Rundown is an AI YouTube summarizer that tracks every channel in your niche and sends one brief. Free plan; paid plans from $3.99/month billed annually.
Researched and fact-checked by Bartu Cavusoglu · Updated October 26, 2026
Rundown is a niche intelligence tool for YouTube creators, made by Tessera. Instead of summarizing one video at a time, it tracks the channels that define a creator's space, including competitors and benchmark accounts, and summarizes every new upload. It then combines those summaries into one brief covering what is trending, who is converging on the same idea, and where channels disagree.
Rundown also works as a plain AI YouTube summarizer. The homepage offers a free summary of any video up to 10 minutes with no signup. Researchers and students are listed as additional audiences, since the product suits anyone who follows YouTube channels and wants a searchable record of what those channels have said over time.
Setup has three steps. First, the user builds a niche by adding channels by URL or @handle. These can be competitors and benchmarks, not only the user's own subscriptions. Rundown treats the set as one unit, with one feed, one brief, and one searchable memory. The site says most creators land on 10 to 30 channels.
Second, Rundown watches every upload. Each new video becomes key points, timestamped claims, sources, and a worth-watching verdict as it goes live. Third, the user receives a niche brief on what is trending and where channels disagree. Summaries are stored in an archive, so the history of the niche stays searchable.
Coverage is the first area. Rundown summarizes every upload from tracked channels and lets users follow competitors without subscribing to them on YouTube. Each summary includes a short overview, key claims with timestamps, a beat-by-beat list of key points, and a clear verdict on whether the video is worth watching, so a long video can be previewed quickly.
Synthesis and memory make up the rest. The niche brief groups what is trending and where creators converge or disagree, and paid plans send it by email each day. The archive supports semantic and keyword search, so a user can ask who covered a topic in a given month and see the exact moments first. Summaries remain even if a channel is no longer tracked.
Rundown is niche intelligence for YouTube creators. A user adds the channels in their niche, and Rundown summarizes every new upload and synthesizes one brief on what is trending, who is converging, and where channels disagree. It also works as a plain AI YouTube summarizer for single videos.
Rundown has a free plan at $0 with 15 summaries per month. Plus is $7.99/month or $3.99/month billed annually ($47.99/year), and Max is $15.99/month or $7.99/month billed annually ($95.99/year). A Creator plan starting from $29/month is coming soon.
Yes. The free plan includes 15 summaries per month, unlimited channels, summaries with timestamps, worth-watching recommendations, and a searchable library. No credit card is required, and the homepage also offers a free summary of videos up to 10 minutes without signup.
Yes. Paste any channel's URL or @handle and Rundown starts covering it, whether or not you follow it on YouTube. The site calls competitor tracking its headline feature.
According to Rundown, vidIQ and TubeBuddy help optimize your own videos with keywords, tags, titles, and thumbnails. Rundown focuses on what your niche is saying and what nobody has covered yet. The company describes the tools as complementary.
Rundown requests read-only access to YouTube channel subscriptions through the youtube.readonly scope. It states it cannot post videos or comments, modify subscriptions or playlists, see watch history, or access Gmail, Drive, Calendar, or Photos. Access can be disconnected in Settings or from the Google Account security page.
Not yet. Today Rundown summarizes YouTube uploads. Podcasts, newsletters, and audiobooks are on the roadmap, with the goal of one searchable library from every source a user trusts.