Compare Youtube Highlighter and Reader Mode + Notes: Which Extension is the Best?
Highlight and annotate YouTube transcripts. Generate AI summaries and chat with the video content to turn it into clear, searchable notes and annotations. | Distraction-free reading mode with AI summaries, notes and annotations - free, easy to use, no sign-up required. Turns any webpage into a clean reading experience — and saves a complete offline copy. | |
| Key Features A summary of the most important features offered by each extension. |
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| Our Rating Tooltivity's expert review score for each extension, based on hands-on testing and research. | 9.5 Winner in this category | 9.4 |
| Total users Total active users across all major browsers: Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari. | 118 | 704 Winner in this category |
| Total ratings Total number of user ratings received across all supported browsers. | 5 Winner in this category | 3 |
| Average rating Average user rating across all browsers, calculated from available store ratings. | 5.0 ⭐ Winner in this category | 4.3 ⭐ |
| Entry Level Price The minimum price required to start using the extension. "Free" means a free tier is available. | Free | Free |
| Chrome User rating and stats for the extension on Chrome browser. |  5.0 5.0 Average Chrome Web Store rating from the last 100 reviews 118Users Winner in this category | 4.3 4.3 Average Chrome Web Store rating from the last 100 reviews 704Users |
| Edge User rating and stats for the extension on Edge browser. | - | - |
| Firefox User rating and stats for the extension on Firefox browser. | - | - |
| Safari User rating and stats for the extension on Safari browser. | - | - |
| Features Tooltivity's expert score for the 'Features' aspect of each extension. | 9.8 1. YouTube Transcript Highlighting 🎥 YouTube Highlighter excels at one thing better than any other tool we tested—making YouTube videos truly interactive and study-friendly. You don't even need an account. Just visit any YouTube video with captions, click the highlight button in the player controls, and start highlighting the transcript text. Once highlighted, your highlights are visible on the transcript and persist when you revisit the video. The best part: Your highlights will also be visible if you reload the page or return to the video later.There are two main ways to start highlighting:
In our tests, we could easily highlight educational content, TED talks, and tutorial videos, and those highlights were effortlessly restored when revisiting them. It works seamlessly with both auto-generated and manual captions. Highlighted YouTube video with transcriptAll of your highlights are not only visible on the transcript but also accessible through the sidebar, which gives you a comprehensive overview of your video study materials. This creates a study environment similar to traditional note-taking apps, but specifically designed for video content. 2. Time-Synced Video Playback ⏱️ Seamless integration between transcript and videoOne of the most impressive features is how smoothly the transcript synchronizes with video playback. The current sentence being spoken is highlighted in real-time, and you can click any part of the transcript to jump to that exact moment in the video.The auto-scroll feature keeps the current sentence in view as the video plays, creating a distraction-free study environment. You can toggle this feature on or off as needed.Time-synced transcript with video playbackThis synchronization makes it incredibly easy to:
3. AI-Powered Video Summaries ✨ Transform long videos into digestible insights. The AI summary feature works exceptionally well with YouTube content, giving you quick overviews of video content in multiple formats. The AI summary feature works entirely offline with Chrome's built-in LLM, making it both super fast and completely private. It analyzes the entire video transcript to create intelligent summaries.You can choose from different summary styles depending on what you need:
Length options include:
4. Multi-Language Support 🌍 Study content in your preferred language. The extension automatically detects available caption languages and lets you switch between them seamlessly. This is particularly useful for:
5. Study-Friendly Customization 🎨 Personalize your learning environmentThe reader mode offers extensive customization options to create the perfect study environment:
6. Notes & Tags System 📝 You can create tags and notes by clicking on highlights in the transcript. This opens a popup allowing you to add tags and notes to specific video moments.Any changes you make are immediately visible in the sidebar, making it a perfect research tool for educational content, tutorials, and long-form videos.Inside the sidebar, you can find all your highlights and notes organized by tags, making it easy to:
7. Export & Integration Options 📤 YouTube Highlighter gives you comprehensive export options for your video research:
The export functionality preserves timestamps, making it easy to reference specific video moments in your external notes. 8. Offline & Privacy-First Approach 🔐 The extension works entirely offline without requiring an account, ensuring complete privacy. Even when you choose to sync via the web app, your highlights, notes, and video research remain private by default.Your data isn't sold to third parties, nor is it used for advertising or profiling. This dedication to privacy makes it ideal for sensitive research, personal study materials, and confidential educational content. Winner in this category | 9.5 This tool isn’t just a basic reader mode — it goes way beyond that. Yes, it gives you the distraction-free reading experience you'd expect (cleans up almost any webpage beautifully), but it also lets you highlight in multiple colors, add notes, organize with tags, and save a full offline version of the article — which is super helpful if a page ever gets taken down. One of my favorite parts is how smooth the AI-powered summary feature enables you to get a quick overview of the website content. The AI can create summaries in different styles based on your needs:
Another great thing is that it offers plenty of export options: Markdown, Notion, Obsidian, Capacities, PDF... it just works. It even has a spaced repetition feature that helps you remember what you read long-term. It’s basically a powerhouse for anyone doing research or deep reading. |
