YouTube Alchemy
This toolkit enhances YouTube by customizing the layout and adding more than 130 seamless, native-feeling features. Designed to be resource-efficient, it leverages YouTube's built-in elements and event listeners while using timeouts and mutation observers strategically to minimize overhead. Additionally, a main settings panel and three sub-panels offer an intuitive interface for customization.
🔒 Privacy & Security
YouTube Alchemy operates completely client-side with no external dependencies. The script doesn't send any data to remote servers or pull resources from third-party sources beyond the standard userscript metadata for update checks (@updateURL, @downloadURL) and icon display (@icon). It leverages browser’s built-in Intl APIs while storing all settings and preferences locally via GM storage or browser localStorage.
Overview
- Main Settings Panel: Manage the Transcript Exporter and export, import, or reset settings to their defaults.
- Links in Header Panel: Add custom links next to the YouTube logo and hide the navigation bar.
- Features & CSS Panel: Access key features like tab view, playback speed, remove 'Important' section and sort all notifications chronologically, video quality, direction buttons for playlists, prevent autoplay, hide Shorts, set default audio, subtitle, and transcript languages, disable play on hover, square design, auto-theater mode, auto-close chat windows, number of videos per row, modify or hide various UI elements, and much more.
- Color Code Videos Panel: Apply customizable borders to videos on the Home page, reflecting their age and status, and highlight the last uploaded video on the Subscriptions page with optional auto-scroll.
![]()
![]()
Minimum Browser Requirements
-Supported-brightgreen?logo=safari)
Important for Safari Users: This script requires the requestIdleCallback Web API. Activate it under: Settings → Advanced → enable 'Show features for web developers' → Feature Flags → search for 'requestIdleCallback' and ensure it's checked.
ℹ Note: This script is designed primarily for desktop browsers; compatibility and functionality on mobile devices may vary.
Transcript Exporter
Adds buttons to the YouTube header to export a video's transcript to LLMs, with or without a prompt, or to download it as a text file.
- Buttons with Color-Coded Interface in the Main Settings Panel
- Button One | Green 🎧 Copies the transcript and opens NotebookLM.
- Button Two | Blue 💬 Copies the transcript with a prompt for summarizing and opens ChatGPT.
- Button Three | Orange Copies Transcript to Clipboard.
- Button Four | Red ↓ Downloads the transcript as a text file.
- Button Five | White ⋮ Opens the main settings panel.
- Transcript Formatting: Includes timestamps, chapter headers, video title, channel name, upload date, and URL.
- Text File Naming Format
- Title - Channel.txt (default)
- Channel - Title.txt
- uploadDate - Title - Channel.txt
- uploadDate - Channel - Title.txt
💡 Tip
The URLs for buttons one and two, along with all button icons, are fully customizable. If a button field is left empty, that button won’t be added to the header. The settings button reverts to its default if its field is empty. To modify the labels for NotebookLM and ChatGPT, enter "Label | domain.com" into their respective URL fields—this also updates the icons' hover text.
⚠️ Important
Due to the Same-Origin Policy (SOP) in web development, JavaScript cannot directly interact across different websites: i.e. while the script can copy the transcript to the clipboard from YouTube and open a link (e.g. ChatGPT or NotebookLM), the copied transcript must be pasted manually into the text field via CTRL+V (Windows/Linux) or CMD+V (macOS).
ℹ Note
Status messages for the Transcript Exporter are displayed at the button's location in the YouTube header.
 |
The transcript has to be loaded into the HTML before it can be used. This can take from a few milliseconds up to a couple of seconds—depending on the length of the video. |
 |
YouTube live streams don't have transcripts. Wait until the stream has finished and YouTube's API has processed the video. |
 |
If the creator hasn't included captions (subtitles), YouTube's API processes the video to generate the transcript. This can take a few minutes. If speech recognition fails due to e.g. lack of clear speech or background noise, no transcript will be available. |
 |
If the transcript fails to load, the Transcript Exporter will terminate. Reload the page to retry. |
Links in Header
Up to ten links can be added next to the YouTube logo. An empty "Link Text" field won't insert the link into the header.
If the left navigation bar is hidden, a replacement icon will prepend the links, while retaining the default functionality of opening and closing the sidebar.
Features & CSS
Offers various options to customize the layout and functionality of YouTube.
