VideoLens
Available in the Chrome Web Store

Turn the video you're watching into a report worth keeping.

VideoLens sits beside YouTube in Chrome, finds the important ideas and visual details, and builds a polished written report with links to the exact moments that matter.

Add to Chrome — Free View sample report

Chrome will ask you to confirm the free installation.

✓ Free private mode forever ✓ One managed report free ✓ No credit card
VideoLens · Chrome side panel FREE
VideoLens Chrome extension beside a YouTube video, ready to create a detailed written report
Built for the video tab
Watch on the left. Read the report on the right.
Available in the Chrome Web Store

Install in two clicks. Start with a free report.

Add VideoLens to Chrome, open a YouTube video, and create your first report. Free private mode stays free forever, and a free account includes one managed starter report.

Add to Chrome — Free

Sharing VideoLens? Use videolens.io/chrome so the full launch image appears in the link preview.

01 · OPEN

Choose a YouTube video

Keep the source open while VideoLens works beside it.

02 · CREATE

Pick a report style

Detailed report, key insights, tutorial, interview, or a specialized mode.

03 · USE

Read, verify, and export

Jump to cited moments, ask follow-ups, or save professional HTML and PDF.

What it does

From a long video to something worth reading.

VideoLens goes beyond a transcript summary by combining speech, frame-level vision, and on-screen text before it writes the report.

Paste a YouTube link

Start with the video you do not have time to watch or want to preserve as a readable reference. Local files and many other video platforms remain supported.

Choose the report

Create a detailed report, extract only key insights, turn a tutorial into a guide, or structure an interview or podcast. You can edit the prompt too.

Read, check, and keep it

Important claims cite specific timestamps. Jump back to the source, ask follow-up questions, or keep a professional standalone HTML or PDF report.

How it works

A cached pipeline you can trust.

Resolve the source. Extract everything. Build a timeline. Synthesize a report. Each step is cached at .videolens/cache/<hash>/ so re-runs are cheap and follow-up questions cost cents.

1 · RESOLVE

Source classification

Detects local file, YouTube, Loom, Vimeo, direct URL, generic page. Reports limitations clearly when a site isn't fully supported.

2 · EXTRACT

Audio + frames + OCR

yt-dlp fetches remote video, ffmpeg samples frames and chunks audio, OpenAI transcribes each chunk, GPT-5.4-mini describes every frame and reads any visible text.

3 · TIMELINE

Time-windowed merge

Frame summaries and transcript segments are merged into time-windowed segments — each with visual, OCR, transcript, scene type, and confidence.

4 · ANALYZE

Mode-driven synthesis

One GPT-5.6 Terra call against the timeline, your prompt, and the active mode → structured findings, evidence citations, recommendations, and ticket-ready tasks.

Report styles

Start with the report you actually need.

📄

Detailed report

A thorough explanation of the thesis, main ideas, supporting examples, caveats, conclusions, and practical takeaways.

Use when you want a lasting written reference, not a five-line summary.

💡

Key insights

The ideas, facts, examples, and conclusions worth remembering, with repetition and filler removed.

Use when you need the signal quickly but still want evidence.

🧭

Tutorial guide

Prerequisites, ordered steps, exact commands or settings, warnings, examples, and verification checks.

Use when the written instructions are more useful than replaying the tutorial.

🛠️
Also available: Interview / Podcast briefs plus specialized Meeting, Bug, UX, Product Demo, Content, Privacy, and Production Recipe modes. They remain tools in the broader engine, not the product's default direction.
Learn more

YouTube reports first, broader video analysis when you need it.

The same evidence-grounded engine can handle other sources and specialized questions without complicating the core YouTube-to-report experience.

YouTube reports

Detailed summaries, visual context, follow-up questions, and timestamped evidence.

AI video analyzer

Transcript, frame vision, OCR, and cited reports.

Screen recordings

Bug steps, UI evidence, UX friction, and tasks.

Session replays

Review individual product sessions with evidence.

Video analysis MCP

Give AI agents a structured video-analysis tool.

Loom analyzer

Turn async recordings into actionable handoffs.

Meeting analyzer

Decisions, objections, commitments, and actions.

Video privacy review

Find possible sensitive information before sharing.
Quickstart

Run it locally in two minutes.

Python 3.12+, ffmpeg, and an OpenAI API key. That's the whole list.

1 · Install
# macOS
brew install ffmpeg
git clone https://github.com/shadoprizm/videolens.git
cd videolens
uv sync --extra ui
2 · Run
export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...

# Web UI
uv run videolens ui

# Or CLI
uv run videolens analyze "https://youtube.com/watch?v=..." \
  --mode general --prompt "Write a detailed report."
💡
Rough cost: a 5-minute video with 20 frames ≈ $0.20 via OpenAI. A 30-minute meeting ≈ $0.50–$1.50. Per-prompt analysis cache means follow-up questions on the same video cost only cents.
Live now · app.videolens.io

See the output before you connect anything.

Open the illustrative sample report with no API key or upload. When you're ready, analyze your own YouTube video with your OpenAI API key — it stays in session memory and is never stored by VideoLens.

View the sample report Create my written report

Your key, your cost

Paste your OpenAI API key in the sidebar. Calls go straight to OpenAI; you only pay them, not us.

