This free AI summarizer turns text you paste (an article, a report, a transcript) or a PDF into a short overview, the key points in the order they appear, and a list of anything you are asked to do. There is no account to create, and nothing you paste is kept.
Most summarizers just give you a shorter version of the words. This one tells you what the text says, in order, and what it wants from you.
Free summarizer
Summarize anything long
An article, a report, a transcript, a PDF. You get a short overview, the key points in order, and anything you are being asked to do. No sign-up, no word limit worth worrying about.
The longer runs cost us money to answer, so this is the trade: your email address, and the HOW TO // AI newsletter once a week. Unsubscribe any time.
Free, no sign-up. We keep nothing you paste in: it goes to the model and comes straight back to you.
How to summarize text with AI
- Paste the text into the box, or choose a PDF from your computer.
- Pick how short: Brief for the gist in a few lines, Standard for a paragraph and the key points, or Detailed to keep the supporting numbers and caveats.
- Pick who it is for: Me, catching up; My manager, who wants the decision (it focuses on the decision and what it costs); or Someone new to the subject (it spells out jargon the first time it appears).
- Click Summarize it. Copy the result, or change the settings and run it again.
What you get back
- The summary: two or three sentences on what the text says.
- Key points: in the order they appear, so you can find each one in the original.
- Action items: anything the reader is asked to do, listed separately. If there is nothing, the list stays empty rather than padded.
How much text it takes
Up to about 8,000 characters (roughly 1,300 words) is free with no sign-up. For longer text, up to about 30,000 characters (roughly 5,000 words), the tool asks for an email address, which also signs you up for the HOW TO // AI newsletter. If you would rather not, you can summarize the first 8,000 characters instead.
Each person gets six summaries a day. For anything longer than 30,000 characters, summarize it a section at a time. Long documents summarize better in parts with any tool, because one pass per section keeps detail that a single pass throws away.
Summarizing a PDF
Choose the file and the text is pulled out in your browser. The PDF itself is never uploaded; only the text it contains is sent to be summarized. Scanned PDFs are the exception: if the pages are pictures of text, there is nothing to extract and the tool will tell you so.
Summarizing a transcript or a video
Transcripts are where a summarizer earns its keep, because they are long, repetitive and mostly filler. Paste a meeting transcript or a video transcript and you get the decisions and action items without the small talk. The tool cannot open a video link, so copy the transcript text first; most meeting apps can export one.
If you are sending the summary to someone who was not there, choose My manager, who wants the decision. For meetings specifically, see how to turn a meeting into action-ready minutes.
What it will not do
It will not add conclusions the text did not reach, change the numbers, or give its own opinion. Names, figures and dates come through exactly as written, and if the text is cut off mid-way, the summary says so instead of inventing an ending. It is still worth checking any figure you plan to repeat; the AI fact-check workflow takes three minutes.
Privacy
Your text is sent to an AI model (Anthropic’s Claude) to be summarized, and the summary comes straight back to you. We do not keep a copy or log what you paste. Even so, take out anything genuinely confidential first, as you would with any online tool.
Want to test yourself on what you just read? The quiz generator turns notes into practice questions. To do this inside a chat app where you can ask follow-up questions, our ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini comparison covers which one suits long documents.
Frequently asked questions
Is this AI summarizer free?
Yes. Up to about 8,000 characters per summary is free with no sign-up, and up to about 30,000 characters needs only an email address. Each person can run six summaries a day.
How long can the text be?
About 30,000 characters, roughly 5,000 words, per summary. Longer documents summarize better a section at a time anyway.
Can it summarize a PDF?
Yes, if the PDF contains text. It is read in your browser and only the text is sent, so the file is never uploaded. Scanned PDFs that are pictures of pages have no text to read.
Can it summarize a YouTube video?
Not from the link. Copy the video's transcript and paste it in. Transcripts are long and repetitive, which is exactly what a summarizer handles well.
Do you store what I paste?
No. The text goes to the AI model, the summary comes back to you, and nothing is kept or logged at our end.
How accurate is the summary?
It is told to keep names, numbers and dates exactly as written and never to add conclusions of its own. Check any figure you plan to repeat, as you would with a colleague's summary.