Read in your browser: nothing is uploaded and there is no length limit. The titles are written by AI from short excerpts of each chapter.
Where to get YouTube’s transcript
- On the video’s page: open the description (“…more”), press Show transcript, select all of it and copy. Paste it here, times and all.
- In YouTube Studio (your own videos): Content → the video → Subtitles → the language → ⋮ → Download, as .srt or .vtt. Open the file here.
- Not on YouTube yet? Choose Upload the recording and Slice transcribes it first.
How do I add chapters to a YouTube video?
Paste your video’s transcript here, with its times: on YouTube, open the description, press Show transcript and copy it, or download the .srt or .vtt from YouTube Studio’s Subtitles page. Slice finds where the subject changes, writes a title for each chapter from what is said in it, and checks YouTube’s rules: the first chapter at 00:00, at least three, in order, each at least 10 seconds. Edit any title, move a time a second at a time, split or join chapters, and see them on a YouTube-style progress bar. Then copy the lines into the video’s description in YouTube Studio. It is free, with no account. Pasting has no length limit, so a three-hour podcast works. Not on YouTube yet? Upload the recording and it is transcribed first (free once a day, up to 90 minutes).
A real run: a 40-minute talk on YouTube
Tim Keller’s “Let the Psalms Teach You to Pray” (39:46), from its transcript, on 5 October 2026. Balanced, nothing edited by hand. The titles are Slice’s, written by AI from what is said in each chapter; the drafts are what the page shows when the AI is not available. The titles cost $0.0043.
| Time | Slice’s title | Draft, without AI |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00 | Prayer teaches how to address God | Spirituality |
| 04:48 | Aristotle thought friendship with God impossible | Four Loves |
| 06:48 | Biblical theology makes friendship with God possible | Biblical theology |
| 16:47 | Obedience is the first requirement | Boss |
| 19:29 | Delighting in God's law through meditation | Law |
| 28:53 | Seeking God's face in real experience | Seeking God |
| 30:57 | Taste and sense God's holiness | Heart |
| 33:56 | Jesus' death as an act of friendship | Hands |
| 36:20 | The monster asking friend in the fire | Monster |
For comparison, the only example output we found on another generator’s page reads 00:00 Introduction · 03:45 Getting Started · 08:22 Advanced Techniques · 10:13 Conclusion (source). Titles like those tell a viewer nothing, so this tool throws them away.
About this example. The sermon is Tim Keller’s “Let the Psalms Teach You to Pray”, published by The Gospel Coalition on YouTube. We use it only to show how the tool works. It is not an endorsement by Tim Keller (1950–2023) or by The Gospel Coalition.
YouTube’s chapter rules
YouTube reads chapters out of the video’s description. Break one rule and it shows none of them, with no error. In YouTube’s own words (YouTube Help):
- “Make sure that the first timestamp you list starts with 00:00.” This tool always starts at 00:00, and that time cannot be moved.
- “Your video should have at least three timestamps listed in ascending order.” Times cannot pass each other here, and fewer than three is flagged.
- “The minimum length for video chapters is 10 seconds.” A chapter under 10 seconds turns red; Fix it joins it to the one before and says so.
- Eligibility. “If the channel has any active strikes, or if the content may be inappropriate to some viewers, the video chapters feature won’t be available.” No tool can fix that one.
Chapters you write replace YouTube’s automatic ones. Two more things the description box itself refuses, also checked here: the characters < and >, and more than 5,000 characters.
How this compares
Read on each tool’s own page on 5 October 2026. Prices and limits change, so check theirs before you rely on them.
| Tool | Input | Free | Sign-up | Editing | YouTube’s rules | Preview |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slice | Paste YouTube’s transcript or captions; or upload the recording | Free. Pasting has no length limit | No | Titles, times (±1 s or typed), split, join, fewer or more chapters | All four, live after every edit, with a fix that says what it changed | Yes: the progress bar and the description list |
| VideoTap | YouTube link | 10 free uses | Yes | Not stated | Explains 00:00 | No |
| Timestamp Maker | YouTube link | 3 AI tries, up to 20 min; then $3.99 for up to 2 h | No | Rename, delete, reorder | Sets 00:00 | The video, in the page |
| ScreenApp | Link or upload | 2 runs of up to 45 min | Yes | Titles, times, merge | Format, three or more | No |
| ChapterGen | Upload only | 2 videos up to 20 min; then $5 for 5 | No | Titles and times | Says it follows them | No |
| SocialCal | Link, SRT/VTT, transcript or a list | Free (a per-IP limit on links) | No | Titles, times, shift all | Six checks, one-click fixes | No |
What makes a good chapter title?
A chapter title is a promise about the next few minutes. “Introduction” promises nothing. “Aristotle thought friendship with God impossible” (from the real run above) tells a viewer whether to stay. So the titles here are written from what is said in each chapter, in the speaker’s own terms, and a bare “Introduction”, “Conclusion”, “Q&A” or “Part 2” from the AI is thrown away and replaced.
Keep them short, since the player shows the title beside the time on one line, and make each different from the others.
How the chapters are found
Not by guessing every five minutes. The transcript is split into stretches of about half a minute, and at each boundary the words either side are compared: when the vocabulary changes, so has the subject. Long pauses, music and the phrases speakers use to move on (“let’s talk about”, “the second thing”) count towards a cut. It is plain code, not AI, so the same transcript always gives the same chapters, and you can move any of them.
Then one small AI model reads a short excerpt of each chapter and writes its title. If it cannot, you get draft titles from the words and can write your own.
Long videos: podcasts, streams, lectures
Most free generators stop at 20, 45 or 60 minutes. A pasted transcript has no limit here, and Detailed goes up to 45 chapters, so a three-hour podcast or a livestream gets chapters you can actually navigate. A video that is not on YouTube yet can be uploaded and transcribed first (90 minutes free a day; three hours with Slice Transcribe hours).
How to make YouTube chapters
- 1Copy the transcriptOn the video: …more, then Show transcript, then select and copy. Or download the .srt or .vtt from YouTube Studio, Subtitles.
- 2Paste it and press Make chaptersThe cuts appear at once and the titles a few seconds later. Choose Fewer, Balanced or Detailed.
- 3Check and editFix any title, move a time, split or join. The rules and the preview update with every change.
- 4Copy into YouTube StudioCopy description, then in Studio: Content, the video, Details, paste into Description and Save.
Questions
Is it free? Do I need an account?
Why not just paste the YouTube link?
Why are my chapters not showing on YouTube?
How many chapters should a video have?
Can I change the titles and times?
What does the AI see? Is my transcript kept?
Does it work in other languages?
Should the chapters go first in the description?
Related
- YouTube chapters for sermons — The same tool for churches: the passages named in the titles.
- Podcast chapter checker — One chapter list for YouTube, Apple and Spotify, checked against all three.
- Audio to text — A free transcript of a recording that is not on YouTube yet.
- YouTube thumbnail preview — See the thumbnail where viewers will.
This tool is looked after by Tape.Measures twice, marks once. Knows where every part begins.
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