A lot of newer creators often overlook the power of structure. Some think chapters are unnecessary and can be completely skipped. While true to some degree, a neat channel will always attract more viewers than a messy one. But what if you don’t want to manually structure all of the videos? Then AI is your answer and, luckily, there are tools that can do this tedious job for you.
Why bother adding chapters into the video? Well, because engagement and retention are the two things that you’d be fighting for as a creator on YouTube. And, overall, viewers like having that neat structure in addition to the extra bit of preview of the video’s content. Especially if the video itself is informative in nature.
But that’s not the only reason. When people search for something, Google likes to index chapters (and even transcripts) in search results. So, not only you might become more visible in the eyes of YouTube algorithms, but also in the eyes of Google.
AI tools have picked up this tedious task. Automatic chapter generation not only saves hours of labor but also optimizes the way the content is consumed to improve the viewer’s experience. Now that we know why it’s worth the commitment, let’s jump straight into the tools themselves.
1. Gling
Gling AI is a popular choice when it comes to many things. It’s a versatile AI editing tool that can do it all, including automatic chapter generation. How? Gling transcribes the video and analyzes the dialogue/scene based on it to auto generate timestamped chapters. It works well enough with tutorials, vlogs, and other long-form content.
Gling AI is software-based, so it needs to be downloaded (the download itself is a very easy process).
Pros:
- The tool is transcript-based, so it’s easy to control how much and what exactly you want to edit.
- Chapter generation in itself is fast with minimal input
- The tool is capable of detecting topic shifts and visual scene changes
Cons:
- Manual review is needed, since this tool can misinterpret transitions
- Limited manual editing options for chapter names
- The video can lose the quality after the processing
Gling’s Features
Gling’s pricing starts at $20/mo for Plus and $40/mo Pro. Almost all tools have free trials available in some capacity, and Gling AI is no exception to that rule. The free version has some basic features available such as up to an hour of video processing with the end product being watermarked.
Plus version for $20/mo will get you:
- Up to 10 hours of your videos processed per month
- Unlimited video export with no watermark
- Access to speech audio enhancement on top of all the basic features
Pro bundle ($40/mo) will land you:
- Up to 30 hours of your videos processed per month
- Unlimited video export without any watermarks
- Premium support
Source: Chris with Minn Media
2. Firecut
Another versatile tool on the list, featured in some previous AI tool lists is FireCut AI. It automatically detects logical segments in videos based on speech patterns, silences, and visual cues. This makes the generation of chapters so much easier. But it’s not the only thing FireCut is capable of doing.
It’s important to mention that FireCut is an add-on to Premiere Pro, which means it needs to be downloaded on your computer and set up accordingly.
Pros:
- Plenty of other features beyond just auto chapters
- Fast auto chapter generation
- Seamless export to YouTube with proper timestamps
Cons:
- Minimal control over chapter labels (since names are AI-generated)
- Learning curve. It takes a bit of time to get used to this plugin in Premiere Pro.
FireCut’s Features
FireCut’s prices are $34/mo and $24/mo if billed annually. You can choose between FireCut for DaVinci Resolve and FireCut for Premiere Pro for respective editing softwares. But both have the same functionality overall.
- Full integration with the chosen system (DaVinci/Premiere Pro)
- Captions in 50+ languages with automatic emojis
- Auto editing for podcasts
- Highlights for long-form videos
- B-rolls and background music
- Filter words
- Chapter generation
Source: Premiere Gal
3. Descript
Descript AI also appears to be one of the popular choices when it comes to AI video editing. Why? Because it’s versatile, relatively cheap, and has a lot of powerful features beyond chapter cutting. It uses transcript-based AI to create chapters automatically by analyzing keywords.
It’s also one of the tools that allows creators to edit chapter names and timestamps manually, which is great if you feel like some things need to be adjusted.
Pros:
- You will have full control over the chapters, which includes the naming/timestamps
- Great for those, who prefer editing like a doc
- Comes with other useful AI tools like silence removal and overdub
Cons:
- Slightly slower for extremely long videos due to transcript processing
- Paid plans required for automatic chapter features
Descript’s Features
Descript pricing starts from $24 and ends at $65 per month. A free trial is there, but it’s limited to a watermarked end result.
Hobbyist tier is either $16/mo for annual sub or $24/mo for monthly. It gets you:
- 10 transcription hours per month
- 20 uses per month of Basic AI Actions.
