YouTube chapters generator
Paste your timestamps and chapter titles. The tool puts them in order, writes them the way YouTube expects, and checks YouTube's rules before you paste them into your description.
Free, no sign-up, and it runs in your browser: nothing is uploaded.
5 chapters, ready for YouTube.
Paste this into your video description
YouTube's rules for chapters
According to YouTube's help page on video chapters, chapters you add yourself go in the video's description, and they need:
- the first timestamp to start at 00:00;
- at least three timestamps, in order from the start;
- each chapter to be at least 10 seconds long.
Chapters you add this way replace the automatic chapters YouTube can make. The tool checks all three rules, and the last chapter too if you enter the video's length.
Writing good chapter titles
Name each chapter for what the viewer gets, not what you call it internally: “How we price the first project” beats “Part 2”. Keep titles short enough to read in the progress bar, and start a new chapter at each real change of topic, not every couple of minutes.
For podcasts and long interviews, chapters double as a list of the best moments to cut into Shorts; see how to turn a podcast into Shorts.
Chapters still not showing? See how to add chapters to YouTube videos, with every reason they don't appear.
Questions
- Why aren't my YouTube chapters showing?
- Check the three rules: the first timestamp is 00:00, there are at least three in order, and each chapter is 10 seconds or longer. Then save the description. The tool flags what breaks a rule.
- What format do the timestamps need?
- A time at the start of each line, then the title: 00:00 Intro, 2:15 Main topic, and 1:02:03 for videos over an hour. The tool accepts times in brackets or with a dash after them and writes them back in one style.
- Is anything uploaded?
- No. It runs in your browser; nothing you paste leaves your device.
Edit the whole episode, then cut the Shorts
7 days free, then $10 a month.