or use external tools.

How to use:

• Install the extension from the Chrome Web Store.
• Go to any YouTube video.
• Click the extension icon or activate it from the context menu.
• It will generate a summary in a popup.

Tips for best results:

• For longer videos, consider manually selecting key parts or running the summary multiple times with specific prompts.
• To get chapter-aware summaries, you may need to copy the chapter timestamps and ask ChatGPT to organize the summary accordingly.