Chat with YouTube video transcripts and find the moment
Ask AI lets you chat with YouTube video transcripts. Ask a question in plain words and Claras answers from what was said, usually with a timestamp so you can check it yourself.
Ask what you would ask someone who watched it
Open the Ask AI tab next to the video and type your question. Claras suggests a few questions made for that video, and it remembers your last few messages, so follow-ups make sense.
- Is it worth watching in full?
- Do they agree on the risk?
- Where do they talk about jobs?
Answers you can check
For each question, Claras finds the parts of the transcript that match your wording best and answers from those. When a point comes from a specific moment, the answer says when, like [02:15].
- To go there, click the nearest chapter or, in the web app, the transcript line
- Use the words the speaker would use and you will get better matches
- Claras knows what was said, not what was shown on screen
Ask across many videos
After a Bulk Summaries run, the Ask AI tab covers the whole batch. Claras asks the AI to name the video each point came from, so you can compare what different people said.
- This YouTube AI chat replies in the language you picked, whatever language the video is in
- It also works on Instagram and TikTok videos and on your own uploads
What happens when you ask, step by step
- Open a video. Sign in with a free account, then paste a link, upload a file, or open a YouTube video with the Chrome extension. YouTube Shorts and live links don't work in the app or the extension yet.
- Claras gets the transcript. On YouTube it uses the captions when it can. Otherwise, and for Instagram, TikTok and uploads, AI transcribes the audio, which takes longer.
- Open the Ask AI tab. Click a suggested question or type your own.
- Claras picks what to read. The transcript is split into short sections, each roughly a minute or two of speech and marked with its start time. Claras takes the five that share the most words with your question and sends them to the AI with the video title and your last three exchanges.
- Read the answer, then check it. It comes in the language you picked, one of 15, usually with a time like [02:15]. That time is plain text, not a link, and it marks where a section starts, so the words may come a little later. On YouTube and uploads, move the player there yourself. Instagram and TikTok open on their own site, so use the transcript.
A worked example: one session with a long debate
This uses the 2 hour 24 minute video from our home page demo, "AI Experts Debate: The AI Labs Are Lying To Everyone". The answers are the demo's samples, so real ones will differ.
A question about one topic
You ask: "Where do they talk about jobs?"
Sample answer: "From 1:00:12. They spend about 15 minutes on how much job disruption AI could really cause."
This is the best kind of question: short, one topic, in the speakers' likely words. Move the player to 1:00:12 to confirm it.
A question that needs judgement
You ask: "Do they agree on the risk?"
Sample answer: "No. They split on how likely extinction is." The answer points to 2:19.
Treat this as a first read. In a video this long, five sections are a small part of the talk, so a later change of mind could be missed.
A follow-up
You ask: "And on what to do about it?"
Sample answer: "Some want research halted now. Others want the big labs regulated."
The earlier exchange goes along, so the AI knows what "it" means. But new sections are picked from the new question's words alone, and these are vague. For more detail, repeat the terms: "What do they say about halting research or regulating the big labs?"
What it does well, and where it stops
Questions that work well
- Finding a topic. "Where do they talk about pricing?"
- One thing someone said. "What reason does she give for leaving?"
Questions that work less well
- Anything about the whole video. "What is the main argument?" reads only five sections, and "Is it worth watching in full?" gets a rough read at best. Start with the Summary tab, which is built from the whole transcript.
- Counting. "How many times do they mention inflation?" needs a full read. Search the transcript instead.
- Different words from the speaker. Matching is exact, so "cost" won't find "price", and "job" won't find "jobs". If Ask AI misses something, search the transcript and reuse the wording you find.
- Very short terms. Words of one or two letters are ignored, so "AI" or "UX" won't help. Common words like "the" do count, so a long, polite question can pull in the wrong sections.
- A question in another language. An English question about a Spanish transcript matches very few words, so ask in the language the transcript is in. With no match at all, Claras reads the start of the video.
Answers can be wrong
Nothing forces the AI to stay inside the sections it gets. It can add something from elsewhere or get a detail wrong, and it can't tell you whether the speaker is right. Be most careful with an answer that gives no time.
Asking across many videos
After a Bulk Summaries run, one answer reads ten sections across the whole batch, so a video missing from an answer may still cover the topic.
How many questions you get
No plan counts questions, and asking doesn't use up a video. But Ask AI on a single video stops when you reach your plan's video limit. The exception is your own API key in the Chrome extension, a paid-plan option: questions then go to your AI provider, and this limit doesn't apply.
| Asking about one video | Asking across a Bulk Summaries run | |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Works while you are under 3 videos in a rolling 30 days. Stops once the third is saved, even on that video, until your oldest drops out. | Not counted against your videos. 1 run every 30 days, up to 20 videos. |
| Pro | Works until you reach 50 videos for the day, then resumes at local midnight. | Asking isn't counted. Each video in the run itself counts toward the 50 a day. |
| Unlimited | No limit | No limit |
How it fits the rest of Claras
Ask AI works from the transcript Claras already has, so it is ready as soon as a video is.
Questions about Ask AI
Can I chat with a YouTube video for free?
Yes, with a free account and no card. The free plan includes 3 videos a month, and the table above shows when Ask AI pauses.
What happens if a video has no captions?
Claras transcribes the audio with AI, then Ask AI works as usual. For YouTube that covers videos up to 30 minutes on the free plan, if Claras can check the length, and up to 3 hours on a paid plan. A long video can take a while, and Claras may ask you to try again shortly.
Can I click the timestamps in an answer?
Not at the moment. In the web app, clicking a chapter or transcript line means leaving the Ask AI tab, which clears the chat, so move the player by hand if you want to keep going.
Is my conversation saved?
No. In the web app the chat clears when you switch tabs or load another video. In the extension it clears when you load another video or close the side panel. Copy anything you want to keep.
Should I use Ask AI or paste the transcript into another AI?
Use Ask AI for quick questions while you watch. For questions about the whole video, Send to AI takes the full transcript to Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity, so that assistant can read all of it, within its own limits.
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