naxatar
← back to naxatar
Available Chrome, Edge & Firefox · YouTube

Playlist Wrangler

A free extension for Chrome, Edge, and Firefox that organizes any YouTube playlist — search it, auto-tag it, split it, export it. No API keys, no OAuth, no paid tier, and your index lives in your browser, not on a server.

Add to ChromeBrave, Opera & ArcAdd to EdgeEdge Add-onsAdd to FirefoxSidebar build
Read the docs Free · v1.17.0 · all three stores

Playlist Wrangler can

  • Search and filter videos across all your playlists
  • Automatically categorize every video — topic, genre, mood, language
  • Add your own categories on top of the automatic ones
  • Bulk add, move, remove, and re-categorize — with one-tap undo
  • Split and merge playlists
  • Sort by length, views, likes, or age — or shuffle
  • Play any filtered set, or your selection in the order you picked it
  • Queue videos onto YouTube’s real queue — Play next or Add to queue
  • Save to any playlist straight from a thumbnail
  • Import pasted YouTube links or video IDs into a playlist
  • Export any view to CSV
  • Ask what’s in a video without playing it (beta)
  • Auto-sync indexed playlists with YouTube
  • Read private and unlisted playlists, Watch Later, and Liked videos
  • Show the like-to-view ratio on every video, right in YouTube
  • Work across multiple signed-in YouTube accounts
  • Deep-scan (optional) for YouTube’s own category, keywords, and exact stats
  • Teach you its shortcuts at the moment they’d help — and never twice
  • Run with no API keys, no OAuth, and no quotas
  • Keep the whole index locally in your browser
The side panel searching a playlist by title, channel, category and length, next to the headline “Search a playlist YouTube will not let you search.”
The category filter open, grouped into topic, music genre, format, mood and language, next to the headline “Every video sorted the moment you index.”
The Quick Add menu on a YouTube thumbnail, searching every playlist, next to the headline “Save to any playlist without leaving the page.”
Several videos selected with the bulk add, move and remove bar, next to the headline “Split one giant list into clean playlists.”
The Manage tab listing playlists to index or skip, next to the headline “You pick what to index, and how deeply.”

Scroll for more →

✦ New in v1.17.0
  • Opera and Arc now get the panel as a window of its own (experimental): neither browser has a side panel for extensions, so instead of a dead-end note the panel opens beside your browser window and remembers itself.
  • Select a few videos and press Queue beside Play to stack them onto YouTube’s real queue in the order you picked, after whatever is playing, with a toast that says exactly how many landed.
  • Quick Ask answers stay open per video: asking about a second video no longer closes the first, Escape closes them newest first, and the playlist menu can no longer land on top of the button that opened it.
✦ Why it exists

YouTube hands you a playlist, not a way to search it. Past a hundred videos it barely lets you scroll, and the official API means keys, OAuth, and quotas. Playlist Wrangler skips all of that, makes the list findable, and lets you reshape it into playlists you actually use.

✦ See it in action

52 seconds · Quick Add, Quick Ask, filters, bulk clean-up

✦

What it does

Search and filter that works

Full-text search across every video, plus filters for category, channel, length, language, age, views, likes, and captions. Each filter leads with the values still present in what you’re looking at.

The side panel listing a playlist’s videos, each with its category, language, channel and length, above a search box and filter row.

Sorts every video for you, free

The moment a playlist is indexed, every video is sorted across 34 topics, over 100 music genres, film and TV genres, formats, moods, and 39 languages. No labeling, and not a paid upgrade.

The category filter open, its groups labelled topic, music genre, format, mood and language, with counts beside each.

Save to any playlist, without leaving the page

A + button on any thumbnail reaches your whole library through a search box, with recent destinations on top. A ✓ marks what you already have, and clicking it takes the video back out.

The Quick Add menu open over a YouTube thumbnail, with a search box across every playlist and recent destinations listed first.

Split one list into many

Filter to what belongs together, select the lot, and move it into its own playlist in one step. Every bulk add, remove, or move has a one-tap undo.

Several videos selected in the panel, with an add, move and remove bar along the bottom.

