Turn a 90-Minute Lecture into a 5-Minute Read
Drop in a lecture PDF, an audio recording, or a YouTube video and our AI lecture summarizer pulls out the TL;DR, the key concepts, and the action items — then turns them into flashcards, a quiz, and a podcast.
Free to start · No credit card · PDFs, audio, video, slides
How to summarize a lecture in minutes
Three steps from a 90-minute class to a summary you can actually read on the bus.
Upload or paste
Drop in a lecture PDF, an audio file, a YouTube link, or your own AI Meeting Notes source. Scholarly handles every common format.
AI structures the summary
Within minutes you get a TL;DR, a key-concept table, the worked examples your professor used, and the action items they assigned.
Loop into active recall
Convert the summary into flashcards, a quiz, or a practice exam with one click — and revise instead of just re-reading.
A summary that's actually useful
Most AI summarizers spit out a wall of bullet points. Scholarly produces a structured study artifact you can revise from.
Structured, not a blob
Every summary is split into TL;DR, key concepts, worked examples, and action items — a navigable artifact, not a wall of text.
PDFs, audio, video, slides
Lecture PDFs, MP3/M4A recordings, YouTube videos, and slide decks all work. Mix and match across a single class.
Concept tables, not bullet lists
Comparison tables for paired concepts (SN1 vs SN2, mitosis vs meiosis), so the structure of the lecture stays intact.
Live audio + AI Meeting Notes
Pair with Scholarly's AI Meeting Notes app to capture live class audio and get a summary the moment the lecture ends.
YouTube and online lectures
Paste a YouTube URL for a free AI Meeting Notes source and get the same structured summary you'd get from a PDF.
Drives the rest of your study
Same lecture becomes spaced-repetition flashcards, a practice exam, and a two-host podcast — one upload, full review loop.
Sample summary output
A real summary structure from a 75-minute orgo lecture on SN1 vs SN2 reactions.
TL;DR
SN1 and SN2 are two nucleophilic substitution mechanisms. SN2 is concerted, one-step, second-order, and favored by strong nucleophiles and unhindered substrates. SN1 is stepwise via a carbocation, first-order, and favored by polar protic solvents and stable carbocations (tertiary > secondary > primary).
Key Concepts
| Concept | SN1 | SN2 |
|---|---|---|
| Rate law | First-order | Second-order |
| Substrate | Tertiary > 2° > 1° | Methyl > 1° > 2° |
| Stereochemistry | Racemization | Inversion (Walden) |
| Solvent | Polar protic | Polar aprotic |
Action Items
- Memorize the SN1/SN2 decision tree (slide 14)
- Practice problems 4.7-4.12 from the textbook before next lecture
- Review Walden inversion mechanism — appears on Friday's quiz
Why summarize your lectures with AI?
To summarize a lecture recording with AI, upload the audio (MP3, M4A, WAV) — or a lecture PDF, a YouTube link, or slides — and Scholarly's AI lecture summarizer returns a structured summary: a one-paragraph TL;DR, a key-concept table, the worked examples your professor used, and the action items they assigned. It reads your actual recording rather than improvising, then turns the same source into flashcards, a quiz, and a podcast in one click.
A 90-minute lecture is built for delivery, not for review. Re-watching it to find the one concept you're stuck on is a brutal use of time. A good lecture summary is the bridge — it gives you a navigable map of the class so you can jump straight to the section you actually need to re-read, instead of scrubbing a recording or flipping through 60 pages of slides.
The trick is that summarizing well is hard. A list of bullet points loses the argument. A pure transcript wastes your time. Scholarly's AI lecture summarizer organizes the class the way a strong note-taker would: a one-paragraph TL;DR, a table of key concepts with definitions, the worked examples the professor used, and a list of action items the lecture explicitly assigned.
Because Scholarly understands lectures across formats — a PDF deck, an audio file from your phone, a YouTube link, or live audio captured by the AI Meeting Notes — you can summarize anything you sat through. And because every summary lives next to your flashcards, study notes, and practice exams, you don't stop at "read the summary." You drill on it.
This is the part most summarizers miss: a summary is only useful if it loops back into active recall. Scholarly turns the same lecture into spaced-repetition flashcards and a practice test — so reading the summary is the start of revision, not the end of it.
Scholarly vs. Mindgrasp for lecture summaries
Mindgrasp built its reputation on lecture summarization and does it well. Here's an honest comparison.
Where it shines: a polished, fast summarizer with a long track record in the student space and strong integrations with Google Drive and YouTube.
Good at producing clean summary text from PDFs, audio, and video — a solid choice if a summary is all you need.
The follow-through is thinner: limited flashcard support, no full practice-exam generator, no two-host podcast format from the same source.
Pricing model is subscription-only after a short trial — no permanent free tier.
Where it shines: the summary is the start of a full review loop — flashcards, quiz, podcast, and chat tutor all share the same source.
Structured output by default: TL;DR, key-concept table, worked examples, action items — not just a paragraph blob.
Same upload becomes a spaced-repetition deck and a graded practice exam — active recall, not just reading.
Permanent free tier with included AI creations; Ultimate unlocks longer sources and higher generation limits.
Lecture summarizer — frequently asked questions
How does the AI lecture summarizer work?
Upload a lecture PDF, an audio recording, a YouTube link, or a slide deck. Scholarly processes the source, extracts the structure of the lecture, and returns a summary with a TL;DR, a key-concept table, worked examples, and action items — usually within a couple of minutes.
Can I summarize a lecture PDF for free?
Yes. You can summarize lecture PDFs free with a Scholarly account — no credit card required to start. Free accounts include free AI creation credits; Ultimate unlocks longer sources and higher generation limits.
What inputs does it accept?