- 1080p watermark-free exports
- You also get 30 minutes per month of AI speech with stock AI voices and custom voice clones and 5 minutes per month of AI avatars.
Next up is the Creator tier that has $24/mo for annual sub, and $35/mo monthly. Here, you get:
- 35 transcription hours/mo
- Unlimited Basic and Advanced AI
- 4k watermark-free exports
- 2 hours per month of AI speech.
There’s also unlimited access to royalty-free stock library and 10 mins/month of avatars.
The last tier, Business, starts with $50/mo for an annual sub, and ends with $65/mo for monthly. It gives you:
- 40 hours of transcripts/mo
- Team-wide access to Bran Studio
- Prio support
- unlimited access to full pro AI, 5 hours/month of AI speech and 30 mins of avatars
Source: Learn Online Video
4. AutoCut
Another popular and rather versatile choice is AutoCut AI. It focuses on fast content segmentation, where it detects the pauses and topic changes to make chapters automatically. It’s a software plugin for Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve, just like FireCut , so it requires download. But the setup is relatively easy.
AutoCut allows for some wiggle room when it comes to fixing the chapters, but it doesn’t let you change the names.
Pros:
- Quick setup, intuitive in use
- Good for batch processing, fast when it comes to chapters
- Has a lot of functionality beyond automatic chapter generation
Cons:
- Less sophisticated AI, limited control
- Chapters will need manual reviewing
AutoCut’s Features
AutoCut’s pricing starts from $9,9/mo and ends at $19,8/mo. To get the Chapters tool, you will need to spend $19.8/mo for an AI plan.
Beyond the Chapters tool, with AI plan you will also receive all the benefits of the basic plan, but also auto captions, podcast editing, auto zoom, B-rolls, profanity filtering, and bad take removal on top.
Source: Novela Film Academy
5. TimeSkip AI
TimeSkip AI is a bit of a less sophisticated tool. Its functionality is limited to chapter cutting and transforming your long-form content into Shorts, TikToks and Insta stories. It automatically detects silences in your videos and generates chapters based on that information.
The tool is relatively cheap and does its job well enough and it’s a Chrome extension tool, so there’s no need to download it.
Pros:
- Good integration with YouTube
- Fast processing speed
- Not as expensive as some of the other tools, AI model is one of the advanced ones
Cons:
- Not as effective if you use meaningful pauses, manual reviewing is a must
- Limited customization for chapter naming
TimeSkip’s Features
TimeSkip’s pricing starts from $9/mo and ends at $39/mo for the most expensive package. There isn’t a free trial available, but the tool is relatively cheap and you can cancel the subscription any time you might need.
Starter tier is $9/mo. It gets you:
- 5 videos per month of chapter automation
- 30 min video editing
- SEO-optimized chapters
- Advanced settings
- Future updates
Next up is the Pro tier that’s $19/mo. Here, you get:
- 15 videos/mo of chapter automation
- Benefits of the Starter Tier
- And the 90 mins video editing
The last tier, Studio, is the most expensive one with a $39/mo price tag. It gives you:
- 50 videos/mo of chapter automation
- 10h video length
- Priority Support
- Benefits of Starter
Source: TimeSkip
6. Dadan AI
Now onto the next in the list - Dadan AI. It offers plenty of services, including automatic chapter generation. It uses NLP-driven topic segmentation to generate said chapters. Unlike traditional silence-based tools, it focuses on semantic content shifts.
It sounds fancy, but it really isn’t. Simply put it detects when a new topic begins rather than orients itself by pauses in your speech.
Pros:
- Creates context-aware chapters that can be customized
- Supports multi-language videos and can detect multilingual segments
- Can generate transcripts and has more functionality beyond chapter generation
Cons:
- Slightly slower processing for very long videos (>2 hours)
- Manual reviewing is still needed
Dadan’s Features
Dadan’s pricing starts from $11/mo and ends at $14/mo. There’s a free, limited version.
Professional tier is $11/mo. It gets you:
- Processing of unlimited amounts of videos with unlimited duration
- Up to 50GB storage and up to 5GB video upload limit per file
- Up to 120 mins Transcriptions per month
- Advanced Analytics
Next up is the Business tier that’s $14/mo. Here, you get every benefit of Pro version plus:
- Up to 25GB Video Upload limit per file
- Password Protection
- Up to 600 mins Transcriptions per month
- Custom Branding
- Account Manager
- Personalized Onboarding
Source: Kenneth Fong
7. VidChapter AI
Our next tool under review is VidChapter AI. It specializes in auto timestamps and chapter generations for YouTube, with additional features like highlight detection and video summary. It’s made with vloggers in mind.