No API, no OAuth, no quotas

It reads the playlist from the page you’re already on, riding your own signed-in session. Nothing to authorize.

Works everywhere you do

Private and unlisted playlists, Watch Later, and Liked videos. It reads the whole list, past YouTube’s ~100-video first page.

Play any slice as a playlist

Filter to the set you want, click a video, and it plays in order with autoplay. No playlist to build or clean up.

See how a video landed before you open it

The like-to-view percentage sits inline in YouTube’s own byline, and every panel row carries likes, views, length, and age.

Bring videos in, and take your library out

Paste a list of video links and Import adds them all to the playlist you pick, skipping duplicates. Any view exports to CSV, past YouTube’s 5,000-video Watch Later cap.

Ask what’s in a video without playing it

Quick Ask summarizes from the thumbnail using YouTube’s own Ask AI. In beta, and only on accounts YouTube has given Ask.

Optional deep index

A throttled, resumable pass that pulls YouTube’s own category, the uploader’s keywords, and full stats to sharpen the tagging.

One home for every playlist

A side panel spanning every playlist you’ve indexed, with the same video across lists merged into one row.

✦ How it works
  1. 01

    Open a playlist

    On any YouTube playlist page, hit the floating button and choose “Scan this playlist.”

  2. 02

    It reads the whole list

    The extension pages through the playlist as your own signed-in session — past YouTube’s ~100-video first page — and stores what it read on your machine.

  3. 03

    Search, filter, organize

    Search, stack filters, add your own categories. Play a slice in order, or move a batch into its own playlist. Saved locally for next time.

  4. 04

    Go deeper (optional)

    Scan every video to add YouTube’s own category, the uploader’s keywords, and full stats, which sharpens the filters.

✦ Private by design

Everything stays in your browser.

On your machine

The index lives in your browser’s local storage. Your playlists, tags, and metadata never leave your device.

No account, no sign-in

No API keys and nothing to log into. The only thing it sends is anonymous, content-free usage counts.

Only the edits you ask for

It adds, removes, and moves videos when you say so, with undo. It never likes, subscribes, or comments.

✦ Honest about limits

Titles first, detail on request

Descriptions and transcripts aren’t part of basic playlist data, so the first pass reads each video’s title and channel. The deep index adds YouTube’s own category, keywords, and exact stats.

YouTube moves, and I follow

It reads YouTube’s live page rather than a stable API, so a big redesign can occasionally call for an update. The parser is built defensively to ride most of them out.

