Know if a YouTube video is worth watching — before you're hooked.
Paste a link. Focal goes through the whole video and tells you what's actually in it — before you commit.
40 min video. 2 min worth watching. Focal tells you in 4 seconds.
Connect
Connect Focal — browser extension, AI agents, and Notion.
Capture transcripts from the browser, read your feed inside Claude or ChatGPT, or send summaries straight to Notion.
Browser Extension
Get a verdict the moment you land on a video. The extension captures the transcript right from the page — even ones that block caption downloads.
Available for Chrome & Firefox
MCP for AI agents
Connect Claude, ChatGPT, or any MCP-compatible agent to your Focal feed. Ask what's worth watching, or pull up a verdict you already have — without leaving the chat.
{
"url": "https://usefocal.xyz/mcp",
"headers": {
"Authorization":
"Bearer <key>"
}
}Notion
Auto-push video summaries straight to your Notion pages or databases — verdict, gist, key moments, and action items, filed the moment you're done watching.
Verdict: WATCH Gist: 3 bullets Key moments: 5 Action items: 2
Hi, I'm Steve.
The person behind Focal.
My brain has never been great at sitting still — I'm always distracted, and long, meandering videos are especially hard to sit through. I'd open a 40-minute video with the best intentions and somehow end up down three rabbit holes, never finding the one thing I actually came for. Maybe you know the feeling.
Look around. And if anything's on your mind, a question, a suggestion, or just a hello, I'd love to hear from you.
FAQ
Common questions about Focal's verdicts.
What is Focal?
It goes through any YouTube video before you watch it and tells you what's actually in it. You get a verdict — Watch, Skim, or Skip — plus a density score, key moments, and a summary. Takes a few seconds. Saves you from sitting through 40 minutes to get 4 minutes of value.
How does it work?
Focal goes through the full content of a video — not just the title or thumbnail. It measures how much useful content is actually in there, finds the key moments, and summarises what you'd get out of it, so you can decide in seconds whether it's worth your time.
What are Lenses?
Lenses let you tell Focal what you're actually looking for. Not just "is this good?" but "is this useful for me, right now, for what I'm trying to do?" Same video, different lens — totally different verdict. All 6 built-in lenses are free. Focus adds unlimited custom lenses on top.
Does it work for all YouTube videos?
Focal works on any YouTube video that has captions — auto-generated or manual. If a video has no captions at all, Focal can't analyse it and will tell you so. The browser extension can capture captions directly from the page, which helps with videos that block caption downloads.
Is it free?
Yes. Free accounts get 5 verdicts per day and access to all 6 built-in lenses. Focus ($17.99/month or $179/year) removes the daily limit and adds action items, unlimited custom lenses, bulk export, priority processing, and unlimited history. Comes with a 14-day money-back guarantee.
Is my data stored or shared?
Summaries are cached so repeat lookups are instant, but we don't build a personal watch history for you. Intent text is processed per-request and not retained. We don't sell your data or share it with third parties.
Pricing
Your attention is worth more than $17 a month.
14-day money-back guarantee. Cancel anytime.
Free
$0 forever
- 5 verdicts per day
- Verdict, density score, key moments
- All 6 built-in lenses
- 7-day history
- Shareable summary links
Focus
$17.99 / month
Switch to annual and save $36.88/year
- Unlimited verdicts
- Full outputs — action items included
- All 6 built-in lenses + unlimited custom lenses
- Public lens publishing
- Unlimited history & stats
- Bulk export (CSV & JSON)
- Markdown export & Notion integration
- Priority processing
Free tells you whether to watch. Focus removes the limits — unlimited videos, custom lenses, and exportable notes.
| Feature | Free | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Verdicts per day | 5 | Unlimited |
| Action items | – | ✓ |
| Custom lenses | – | Unlimited |
| History | 7 days | Unlimited |
| Bulk export & Notion | – | ✓ |
| Priority processing | – | ✓ |
Prefer a one-time payment? See the lifetime deal
Founder offer
Focus features, forever.
One payment. No renewals. Everything in Focus — unlimited verdicts, action items, unlimited custom lenses, bulk export, full history — for as long as Focal exists.
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$199 one-time