General
- Change Opacity of Watched Videos
- Title Case Selection:
- uppercase
- lowercase
- capitalize
- normal-case (default)
- Video Quality:
- Auto (default)
- Highest Available
- 4320p - 8K
- 2160p - 4K
- 1440p - QHD
- 1080p - FHD
- 720p - HD
- 480p
- 360p
- 240p
- 144p
- Audio Language
- Subtitle Language
- Transcript Language
- Language Options:
- Auto (default)
- English
- Spanish
- Hindi
- Portuguese
- German
- French
- Italian
- Dutch
- Polish
- Hebrew
- Japanese
- Korean
- Chinese
- Indonesian
- Swedish
- Norwegian
- Danish
- Finnish
- Czech
- Greek
- Hungarian
- Romanian
- Ukrainian
- Set Font Size
- Adjust Number of Videos per Row
- Set Playback Speed for VODs
- from 0.25x to 17x with 0.25x increments
- defaults to 1x for live videos
- works with Shorts
- key toggles:
- A: -0.25x
- S: toggle 1x/set speed
- D: +0.25x
Features
- Auto Theater Mode
- Auto Expand Video Description
- Prevent Autoplay
- Disable Play on Hover
- Sort Notifications Chronologically
- Auto Close Initial Chat Windows
- "Videos" Tab as Default on Channel Page
- Add RSS Feed Button to Channel Pages
- Add Playlist Buttons to Channel Pages
- Add Direction Buttons to Playlist Panels
- Open Playlist Videos Without Being in a Playlist When Clicking the Thumbnail or Title
- Show Trash Can Icon on Owned Playlists to Quickly Remove Videos
- Add "Remove Watched Videos" Button to Watch Later Playlist
- Sort Comments to "Newest First"
- Automatically Open Chapter Panels
- Automatically Open Transcript Panels
- Automatically Enable Timestamps in Transcript Panels
- Maintain 1x Playback Speed for Verified Artist Music Videos
- Use Enhanced Bitrate for 1080p Videos, Premium Required
- Persistent Progress Bar with Chapter Markers and SponsorBlock Support—Even in Fullscreen
- Display Remaining Time Under Videos Adjusted for Playback Speed—Even in Fullscreen
- To also include skipped SponsorBlock segments, ensure "Show time with skips removed" is enabled in SponsorBlock settings under "Interface."
Layout Changes
- Tab View on Video Page
- Show Chapters Under Videos
- Hide Comments Section
- Hide Suggested Videos
- Square and Compact Search Bar
- Square Design
- Square Avatars
- Compact Layout
- Disable Ambient Mode
- Hide Shorts
- Redirect Shorts to Standard Video Pages
- Hide Ad Slots on the Home Page
- Hide "Pay to Watch" Featured Videos on the Home Page
- Hide "Free with ads" Videos on the Home Page
- Hide Members Only Featured Videos on the Home Page
- Hide "Latest posts from . . ." on Search Page
Modify or Hide UI Elements
- Hide "Voice Search" Button
- Hide "Create" Button
- Hide "Notification" Button
- Hide Notification Badge
- Hide Own Avatar in the Header
- Hide YouTube Brand Text in the Header
- Keep Country Code Visible and Choose Color
- Small Subscribed Button Under a Video—Displays Only the Notification Icon
- Hide the Join Button Under Videos and on Channel Pages
- Display Full Titles
- Custom Selection Color for Light and Dark Mode
- Choose Progress Bar Color
- Pure Black-and-White Background
- No Frosted Glass Effect
- Hide Video Scrubber
- Hide Video End Cards
- Hide End Screens
- Less Intrusive Bottom Gradient
- Hide "Play Next" Button
- Hide "Airplay" Button
- Hide Share Button under Videos
- Hide Hashtags under Videos
- Hide Blue Info Panels
- Hide "Add Comment" Textfield
- Hide Comment "Reply" Button
- Hide Breaking News on Home
- Hide Playlists on Home
- Hide Fundraiser Icons and Panels
- Hide Mini Player
- Hide "Add to queue" Button on Hover
- Hide Right Sidebar on Search Page
- Hide Watched Videos Globally
Hide UI Elements in the Left Navigation Bar
- Hide "Home" Button
- Hide "Subscriptions" Button
- Hide "You" Button
- Hide "History" Button
- Hide "Playlists" Button
- Hide "Your Videos" Button
- Hide "Your Courses" Button
- Hide "Your Podcasts" Button
- Hide "Watch Later" Button
- Hide "Liked Videos" Button
- Hide "Subscriptions" Section
- Hide "Subscriptions" Title
- Hide "Show More" Button
- Hide "Explore" Section
- Hide "Explore" Title
- Hide "Trending" Button
- Hide "Music" Button
- Hide "Movies & TV" Button
- Hide "Live" Button
- Hide "Gaming" Button
- Hide "News" Button
- Hide "Sports" Button
- Hide "Learning" Button
- Hide "Fashion & Beauty" Button
- Hide "Podcasts" Button
- Hide "More from YouTube" Section
- Hide "More from YouTube" Title
- Hide "YouTube Premium" Button
- Hide "YouTube Studio" Button
- Hide "YouTube Music" Button
- Hide "YouTube Kids" Button
- Hide Penultimate Section
- Hide "Settings" Button
- Hide "Report History" Button
- Hide "Help" Button
- Hide "Send Feedback" Button
- Hide Footer
Color Code Videos
- On Home Page
- Adds customizable borders to videos to visually indicate their age and status, and offers the option to hide watched videos.
- On Subscriptions Page
- Adds a customizable border to the last uploaded video to highlight it on subsequent visits, with the option to auto-scroll to it.
Supported Languages
The script works with YouTube UI set to the following languages: English, Spanish, Hindi, Portuguese, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Indonesian, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Czech, Greek, Hungarian, Romanian, and Ukrainian.
Support is a work in progress. Other languages may have limited functionality.
License
The code in YouTubeAlchemy.js is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0). See the LICENSE file for details. The README.md and all images are Copyright © 2025 Tim Macy. All rights reserved.
Read Aloud Speedster
This script integrates intuitive playback speed controls into the chatbox interface. Clicking the speed display opens a popup menu to set a preferred default playback speed and the option to toggle the square design. Additionally, the icons under Chat's responses are color-coded, and bold text is highlighted in color.
Install It from the Official Repository
Disclaimer
YouTube Alchemy is an independent, private project. It's not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or in any way officially connected to YouTube, Google LLC, or Alphabet Inc. "YouTube" and the YouTube logo are trademarks of Google LLC; all other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
