Distill

Free plan iPhone

What Distill is

Distill turns captioned YouTube videos into written summaries, with interviews, podcasts, and educational long-form video as its focus. Summaries are flowing prose divided into sections, and the video player appears above the text so viewers can jump to a chapter or moment. Users can switch between summary, chapter, and transcript views, read the full transcript, and take a short quiz after a summary. Distill relies on YouTube captions and reports when a video has no subtitles rather than inferring content from its title or description. Public captioned YouTube videos are supported, with a focus on videos around four minutes or longer; Shorts and very short clips are not supported. Users can paste a YouTube link or open a link shared from YouTube or Safari. Guest access allows one summary per day for videos up to 30 minutes. An email-verified free account allows three summaries a day for videos up to 60 minutes and adds a saved library, history sync, continued watching, and offline reading. Pro is $3.99 a month and includes unlimited summaries, videos up to two hours, 40+ languages, chapters, transcripts, an outline, and a 7-day free trial.

Who it suits

Distill suits iOS users who want written summaries of captioned YouTube interviews, podcasts, or educational videos. It is not suited to Shorts, very short clips, or videos without captions.

What it does well

Provides summary, chapter, and transcript views
Includes a short quiz after summaries
Free account includes saved history and offline reading
Pro supports videos up to two hours

What to know first

Requires YouTube captions
Does not support Shorts or very short clips
Guest use is limited to one summary daily

Plans

Plan	Billed and limits	Price
Guest	1 summary per day · YouTube links only · videos up to 30 minutes · captions required · no saved library or sync	Free
Free account	3 summaries per day after email verification · videos up to 60 minutes · saved library and history sync · continue watching · offline reading for saved summaries	Free
Pro monthly	per month · Unlimited summaries · videos up to 2 hours · 40+ languages · chapters, transcripts and outline · 7-day free trial	$3.99 a month
Pro annual	per year · Unlimited summaries · videos up to 2 hours · 40+ languages · chapters, transcripts and outline · 7-day free trial	On request

As distill.lol lists them, read 4 Oct 2026. The maker's own page has the final word.

Verdict

Distill offers several ways to review captioned YouTube videos, from prose summaries to full transcripts. Its free account has daily and video-length limits, while Pro costs $3.99 a month.

Facts from Distill's own pages

AI processing: The privacy policy says captions and video metadata are sent to Distill servers hosted on Railway and then to Google Gemini for longer videos or Groq for eligible shorter videos. · distill.lol, 4 Oct 2026
Caption requirement: Distill summarizes from YouTube captions and says it will report when a video has no subtitles instead of guessing from its title or description. · distill.lol, 4 Oct 2026
Chapters and transcripts: Users can navigate chapter markers, read the full transcript, and switch between summary, chapters, and transcript tabs. · distill.lol, 4 Oct 2026
Consent and model training: Distill says it requests in-app consent before the first AI summary and does not send captions to AI providers until consent is given; it says it does not use content to train third-party foundation models without consent. · distill.lol, 4 Oct 2026
Data collection: The privacy policy lists account information, usage data, basic device and app diagnostics, and says full payment card numbers are not received by Distill. · distill.lol, 4 Oct 2026
Data deletion: Signed-in users can remove saved items in the app and can request deletion of their account and associated data by emailing support from their registered address. · distill.lol, 4 Oct 2026
Product: Distill turns captioned YouTube videos into written summaries and is built for interviews, podcasts, and educational long-form video. · distill.lol, 4 Oct 2026
Quiz: Distill offers a short quiz after a summary. · distill.lol, 4 Oct 2026
Security: The privacy policy says data is encrypted in transit with HTTPS/TLS and access to production systems is restricted. · distill.lol, 4 Oct 2026
Sharing: Users can paste a YouTube link or open a link shared from YouTube or Safari. · distill.lol, 4 Oct 2026
Summary format: Summaries are flowing prose organized into sections. · distill.lol, 4 Oct 2026
Support: Distill says it typically replies to support email within one business day. · distill.lol, 4 Oct 2026
Supported videos: The support page says public YouTube videos with captions are supported, focuses on videos roughly four minutes and longer, and does not support YouTube Shorts or very short clips. · distill.lol, 4 Oct 2026
Video player: The video player appears above the summary so users can jump to a chapter or moment. · distill.lol, 4 Oct 2026

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