4 Best AI Summary Tools for Chrome in 2025

Here's the reality of working online in 2025: you're drowning. Research papers stack up. YouTube tutorials run 45 minutes for 3 minutes of useful content. And that "quick read" your colleague shared? Seventeen pages.

AI summary extensions for Chrome solve this. Not all of them, though – most are garbage wrapped in slick marketing. I tested a dozen this month and found four worth installing.

Here's the short version:

• TLDRly: Best all-rounder. One-click summaries for articles, YouTube, and emails. Actually works in multiple languages.

• Recall: Builds a personal knowledge base from everything you summarize. Syncs to mobile.

• ResearchWize: Academic-focused. Generates citations, reads scanned PDFs, creates flashcards.

• Lindy: Swiss army knife approach – summarization plus task automation. Credit-based pricing.

Quick Comparison

Now let's dig into each one.

1. TLDRly

TLDRly does one thing extremely well: it makes content shorter without losing what matters. Click the icon, get a summary. That's it. No configuration screens, no learning curve, no friction.

I used it on a 6,000-word technical analysis of GPU architecture last week. Got the key benchmarks and conclusions in about 200 words. The summary actually caught a methodology flaw the full article buried in paragraph twelve.

Features

The one-click approach extends across content types: articles, blogs, research papers, YouTube videos (including the transcript if available), and even Gmail threads. That last one surprised me – it's genuinely useful for catching up on those 47-message chains about meeting room availability.

The multilingual translation is the killer feature nobody talks about. You can summarize a German research paper and get the output in English simultaneously. Not a separate step. Same click.

Premium adds PDF summarization and what they call "enhanced AI for complex material" – which in practice means it handles technical jargon and dense academic writing without turning everything into generic business-speak.

Content Compatibility

Works reliably on:

• News sites and blogs
• Wikipedia (excellent for research rabbit holes)
• YouTube (transcripts need to be available)
• Gmail threads
• Most paywalled articles if you can access them
• PDFs (premium only)

It struggles with heavily interactive content – anything that loads dynamically or hides text behind JavaScript widgets.

Pricing (USD)

Freemium model. The free tier handles basic summarization and translation for articles, YouTube, and webpages. Multilingual support included.

Premium unlocks PDF summarization and the enhanced AI for technical content. Price isn't publicly listed, which usually means "contact sales" or they're still testing price points. The free tier is generous enough that most casual users won't hit the wall.

Privacy

They process through secure AI models and don't store your content. For anyone working with client documents or sensitive research, this matters more than feature lists.

2. Recall

Recall takes a different angle: it's not just about making content shorter, it's about remembering what you read. Every summary feeds into a personal knowledge base that grows smarter over time.

The 4.9 rating on Product Hunt [2] isn't hype. After three weeks of use, Recall started surfacing connections I'd missed – linking a summary about battery chemistry to a product review I'd saved two months earlier.

Features

The automatic categorization is what sets it apart. Summarize an article about TypeScript patterns, and Recall doesn't just file it under "programming." It identifies specific topics, tags related concepts, and connects it to other TypeScript content you've saved.

This creates something closer to a second brain than a bookmark folder. The more you use it, the more useful it becomes.

Works across Chrome, Firefox, Brave, and Edge. Mobile apps for iOS and Android keep everything synced – which sounds basic until you've tried accessing desktop-only tools from your phone on a train.

Content Compatibility

Handles YouTube videos, articles, and PDFs without issues. The consistency across formats matters more than the format list suggests – you're building one unified knowledge base, not three separate ones.

Pricing (USD)

• Free tier: 10 summaries. Enough to test whether the knowledge base approach fits your workflow.
• Plus plan: $7/month (billed annually). Unlimited summaries, full knowledge base features.

At $84/year, it's cheaper than most note-taking apps and arguably more useful if you consume a lot of online content.

Privacy

All summaries stay in your personal knowledge base. They're explicit about not training models on user data, which is table stakes but worth confirming.

3. ResearchWize

ResearchWize is built for academic work. If you're writing papers, preparing lectures, or grinding through literature reviews, this is your tool. If you just want to skim news faster, look elsewhere.

The 5.0 rating on Chrome Web Store [3] comes from a small sample (7 reviews), but every feature screams "built by academics who got frustrated with existing tools."

Features

Multiple summary formats: bullet points, detailed paragraphs, cause-effect analyses, and case-law format for legal research. The citation generation covers APA, MLA, Chicago, IEEE, Harvard, Vancouver, AMA, and ACS. Getting citations right is the most tedious part of academic writing. ResearchWize eliminates it.

The interactive study tools – flashcards, quizzes, discussion prompts – transform passive reading into active learning. Export directly to PowerPoint saves the copy-paste dance between apps.

But the real magic: integrated OCR for scanned PDFs. Older academic papers, government documents, archival research – it reads them. Most tools choke on anything that isn't perfectly formatted digital text.

Content Compatibility

• Web pages
• PDFs (including scanned)
• Word documents (DOCX)
• English language only (for now)

The scanned PDF capability alone justifies the subscription for anyone working with historical or archival sources.

Pricing (USD)

7-day free trial. No credit card required. Then:

• Monthly: $12/month
• Yearly: $99/year (saves about 30%)

Both include unlimited summaries, OCR, all summary styles, export formats, flashcards, quizzes, live chat, citation generation, and PowerPoint export.

Student discounts and team licenses available – worth asking about if you're at a university or research institution.

Privacy

They emphasize data security for research materials and summaries. Essential for anyone working with unpublished research or proprietary data.

4. Lindy

Lindy is the odd one here. It's not purely a summarization tool – it's an AI assistant that happens to summarize content alongside automating other tasks. Whether that's a feature or a distraction depends on what you need.

The credit-based system means you're not locked into monthly limits. Need heavy summarization one week and nothing the next? Credits flex with you.

Features

Beyond summarization, Lindy handles task automation – the kind of stuff that usually requires Zapier or custom scripts. The 1-million-character knowledge base on the free plan lets you store reference content that informs future summaries.

For teams managing multiple projects that need consistent context across summaries, this actually matters. For individual users, it might be overkill.

Pricing (USD)

The jump from Free to Pro ($0 to $50) is steep. Either the free tier works for you, or you're committed to using this across your workflow. There's no casual middle ground.

Additional credits cost $10 per 1,000 on Pro and Business plans.

Pros and Cons Comparison

Each tool optimizes for different workflows:

Performance varies by content type. TLDRly handles the widest range reliably. ResearchWize excels on academic PDFs but feels heavy for quick web articles. Recall shines when you're building long-term knowledge, less so for one-off summaries you'll never reference again.

Conclusion

The right choice depends on how you work:

Pick TLDRly if you want something that just works across everything – articles, videos, emails – without configuration or learning curve. The multilingual support is genuinely useful, not a marketing checkbox.

Pick Recall if you're building knowledge over time and want summaries to connect rather than disappear into browser history.

Pick ResearchWize if you're doing academic work and need citations, flashcards, and OCR for scanned documents.

Pick Lindy if summarization is just one part of a larger automation workflow and you need flexibility in how you allocate AI resources.

For most people reading this? Start with TLDRly's free tier. It handles the common cases well, and you'll know within a week whether you need something more specialized.

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