Free YouTube script check
See where your script is most likely to lose attention, before you record.
For faceless, documentary, true crime and video-essay channels. Paste your draft and get hook, structure and pacing scores, a map of the passages most likely to lose attention, your biggest problem rewritten, and a check against YouTube's published guidelines.
What is Prepublish?
Prepublish (prepublish.ai) is a YouTube script checker you run before you record. It is built for faceless, documentary, true crime and video-essay channels, and for anyone who scripts their videos. Paste a draft and Prepublish scores your hook, structure and pacing, shows where your script is most likely to lose attention, rewrites the weakest passages, and checks the text against YouTube's published guidelines. It reads the words only, so it does not measure or predict how a published video will perform.
Prepublish works on the web at prepublish.ai, as a plugin inside ChatGPT, and as an MCP server for Claude, Cursor and other MCP clients. The script check is free, with no card and no login. Want to see a whole report first? Open the sample audit.
Fix the words while they are still cheap to change
YouTube Studio shows you the drop after the video is live. The check reads your script before you record, when a fix costs a rewrite instead of a reshoot.
01
Paste your draft
Paste your script as plain text. A rough draft is enough. On a paid plan you can also upload a video file up to 5GB and we transcribe it.
02
See where attention is at risk
Your hook, structure and pacing are scored, and a risk map marks the passages most likely to lose attention. It reads pacing and structure in the script, not your viewer analytics.
03
Paste the rewrite
Each flagged problem comes with the exact line, a rewrite you can paste in, and the reason it works. The free check rewrites your biggest one.
Why the opening comes first
In our 349-video hook study, flops were 60% more likely than hits to give no reason to keep watching in the first 45 seconds. Read the study
A policy pre-flight on every check
The check also names which of 15 categories in YouTube's published guidelines your text matches. It reads text only, and it is not a YouTube decision.
Built for scripts that get read aloud
Narrated channels live or die on the script. There's no face on camera to carry a slow minute, so the words have to.
Faceless and narrated channels
See which passages are most likely to lose attention before you send the script to a voice-over or record it yourself.
Documentary and video essays
Long scripts have more room to sag in the middle. The pacing read compares sections inside your own draft, so you know where to cut first.
True crime
These scripts often describe violence, crime and tragedy, subjects YouTube's advertiser-friendly guidelines cover. The policy pre-flight names which of 15 published guideline categories your wording matches, while it's still a sentence you can rephrase. It reads text only, and it is not a YouTube decision.
What 3,074 videos say about the words you'll read aloud
We measured the captions of 3,074 English YouTube videos from 1,310 channels. These figures describe that sample. They are not targets, and they don't say what makes a video succeed. They're still a useful yardstick for your next draft.
- 179 words per minute
- is the median pace of a finished video (middle half: 155 to 203).
- 1,786 words
- is the median for an 8 to 12 minute video. For 15 to 20 minutes it's 3,208.
- 90 words
- is the median spoken in the first 30 seconds.
- 19.0%
- of videos open with a greeting in their first 12 words of speech.
- 69.8%
- of videos with an eligible title word say one within 15 seconds.
Your draft is the cheapest place to act on any of this.
Want to read how other videos are scripted? Browse the transcript library.
Use it where you write
On the web
Paste a script at prepublish.ai. No card, no login. Your results open on screen and we email you the link.
In ChatGPT
Install the Prepublish plugin in ChatGPT and ask it to check the draft you just wrote. The report card shows up in the conversation.
As an MCP server
Connect Claude, Cursor or any MCP client to Prepublish and check scripts from your own assistant or workflow.
Before you paste
What the check does, what it does not, and what it costs.
Who is Prepublish for?
Anyone who scripts their YouTube videos, and especially faceless, documentary, true crime and video-essay channels, where the narration carries the video. It reads the script you paste, whatever the niche or channel size.
What does the free check show me?
Your hook, structure and pacing scores, a script-level attention-risk map, the single biggest issue quoted from your own lines with a rewrite you can paste, and a policy pre-flight naming which of 15 categories in YouTube's published guidelines your text matches. The pre-flight reads text only, and it is not a YouTube decision.
Do I need an account or a card?
No card and no login. You add the video title and an email address. Your results open on screen, and we email you the link to them.
How is this different from asking ChatGPT, and can I use it inside ChatGPT?
A blank chat gives general advice you have to interpret. Prepublish returns the same structured report every time: hook, structure and pacing scores, a map of the passages most likely to lose attention, and each flagged line with a rewrite and the reason. If you draft in ChatGPT, install the Prepublish plugin and run the check in the same conversation.
Is this a retention prediction?
No. It is a relative map of where your draft carries the most risk, read from the words alone. It cannot account for your delivery, editing, topic, thumbnail or distribution, and it does not know how your published viewers will respond.
Will it work for my niche?
It reads any script you paste for hook, structure, pacing, payoff and title match, whatever the niche or channel size. It does not know how your viewers will respond, so treat the map as a guide to where revision time should go first.
What happens to my script?
The script and the analysis are saved so you can open your results later. On a paid plan, an uploaded video file is processed just long enough to transcribe it, then deleted. All traffic between your browser and our servers runs over HTTPS.
What does it cost after the free check?
The free check stays free. To unlock every rewrite in a report: the Ready-to-Record Pass is $19 once for one script. Creator is $29 a month or $290 a year and covers every script, up to 50 a day. Creator Lifetime is $149 once, with no renewal. Lifetime is $149 until Dec 31, 11:59 PM Istanbul time (UTC+3). On Jan 1 it goes up to $169. Each comes with a money-back guarantee, set out on the pricing page.
Is Prepublish part of YouTube Studio?
No. Prepublish (prepublish.ai) is an independent tool that checks your script before you record. YouTube Studio's 'prepublish checks' screen an uploaded video for copyright and ad-suitability issues after upload.
Plans and guarantees in full: see pricing.
After the free check
Unlock every rewrite for this script for $19 once, or get Creator at $29 a month for every script. Lifetime is $149 until Dec 31, 11:59 PM Istanbul time (UTC+3). On Jan 1 it goes up to $169.
See pricingThe guarantees
- Ready-to-Record Pass
- If your script does not reach Ready to Record within 7 days, email us and we refund the $19.
- Creator and Creator Lifetime
- If your first audit does not find at least 3 specific script problems you can fix before recording, email us within 14 days and we will refund you. You keep the report.
Check the draft you're about to record
YouTube Studio shows the drop after the video is live. Prepublish shows where your script is most likely to lose attention while a fix is still a rewrite, not a reshoot.