ChatGPT / Codex
Scrimba Explain is an OpenAI plugin called @Explain Video Generator. ChatGPT and Codex share the same plugin catalog, so you install it once and it works in both.
Install the @Explain Video Generator pluginAdds Explain to both ChatGPT and Codex from OpenAI's plugin catalog.You can also find it from the Plugins tab in ChatGPT or the Codex app: search for it, install it, then start a new chat. In the Codex CLI, run /plugins to browse and install.
Using it
Type @ to invoke the plugin, and say what you want explained:
You can also just describe what you want, and the model will use the plugin on its own.
It writes the full lesson (the slides, the narration script, the diagrams) and replies with an explainer card in the chat. Watch explainer on the card opens it on scrimba.com in a new tab.
There the explainer builds in front of you: slides appear, narration starts playing, and the lesson is watchable from the first slide onward.
This works especially well at the end of a conversation where the model has already worked something out with you: instead of a long chat transcript, you get a lesson you can rewatch and share.
Pictures from the chat
A picture in the conversation can go on a slide: a screenshot or photo you uploaded, or an image ChatGPT generated earlier in the chat. Ask for it:
Pictures uploaded from the ChatGPT mobile app can't be fetched, so the explainer is built without them. See Your own pictures.
Frames
An explainer from the plugin is square unless you ask otherwise, so it works on a phone and on a desktop alike. Ask for a vertical video and it's built in a tall, portrait frame instead. See Vertical explainers.
Better explainers
The model you're chatting with writes the lesson and the narration. A smarter model makes a better explainer, and so does asking it to take its time and think first.
Where plugins work
Plugins work in ChatGPT on web, desktop, and mobile, in Codex in the ChatGPT desktop app, and in the Codex CLI's plugin browser. The IDE extension doesn't support plugins; use the MCP server there.
What happens to the explainer
An explainer made through the plugin is unlisted: anyone with the link can watch it, but it isn't listed or searchable anywhere. To keep it long-term, sign in to Scrimba when you open it and claim it, or connect your account once and the plugin saves it for you.
See Privacy, claiming and sharing.
Connecting your Scrimba account
ChatGPT can connect the plugin to your Scrimba account. When it offers to, Connect Scrimba opens a page on scrimba.com that asks you to allow the plugin to view, save and edit explainers in your account. Sign in there if you aren't already, and allow it.
From then on, every explainer the plugin makes is saved to your account as it's created, so there's no Save to profile step and nothing to claim. It's still unlisted until you change its visibility.
Each one draws on your plan's allowance the way a claim does. See Plans and pricing.
When a free account is full
Once a free account has saved its five explainers, the plugin still makes explainers for you, but it can't save them. Each one is unlisted and unclaimed, with a claim link for when you have room.
If you ask for a private explainer at that point, the plugin says it can't, and offers an unlisted one instead.
Without the connection, the plugin works as before: the explainer is unlisted, and you claim it when you open it.
Other Explain plugins
Two more plugins in OpenAI's catalog make explainers of one kind. Each works the same way as @Explain Video Generator, including the Scrimba account connection, and their explainers are unlisted and claimable in the same way.
- Kids Book Maker makes narrated picture books for children: an illustrated cover and a picture on every page, 8 to 12 pages in a wide frame. Your own drawings and photos from the chat can be pages, or set the look of a character.
- Scrimba Code makes narrated code reviews, pull request and feature explanations, and step-by-step app walkthroughs from your screenshots. Its slides are code, diffs, diagrams and animations only.