Chapters split a video or podcast episode into titled sections with start times, so viewers and listeners can see what's coming and jump straight to the part they want.
Chapters make a long video or episode easy to scan, and YouTube can show them in search results and on the progress bar.
On YouTube they are made from timestamps in the description, and they only appear if the list follows YouTube's rules: the first timestamp is 0:00, there are at least 3, and each chapter is at least 10 seconds long. Apple Podcasts and Spotify read chapters from the episode file or the host and publish their own guidance.
A 40-minute interview on YouTube has a description that starts "0:00 Intro, 1:45 How she started, 12:30 The first big client, 27:10 Pricing, 38:00 Advice".
Because the list starts at 0:00 and every section is longer than ten seconds, YouTube shows the chapters on the progress bar, and viewers skip straight to the pricing part they came for.
Do this automatically from your episode audio
Spotlight's Episode mode turns an episode into posts for every platform, chapters and clips.
Episode mode is part of the Spotlight workspace on CAPTD's paid plans — see pricing.
Open Episode modeRelated terms