Last updated: 2026-11-03
Begun by a single developer in March 2024, Clarify AI condenses any public YouTube video of up to three hours into a structured summary beside the player, with jump-to timestamps, transcript export, video Q&A and a digest of viewer comments. About 20,000 people had installed it from the Chrome Web Store by 3 November 2026.
About Clarify AI
Clarify AI is a browser extension that turns a YouTube video into a structured summary with clickable timestamps, a transcript you can copy or export, and a chat box for follow-up questions. Its Chrome Web Store listing showed 20,000 users and a 4.1 average from about 1,300 ratings when Hokai checked it on 3 November 2026. A developer named Alexey started it in March 2024 as a side project, and the first paid version shipped in August 2025.
You open a video, press the summarize button, and the summary appears beside the player. The extension handles videos up to 3 hours, can summarize up to 200 of a video's public comments, and translates results into more than 50 languages. The privacy policy says video content and your questions go to Google's Gemini service, and that some requests may run on the free tier of the Gemini API, where Google may use the content to improve its products and human reviewers may read it. That makes it a poor fit for confidential recordings.
It suits students turning lectures into notes, researchers skimming interviews and podcasts, and anyone who wants the gist of a long tutorial before deciding to watch it. If you need summaries of articles and PDFs as well as video, Monica and AI Summarizer cover more formats. If you highlight and keep notes across the web, Glasp is closer, and Gemini Notebook accepts YouTube links when you want to question a fixed set of sources. Our guide to the best AI YouTube video summarizers compares the field, AI tools for YouTube research covers channel and topic research, and best AI note-taking tools covers what to do with the notes afterwards.
It runs on Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera and Brave on desktop; the vendor lists a mobile version as future work. The same subscription also covers Clarify AI: Screen Answers, a second extension from the team that answers questions about a screenshot, page or PDF. Summaries export to PDF, DOCX, text or straight to Google Docs, and a transcript you copy out can go into ChatGPT or Claude for deeper work.
Pricing
Free plan: a daily AI allowance worth about 7 summaries of 30-minute videos a day, with timestamps and video Q&A drawn from the same allowance and exports capped at 2 a day per format. Basic $2.99/month adds a larger everyday allowance, bookmarks and saved prompt presets. Pro $4.99/month adds the largest allowance, comment summaries, the full model list and unlimited PDF, DOCX, TXT and Google Docs exports.
Annual billing is also offered at a discount. Shared 5-seat plans: Basic $12/month ($2.40 a seat), Pro $19/month ($3.80 a seat), with annual billing saving 34%. 3-day Pro trial with no card.
Every plan also applies to the Screen Answers extension. Payments run through Stripe. Want the right summarizer for how you study?
Smart Match suggests one from your answers.
| Tier | Monthly price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | |
| Basic | $2.99/mo | |
| Pro | $4.99/mo | |
| Basic (5 seats) | $12/mo | |
| Pro (5 seats) | $19/mo |
Feature Comparison by Tier
| Feature | Pro | Free | Basic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily summaries | Largest allowance | About 7 (30 min videos) | Everyday allowance |
| Visual timestamps | From allowance | From allowance | 2 a day |
| Ask about Video | From allowance | From allowance | 2 a day |
| Bookmarks | ✓ | — | ✓ |
| Custom prompt presets | ✓ | — | ✓ |
| Comments summary | ✓ | — | — |
| PDF, DOCX, TXT, Google Docs export | Unlimited | 2 a day each | 2 a day each |
Key Features
- Long video summaries: Summarizes public YouTube videos up to 3 hours long, from short clips to full lectures and podcasts.
- Clickable timestamps: Builds a list of key moments that jump the YouTube player straight to each section of the video.
- Comment summary: On Pro, pulls up to 200 public top-level comments and condenses what viewers say, without sending commenter names to the model.
- Ask about Video: A chat panel beside the player answers follow-up questions from the content of the video you are watching.
- Transcripts and exports: View, copy and export the transcript, and save summaries as PDF, DOCX or TXT or into a new Google Docs file.
- Translation and presets: Results translate into 50+ languages, with short, medium and detailed lengths and saved custom prompts on paid plans.
Pros
- Works inside the YouTube page itself, so there is no pasting links into a separate app before a summary appears.
- The free plan needs no card and covers roughly 7 half-hour videos a day, enough for light study use.
- Actively maintained: version 2.0.1 reached the Chrome Web Store on 1 November 2026.
- Shared 5-seat plans let a class, study group or family split one subscription.
Cons
- Requests may be handled on Google's unpaid Gemini API tier, whose terms let Google reuse submitted content and allow human review, so keep confidential video out.
- Desktop browsers only; there is no mobile app.
- Private and unlisted videos cannot be summarized, only public ones.
- Support runs through email and an FAQ page, with no public documentation or status page.
Data Handling
- Training-data policy
- Per the privacy policy, video content and questions are sent to Google Gemini, and some requests may use the Gemini API free tier, under which Google may use content to improve its products. Summaries that are not bookmarked are deleted periodically; servers are in Germany.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much do you pay for Clarify AI?
The Free plan costs nothing; Basic is $2.99 a month and Pro is $4.99 a month, and the vendor says annual billing is about 19% cheaper on Pro and 21% on Basic. Shared plans give five seats for $12 a month on Basic or $19 a month on Pro. Longer videos and premium models use more of the AI allowance, so people who summarize many 2-3 hour videos reach their limit sooner than the headline numbers suggest.
Is Clarify AI free to use?
Yes. The free plan runs on a daily AI allowance that covers roughly 7 summaries of 30-minute videos, with timestamps and video Q&A coming out of the same pool and exports limited to two per format each day. Comment summaries, bookmarks and saved prompt presets are left out. A 3-day Pro trial starts from inside the extension without a card.
What should you use instead of Clarify AI?
[Glasp](/hub/tools/glasp) suits people who also highlight articles and PDFs and want everything kept on one profile. [Monica](/hub/tools/monica) is a general browser assistant that summarizes web pages and PDFs as well as YouTube. [Gemini Notebook](/hub/tools/notebooklm) fits when you want answers that draw on several sources at once, YouTube links included, rather than one video at a time.
Is Clarify AI better than Glasp?
For YouTube alone, Clarify AI is the simpler choice, with comment summaries and Google Docs export built into its top plan. Glasp wins if you read as much as you watch: its web highlighter, PDF chat and public highlight profile have no match in Clarify AI. Glasp Pro also caps advanced YouTube summaries at 1,000 a month, which few individual viewers will reach.
How long does it take to get going with Clarify AI?
About a minute. Install the extension from the Chrome Web Store (Edge, Opera, Brave and Firefox are supported too), sign in with Google, open a public YouTube video and press the summarize button. You can choose a short, medium or detailed summary before running it, and the result sits beside the player.
Top Alternatives
- Glasp: Pick Glasp if your reading and highlighting matter as much as your video summaries.
- Monica: Pick Monica if you want a general browser assistant rather than a YouTube specialist.
- Gemini Notebook: Choose Gemini Notebook when you need answers grounded in several sources at once.