Summaries · YouTube chapters

Generate YouTube chapters from a transcript

DomeScribe generates YouTube chapters from the video itself: upload the file or paste the YouTube link, it transcribes the recording with timestamps, then its AI Summary writes 4–12 chapters — each a short descriptive title with the start time taken from the transcript — in the exact format YouTube reads. Click “Copy YouTube chapters” and paste the list into the video description; the first chapter starts at 0:00 so YouTube accepts it.

Generate chapters for a video · How Transcribe Studio works

Updated 2026-08-23

Input
Paste a YouTube link (or TikTok, Facebook, X, Vimeo, Twitch, Dailymotion) — or upload MP4, MOV, WebM, MP3, WAV, M4A, FLAC
Output
4–12 timestamped chapters in YouTube format (0:00 Intro …), plus a TL;DR, key points, and action items
Chapter titles
≤ 8 words each, descriptive, written in the transcript’s language
Cost
1 AI credit per summary (chapters included); transcription uses plan minutes
Max length
30 min per file on Free, 4 h on Pro, 8 h on Business
Retention
Transcript and chapters encrypted at rest, auto-deleted after 30 days

How to generate YouTube chapters with timestamps

  1. Paste the YouTube link or upload the video

    In Transcribe Studio, paste the video’s URL or drop the MP4/MOV/WebM file. If the YouTube video already has captions, DomeScribe can build the transcript from them — faster, with no audio download. Otherwise it transcribes the audio with a speech-recognition model in any of 99 languages.

  2. Open the Summary tab and generate

    One credit produces the whole summary: TL;DR, key points, action items, and the chapters. Chapters cover the full recording in order, with start times taken from the transcript’s own segment timestamps.

  3. Check a chapter in one click

    Click any chapter timestamp and the player seeks to that second. Reading a chapter boundary against the transcript takes seconds, not a rewatch.

  4. Copy YouTube chapters, paste into the description

    The “Copy YouTube chapters” button puts the list on your clipboard in YouTube’s format. Paste it into the video description; YouTube turns it into clickable chapters on the progress bar.

What YouTube needs for chapters to work — and what DomeScribe outputs

YouTube builds chapters from a list of timestamps in the video description. The rules are simple: the first timestamp must be 0:00, there must be at least three timestamps, each chapter must be at least 10 seconds long, and the timestamps must be in ascending order, each followed by a title on the same line. Break any of those and YouTube silently ignores the list.

DomeScribe’s chapter output is built around those rules. The first chapter always starts at 0:00, chapters are emitted in order, and the copy button formats each line as the timestamp followed by the title. Titles are short (eight words or fewer), descriptive rather than clickbait, and written in the same language as the video — a Spanish-language video gets Spanish chapter titles.

Chapters from the content, not from guesswork

The difference between chapters that help and chapters that annoy is whether the boundary lands where the topic actually changes. DomeScribe generates chapters from the full timestamped transcript, so each start time is the second where that part of the conversation begins, according to what was said — not an even split of the runtime into equal blocks.

The model is instructed to work only from the transcript: no outside knowledge, no invented names or numbers, and it reads through obvious mis-transcriptions and filler instead of quoting them. For a two-hour interview that means you get something like ten chapters that track the interview’s real turns: the guest’s background, the first big claim, the tangent about tooling, the audience questions, the wrap-up.

Long videos: 4 hours on Pro, 8 hours on Business

Chapters matter most on long videos, which is where manual timestamping hurts most. DomeScribe processes long files in chunks, so a single file can be up to 30 minutes on the free plan, 4 hours on Pro, and 8 hours on Business. Transcription typically takes about a minute per ten minutes of audio; the summary with chapters usually takes under a minute after that.

One credit covers the whole summary regardless of length — a 20-minute explainer and a 3-hour livestream each cost 1 credit for the chapters. Accounts start with 5 credits; Pro includes 300 per month.

  • Free: 30 minutes of transcription to start, max 30 minutes per file, 5 AI credits
  • Pro ($19/month): 1,000 transcription minutes per month, max 4 hours per file, 300 AI credits per month
  • Business: larger allowances and 8 hours per file — see Pricing for the numbers

More than chapters from the same credit

The summary that contains the chapters also contains a two-or-three-sentence TL;DR (the paragraph a viewer reads to decide whether to watch), five to ten specific key points, and any action items stated in the recording. That makes the Summary tab a one-stop source for the top of a YouTube description: TL;DR as the opening lines, chapters below it.

If you want a full description written for you — description text, chapters, and hashtags — the Repurpose tab has a YouTube description format that costs one further credit and is written from the same transcript.

Privacy: what happens to the video

Transcription runs on DomeScribe’s servers. An uploaded video is converted to audio, transcribed, and the original is deleted after transcription; a pasted YouTube link is used only to produce the transcript, and the media file is never offered for download. The transcript and the generated summary are encrypted at rest with a per-user key and auto-delete after 30 days — delete them sooner from the library if you prefer.

Questions, answered

Can DomeScribe generate YouTube chapters from a YouTube link?

Yes. Paste the video URL in Transcribe Studio; DomeScribe transcribes it (using the video’s existing captions when it has them) and the Summary tab generates 4–12 timestamped chapters in YouTube’s format, which you copy into the description.

What format are the chapters in?

YouTube’s chapter format: one line per chapter, the timestamp first (starting at 0:00) followed by a short title. The “Copy YouTube chapters” button copies the list ready to paste into the video description.

How many chapters does it produce?

Between 4 and 12, covering the whole recording in order. The number follows the content — a short tutorial gets a handful, a long interview gets more — and each title is eight words or fewer.

Does the chapters generator work on long videos?

Yes. A single file can be up to 30 minutes on the free plan, 4 hours on Pro, and 8 hours on Business. Long recordings are processed in chunks, and the chapters still cost 1 AI credit regardless of length.

Are the timestamps accurate?

Each chapter’s start time is taken from the transcript’s segment timestamps, so it marks where that topic begins in the audio. Clicking a chapter in the workspace seeks the player to that second, which makes checking boundaries quick.

Does it work in languages other than English?

Yes. Transcription covers 99 languages with automatic detection, and chapter titles are written in the transcript’s language.

Is it free?

You can start free: every account has 30 minutes of transcription and 5 AI credits, and a summary with chapters costs 1 credit. Paid plans add monthly minutes and credits — Pro is $19/month with 1,000 minutes and 300 credits.

Related

Try it on your own recording

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Generate chapters for a video · See pricing