VideoLens
Available for Chrome and Firefox

Turn videos into reports, lessons, and guides.

Get the important ideas, visual details, and practical steps from the videos you watch. Create a free account. Your first three reports are on us.

Try VideoLens free →

No API key. No credit card. Just your email.

Already have an account? Get the extension →

Works in Chrome and Firefox on desktop.

Read a timestamped sample report →
✓ No API key needed ✓ Your first three reports free ✓ No credit card
VideoLens · Beside your video FREE
VideoLens beside a YouTube video, ready to create a written report (Chrome shown)
Built for the video tab
Watch on the left. Read the report on the right.
Available for Chrome and Firefox

Your browser. Three free reports.

Create your free account, add VideoLens to Chrome or Firefox, and connect it from extension Settings. Open a video and create your first report—no API key or credit card needed.

Add to Chrome — Free Add to Firefox — Free

Sharing VideoLens? Use videolens.io/chrome or videolens.io/firefox for a browser-specific install page.

01 · JOIN

Create your free account

Use your email and password. No API key or credit card needed.

02 · CREATE

Make your first report

Connect the extension, open a video, and choose a report, lesson, or guide.

03 · KEEP GOING

Keep creating with Pro

Read and save your three free reports. Subscribe when you’re ready for more.

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, AI vision describes sampled frames and reads 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

Analysis of the timeline, your prompt, and the selected report style → 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.
For developers: run VideoLens locally with your own API key
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.

From watching to doing

Keep the recipe. Follow the procedure.

Create a Lesson

Turn an educational video into objectives, guided modules, questions, and a final exercise. Write responses, reveal explanations, and resume your study progress in the same browser.

Try the interactive lesson example →

Lesson creation is pending publication in the extension stores. Saved lessons open in your website library.

Create recipes and procedures from YouTube videos or local files with your OpenAI key in the hosted app. Review the cited evidence, check off steps, and export HTML, PDF, Markdown, or JSON. Hosted recipes use video evidence without online recipe research.

Live now · app.videolens.io

See the output before you connect anything.

Explore a complete sample, then create a free account to make your own report in the browser extension. Your first three reports are free, with no API key or credit card required.

View the sample report Create my free account

Start free

Create an account with your email. One report is included, so you can try VideoLens on a video that matters to you.

Keep what you create

Reports stay in your browser’s Library. Export HTML or PDF, or choose to save a copy in your account’s cloud library.

Your report library

For reports saved from the extension, open your account and cloud library. You can also self-host the app. Public MIT-licensed code on GitHub.

Prefer to use your own API key? Open the separate BYOK web app. Get a key at platform.openai.com/api-keys · OpenAI usage is billed separately.

Chrome & Firefox extensions

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
  • ✓ Create your first three reports free, with no API key required
  • ✓ Continue with Pro for 20 reports per calendar month
  • ✓ 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 for Chrome and Firefox
Free first report

Create a free account and try your first report. No API key or credit card required.

  • ✓ A report, lesson, or guide from your video
  • ✓ Timestamped evidence you can check
  • ✓ Choose Pro after you see the result
Try VideoLens free

Create your free account, add VideoLens to Chrome or Firefox, and connect it from extension Settings. Open a video and create your first report—no API key or credit card needed.

Simple pricing

Start free. Keep creating with Pro.

Try one report before subscribing. No API key to set up, and no credit card to start.

FREE ACCOUNT
$0to get started

Your first three reports are on us. Turn a video into something you can read, learn from, and use.

  • ✓ Three free reports, lessons, or guides
  • ✓ Professional HTML and PDF
  • ✓ Timestamped evidence and follow-up Q&A
  • ✓ Your reports stay on your device
Create free account
VIDEOLENS PRO
$12/ month

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

  • ✓ 20 reports per calendar month
  • ✓ Reports, lessons, and step-by-step guides
  • ✓ Optional searchable cloud report library
  • ✓ Professional HTML and PDF exports
Try free, then choose Pro →
Prefer to use your own API key?

Private mode stays available without a VideoLens subscription. Add your OpenAI key in extension Settings; you pay OpenAI directly for usage. Get the extension or use the separate BYOK web app.

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?

Your free account includes three reports with no API key or credit card required. To keep creating, Pro is $12/month or $99/year for 20 reports per calendar month. You can also use your own OpenAI key in Private mode; VideoLens charges no subscription for that option, and you pay OpenAI for usage.

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 your browser 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 extensions
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