A free teleprompter for YouTube videos
Talking-head videos, tutorials and reviews go faster when you're not memorizing lines. Reframely keeps your script at the lens and lets you run it from your phone, so you can stay in frame between takes.
Step by step: set up a glass teleprompter rig
- Lay the screen under the glass. Put your phone or tablet face up in the tray, under the angled glass. The camera sits behind the glass and films straight through it.
- Pick your rig in Reframely. Open the sliders and choose Your rig. Tablet or Phone in a glass rig mirrors the text, so it reads the right way round in the glass.
- Turn the brightness all the way up. Beam-splitter glass passes only part of the light, so the reflection is dimmer than the screen. Full brightness and a darker room keep the words crisp.
- Check it through the camera. Look at the camera’s screen, not the tablet. If the hood’s edge shows in a wide shot, zoom in a little or widen the side margins. Then pair a clicker or your phone and press play.
Pick your setup
| You film with | Use | Preset |
|---|---|---|
| A camera behind a glass teleprompter | A phone or tablet under the glass, a second phone as the remote | Tablet or phone in a glass rig |
| Your phone's front camera, no rig | The same phone for script and camera | Phone front camera, no rig |
| A webcam or laptop camera | A narrow script window under the webcam | Laptop or desktop webcam |
| An Elgato Prompter | The Prompter as a display | Prompter with its own screen |
For short vertical videos filmed with the front camera, TikTok, Instagram and CapCut now include basic teleprompters inside their cameras. Reframely is built for everything those can't do: glass rigs, a remote, longer scripts and retakes.
Record faster
- Paste your script on the home page, or import it from Word or Google Docs.
- Split it into sections with
#lines, such as# Hook,# Main point,# Call to action. They become jump buttons on your remote. - Set a target length in the editor's Fit to box, or start around 140 words per minute.
- Pair your phone as the remote. Fluff a line? Tap the section on the remote and go again, without walking to the camera.
Sound natural, not read
- Write the way you talk: short sentences, contractions, and words you'd actually say.
- Add cues:
[PAUSE],[SMILE]or[B-ROLL]show as amber tags and aren't counted as spoken words. - Keep the reading line at the lens so your eyes don't drift; with glass rigs the presets do this.
- Try voice follow (Reframely Pro) if a fixed speed feels rushed; the script waits when you pause.
A script format that films well
YouTube videos are usually cut together from several takes. Write with that in mind:
- Put each segment under its own
# heading: hook, intro, each point, call to action. You can jump back to the start of any section for a retake. - Leave a blank line between paragraphs; it's a natural place to pause, and an easy edit point.
- Write numbers the way you say them ("about twenty percent"), so you don't stumble.
- Keep the first 15 seconds tight. Our sister app ClippCut has a free hook generator for opening lines.
Long videos without losing your place
For 10 to 20-minute videos, voice follow is often easier than a fixed speed: it waits while you demonstrate something or ad-lib, then carries on. Pair it with a phone remote to jump between sections between takes.
Questions
What is the best free teleprompter for YouTube?
For filming with a camera or rig, look for mirror mode, a remote and adjustable speed. Reframely does mirroring, speed and Bluetooth clickers for free in the browser, and adds a phone remote with Pro; for quick vertical clips, the teleprompters built into TikTok and Instagram are convenient.
How do I use a teleprompter for YouTube videos?
Write a conversational script, load it, set the speed to your natural pace, place the reading line at the lens, and control it with a remote so you can redo sections without leaving the frame.
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