NotebookLM with YouTube videos, or a pasted transcript
NotebookLM (Google now calls it Gemini Notebook) takes a public YouTube link as a source and imports the video's text transcript. That works when the video has captions and is more than a few days old. Paste a WithTranscript transcript as a text source instead when you want its timestamps and chapter list in your notebook. Part of giving a YouTube video to an AI assistant.
What NotebookLM says about YouTube sources
- Only public YouTube videos with captions are supported, and only the text transcript is imported.
- Videos uploaded in the last 72 hours may not import.
- Imports can fail when a video has no captions or its language isn't supported.
Pasting a transcript instead
- Open the video on WithTranscript and press Copy transcript.
- In your notebook, add a source and choose the option to paste copied text.
- Paste. The chapter list and
[m:ss]timestamps come with it, so NotebookLM's citations point to text that tells you where in the video to look.
Which to use
If the link imports, it's the quicker option. Paste a transcript when you want timestamps and chapters inside the source, or when you're combining a YouTube video with notes you'll keep elsewhere too.