Facts checked November 7, 2026
Best AI YouTube summarizer for students
Short answer: On a budget and your lectures have captions: NotebookLM (now Gemini Notebook) is free and makes flashcards and quizzes. For spaced-repetition review: Recall, free for 10 summaries a month. For lectures without captions, long recordings or lectures in another language: YouTLDR, $12/month, with quizzes but no flashcards.
What matters for studying
- Price. Most students should start free. Only pay when a free tool fails on your lectures.
- Captions. Many free tools only read videos with captions. Recorded lectures and new uploads often have none.
- Review tools. Quizzes test you once; flashcards and spaced repetition bring material back over time.
- Length and language. Check the limit on long lectures and whether your course language is covered.
The options
NotebookLM (now Gemini Notebook)Free Standard plan; higher limits with Google AI Plus, Pro or Ultra (prices not on the plans page)
Pick it if: your lectures have captions and you want free notes, flashcards and quizzes alongside your slides and readings.
Mixes videos with your documents. Flashcards, quizzes and audio overviews. Videos uploaded in the last 72 hours may not import.
RecallPlus $10/month billed yearly; Max $38/month billed yearly
Pick it if: you want quizzes that come back on a spaced-repetition schedule.
A knowledge base for articles, videos, podcasts and PDFs. Chat, quizzes on a spaced-repetition schedule, browser extensions and iOS and Android apps.
YouTLDR$12/month (Pro)
Pick it if: your lectures have no captions, run long (up to 5 hours) or are in another language (125+ languages). You get the transcript, a summary, chat and a 5 to 10 question quiz per video. No flashcards.
Chat, quizzes, chapters, video comparison, questions across your saved library, Chrome extension. No flashcards.
NoteGPTPro from $9/month ($108/year); Unlimited from $19.92/month
Pick it if: you want quizzes and flashcards plus PDF summaries, with a free plan to start.
Also does PDFs and audio. Has an AI quiz generator and a flashcard maker, chat with several models, Chrome and Edge extensions.
YouTube AskNo payment requirement on the help page
Pick it if: you want a free answer to one question while you watch.
Ask questions about the video you are watching, right on the watch page. Not every video has it, and Google says answers can be inaccurate.
Side by side
From each vendor's own pages on November 7, 2026. "Not confirmed" means the page we could read didn't say, not that the feature is missing.
| Tool | Price | Free plan | Videos without captions | Languages | Exports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NotebookLM (now Gemini Notebook) | Free Standard plan; higher limits with Google AI Plus, Pro or Ultra (prices not on the plans page) | Yes. 100 notebooks and 50 sources per notebook | No. Only public YouTube videos with captions import, and only the transcript text | 80+ for the product; some video languages fail to import | Not confirmed |
| Recall | Plus $10/month billed yearly; Max $38/month billed yearly | Yes. 10 AI summaries a month | Not confirmed | "Multi-language support" on Plus; no count published | All your data as Markdown |
| YouTLDR | $12/month (Pro) | No. Pro is required to process a new video; public transcript pages are free to read | Yes. Transcribes the audio when a video has no captions (up to 5 hours) | 125+ | Transcript as TXT, DOC, CSV, SRT or VTT; blog, LinkedIn, Twitter and PowerPoint drafts |
| NoteGPT | Pro from $9/month ($108/year); Unlimited from $19.92/month | Yes. Some core features are free (limits not listed on the pricing page) | Yes. Up to 120 minutes per video on Pro, 210 on Unlimited and Max | Says "any language"; no count published | Not confirmed |
| YouTube Ask | No payment requirement on the help page | Yes, for signed-in users 13+ in select countries | Not documented. Appears on select videos only | About 100 | None |
When not to pick YouTLDR
- Your lectures have captions and a free tool already works on them.
- You study with flashcards or spaced repetition. YouTLDR has neither.
- $12/month is more than you want to spend. There is no student discount or free plan.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best AI YouTube summarizer for students?
Start free: NotebookLM (Gemini Notebook) for captioned lectures, with flashcards and quizzes. Use Recall for spaced repetition. Pay for YouTLDR ($12/month) only if your lectures have no captions, are very long or are in another language.
Is there a free AI summarizer for YouTube lectures?
Yes. NotebookLM (Gemini Notebook) is free for public videos with captions, Recall gives 10 summaries a month free, and YouTube Ask is free on select videos.
Can YouTLDR make quizzes from a lecture?
Yes. It writes 5 to 10 multiple-choice questions from the video, mixing easy, medium and hard, and scores your answers. It does not make flashcards.
Does YouTLDR have a student discount?
No. Pro is $12/month for everyone, with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Sources
- NotebookLM (now Gemini Notebook): Add sources (YouTube rules) (read November 7, 2026)
- NotebookLM (now Gemini Notebook): Plans and limits (read November 7, 2026)
- NotebookLM (now Gemini Notebook): About Gemini Notebook (read November 7, 2026)
- Recall: Recall pricing (read November 7, 2026)
- Recall: Recall home page (read November 7, 2026)
- YouTLDR: YouTLDR pricing (read November 7, 2026)
- NoteGPT: NoteGPT pricing (read November 7, 2026)
- NoteGPT: NoteGPT home page FAQ (read November 7, 2026)
- YouTube Ask: YouTube Help: Ask (read November 7, 2026)
Related
Try YouTLDR on your own video
$12/month (Pro). 30-day money-back guarantee. Cancel anytime.
See Pro pricing