It’s a tool that doesn’t need downloading so you can chapter your videos just like that, in your internet browser of choice.
Pros:
- Generates chapter headings automatically based on content keywords
- Can generate and repurpose video scripts if needed
- Allows batch processing for multiple videos at once
Cons:
- Chapter headings can sound a bit generic, manual review will be needed
- Can make mistakes when cutting content into chapters
VidChapter’s Features
VidChapter’s pricing starts from $19/mo and ends at $49/mo. A free version or trial isn’t available as of now.
Pro tier is $19/mo. It gets you:
- 200 video credits per month
- Generation of chapters (timestamped), tags, titles, descriptions, thumbnails
- Uploading of transcription files(SRT, VTT, SBV & STL)
- Generating (blog posts, email newsletters, social posts, summaries & quotes)
- Generating and repurposing video scripts
- Priority support
- 3 Team members
Next up is the Ultra package that’s $49/mo. Here, you get:
- 1000 video credits per month
- Generation of chapters (timestamped), tags, titles, descriptions, thumbnails
- Uploading of transcription files(SRT, VTT, SBV & STL)
- Generating (blog posts, email newsletters, social posts, summaries & quotes)
- Generating and repurposing video scripts
- Priority support
- 10 Team members
- Exporting subtitles (SRT, VTT, STL, PDF, TXT, Avid maker, Final Cut PRO)
- 1800 mins transcriptions per month
- API integrations
Source: Eric Stemen
8. Quso AI
Quso AI is also one of those fancy all-in-one tools that generates chapters, trims silences, and makes clips for shorts and other social media. It can also generate AI clips for later use with some fancy virtual avatar tech.
If you’re a tutorial creator or a live streamer, this is the tool for you.
Pros:
- Great social media optimization
- Suggests clips for cross-platform content
- Fast processing speed for chapters
Cons:
- The tool is still in beta testing stage, so AI-generated chapters will need manual reviewing
- Less precise in videos with overlapping dialogues or multi-speaker formats
Quso’s Features
Quso’s pricing starts from $29/mo and ends at $49/mo. There’s a free version that includes basic features with the watermarked end result. The chapter tool is available in the Essential package, which will cost you $39/mo. It will also include:
- AI Clips & Captions
- AI Video Generator
- AI Video Resizing to 16:9, 9:16, 1:1
- Unlimited 1080p Exports
- Premium access to 10+ AI Tools
- AI Filler & Silence Removal
- AI Influencer, AI Writer & more
- 1-Click Schedule to 7 Social Platforms
- Bring Your Own Content & Schedule
- AI Content Planner
Embedded Video: How to Add Chapters to YouTube Video Using AI? [Tutorial] | quso.ai
Source: qusoai
Buyer’s Guide: Auto Chapter Tool That Works for You
There are a lot of options to choose from, so how do you pick just one? Well, we have a checklist to make sure it’s the right one for you.
- Is it in tandem with your editor? Check if the tool works in combination with your editing software of choice. If it doesn’t - skip.
- How intuitive is it? Is it easy to figure out all the functionality? Does the interface look overwhelming to you? If you’re lost, skip.
- How’s the speed? If the tool of your choice takes ages to process one video, better skip.
- How well does it work? Look at the end result. Did it cut at the right times? Do the chapters make sense to you? If there’s too much to re-do, skip.
- Can you control the process? If the tool has no control over the chapter names or if you can’t re-align them, it’s risky and better to skip.
Practical Workflow for AI Chapter Generation
- Prepare your video: make sure that the audio is clear enough for transcript-based tools.
- Select a chapter AI tool: choose based on content type (e.g., Gling for vlogs, TimeSkip for gaming, etc.) and how well the tool works with you.
- Run AI detection: let the tool work its magic.
- Review chapter titles: edit AI suggestions (AI isn’t always right and human input is still important).
- Export to YouTube: upload with timestamps in description or use YouTube’s automatic chapter support.
Finding the right tool that works for you is truly a challenge, but once you manage to, it’s time-savior. Not only the hours of manual work will be forgotten, but your viewers will be left happy when they can skip over the parts they don’t find interesting and enjoy your video to the fullest.