| Performance Tooltivity's expert score for the 'Performance' aspect of each extension. | 8.5 The extension performs seamlessly once the transcript is loaded, allowing you to highlight video transcripts and sync with playback without any lag or interruptions. It can sometimes take a few seconds for the video transcript to load initially, depending on the video's caption availability and your internet connection. The AI summary functionality is quick and accurate once the transcript is available, enabling you to get instant overviews of video content. Additionally, the ability to sync your video research across devices ensures that you can access your study materials from anywhere. The best part is that the core functionality works entirely offline once the transcript is loaded, so you can study with videos even without an internet connection. | 9.4 I tested it on several websites — from news articles to blog posts to PDFs — and it handled everything smoothly. Pages load quickly, the reader view pops up without delay, and saved articles open instantly, even without internet. Even the offline functionality was seamless. I disconnected from Wi-Fi just to test it — and could still open and read saved articles without a hitch. Winner in this category |
| Design Tooltivity's expert score for the 'Design' aspect of each extension. | 9.6 The design is clean and intuitive, with a focus on reducing distractions while studying. We loved the seamless integration with YouTube's interface and the customizable reader mode that adapts to different study preferences.What users love most is the time-synced playback and the ability to jump between transcript and video effortlessly. The multi-language support and customization options make it suitable for diverse learning needs.The reader mode also looks great on different screen sizes, making it simple to study on various devices. Winner in this category | 9.6 The design is clean, modern, and just pleasant to use. You can switch between different color modes like dark, sepia, or high contrast, and you can customize font size, spacing, and width — which makes reading long texts super comfortable. It doesn’t feel overwhelming or cluttered. It’s intuitive and looks polished both on desktop and mobile. I especially liked how the sidebar slides in to show your notes and highlights without breaking your focus. Winner in this category |
| Value for Money Tooltivity's expert score for the 'Value for Money' aspect of each extension. | 9.0 YouTube Highlighter can be used for free without signing up, providing access to a wide range of offline features including highlighting, note-taking, and basic AI summaries. Free users can highlight one video per day, but once you start highlighting a video, you can create unlimited highlights within that video.To fully enjoy the benefits, including unlimited video highlighting, unlimited AI summaries, advanced export options, and cloud sync across devices, you can upgrade to the PREMIUM or ULTIMATE version. The pricing plans are affordable, making it a cost-effective solution for students, researchers, educators, and anyone who learns from video content. No other tool gives you this much value for transforming YouTube into a study platform. | 9.1 The free version already gives you most of what you need — clean reading mode, offline access, highlighting, note-taking. No sign-up, no hidden limits. That alone is worth a lot. The paid version just builds on that. You get syncing, full-text search, and access to a web app to view your archive from anywhere. For the price (just a few bucks per month), it’s an excellent investment if you read and research online often. Winner in this category |
| Ease of Use Tooltivity's expert score for the 'Ease of Use' aspect of each extension. | 9.8 We can't think of a simpler way to transform YouTube videos into study materials. The best part? It works seamlessly right out of the box, no account needed.
Winner in this category | 9.0 This extension just works — no setup, no confusion. I installed it, clicked on the icon while reading an article, and boom — instant reader mode. From there, highlighting was as easy as selecting text. Notes? Just a click away. Bookmarks and tags? Super straightforward. Even advanced features like syncing or exporting are done in a really user-friendly way. There are many things to discover, but if you want to dive deeper, there are helpful guides and blog posts too. |
| Security & Privacy Tooltivity's expert score for the 'Security & Privacy' aspect of each extension. | 10 In the Security & Privacy category, we give YouTube Highlighter a solid 10/10. The fact that you can use this tool offline without needing an account sets it apart from its competitors. Even if you opt for cloud sync by creating an account, YouTube Highlighter puts data privacy first. Your highlights, notes, and video research are visible only to you by default unless you decide to share them. Your data isn't sold to third parties, nor is it used or transferred for anything beyond the extension's core functionality. This dedication to data privacy ensures your educational research stays secure and confidential. Winner in this category | 10 What I really respect is that you don’t need an account to use it. Everything you save stays on your device, so your highlights and notes are private by default. If you do choose to create an account (which unlocks syncing and cloud access), your data is still treated with care — no ads, no tracking, no selling your info. It's a great balance between usability and privacy. Especially rare for a free tool. Winner in this category |
| Conclusion A summary of our findings and final thoughts for each extension. | No conclusion available | Reader Mode + Notes & Annotations is more than just a reader mode extension. It’s a full-fledged research companion. Whether you're saving articles for later, organizing a reading archive, or just want to eliminate distractions, this tool delivers. If you're serious about focused reading and long-term content access, this might just become your favorite browser extension. |
| Our Recommendation | In our comparison between Youtube Highlighter and Reader Mode + Notes, Youtube Highlighter came out on top, scoring 9.5. Reader Mode + Notes is the most widely used, with over 704 users and 3+ reviews, but Youtube Highlighter outperformed it in our review. User reviews reflect our findings. Notably, Youtube Highlighter has the highest user rating in the Chrome Web Store at 5.00, which supports its strong performance in our review. In the end, the differences between these extensions are minimal, so your choice may come down to personal preference or specific features.
If you want a quick recommendation, Youtube Highlighter is our top pick. But as always, the best choice depends on what matters most to you. | |
