⚡ Productivity
YouTube Transcript Summary Prompt: Timestamped Notes
Turn a pasted YouTube transcript into a summary you can trust: a TL;DR, timestamped key points, claims to verify, action steps, and quotes from the text.
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Prompt
Act as a research note taker who summarizes long YouTube videos from their transcripts for busy professionals, keeping every point tied to a timestamp so the viewer can jump back and check it. Inputs: - Video title, channel, and length as shown on YouTube: [VideoDetails] - The full transcript with timestamps, copied from YouTube's Show transcript panel: [Transcript] - Why I am watching and what I need from it (a decision, a skill, a talk I must discuss): [MyPurpose] - What I already know about the subject, so you can skip basics: [PriorKnowledge] - Summary length I want (one minute read, five minute read): [Length] - Output format: [Format] Generate: 1. A transcript check: whether the transcript looks auto generated, where it seems garbled or cut off, and any sections with no timestamps. Never fill a gap with what the speaker probably said. 2. A TL;DR of three sentences aimed at MyPurpose. 3. A timestamped outline: each major section with its start time from Transcript, a short heading, and two or three bullet points. 4. Key points ranked by usefulness for MyPurpose, each with its timestamp, skipping what PriorKnowledge already covers. 5. Claims to verify: factual or numerical claims the speaker makes, each with its timestamp, labeled as stated by the speaker, plus what kind of source would confirm it. 6. Action steps: concrete things to do, try, or decide, only if the video actually suggests them; otherwise say there are none. 7. Up to five exact quotes copied word for word from Transcript with timestamps. If a quote spans a garbled area, leave it out. 8. What the video does not cover that MyPurpose still needs, as open questions. Constraints: - Use only the transcript. Do not add facts from outside knowledge; if you add context, label it "Outside context" and keep it to one line. - Keep to Length. - If the transcript is missing or shorter than the video length suggests, say so before summarizing. - No em dashes.
Instructions
Paste the video transcript from YouTube's Show transcript panel, then replace every [bracket] with your details. Works on ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.
Generated Output
This image was generated using the prompt above.

Examples
Example Input
VideoDetails: "How We Cut Our Cloud Bill" from a developer conference channel, 41 minutes. Transcript: (pasted, auto generated) 0:00 welcome everyone today I'm going to talk about how we cut our AWS bill ... 3:12 so the first thing we did was tag every resource by team ... 9:40 we found about a third of our spend was idle dev environments ... 15:05 we moved batch jobs to spot instances and our batch costs dropped roughly 60 percent ... 22:30 reserved instances versus savings plans ... 28:10 the mistake we made was buying a three year plan too early ... 33:45 [inaudible] dashboards ... 37:20 questions ... 40:55 thanks MyPurpose: I lead a five person platform team and need three ideas to propose at our cost review next week. PriorKnowledge: I know what spot instances and reserved instances are. Length: two minute read Format: numbered sections
Example Output
1. TRANSCRIPT CHECK Auto generated (no punctuation, lowercase). One gap at 33:45 marked [inaudible] about dashboards. Covers 0:00 to 40:55, consistent with a 41 minute video. 2. TL;DR The speaker's team cut their AWS bill by tagging every resource by team, shutting down idle dev environments, and moving batch jobs to spot instances. They recommend comparing reserved instances and savings plans carefully and warn against long commitments before usage is stable. For your cost review, tagging, idle environment cleanup, and spot for batch are the three most transferable ideas. 3. OUTLINE 0:00 Intro and goal. 3:12 Tag every resource by team: makes cost owners visible. 9:40 Idle dev environments: about a third of spend (speaker's figure). 15:05 Spot for batch jobs: batch costs down roughly 60 percent (speaker's figure). 22:30 Reserved instances vs savings plans. 28:10 Mistake: committing to a three year plan too early. 33:45 Dashboards (partly inaudible). 37:20 Q and A. 4. KEY POINTS FOR YOUR REVIEW 1 Tagging by team first (3:12): without owners, nobody acts on the bill. 2 Find idle dev environments (9:40): their biggest single saving. 3 Commit to plans only after usage is stable (28:10). (Spot basics skipped per your prior knowledge; the result is at 15:05.) 5. CLAIMS TO VERIFY - "About a third of our spend was idle dev environments" (9:40), stated by the speaker for their company. Check against your own cost explorer data. - "Batch costs dropped roughly 60 percent" (15:05), stated by the speaker. Your result depends on your workloads. 6. ACTION STEPS - Propose a team tag policy and a report of untagged spend. - Propose an automatic shutdown schedule for dev environments outside work hours. - Pilot one batch job on spot before any commitment purchase. 7. QUOTES "the first thing we did was tag every resource by team" (3:12) "the mistake we made was buying a three year plan too early" (28:10) 8. NOT COVERED How they handled spot interruptions for long jobs. The dashboard section at 33:45 is inaudible; rewatch it if dashboards matter to you.