Generate YouTube chapters from any video
Paste a link, get timestamped chapters ready to paste into the description. Free, no signup — built from the video's own transcript.
How to add chapters to a YouTube video
- Paste the video URL above and press Generate chapters.
- Review the list — edit any title that misses the point of its section.
- Paste the timestamps into the video description, each on its own line.
YouTube turns a list of timestamps into clickable chapters automatically, but only if the list follows its rules: the first entry must be 00:00, there must be at least three entries, and every section must run at least ten seconds. This tool always starts at00:00, so the output is valid as generated.
Why chapters are worth the two minutes
- Viewers stay longer — people who can see the structure jump to the part they need instead of leaving.
- Search sees the sections — chapter titles describe the video in words, which helps it surface for more specific queries.
- They double as notes — a chapter list of someone else's talk is the fastest summary of its argument.
Chapters, summary, or transcript?
Chapters give you the shape of a video; asummary gives you its argument; thefull transcript gives you the exact words to quote. All three come from the same caption track, and all three are free here. If you find yourself running videos through these tools regularly, theMarqly extension does it on the watch page itself — and saving a video keeps its transcript attached, sosemantic search can find it months later from a half-remembered detail.
Frequently asked questions
How does the chapter generator work?
It reads the video’s caption track, then an AI model picks the natural section boundaries and names them. The timestamps come from the transcript itself, so every chapter points at a moment that actually exists in the video.
Why does YouTube ignore my chapters?
YouTube only turns timestamps into chapters when the first one is 00:00, there are at least three of them, and each is at least 10 seconds long. This tool always starts at 00:00, but if you edit the list afterwards, keep those three rules in mind.
Does it work on videos without captions?
No. If the uploader disabled captions there is no transcript to work from. Most videos have at least auto-generated captions, which work fine here.
Can I use it on someone else’s video?
Yes — it is useful for taking notes on long talks and podcasts, not just for publishing. For your own videos, paste the output into the description; for other people’s, keep the chapter list with the video in your library.
