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Copy for YouTube, in the More (⋯) menu of the editor’s Chapters panel, copies your chapters so you can paste them into your YouTube video’s description to get clickable chapter markers. This is useful when you download a Tella video and upload it to YouTube. If you publish to YouTube from Tella instead, Tella can add the chapters for you: see Add chapters to the YouTube description. For general information on creating and editing chapters, see Chapters.

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What does Copy for YouTube produce?

Tella offers three copy formats for chapters: Copy as text, Copy with descriptions, and Copy for YouTube. Copy for YouTube puts each chapter on its own line as a timestamp followed by the title, with no dash:
Paste this into your YouTube video’s description field. YouTube will automatically create clickable chapter markers on the video progress bar.
Copy as text adds a dash between the timestamp and title (00:00 - Intro). Use Copy for YouTube when pasting into YouTube.

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Copy chapters for YouTube

  1. Open your video in the Tella editor.
  2. Click Chapters in the Setup panel, or open the video title menu in the top-left corner and select Chapters.
  3. Click the More (⋯) menu and select Copy for YouTube.
  4. Go to your YouTube video and paste the text into the description field.
  5. Save the YouTube description. Chapter markers will appear on the progress bar.

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YouTube chapter requirements

For YouTube to recognize chapters, your description must meet these requirements:
  • The first timestamp must be 0:00. Tella handles this automatically: if your first chapter starts after 0:00, Tella adds an “Intro” chapter at the beginning when you save.
  • You need at least three chapters.
  • Each chapter must be at least 10 seconds long.

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Timestamp format

Tella formats each timestamp based on where that chapter starts:
  • Chapters that start before the one-hour mark use MM:SS (e.g., 00:00, 02:30, 14:05).
  • Chapters that start at one hour or later use HH:MM:SS (e.g., 01:02:30).

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Tips for YouTube chapters

  • Keep chapter titles short and descriptive. YouTube displays them in the progress bar, so long titles get cut off.
  • You can generate chapters with AI or add them manually before copying.
  • If you enable Auto-generate chapters in Settings > Preferences, chapters are created automatically after each recording’s transcription completes.
Last modified on September 30, 2026