Replace Tutorial Note-Taking With TubeGPT

I stopped taking notes from YouTube tutorials. Here is what I do instead.

I’ll be honest: I have a love-hate relationship with video tutorials.

I love that I can learn literally anything—from Neural Networks to fixing my dishwasher—for free. But I hate the actual process of learning from them.

You probably know the drill. You find a great 1-hour crash course. You’re excited. You hit play.

Two minutes in, you hear a key concept. You pause. You scribble it down in Notion or Obsidian. You hit play. Three minutes later, you missed a step. You rewind. You listen again. You pause again.

By the time you finish that "1-hour" video, two hours have passed, and you’re exhausted. And the worst part? Half the time, I never even look at those messy notes again.

It felt inefficient.

So, I built a tool to fix it for myself. It’s called TubeGPT.

Ideally, I shouldn't have to watch the whole thing

The main goal was simple: I wanted to be able to "chat" with the video.

Most of the time, I don't need to watch the entire 40-minute intro. I just need to know: "What are the specific steps to set up the environment?" or "What did he say about handling errors in the API section?"

TubeGPT lets me do exactly that. I paste the link, and it feels like I've instantly downloaded the knowledge from the video into a chatbot. I can ask specific questions and get answers immediately without scrubbing through the timeline.

The feature I actually use the most: "One-Click Cheatsheets"

Chatting is great, but sometimes I just need a study guide.

I built a feature that takes the entire video transcript and formats it into a clean, structured cheatsheet. It pulls out:

• The code snippets (this is a lifesaver)
• Key formulas or concepts
• Actionable bullet points

Now, instead of pausing and writing, I just watch the video to understand the concepts. When it’s done, I click one button, and I have a better revision guide than I could’ve written myself. It turns a lecture into a 1-page PDF instantly.

Comparing "Apples to Apples"

Another thing that annoyed me was trying to pick the right tutorial. If there are two videos titled "Deep Learning for Beginners," which one is actually worth my time?

I added a "Versus Mode" where you can paste two links. It analyzes both and tells you exactly how they differ—e.g., "Video A is better for theory, but Video B actually shows you the code implementation." It saves me from investing 20 minutes in the wrong video.

Give it a spin

This started as a personal side project to scratch my own itch, but I realized it might help other students and devs too.

If you’re tired of the "Pause-Rewind-Write" cycle, give it a try. It’s totally free to use for now while I’m testing it out.

Check out TubeGPT here

Let me know if it actually saves you time—or if there’s a feature you wish it had. I’m still building it, so I’d love the feedback.