Summarize with built-in AI

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Thomas Steiner

Published: November 11, 2024, Last updated: May 20, 2025

Explainer	Web	Extensions	Chrome Status	Intent
GitHub	Origin trial	Origin trial	View	Intent to Ship

You can offer your users the ability to distill lengthy articles, complex documents, or even lively chat conversations into concise and insightful summaries.

The Summarizer API can be used to generate different types of summaries in varied lengths and formats, such as sentences, paragraphs, bullet point lists, and more. We believe this API is useful in the following scenarios:

• Summarizing the key points of an article or a chat conversation.
• Suggesting titles and headings for articles.
• Creating a concise and informative summary of a lengthy text.
• Generating a teaser for a book based on a book review.

Get started

The Summarizer API is available from Chrome 138 stable.

Run feature detection to see if the browser supports the Summarizer API.

if ('Summarizer' in self) {
  // The Summarizer API is supported.
}

Model download

The Summarizer API uses a model trained to generate high-quality summaries. The API is built into Chrome, and Gemini Nano is the model downloaded the first time a website uses this API.

To determine if the model is ready to use, call the asynchronous Summarizer.availability() function. It returns a promise with the following values.

• "unavailable" means that the implementation does not support the requested options.
• "downloadable" means that the implementation supports the requested options, but first, the browser has to download something, such as a model (in Chrome's case, Gemini Nano) or fine-tuning for the model.
• "downloading" means that the implementation supports the requested options, but it has to finish an ongoing download before it can proceed.
• "available" means that the implementation supports the requested options and the summarizer can proceed.

To trigger the model download and create the summarizer, call the asynchronous Summarizer.create() function. If the response to availability() was downloadable or downloading, it's best practice to listen for download progress. This way, you can inform the user and indicate the download may take time to complete before summarization can occur.

const summarizer = await Summarizer.create({
  monitor(m) {
    m.addEventListener('downloadprogress', (e) => {
      console.log(`Downloaded ${e.loaded * 100}%`);
    });
  }
});

API functions

The create() function lets you configure a new summarizer object to your needs. It takes an optional options object with the following parameters:

• sharedContext: Additional shared context that can help the summarizer.
• type: The type of the summarization, with the allowed values key-points (default), tl;dr, teaser, and headline. See the following table for details.
• format: The format of the summarization, with the allowed values markdown (default) and plain-text.
• length: The length of the summarization, with the allowed values short, medium (default), and long. The meanings of these lengths vary depending on the type requested. For example, in Chrome's implementation, a short key-points summary consists of three bullet points, and a short summary is one sentence.

The following table demonstrates the different types of summaries and their corresponding lengths. The lengths represent the maximum possible value, as sometimes, the results can be shorter.

The following example demonstrates how to initialize the summarizer.

const options = {
  sharedContext: 'This is a scientific article',
  type: 'key-points',
  format: 'markdown',
  length: 'medium',
};

const availability = await Summarizer.availability();
let summarizer;
if (availability === 'unavailable') {
  // The Summarizer API isn't usable.
  return;
}
if (availability === 'available') {
  // The Summarizer API can be used immediately .
  summarizer = await Summarizer.create(options);
} else {
  // The Summarizer API can be used after the model is downloaded.
  summarizer = await Summarizer.create(options);
  summarizer.addEventListener('downloadprogress', (e) => {
    console.log(`Downloaded ${e.loaded * 100}%`);
  });
  await summarizer.ready;
}

Run the summarizer

There are two ways to run the summarizer: streaming and batch (non-streaming).

Batch summarization

With batch summarization, the model processes the input as a whole and then produces the output.

To get a batch summary, call the summarize() function. The first argument is the text that you want to summarize. The second, optional argument is an object with a context field. This field lets you add background details that might improve the summarization.

const longText = document.querySelector('article').innerHTML;
const summary = await summarizer.summarize(longText, {
  context: 'This article is intended for a tech-savvy audience.',
});

Streaming summarization

Streaming summarization offers results in real-time. The output updates continuously as the input is added and adjusted. To get a streaming summary, call summarizeStreaming() instead of summarize().

const longText = document.querySelector('article').innerHTML;
const summary = await summarizer.summarizeStreaming(longText, {
  context: 'This article is intended for junior developers.',
});

Demo

You can try the Summarizer API in the Summarizer API Playground.

Standardization effort

We're working to standardize the Summarizer API, to ensure cross-browser compatibility.

Our API proposal received community support and has moved to the W3C Web Incubator Community Group for further discussion. The Chrome team requested feedback from the W3C Technical Architecture Group, and asked Mozilla and WebKit for their standards positions.

Participate in the standards effort by joining the Web Incubator Community Group.

Share feedback

We want to see what you're building with the Summarizer API. Share your websites and web applications with us on X, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

For feedback on Chrome's implementation, file a bug report or a feature request.