Frequently asked questions

FastGrasp turns any YouTube video into three things: a full transcript with timestamps, a structured summary with a watch verdict, and a searchable index you can jump around in. Paste a URL and you get all three, usually in under twenty seconds.

Two stages. First it pulls the video's caption track and cleans it into a timestamped transcript. Then a large language model reads that transcript and produces the summary: numbered sections, key takeaways, memorable quotes, and a verdict on whether the video is worth watching in full, worth skipping to certain sections, or covered well enough by the summary alone.

It's free. You create an account, and there's no credit card and no setup. A paid tier for heavy users is likely eventually, but nothing is behind a paywall today.

Yes, to process your own videos, because your library is tied to your account. Summaries that someone has shared publicly can be read without an account.

Usually under twenty seconds, including multi-hour podcasts. If a video has already been processed, its transcript comes back from cache and the result is close to instant.

Almost any. FastGrasp reads the video's caption track, including YouTube's automatically generated captions, which the large majority of videos have. If a creator has turned captions off entirely, there's nothing to read and the video can't be processed.

No. FastGrasp is not a speech-to-text service — it works from the caption track YouTube already provides. This is worth knowing up front: if "Show transcript" is missing on YouTube for a given video, FastGrasp can't process that one either.

No fixed limit. Long videos are the point — a three-hour podcast is a better use of FastGrasp than a five-minute clip. Summaries scale their depth to the video, so longer content gets more sections rather than a thinner recap.

Yes, when the Short has captions, though there's usually less to summarize.

The most common reason is that the video has no caption track. Processing can also fail transiently, in which case you can retry the video from your library and it will pick up from where it left off.

Yes. Transcripts and summaries both export as Markdown, one video at a time or several at once from your library.

Yes, throughout. Every summary section and every search result carries a timestamp, and tapping one jumps the player to that moment.

It's as accurate as YouTube's captions for that video, which is very good for clear speech and less good with heavy accents, crosstalk, or niche jargon. Creator-uploaded captions are usually better than automatic ones.

Accurate enough to decide what to watch, and reliable at finding the structure and substance of long content. Two limits are worth holding onto: a summary reports what the speaker said, not whether it's true, and careful nuance can compress into a flat takeaway. For anything high-stakes, use the summary to find the moment and then watch it.

An executive overview, a watch verdict with the reason behind it, three to five key takeaways, and numbered sections. Each section has a title, a description, a notable quote, key points, and a timestamp.

One of three calls. Worth watching in full means the video earns its runtime. Skip to key sections means the value is concentrated, and it names which sections. Skip it means the summary has you covered. The verdict also carries a confidence level.

Summarization runs on Google's Gemini models, with a fallback model if the primary is unavailable.

Yes, by adding your own API key for a provider you already pay for. That's an optional advanced feature and isn't required for transcripts, summaries, or search.

Yes, and it's the feature most people end up using most. Type any word and every mention comes back with its timestamp; tap one and the video jumps there. It turns a linear video into something you can look things up in.

Yes, across titles, channels, tags, and the takeaways from each summary.

Retrieval practice is what actually moves material into memory, so FastGrasp can generate a quiz from any video. Quizzes come in three depths — short, standard, and deep — sized to the video's length and how many sections its summary has.

Yes, with tags and groups, so a subject you're studying or a machine you're maintaining stays together.

Yes. Everything in your library is private to your account unless you explicitly create a share link for a video.

That one video gets a public link anyone can open without an account. Sharing is per video and always something you turn on deliberately.

Yes, permanently, from your profile. It removes your account and the data attached to it.

FastGrasp works in any mobile browser and installs to your home screen. There's also an iPhone app in beta that adds a share sheet action, so you can send a video to FastGrasp straight from the YouTube app.

Not today. Pasting the URL is the fastest path on desktop.

Paste one long video you've been meaning to watch into FastGrasp and read it in five minutes. That's the whole pitch, and it takes about two minutes to find out whether it's for you.