Turn your video transcript into YouTube chapters and clean captions

Paste your transcript; get chapter timestamps that follow YouTube's rules and a cleaned-up caption file you can upload.

What it does

No bot required. YouTube's help center says chapters break a video into sections, each with its own preview, so viewers can jump ahead or rewatch a part. To add your own, list timestamps and titles in the description: the first must start at 00:00, you need at least three in ascending order, and each chapter must be at least 10 seconds long (your list overrides automatic chapters). Captions open your video to deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers and to people who speak another language, and YouTube Studio can take a plain transcript and set the timing for you. YouTube's transcript tips: a blank line starts a new caption, square brackets mark sounds like [music] or [laughter], and >> marks a change of speaker; auto-sync works best on videos under an hour with clear audio. Paste the timestamped transcript from your editing app or YouTube Studio into any chat AI and it drafts the chapter list and a cleaned transcript. Tutorials, gaming walkthroughs, tech reviews and long streams all benefit. You check the timestamps against the video and upload everything yourself.

Copy-paste prompt

No bot needed: paste this into Grok, ChatGPT, or Claude.

Help me add chapters and captions to my YouTube video, following YouTube Help's rules for video chapters and transcript files.

Video: [title], about [length, e.g. 14:32] long. Type: [tutorial / gaming walkthrough / tech review / vlog / talk / stream highlight]. My channel name: [name].
Here's my transcript with timestamps (from my editing app or YouTube Studio's auto captions): [paste it]

1. Chapters: write a chapter list for my description.
   - The first line must start at 00:00.
   - At least 3 chapters, in ascending order, each at least 10 seconds long.
   - Short, clear titles (2-6 words) that say what happens, main words first. No clickbait.
   - Only use timestamps that appear in my transcript; don't guess. If a section break is unclear, mark it "(check)" so I can scrub to it.
2. Clean transcript for captions, as plain text I can save as a .txt file and upload in YouTube Studio (auto-sync, or upload file "without timing"):
   - Fix obvious auto-caption mistakes (names, game titles, product names, my channel name), but keep my words. Don't rewrite or polish what I said.
   - Use a blank line to start a new caption.
   - Put sounds in square brackets, like [music], [laughter], [gameplay sounds].
   - Use >> to mark a change of speaker (for example ">> ME:" and ">> GUEST:").
   - Leave the timestamps out of this version.
3. List any words you weren't sure about so I can check them.

Remind me: auto-sync works best on videos under an hour with good, clear audio, and the transcript must be in the same language spoken in the video. I'll paste the chapters into my description and upload the captions myself.