FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What GistCite does, who it is for, what is free, how pricing works, how data is handled and which engines are used. Every answer is on this page, not behind a click.
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About the product
- What does GistCite do?
- It turns YouTube videos, documents, recordings and web pages into transcripts and clean text, then summarizes them with citations, answers questions about them, and drafts posts, briefs, captions and clips from them. The web app and the API share one account and one quota.
- Who is it for?
- Independent professionals, content creators and podcasters, marketers, researchers and students, and developers building AI workflows: anyone whose work crosses videos, documents and recordings.
- What is free and what is paid?
- The free plan includes 100 units a month for YouTube transcripts, document extraction, PDF editing, the Markdown editor, text to speech and dictation. Pro ($15 a month list price, 2,000 units) adds AI summaries, Ask and Create, Media Tools, Web Extractor, Sentiment Analysis, Open Library and batches. API ($49 a month list, 10,000 units) is the same at volume. Prices are charged by Stripe and shown live on the pricing page.
- How is pricing structured?
- By quota units. A transcript, a document or a page is 1 unit; an AI summary is 10 at Standard or 30 at Deep; transcription is priced per minute; OCR per page. The cost of an action is shown before it runs, and every metered API response reports what it cost.
- How long does it take to get started?
- Seconds. Paste a YouTube link on the homepage and the transcript appears; no account is needed for a few transcripts. An account takes an email address; Pro is a Stripe checkout.
- How is my data protected?
- Uploaded files are processed in memory and never stored; only extracted text is kept, in your history, and you can export or delete everything yourself. TLS in transit, hashed passwords and API keys, no advertising trackers. We describe our security controls honestly, including what we have not been audited for.
- Which integrations and formats are available?
- A REST API with API keys for every tool; exports to TXT, SRT, Markdown, DOCX, PDF, XLSX, CSV, JSON and more; and the same content flows between tools, so a transcript can be summarized, questioned, turned into a draft or captioned without re-uploading.
- Which AI models are used?
- Summaries, Ask and Create run on Claude by Anthropic; transcription runs on Whisper; document extraction on Docling and pypdf. Only extracted text is sent to a model, never the original file.
YouTube Transcripts
- Does it work on videos without captions?
- No. The tool reads the caption track YouTube provides, manual or auto-generated. A video with captions disabled has no transcript to fetch; for those, download the audio and use Speech to Text.
- Is the transcript accurate?
- As accurate as the captions: manual captions are usually excellent, auto-generated ones vary with audio quality. The tool prefers manual captions whenever the video has them.
- Can I get transcripts for a whole playlist?
- Yes, on Pro or API. Paste the playlist link or a list of video links and download the results together.
- Do I need an account?
- Not for a few transcripts. An account adds history, API keys and the monthly quota; Pro adds batches, playlists and every AI feature.
Document Extractor
- Which file types are supported?
- PDF, DOCX, PPTX, XLSX, TXT, Markdown, EPUB and HTML, uploaded or fetched from a link.
- Does it handle scanned PDFs?
- Yes, on Pro and API: pages without a text layer are OCR'd at 3 units a page. The free plan extracts the text layer only.
- Are my files stored?
- No. Files are processed in memory and discarded; the extracted text is kept in your history so you can come back to it.
- How big can a file be?
- 25 MB on the free plan, 200 MB on Pro and API.
PDF Editor
- Is my PDF uploaded when I annotate it?
- No. Annotation, signatures and watermarks are applied in your browser. Only merge, split, protect and unlock send the file to the server, and nothing is kept after the response.
- Can I sign a PDF?
- Yes: draw or type a signature, place it, and save. The signature is flattened into the page.
- Does it edit existing text?
- It adds text boxes and annotations over the page; it does not rewrite the original text layer.
AI Summary, Ask and Create
About AI Summary, Ask and Create
- Which AI model is used?
- Claude by Anthropic: Sonnet at Standard quality and the largest available Claude model at Deep quality. Self-hosted deployments can fall back to a local Ollama model.
- How much does a summary cost?
- 10 units at Standard, 30 at Deep; a cached repeat of the same source and quality is 1 unit. Pro includes 2,000 units a month.
- Is the original file sent to the AI?
- No, only the extracted text; the file itself is never stored.
- Can I use it without a paid plan?
- AI features need Pro or API. Extraction, PDF editing, the Markdown editor, TTS and dictation are on the free plan.
Speech to Text
- Is dictation really free?
- Yes. It uses the browser's own speech recognition and sends nothing to GistCite.
- What formats can I upload?
- Common audio and video files up to 500 MB.
- How accurate is it?
- Whisper handles clear speech well and degrades with noise and crosstalk; the vocabulary hint improves names and jargon.
TTS Reader
- Which voices are available?
- Whatever your browser and operating system provide; the MP3 export uses a neural voice on the server.
Markdown Editor
- Is my text saved anywhere?
- Only in your browser while the tab is open. Download the file to keep it.
Web Extractor
- Can it extract pages behind a login?
- No. The extractor fetches public pages only.
- How many pages can a crawl cover?
- Up to 200 pages and 5 levels deep, with scope rules to stay within a section of the site.
Media Tools
- What file sizes are supported?
- Uploads up to 500 MB.
- Can I import from TikTok or Instagram?
- Yes, public videos from YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Bilibili; downloads are metered at 1 unit per MB.
Sentiment Analysis
- Does it work on any video?
- Any public video with comments enabled.
- What does scoring measure?
- Sentiment (positive, neutral, negative), emotions, toxicity and language, per comment.
Open Library
- Can I download any book?
- Only items each source marks as free to keep: public-domain books and open-access papers.
Still have a question?
Write to the team; support, billing and privacy each have their own route on the contact page.