AI Summarizer
An AI summarizer reads something long, such as a video, an article, a document or a recording, and writes a short version that keeps the main points. Shorty is a free AI summarizer for YouTube videos, web pages, pasted text, PDFs, Word documents and audio files, and it works without an account.
Pick the source you have below. Every Shorty summarizer returns the same kind of summary, a title, a short description and a set of titled sections, so you can skim the source before deciding whether to read or watch all of it.
Summarizers by source
YouTube
Summarize YouTube videos in seconds.
Webpage
Paste any URL — blog posts, docs, news.
Article
Deep long-form articles and essays.
Upload a PDF and get structured notes.
Word
Upload a DOCX file and get structured notes.
Plain Text
Paste raw text, up to 25,000 characters.
Audio
Transcribe and summarize voice recordings.
Transcribe
Transcription only — no summary.
Which summarizer for which input
Every Shorty summarizer is free. The limits below are the ones the app enforces today.
| Your source | What you give Shorty | What you get back | Cost and limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube video | A YouTube video link | Title, description and sections, each stamped with the time it starts in the video | Free, no account |
| Web page or article | The URL of a public page: news, blog posts, documentation, essays | Title, description and titled sections with the key points | Free, no account. Pages behind a login or CAPTCHA are refused |
| Pasted text | Up to 25,000 characters: emails, notes, essays, transcripts | Title, description and titled sections | Free, no account |
| A PDF with selectable text, up to 100 MB | Title, description and titled sections covering the document | Free, no account. Scans with no text layer are refused | |
| Word document | A .docx file, up to 100 MB | Title, description and titled sections covering the document | Free, no account |
| Audio file | An audio file (MP3, WAV, M4A and more), up to 250 MB and 30 minutes with no account | Title, description and titled sections on what was said | Free, no account. Takes minutes, not seconds |
Long-form essays also have their own page, the article summarizer. For a full transcript instead of a summary, or to turn a video file into text, use audio and video to text.
How the AI summarizer works
- Step 1
Choose the summarizer for your source
Each input type has its own page, listed in the table above, so you can bookmark the one you use most. If you need every word of a recording rather than a summary, the audio and video to text tool gives you a full transcript instead.
- Step 2
Paste a link or text, or upload a file
Shorty reads the source: the captions of a YouTube video (or its audio, when it has no captions), the readable text of a web page, the text inside a PDF or Word file, or the speech in a recording. A link that turns out to be a login screen, a CAPTCHA or an error page is refused with an explanation instead of being summarized.
- Step 3
Read the summary
An AI model writes the summary. YouTube, text, web page and PDF summaries usually come back in under a minute; audio takes longer because the speech has to be processed first. Sign in and every summary you make is kept in a searchable library.
What you get in a Shorty summary
- A title that says what the source is about.
- A short description of what the source covers, useful for deciding whether the whole thing is worth your time.
- Titled sections, each covering one of the main points, so a long source reads as a handful of short parts.
- For YouTube videos, a timestamp on every section. Click it on the summary page and the video jumps to the moment where that part begins.
- A choice of summary language on the YouTube and text summarizers, from 113 languages.
To see real examples, browse recent Shorty summaries.
Comparing tools first? See how Shorty compares to other YouTube summarizers.
AI summarizer FAQ
- What is an AI summarizer?
- An AI summarizer is a tool that reads a long source, such as a video, web page, document or recording, and writes a shorter version that keeps its main points. Shorty is an AI summarizer that does this for YouTube videos, web pages, pasted text, PDFs, Word documents and audio files.
- Is the Shorty AI summarizer free?
- Yes. Every Shorty summarizer is free to use with no account and no credit card. A free Shorty account adds a saved, searchable library of your summaries, and the paid Shorty Premium and Shorty Pro plans raise Shorty's transcription, subtitle and file-conversion limits.
- Which Shorty summarizer should I use?
- Use the Shorty summarizer that matches your source: the YouTube summarizer for a YouTube link, the web page summarizer for an article URL, the text summarizer for pasted text, the PDF or Word summarizer for a document, and the audio summarizer for an audio recording.
- What does a Shorty summary include?
- A Shorty summary has a title, a short description and a set of titled sections that each cover one main point of the source. Summaries of YouTube videos also put a timestamp on every section, pointing at the moment in the video where that part begins.
- How much text or how large a file can Shorty summarize?
- Shorty's text summarizer accepts up to 25,000 characters of pasted text. PDF, Word and audio files can be up to 100 MB each, and the same limits apply with or without an account.
- Which audio formats can Shorty summarize?
- Shorty's audio summarizer takes MP3, WAV, M4A, AAC, FLAC, OGG and OPUS files, up to 100 MB each, and summarizes what is said in them.
- Is a summariser the same as a summarizer?
- Yes. "Summariser" is the British spelling of "summarizer", and both mean a tool that turns a long text, video or recording into a summary. Shorty's summarizers are the same tools whichever spelling you search for.
- What can Shorty not summarize?
- Shorty only summarizes content it can actually read. A web page behind a login or a CAPTCHA, a scanned PDF with no text layer, and an age-restricted YouTube video are refused with an explanation, rather than turned into an empty or invented summary.
- Can I use the Shorty summarizer from code or an AI assistant?
- Yes. Shorty has a public REST API at https://aishorty.com/v1, an official TypeScript SDK (@aishorty/sdk), and an OAuth 2.1 MCP server at https://aishorty.com/api/mcp that lets Claude and other AI assistants create summaries on your behalf.