Session-only storage

The key lives only in your browser session. Close the tab, it's gone. We don't write it to a database.

Same code as the repo

Self-host the identical app any time. Public MIT-licensed code on GitHub.

Need an OpenAI API key? Get one at platform.openai.com/api-keys · A $5–10 prepaid balance is plenty to test.

Chrome extension

Turn the video into a report worth sharing.

The VideoLens extension lives in your browser's side panel. Open a YouTube video or HTML5 player, pick a report style, and get a timestamped, evidence-grounded report without leaving the tab. Local files work too.

  • ✓ Detailed report, key insights, tutorial guide, and interview / podcast styles
  • ✓ Specialized bug, meeting, UX, product demo, content, and privacy analysis
  • ✓ Private BYOK mode stays entirely between your browser and OpenAI
  • ✓ Bring your own OpenAI key; the key never leaves your device
  • ✓ Professional HTML / PDF reports, follow-up Q&A, Markdown & JSON

Heads-up: DRM-protected players (Netflix, Disney+, …) can't be captured. Live streams aren't supported.

Available in the Chrome Web Store
Free private mode forever

Use your own OpenAI key with no VideoLens account, or create a free account for one managed starter report with no key and no credit card.

  • ✓ Unlimited private reports with your key
  • ✓ One managed report free
  • ✓ Upgrade only if managed mode saves you time
Add to Chrome — Free

Add VideoLens to Chrome, open a YouTube video, and create your first report. Free private mode stays free forever, and a free account includes one managed starter report.

Simple pricing

Private for free. Convenient with Pro.

The paid plan removes setup and adds convenience. It does not take the free private product away.

FREE · PRIVATE
$0forever

Use your own OpenAI API key. No VideoLens account or analysis server.

  • ✓ Unlimited BYOK reports
  • ✓ Professional HTML and PDF
  • ✓ Timestamped evidence and follow-up Q&A
  • ✓ Your reports stay on your device
Add to Chrome — Free
PRO · MANAGED
$12/ month

Or $99/year. No OpenAI key required. Cancel anytime.

  • ✓ 20 managed reports per calendar month
  • ✓ One managed starter report before subscribing
  • ✓ Optional searchable cloud report library
  • ✓ Private BYOK mode remains available
Start with one managed report →

Managed mode sends selected frames, audio or captions, page title, and your prompt through VideoLens to OpenAI. Raw frames and audio are not kept. Cloud report saving is optional and controlled in the extension.

Available now and next

A working pipeline with room to grow.

Q&A loop

"Analyze once, ask many times" — follow-up questions reuse the cached timeline for cents instead of dollars.

MCP server

Native Model Context Protocol server so Claude Code, Cursor, and other agents can analyze video as a first-class tool.

Next: semantic search

Embeddings over processed timelines: "find where they talked about pricing", "find every error message", across your whole library.

Browser capture available

PostHog, Clarity, Hotjar, FullStory, LogRocket, and OpenReplay pages can use a browser-capture fallback; native event-export parsers are next.

Read the full roadmap on GitHub
FAQ

Questions, answered.

Everything you need to know about how VideoLens works, what it costs, and how your data is handled.

What is VideoLens?

VideoLens is an open-source video intelligence tool that turns any video into a timestamped, evidence-grounded report. You drop in a video — a local file or a link from roughly 1,500 supported platforms — ask a question, and it returns structured findings that cite specific moments in the video. It's MIT licensed and built for both humans and AI agents.

How does VideoLens work?

VideoLens runs a four-stage cached pipeline. It resolves the video source, extracts audio, sampled frames, and on-screen text (OCR), merges them into a time-windowed timeline, then runs one analysis pass against your prompt and chosen mode to produce findings with timestamp citations. Each step is cached, so re-runs are cheap and follow-up questions cost only cents.

Is VideoLens free?

Yes. Private BYOK mode and the MIT-licensed core stay free. You pay OpenAI directly for your own model usage. A signed-in account includes one managed starter report, and optional VideoLens Pro is $12/month or $99/year for 20 managed reports per calendar month with no API key required.

What video platforms does VideoLens support?

Local files plus roughly 1,500 platforms via yt-dlp, including YouTube, Loom, Vimeo, TikTok, Twitch, Twitter/X, Reddit, and Google Drive. DRM-protected players such as Netflix and Disney+, and live streams, are not supported.

Does VideoLens store my videos or my OpenAI API key?

It depends on the mode you choose. Private BYOK mode has no VideoLens analysis server: content goes directly from Chrome to OpenAI and reports stay on your device. Pro Managed mode sends the required content through VideoLens to OpenAI. Raw media is not kept, and completed reports enter your cloud library only when you explicitly enable cloud saving.

How much does it cost to analyze a video?

Analysis costs go straight to your own OpenAI account, typically $0.05–$1.50 per video. A 5-minute clip with 20 frames is about $0.20; a 30-minute meeting is roughly $0.50–$1.50. Cached timelines make follow-up questions on the same video cost only cents.

Can AI agents use VideoLens?

Yes. VideoLens outputs structured JSON with evidence citations and ships a native Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, so agents such as Claude Code and Cursor can analyze video as a first-class tool.

VideoLens for Chrome
Available in the Chrome Web Store
Add free