Free Writing Tool

Free Article Summarizer

Paste an article or its URL and get a one-line TLDR, a paragraph summary and the key points. Up to 2,000 words, no sign-up required.

How to summarize an article in three steps

Text or a link, either works:

1. Paste the article or its URL

Drop in up to 12,000 characters, roughly 2,000 words, or paste a link and we will fetch the page for you.

2. Choose a length

Short for a quick decision, medium for the usual case, long when the piece is dense and the detail matters.

3. Read the summary

You get a one-line TLDR, a paragraph summary and numbered key points, with the word count saved shown alongside.

What makes a good summary?

A summary is not a shorter version of an article, it is an account of what the article says. The difference matters. Plenty of summaries name the topic and stop there, which tells you what the piece was about without telling you what it argued.

A good summary keeps three things: the main claim, the reasoning that supports it, and any qualifications the author attached. That last one is where most summaries fail. Turning "this usually works for smaller sites" into "this works" changes the meaning while looking like a faithful compression, which is why the summarizer is instructed to preserve hedged claims as hedged.

Worth saying plainly: every summary loses information, and that is the point of one. For anything that matters, check the summary against the source before you rely on it.

What you get from every summary

Most summarizers make you choose one output format. This returns all of them at once, so there is nothing to run twice:

A one-line TLDR

The whole piece in a sentence. Enough to decide whether the full article is worth your time, which is usually the real question.

A paragraph summary

The argument and the reasoning behind it, at the length you chose. Not a topic label, an actual account of what the piece says.

Numbered key points

Three, five or seven standalone points depending on length. Each makes sense on its own, so you can lift one straight into notes.

URL fetching

Paste a link instead of the text. We pull the article body from the page, so you do not have to select and copy it yourself.

Types of summary, and when to use each

"Summarise this" can mean several different things. Knowing which one you want saves a lot of re-running:

Type	Typical length	What it keeps	Best for
TLDR	One sentence	The single main point	Deciding whether to read the full piece
Abstract style	50 to 250 words	The argument and its reasoning	Notes, briefs and research files
Key points	3 to 7 bullets	Each distinct claim, separately	Lifting into a document or presentation
Paraphrase	Similar to the original	Everything, reworded	Not a summary. Use a rewriter instead

That last row is the common mix-up. If you want the same content at the same length in different words, you want the paragraph rewriter, not a summarizer.

Summarizing articles for SEO research

Summarising is underrated as a research step. Before writing for a keyword, summarise the pages already ranking for it:

1You see what every ranking page covers in minutes rather than an afternoon of reading.
2More usefully, you see what they all leave out. A gap shared by the whole first page is the clearest content opportunity there is.
3You learn what format Google is rewarding for the query, which is often more telling than the wording of any individual page.

To find which pages to summarise in the first place, run the keyword through our free SERP checker and work down the results. Once you know the gaps, the FAQ generator turns the questions nobody answered into a section, and the readability checker keeps what you write easier to read than what you are replacing.

When to summarize an article

Four cases where a summary saves real time:

Triage a reading list

Run the TLDR on five articles and you will know which one actually deserves twenty minutes, rather than guessing from the headline.

Research what already ranks

Summarise the pages ranking for your target keyword to see what they cover, and more usefully, what they all leave out.

Turn a long piece into notes

The key points are written to stand alone, so they drop into a document or a brief without needing to be rewritten.

Catch up on something dense

For a technical or academic piece, the long setting keeps the qualifications and caveats that a short summary would flatten.

Getting a summary you can trust

Six things worth doing whenever you summarise something that matters:

Check the summary against the source before you rely on it. A summary is a starting point, not a citation.
If the article argues a position, the summary should say what the position is, not just name the topic.
Watch for lost qualifications. Words like usually, in some cases and may are often where the real meaning lives.
Use the long setting for technical pieces. Compression is exactly where nuance goes missing.
Cite the original if you use the ideas. Summarising something does not make its content yours.
For a paywalled or JavaScript-heavy page, paste the text instead. We can only read what the page actually serves.

Frequently asked questions

How do you summarize an article?

Read it through once for the overall argument, then pick out the claims the argument rests on and restate them in your own words, leaving out the examples and asides. The tool above does the same job in a few seconds: paste the article or its URL, choose a length, and you get a TLDR, a paragraph summary and the key points.

Is there an AI that summarizes articles?

Yes, and this page is one. Paste up to 2,000 words of text, or a URL for us to fetch, and it returns a summary at the length you pick. Summarising is a task AI does reliably because the source pins the content down, though it is still worth checking the result against the original.

Is there a free AI Article Summarizer available?

Yes. This one is free with no account, no credits and no expiring trial, and it shows the full summary every time. Several of the better-known summarizers either require a login or cap free use well below the length this one accepts.

Can ChatGPT summarize an article?

It can, and it is a fine option if you are happy to paste the text and describe what you want each time. A dedicated summarizer differs in returning a TLDR, a paragraph summary and key points together at a consistent length, and in being able to fetch an article from its URL for you.

How do I get Google to summarize articles?

Google sometimes shows an AI Overview summarising results for a query, but you cannot point it at a specific article and ask for a summary of that page. For a particular article, use a summarizer like this one, which reads the page you give it rather than a set of search results.

What is it called when you summarize an article?

The result is usually called a summary, an abstract or a précis. In academic writing an abstract is a summary written by the author, while a précis is a condensed version that keeps the original's structure and proportions. Summarising is distinct from paraphrasing, which restates text at roughly the same length rather than shortening it.

How to get AI to summarize a paper?

Paste the paper's text, or its URL if the full text is publicly readable, and choose the long setting. Long keeps the qualifications and methodology that shorter summaries drop, which matters more for research papers than for most writing. Papers behind a paywall will need the text pasted in directly.

Can I summarize published articles?

Yes, summarising a published article for your own reading, research or notes is ordinary and accepted practice. What matters is what you do next: if you use the ideas in your own work, cite the original. A summary describes someone else's work, it does not transfer ownership of it.

Does the summarizer work with a URL?

Yes. Paste a link and we fetch the page and pull the article text out of it. Some pages will not work, including anything behind a paywall or a login and pages that build their content with JavaScript after loading. When that happens the tool says so and you can paste the text instead.

How long can the article be?

Up to 12,000 characters, which is roughly 2,000 words. If your article is longer, summarise it in sections and combine the results, or paste the part you care about most.

Will the summary be accurate?

It is instructed to summarise only what the article says, never to add facts or conclusions, and to preserve hedged claims as hedged. That said, any summary loses detail by design, which is the point of one. For anything that matters, check the summary against the source before relying on it.

Is this article summarizer free?

Yes. Several free summaries per day, no sign-up, no credits, and the full result every time.

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