Lecture PDFs (including slide decks exported as PDF), MP3 and M4A audio recordings, YouTube video links, MP4 video files, and live audio captured by Scholarly's AI Meeting Notes. You can mix multiple sources into one summary — e.g., the slides plus your recorded audio.
How is this different from Mindgrasp?
Mindgrasp is a solid summarizer. The main difference is follow-through: Scholarly turns the same lecture into spaced-repetition flashcards, a full practice exam, and a two-host study podcast — all from the same upload. If you want a summary that loops back into active recall, that's where Scholarly's design diverges.
How accurate is the summary?
Summaries are anchored to your uploaded source — Scholarly extracts what's actually in the lecture rather than improvising. As with any AI tool, review the output against the original. Most students treat the summary as a navigable map of the class and re-read the source when a section matters.
Can I export the summary?
Yes. Summaries can be exported as PDF or copied as Markdown, and the key-concept table can be exported as a CSV if you want to drop it into Anki or another study tool.
Does it work for non-English lectures?
Yes. The summarizer handles audio and PDFs in dozens of languages, and you can choose the output language separately from the input — so a Spanish lecture can return an English summary, or vice versa.
Can I summarize a YouTube lecture?
Yes. Paste a YouTube URL and Scholarly will pull the transcript and generate a structured summary. This works for educational channels, open-courseware lectures, and conference talks.
How do I summarize a lecture recording?
Upload your audio recording (MP3, M4A, WAV, WebM, or OGG) — or record the class live with Scholarly's AI Meeting Notes. The AI transcribes it, then summarizes the recording into a TL;DR, a key-concept table, worked examples, and action items, usually within a couple of minutes. From there you can convert the same recording into flashcards or a practice exam.
Keep exploring
More ways to study with Scholarly
Pair your lecture summary with the rest of the Scholarly platform.
AI Meeting Notes
Record live class audio and get a summary the moment it ends.
AI Practice Exam Generator
Turn a summarized lecture into a graded mock exam.
PDF Summarizer
Chat with a PDF and get the parts that matter.
AI Study Notes Generator
Organized notes from PDFs, slides, and lectures.
AI Podcast from PDF
Turn dense reading into a two-host study podcast.
All AI Study Tools
Every Scholarly study tool in one place.
Summarize your next lecture
Upload a lecture, get a structured summary, and turn it into a full review loop. Free to start.
Free
- 3 AI Chat messages per day
- 3 free AI creations total
- 1 free file upload total (8MB)
- 5 quiz questions per day
- 1 exam attempt per day
- 15 voice minutes per day
- 32-page PDF to flashcards
- 500 autocomplete words per day
Use it to generate flashcards, improve a deck, or create a podcast, video lecture, slides, infographic, mind map, study guide, worksheet, spreadsheet, story book, timeline, SOP, flowchart, lesson plan, or outline — or run Deep Research or turn a recording into AI Meeting Notes.
Ultimate
$144 billed yearly
Everything in Free, plus:
- Unlimited normal chat & autocomplete
- Unlimited premium model messages
- Unlimited AI creations
- Unlimited file uploads (up to 300MB)
- Unlimited study sessions
- Unlimited exams & quizzes
- 1000-page PDF to flashcards
- Export to Anki
- Priority support
Pricing in USD. Local currency available in app.
Teams
For teams that need shared AI study workflows
$45/seat/month, or $324/seat/year with annual billing. Save 40% annually.
- 3-seat minimum
- 450 weekly credits per member
- Premium models and admin controls
Every feature unlocked for everyone, frontier AI models, and per-member weekly credits. Learn more about Scholarly for Teams
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What students say
Scholarly has been a valuable tool for my studies. The AI-generated flashcards and intuitive features make organizing and retaining information much easier.
Briana
Student
This app is great for studying for big test. Drop your PDF's in the system and it'll do the trick. You can organize it specifically for your needs.
Kelvin
Student
I am currently preparing for a test that covers a substantial amount of material, and I've found that not having to physically write out my flashcards has been incredibly beneficia...
Isabelle
Student
Scholarly is great for students. I am enrolled in online university and my classes are all PDF based. All I do is upload the PDF and it creates flashcards decks for me. The greate...
Alexandra
Student
Your questions, answered
Is Scholarly free to use?
Yes! The free plan includes core study tools with clear limits: 3 AI Chat messages per day, 3 free AI creations total, 1 free file upload total, quizzes, practice exams, and manual flashcard creation. Upgrade to Ultimate for unlimited AI creations and unlimited uploads.
What uses my free AI creations?
Generating flashcards, improving a flashcard deck, making a podcast, creating a video lecture or infographic, building slides, a spreadsheet, or a story book, making a mind map, study guide, or worksheet, having an AI Agent create a timeline, SOP, flowchart, lesson plan, or outline, running Deep Research, or processing a recording each uses one of your 3 free AI creations. They are lifetime free credits and do not reset. AI Chat messages, quizzes, and exams still have separate daily limits; free file uploads are also lifetime credits.
Can I cancel anytime?
Absolutely. There are no contracts or commitments. You can cancel your subscription at any time from your account settings, and you'll keep access until the end of your billing period.
What payment methods do you accept?
We accept all major credit and debit cards through Stripe. Pricing is displayed in USD by default, but local currency is available in the app.
Do you offer discounts for educators?
Yes, we offer special pricing for educators and educational institutions. Contact us at hello@scholarly.so for details.
What happens when I hit a free plan limit?
You'll see a prompt to upgrade. Your existing work is never lost — limits only apply to new actions. Free AI creations and the free upload are lifetime credits and do not reset. Upgrading unlocks unlimited AI creations and unlimited uploads.
For Educators or Schools
Contact us for special pricing at hello@scholarly.so.