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YouTube Chapter Generator
Play your video and mark chapters as you watch. This free chapter and timestamp generator checks YouTube’s rules and gives you a list to paste. No sign-up.
Works with watch, youtu.be, Shorts and embed links, or an 11-character video ID.
How to add chapters to a YouTube video
Four steps from a video link to a chapter list YouTube accepts.
Load your video
Paste a YouTube link or video ID. The tool pulls the title, thumbnail and length so the timeline matches your real video.
Mark each section
Play the video or click its progress bar to find where each new topic begins, then add a chapter there. You can also paste an existing list. Name every chapter.
Fix any warnings
The checker flags rows that break YouTube’s rules, such as a missing 00:00 start or a chapter under 10 seconds.
Copy into YouTube Studio
Copy the list or download it as a .txt file, then paste it into your video description in YouTube Studio and save.
Why add chapters to your videos
Chapters turn one long video into named sections that viewers can scan, skip and come back to.
Easier to navigate
Chapters split the progress bar into labelled sections, so viewers can jump straight to the part they came for.
Clearer structure
A chapter list in the description shows viewers what the video covers before they press play.
Easy to revisit
Tutorials, reviews and long explainers become easier to come back to when every section has a name.
YouTube chapter rules. Three checks decide if chapters show.
YouTube creates chapters from the timestamps in your video description, but only when the list meets these requirements. This timestamp generator checks each one as you edit:
YouTube chapter format
00:00 Intro 00:45 What you need 02:10 Step 1: Set up 06:30 Step 2: Record 11:05 Final result
Put each chapter on its own line with the timestamp first and the title after it. Use mm:ss for videos under an hour and h:mm:ss for longer ones. This tool always exports one consistent format.
- First timestamp
00:00
The first timestamp starts with 00:00.
- Chapters
3+
There are at least three timestamps, listed in ascending order.
- Shortest chapter
10s
Each chapter is at least 10 seconds long.
Even with a valid list, chapters aren’t available if the channel has an active strike or if the content may be inappropriate for some viewers.
Source: YouTube Help, Video chaptersChapters and Key Moments in Google Search
Google Search can show “key moments” for videos, letting searchers jump to a specific section from the results page. Google says that for videos hosted on YouTube, you can specify the exact timestamps and labels in the video description. Google also tries to detect segments automatically, and it decides when key moments appear, so chapters give it clear labels to work with rather than guaranteeing a placement.
Source: Google Search Central, Video structured dataLet vidIQ generate your chapters
This free editor is fully manual. If you’d rather not scrub through your video, vidIQ AI Coach can draft chapters from a video link, and vidIQ MCP lets you ask Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other AI assistants to create chapters using your vidIQ data. Review the draft, then paste it back here to check it against YouTube’s rules.
Free forever. No credit card needed.
Why YouTube chapters aren’t showing
Most missing chapters come down to one of these six problems.
- The first timestamp isn’t 00:00
- YouTube ignores the whole list if it doesn’t start at 00:00. Starting at 0:05 or 00:01 won’t work.
- Fewer than three chapters
- Two timestamps aren’t enough. Add at least one more section.
- A chapter is under 10 seconds
- Every chapter, including the last one, needs at least 10 seconds before the next chapter or the end of the video.
- Timestamps are out of order
- Each timestamp must be later than the one before it. Use Sort by time to fix the order.
- Extra text breaks the timestamp
- Each line should start with the timestamp. Put descriptive text on lines without a timestamp, outside the chapter list.
- The video isn’t eligible
- Chapters aren’t available on channels with active strikes or on content that may be inappropriate for some viewers.
More free tools and guides
Pair the chapter generator with these tools and guides to finish your upload.
YouTube chapter FAQs
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Kiwi Modulars
65K subscribers
Grew from 13K to 60K subscribers with vidIQ Coaching