✦ Questions
Can it organize a huge Watch Later?
That’s the case it was built for. Watch Later is scanned like any other playlist, then you can search it, filter it down to what belongs together, and move that selection into its own playlist — so one 3,000-video pile becomes playlists you’d actually open. Bulk add, move, and remove each have a one-tap undo, and any view exports to CSV, which matters because Watch Later stops at 5,000 videos and quietly drops what doesn’t fit. Bulk actions in the docs →
Can I filter a playlist by genre, mood, or language?
Yes, and you don’t have to label anything first. Scanning sorts every video across 34 topics, over 100 music genres, film and TV genres, formats, moods, and 39 languages, all worked out locally on your machine. Each of those is a filter you can stack with channel, length, views, likes, age, and captions, and you can add categories of your own on top.
Is there a free extension that automatically tags or categorizes a YouTube playlist?
Yes. Playlist Wrangler categorizes every video the moment you scan a playlist — across 34 topics, over 100 music genres, formats, moods, and 39 languages — with no manual tagging and no setup. The automatic categorizing is part of the free extension, not locked behind a paid tier or upgrade. You can search, filter, and split your playlists by those categories right away, and add your own on top.
Can I export a YouTube playlist to CSV or Excel?
Yes. “Export CSV” downloads exactly the list in front of you — filters and sort order included — with title, channel, video ID, URL, duration, views, published date, and categories in the columns. It’s UTF-8 with a BOM, so Excel opens it cleanly. It’s the practical answer to YouTube’s 5,000-video cap: a list you spent years building becomes a file you keep. Export details →
Can it summarize a YouTube video without playing it?
Quick Ask does, in beta. From a thumbnail or the watch page, ask about a video and the answer comes back in the panel — including a Chapters mode whose timestamps you can click to jump the player, plus editable modes like ELI5, key quotes, and “does it deliver?”. It runs on YouTube’s own built-in Ask AI, so there is nothing extra to sign into, and it only works on accounts YouTube has given that feature.
Can I sort or shuffle a playlist by length, views, or likes?
Yes — newest or oldest, longest or shortest, most liked, best likes-per-view, or a random shuffle, over whatever your filters have left. Click a video in that order and it plays through in order with autoplay, as a temporary playlist, so there is nothing to build or clean up afterwards.
What is the like-to-view percentage it shows?
How well a video landed, before you spend time on it. The like-to-view percentage sits inline in YouTube’s own byline right after the view count, on the watch page, the home feed, and search results — and every row in the panel carries likes, views, that ratio, length, and age, so you can sort or cut a huge list by what people actually liked.
Do I need a YouTube or Google API key?
No. There’s no API, no OAuth, and no quota. It reads the playlist from the page you’re viewing, using your own signed-in session.
Does it work on private or unlisted playlists?
Yes. As long as you’re signed in and can see the playlist, the extension can scan it.
Where is my data stored?
In your browser’s local storage, on your machine. Your playlists and categories never leave your device. The only thing it sends is anonymous, content-free usage counts, and there’s no account to create.
Can it change anything on my YouTube account?
Only your playlists, and only when you ask. You can add, remove, and move videos between playlists from inside the extension. It never likes, subscribes, comments, or changes anything else.
Is it free?
Yes. It’s completely free and ad-free, including the automatic tagging — there’s no paid tier that unlocks extra features. If it helps you, you can support the work, but you never have to.
How is it different from PocketTube?
They solve different problems. PocketTube organizes the channels you subscribe to — groups, a filtered feed, notifications. Playlist Wrangler organizes the videos inside your playlists — search, automatic tagging, splitting, export. Many users would sensibly run both. Read the full comparison →
Which browsers does it work on?
Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Firefox each have their own listing, and the Chrome build installs in Brave, Opera, and Arc as well. It’s a Manifest V3 extension, and every listing is built from the same source, so the features match. Opera and Arc have no side panel for extensions, so there the panel opens as a window of its own — see below.
Is there a Firefox version?
Yes, on Firefox Add-ons, built from the same source as the Chrome extension. It runs in Firefox’s sidebar instead of Chrome’s side panel, and every feature is the same, including automatic tagging, Quick Add, and export. If you browse YouTube inside a Multi-Account Container, it uses the session belonging to that tab, so the right account is the one it works with. Get it for Firefox →
Is there a Microsoft Edge version?
Yes, on the Edge Add-ons store, from the same source as the Chrome extension. It uses Edge’s own side panel, and every feature is the same. You could also install the Chrome listing in Edge, but the Edge listing updates through Edge itself, so it’s the one to use. Get it for Edge →
Does it work in Arc?
Yes, since 1.17.0, as a window rather than a side panel, and it is experimental. Arc and Opera are the two Chromium browsers without Chrome’s side panel API for extensions, so there the panel opens as a window of its own beside your browser window. The library, search and playlist edits work from that window; Play and Add to queue use the YouTube tab you have open. In Opera the keyboard shortcut toggles the window; Arc does not deliver extension shortcuts, so use the toolbar icon there. If something does not behave as it does in Chrome, the feedback link in the panel reaches me.

Looking for how-to steps on a specific feature? The searchable docs cover every one.

✦ Feedback

Found a bug or have an idea?

It goes straight to the maker — one person who builds Playlist Wrangler. No account, no thread to chase.

Type

Goes straight to the maker. No playlist data is sent.

Organize any YouTube playlist.

Free, private, and it stays out of your way. Pick your browser.

Add to ChromeBrave, Opera & ArcAdd to EdgeEdge Add-onsAdd to FirefoxSidebar build

Free and ad-free. If it helps you, you can support the work.