What is the best app to remember what you watch and read?

It depends on what you want to remember. To log titles you finished, use a tracker (Letterboxd or Trakt for films and shows, Goodreads or StoryGraph for books). To keep what the video, podcast or article actually said, use a capture app that saves the full text: Readwise Reader for highlighting, Recall for summaries inside one app, NotebookLM for a fixed set of sources, or BrainTube if you want Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other MCP clients to search the library for you.

How do I remember what I learn from YouTube videos?

Save the video into a tool that keeps the transcript, not just the link. A link in a playlist only stores the title; a transcript lets you search for what was said months later. BrainTube, Recall, Readwise Reader and NotebookLM all keep YouTube transcripts. Then review: BrainTube schedules reviews of what you saved with FSRS spaced repetition.

Can ChatGPT or Claude remember everything I've read?

Not by themselves. ChatGPT's and Claude's built-in memory store facts about you inside one product, not a library of the sources you read. To let an assistant answer from your reading, keep the sources in a library the assistant can query, for example over MCP. BrainTube works with Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other MCP clients.

Is a reading tracker enough?

For remembering that you read something, yes. For remembering what it said, no: trackers store the title, a rating and maybe a note you typed. If you want to find a quote or an idea later, the full text has to be saved somewhere searchable.

Is there a free way to do this?

Yes. NotebookLM is free with a Google account. Obsidian is free for local use if you are happy to write the notes yourself. BrainTube Free costs $0: saving one item at a time is free, with 50 questions a day to your library and 30 credits a month for AI extras. Recall has a free plan with unlimited saves and 10 AI summaries a month (as of 4 October 2026).

Guide · Capture

How to remember what you watch and read

A tracker remembers that you watched it. To remember what it said, save the transcript or the text, somewhere you can search later.

By Ilian Raykov, founder of BrainTube

Updated 16 October 2026

The short answer

To remember titles, use a tracker such as Goodreads, StoryGraph, Letterboxd or Trakt. To remember what was said, save each video, podcast or article into an app that keeps the full transcript or text: Readwise Reader if you like to highlight, Recall for summaries inside one app, NotebookLM for researching a fixed set of sources, or BrainTube if you want Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other MCP clients to search the library for you. Then review the few things you want to keep in your head.

Why playlists and bookmarks don't work

A Watch Later list, a bookmark folder or a reading list stores titles. Months later you remember an idea, not the title it came from, so the list can't help you. What you need is the words: the transcript of the video or podcast, the text of the article. Once those are saved, you can search for the idea itself.

Six apps compared

App	Main job	What it keeps	Can other AIs read it?	Price
BrainTube	Keep and query	YouTube, podcasts, articles, PDFs, EPUBs, Notion pages, screenshots	Read-write MCP: Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other MCP clients	Free; Starter $9/mo
Recall	Summarise in one app	Articles, YouTube, podcasts, PDFs	Read-only MCP (as of 4 Oct 2026)	Free; Plus $10/mo billed yearly
Readwise Reader	Read and highlight	Articles, PDFs, EPUBs, newsletters, RSS, YouTube transcripts	Official MCP server	From $9.99/mo billed yearly, no free plan
NotebookLM	Research a fixed set of sources	Documents, web pages and YouTube links per notebook	Assistant inside Google	Free
Obsidian	Write your own notes	What you type, as local Markdown	Not verified	Free for local use
Goodreads / Letterboxd	Log what you finished	Titles, ratings, short reviews	Not verified	Free

Features and prices from each vendor’s site, October 2026. MCP status for Recall and Readwise as of 4 October 2026.

Which one fits you

You mostly read articles and books and like to highlight: Readwise Reader. It also pulls YouTube transcripts so you can highlight them. No free plan.
You want a summary of each thing you save, read inside one app: Recall. It has native mobile apps and extensions for every major browser.
You are researching one topic from a set of documents and videos: NotebookLM. Free, scoped to one notebook at a time.
You learn mostly from YouTube and podcasts and use more than one AI assistant: BrainTube. It keeps the transcript of each video and episode, links what you save in a knowledge graph, and lets Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other MCP clients search the library and save into it.
You prefer writing your own notes: Obsidian, with a capture app beside it for media.

How to do it, step by step

Decide what you need to remember. Titles you finished belong in a tracker. Ideas, quotes and explanations need the full text saved: a transcript for video and audio, the article or PDF itself for reading.
Save the source, not just the link. Use a capture app that stores the transcript or text when you save. A playlist or bookmark only keeps the title.
Let saving happen where you already are. Use the browser extension or share sheet of your capture app, or connect YouTube so playlists and Liked videos come in on their own.
Search by meaning later. Ask the question you have ("what did that interview say about pricing?") instead of trying to recall the title.
Review what matters. Schedule reviews of the few things you want to keep in your head, for example with spaced repetition.

What BrainTube does here, and what it doesn't

BrainTube saves YouTube videos, podcasts and audio, web articles, PDFs, EPUB ebooks, Notion pages, screenshots and social posts, and transcribes and indexes each one. Connect your YouTube account and your playlists and Liked videos keep syncing. Search is hybrid (meaning plus keywords), and in BrainTube’s own chat a video citation shows the timestamp of the moment it came from. Reviews run on FSRS spaced repetition.

It only knows what you save. It can’t read your YouTube watch history or Watch Later list, and it runs as a web app, a Chrome extension, and iPhone and Android apps. If you need to find a video you watched but never saved, see how to search everything you’ve watched on YouTube.

More comparisons: tools to build a personal knowledge base for AI, best knowledge apps in 2026 and Recall alternatives.

Frequently asked

What is the best app to remember what you watch and read?: It depends on what you want to remember. To log titles you finished, use a tracker (Letterboxd or Trakt for films and shows, Goodreads or StoryGraph for books). To keep what the video, podcast or article actually said, use a capture app that saves the full text: Readwise Reader for highlighting, Recall for summaries inside one app, NotebookLM for a fixed set of sources, or BrainTube if you want Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other MCP clients to search the library for you.
How do I remember what I learn from YouTube videos?: Save the video into a tool that keeps the transcript, not just the link. A link in a playlist only stores the title; a transcript lets you search for what was said months later. BrainTube, Recall, Readwise Reader and NotebookLM all keep YouTube transcripts. Then review: BrainTube schedules reviews of what you saved with FSRS spaced repetition.
Can ChatGPT or Claude remember everything I've read?: Not by themselves. ChatGPT's and Claude's built-in memory store facts about you inside one product, not a library of the sources you read. To let an assistant answer from your reading, keep the sources in a library the assistant can query, for example over MCP. BrainTube works with Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other MCP clients.
Is a reading tracker enough?: For remembering that you read something, yes. For remembering what it said, no: trackers store the title, a rating and maybe a note you typed. If you want to find a quote or an idea later, the full text has to be saved somewhere searchable.
Is there a free way to do this?: Yes. NotebookLM is free with a Google account. Obsidian is free for local use if you are happy to write the notes yourself. BrainTube Free costs $0: saving one item at a time is free, with 50 questions a day to your library and 30 credits a month for AI extras. Recall has a free plan with unlimited saves and 10 AI summaries a month (as of 4 October 2026).

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