Download
Get VidNotes for macOS
Universal binary for Apple Silicon and Intel. macOS 13+ required.
Nothing to install
VidNotes is fully self-contained. Transcription (WhisperKit) and AI briefs (Apple MLX) ship inside the app and download their model weights on first use — no Homebrew, no Python, no separate servers.
Optional: add an OpenAI / Anthropic / Gemini API key in Settings if you'd rather route AI to a cloud provider.
A note on YouTube videos
VidNotes plays YouTube via embed. Many YouTube videos can't be auto-transcribed — Apple's sandbox prevents downloading their audio, and YouTube's PoToken now blocks most third-party caption scrapers. You have three options inside the app:
- Use existing public captions — works for most MIT / news / official-channel videos. Click Transcribe.
- Download the video as MP4 and drop it in — full WhisperKit transcription on-device.
- Paste a transcript from anywhere (YouTube's own "Show transcript" button works).
Prefer the walkthrough?