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 USD per month and includes unlimited summaries, videos up to two hours, 40+ languages, chapters, transcripts, an outline, and a 7-day free trial.

Who it is for

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 is good

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

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 USD per month.

Distill plans and pricing

All plans

Guest Free 1 summary per day · YouTube links only · videos up to 30 minutes · captions required · no saved library or sync distill.lol · 4 Oct 2026

Free account Free 3 summaries per day after email verification · videos up to 60 minutes · saved library and history sync · continue watching · offline reading for saved summaries distill.lol · 4 Oct 2026

Pro monthly $3.99/mo per month Unlimited summaries · videos up to 2 hours · 40+ languages · chapters, transcripts and outline · 7-day free trial distill.lol · 4 Oct 2026

Pro annual Not published per year Unlimited summaries · videos up to 2 hours · 40+ languages · chapters, transcripts and outline · 7-day free trial distill.lol · 4 Oct 2026

Compared on AI video summarizers

Free plan: Yes
Paid from: $3.99/mo
YouTube support: Yes
Video uploads: No
Transcript output: Yes
Chapter generation: Yes
Maximum video length: 120 min
Input sources: YouTube URLs and shared YouTube links

Best Distill alternatives

See all 20

Two bars Scribiz Free tier No. 1$10/mo6.6 Two bars Glasp Free tier No. 2Free6.5 Two bars Summarize Video to Text Free tier No. 3Free6.5 Two bars VideoHighlighter Free tier No. 4Free6.5 Two bars YouTubeSummarizer.com Free tier No. 5$12/mo6.5 One bar AI VidSummary Free tier No. 6$19/mo6.4

The record

Product

Distill turns captioned YouTube videos into written summaries and is built for interviews, podcasts, and educational long-form video.

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.

Summary format

Summaries are flowing prose organized into sections.

Chapters and transcripts

Users can navigate chapter markers, read the full transcript, and switch between summary, chapters, and transcript tabs.

Video player

The video player appears above the summary so users can jump to a chapter or moment.

Quiz

Distill offers a short quiz after a summary.

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.

Sharing

Users can paste a YouTube link or open a link shared from YouTube or Safari.

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.

Security

The privacy policy says data is encrypted in transit with HTTPS/TLS and access to production systems is restricted.

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.

Support

Distill says it typically replies to support email within one business day.

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.

Price from

$3.99/mo