Answers from any YouTube video, cited to the second.
Paste a link and ask what you need to know. VidBrain reads the whole transcript, answers in plain language, and pins each claim to a timestamp. Click one and the video plays from that moment.
Free account: one full video, unlimited questions, no card.
Animated walkthrough: a YouTube link is pasted, VidBrain reads the transcript, the question "Why does spacing beat cramming?" is asked, and the answer arrives with clickable timestamps 14:32, 22:20 and 38:47 that move the player. Then one click on Chapters produces a chapter list.
For the parts of a video you need to study, quote or cite.
Example questions from three kinds of people who use VidBrain, with the kind of answer they get back.
Studying from recorded lectures
Ask what the lecturer stressed, have the confusing part explained again, then quiz yourself on it. Every answer points back to the slide and the sentence.
What from this lecture is likely to be on the exam?
Two things are flagged as exam material: the difference between recall and recognition 22:20, and the review schedule of one day, three days, then a week 38:47.
Research and fact-checking
Find the exact moment a claim is made in a talk, interview or hearing, and cite it with a timestamp your reader can open.
Where does she give the sample size, and does it change later?
She says the trial enrolled 412 people at 31:14. At 33:02 she gives 388 for the follow-up, without saying why 24 dropped out.
Content and marketing teams
Pull quotes, show notes and chapter lists out of a podcast or webinar without watching it twice.
Give me three quotable lines with their times.
- "We shipped the ugly version first, on purpose." 8:41
- "Nobody churned because of a missing feature." 24:05
- "The pricing page was our best salesperson." 41:37
Try it on a video you already have open.
Paste any public YouTube link. You get the three main takeaways, and each one opens YouTube at the second it comes from. No account needed.
- Lectures, podcasts, talks, interviews, tutorials
- Automatic captions work too
- Two free runs a day, no sign-up
You'll get the three main points of the video. Each one links to the moment it comes from, so you can check it on YouTube.
One click turns the video into something you can hand to someone else.
- Chapters
- A timestamped outline of the whole video. Paste it into a YouTube description or your notes, or use it to decide what to watch.
- Quiz
- Five multiple-choice questions. Each answer links to the part of the video that covers it, so a wrong answer tells you what to rewatch.
- Key-moments page
- A public page with the player, a summary, the key moments and the quiz. Send the link to a study group or a client; they don't need an account to open it.
Learning & Memory, Lecture 4: Spacing, retrieval, and why cramming fails
The lecture argues that spreading the same study time across several sessions beats cramming, because each return trip forces effortful retrieval. It separates the feeling of familiarity from actual recall and ends with a concrete review schedule built on practice questions.
Chapters
- 0:00Why a lecture on how to study
- 4:10Ebbinghaus and the forgetting curve
- 11:52Retrieval effort flattens the curve
- 21:05Familiarity versus recall
- 29:40Interleaving practice
Quiz
Why does spaced review work better than massed review?
It adds more total study time
Retrieving after a gap takes effort, and the effort strengthens memory
It avoids interference from sleep
You could paste the transcript into a chatbot.
Plenty of people do. The difference shows up when you need to check an answer, or when the video runs past an hour.
| Task | VidBrain | Transcript in a chatbot | Scrubbing the video |
|---|---|---|---|
| Getting the transcript | Fetched for you from the captions | Copy it out of YouTube yourself | Not needed |
| Knowing where a claim came from | A clickable timestamp on every claim | Only if you ask, then you check by hand | You know once you've found it |
| A two-hour lecture | Read in full | May not fit in one paste | Two hours |
| Chapters, quiz and a page to share | One click each | Prompt and format it yourself | By hand |
Start free. Pay when one video isn't enough.
A free account includes one full video with unlimited questions. Paid plans add unlimited videos and the shareable outputs.
Pro
$19per month
For a term of coursework or a research project.
- Unlimited videos and questions
- Chapters, quizzes and key-moment pages
- A public share link for every output
- Cancel whenever you like
Lifetime
Best value$149once
For people who learn from video every week.
- Everything in Pro
- Pay once, never renews
- Costs less than eight months of Pro
Checkout runs on Stripe. If VidBrain isn't useful, ask for a refund within 14 days and you get all of it back.
Questions people ask before buying
Still unsure? The tutorial covers videos without captions and long lectures in detail.
How accurate are the answers?
VidBrain answers only from the video's transcript, and every claim carries the timestamp it came from, so you can click it and hear the speaker yourself. If the video doesn't cover your question, it tells you so instead of guessing. Accuracy depends on the captions: automatic captions sometimes mishear names and technical terms, and an answer can inherit that mistake. Check the cited moment before you quote anything important.
Which videos work?
Public YouTube videos with captions, either the creator's own or YouTube's automatic ones. That covers most lectures, talks, podcasts, interviews and tutorials, plus Shorts and finished live streams. Private and members-only videos can't be read. English captions are used when a video has them; otherwise VidBrain uses the video's main caption track.
What if a video has no captions?
Paste the transcript yourself and everything else works the same. If each line starts with a time like 12:34, citations point to the right moment. Plain text works too, but then every citation points to the start of the video.
How long can a video be?
Multi-hour lectures and podcasts are read in full, start to finish. Long videos take a little longer to answer, and for anything over an hour it helps to generate chapters first so you know where to point your questions.
What do I get for free?
Two demo runs a day on this page with no account, and a free account with one full video and unlimited questions about it. Chapters, quizzes and key-moment pages come with Pro or Lifetime.
Who can see my chats and pages?
Your videos and chats are private to your account. Chapters, quizzes and key-moment pages are public: anyone with the link can open them, and search engines can index them. Don't generate them for videos you need to keep private.
Can I get a refund?
Yes. Both plans come with a 14-day money-back guarantee. Reply to your Stripe receipt within 14 days of paying and ask for a refund. You don't need to give a reason.
What's the difference between Pro and Lifetime?
They include the same features. Pro is $19 a month and you can cancel whenever you like. Lifetime is $149 once, which is less than eight months of Pro, and it never renews.
Your next lecture is two hours long. Ask it a question instead.
Your first video is free, with as many questions as you like.