YouTube Chapter Generator

How to use

1. Enter a time and title for each chapter, or paste an existing timestamp list.
2. Optionally enter the video's total duration to fully verify the final chapter.
3. Review the requirement checks and fix any errors — copying is disabled while one remains.
4. Copy the finished chapter block into your YouTube description.

YouTube chapter requirements

To add manual video chapters, YouTube currently requires:

• First timestamp: must start at 00:00
• Minimum count: at least 3 timestamps
• Order: listed in ascending order
• Minimum length: each chapter at least 10 seconds long

Manual chapters you add override YouTube's automatically generated chapters for that video. Verifying the final chapter's length requires the video's total duration, since it's the only way to know how long the last chapter actually runs — enter it above for a complete check.

Passing every check on this page means your list is formatted correctly. It does not guarantee YouTube will display chapters for your video — YouTube's help documentation notes that chapters require channel/video eligibility (for example, no active channel strikes) and access to chapters as part of YouTube's Advanced features, which this tool has no way to check.

What the results mean

• Ready — every requirement that can currently be verified passes; the output is ready to copy.
• Info / Not verified— optional information is missing, so one check can't be completed yet: most commonly, no video duration was entered, so the final chapter's length can't be confirmed. This does not mean the chapter list is invalid, and it never blocks copying.
• Warning — an actual condition worth reviewing before you copy, such as a duplicate timestamp. Usable, but worth a look.
• Error — an official requirement fails outright: an unparseable timestamp, a missing title, a first timestamp other than 00:00, timestamps out of order, or a chapter shorter than 10 seconds. Copying is disabled until every error is fixed.

Methodology and limitations

Each timestamp is parsed into a total number of seconds and checked against YouTube's published manual-chapter rules: the first timestamp must equal zero, there must be at least 3 chapters, each timestamp must be strictly greater than the one before it, and the gap to the next chapter must be at least 10 seconds. That gap is always fully knowable between two entered timestamps, so it's checked as a pass/fail requirement regardless of whether a video duration was supplied. The one gap that can't be computed from timestamps alone is the final chapter's length, which runs to the video's end — without a supplied duration, that single check is left as unverified informational text rather than assumed to pass or treated as a problem. Supplying a duration turns it into a normal pass/fail check, and a real failure there (final chapter under 10 seconds, or a timestamp at or after the video's end) is still an error that blocks copying. This tool cannot inspect the actual video, cannot verify a timestamp matches the video's content, and cannot guarantee how or whether YouTube will display chapters for any specific video.

FAQ

Source

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