Can ChatGPT Watch YouTube Videos? How to Summarize a YouTube or LinkedIn Video
Not from a link. ChatGPT can read web pages, but it doesn't play the video behind a YouTube or LinkedIn link, so it can't hear what's said or see what's shown. Ask it to summarize a video from the URL and you'll often get something built from the title and description, or a guess.
Here's the long way that works, and the short way.
The long way for YouTube: copy the transcript
- Open the video on YouTube and expand the description.
- Select Show transcript. It's only there if the video has captions.
- Copy the whole transcript from the panel.
- Paste it into ChatGPT with the video's title and channel name.
- Ask for the summary.
The catch: ChatGPT now knows what was said, not what was shown. Slides, charts, product demos and on-screen text are all missing, and on long videos the transcript is a lot to copy.
The long way for LinkedIn: record and upload
LinkedIn has no download button for videos in a post, so:
- Screen-record the video while it plays.
- Upload the recording to ChatGPT. Files can be up to 512 MB, but video isn't on OpenAI's list of supported file types, so it may be refused or only partly understood.
- Paste the post text and the author's name, because the recording doesn't carry them.
- Ask your question.
(For Reels and TikToks, here's how to send a Reel to ChatGPT, and why uploading a video to ChatGPT often fails.)
The short way: paste the link into Rescroll
- Copy the video link, from YouTube or a LinkedIn post.
- Paste it into Rescroll.
- Ask: "Summarize this in five bullets", "What are the key arguments?", "Turn this into a LinkedIn post."
Rescroll reads the transcript, and for YouTube videos under 30 minutes it can analyze the visuals too: the slides, the charts, the screen. You can also import up to 50 videos from a YouTube channel at once and ask questions across all of them.
More on LinkedIn: add LinkedIn posts, carousels and videos to your AI chat.
Frequently asked questions
Can ChatGPT watch YouTube videos? Not from a link. ChatGPT can read web pages, but it doesn't play the video, so it can't hear what's said or see what's shown. Paste the transcript in yourself, or paste the link into Rescroll, which watches the video for you.
How do I summarize a YouTube video with ChatGPT? Open the video on YouTube, expand the description, select Show transcript, copy it, and paste it into ChatGPT with the title and channel name. That only works if the video has captions, and ChatGPT will only know what was said, not what was shown.
Can ChatGPT summarize a LinkedIn video? Not from the post link. LinkedIn has no download button for videos in a post, so the long way is to screen-record it, upload the recording and paste the post text. Rescroll takes the LinkedIn link directly.
What's the fastest way to chat with a YouTube video? Paste the link into Rescroll. It reads the transcript, can analyze the visuals of YouTube videos under 30 minutes, and can import up to 50 videos from a channel at once.