Getting started
Ten minutes to a complete setup. You can skip the AI step and come back to it later — notes, playback, and search work without any API keys.
On first launch, VidNotes triggers a one-time download of two on-device AI models: WhisperKit (transcription, ~770 MB) and MLX (briefs & chat, ~2 GB). These run entirely on your Mac; no network calls after the initial download. Both are stored in Application Support and never re-downloaded.
On Apple Silicon you can switch the transcription engine to Parakeet in Settings — faster, and covering English and 24 other European languages. For Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Malay and other Asian languages, set the Transcription Language and VidNotes uses Whisper for them.
VidNotes ships with bundled on-device AI that works without any key. If you'd rather use a cloud provider (faster on long content, higher quality on technical briefs), wire one up in Settings → AI Providers.
VidNotes connects to AI providers using your own API keys — nothing goes through our servers. You can skip this step (notes + playback work without any key) or wire up just one to start. Every key goes in VidNotes → Settings → AI Providers, then paste and click Save.
Which should I get? Start with Google Gemini — it’s free, needs no credit card, and handles every AI feature in the app. Add Claude later if you want higher-quality long-form briefs.
- Sign in with any Google account
- Click “Create API Key” → choose (or create) a project
- Copy the key that appears
- Paste into Settings → Google Gemini → Save
- Sign up / sign in
- Settings → API Keys → “Create Key”
- Name it (e.g. “VidNotes”), copy the key
- Add payment + $5 credits under Billing
- Paste into Settings → Anthropic → Save
- Sign up / sign in
- API Keys → “Create new secret key” → copy
- Billing → add payment method + $5+ credits
- Paste into Settings → OpenAI → Save
- Go to the link — it opens the YouTube Data API v3 page
- Click “Enable” on the API (creates a project if needed)
- Sidebar → Credentials → “Create Credentials” → “API key”
- Paste into Settings → YouTube Data API → Save
Drag any video file into the window or paste a YouTube URL. Press ⌘↩ to save a timestamped note. Press C to toggle captions if you’ve imported a transcript.
Click the Brief tab on the right, then Generate Brief. VidNotes transcribes the video (if not already done), extracts claims and entities in parallel segments, and produces a 4-layer research brief with clickable timestamps.