How to Clip a YouTube Video: Free Clip Maker

To clip a YouTube video means to pick one part of it, with a start time and an end time, and share or keep only that part. People search for this in many ways: how to clip YouTube videos, how to take a clip from a YouTube video, or how to get clips from YouTube videos. The answers fall into two groups.

The first group keeps the YouTube clip on YouTube. You share a link or an embed that plays only your part, and the video itself stays where it is. The second group makes a file when you clip a video you own, such as your own uploads. This page covers both.

YouTube has its own option. On many videos, when you are signed in, a scissors "Clip" button sits under the player. It makes a YouTube clip of 5 to 60 seconds. The clip stays on YouTube and links back to the original video.

The button is not on every video. It is missing, for example, on kids content, on some live streams, and on videos where the creator turns clips off. If you do not see it, or you need a part longer than 60 seconds, use the link and embed method below to clip the YouTube video instead.

Open the "Clip a YouTube link" tab and paste the link. It can be a youtube.com, youtu.be, Shorts or live link, and a ?t= timestamp in it is kept. The video loads in an embedded YouTube player. Set the Start and the End: type m:ss, or play the video and press "Use current time" at the playhead. This is the fastest way to clip a YouTube video without a download.

Press "Preview clip" to check the range. The player plays only your part and stops at the end. Then copy one of two results. The share link has the form https://youtu.be/<id>?t=<start> and starts playback at your start time. YouTube links use whole seconds, so the share link for your YouTube clip starts on a whole second.

The embed code is an iframe with a start and an end. Paste it into a website or a blog, and the player plays only that part of the video. This is the cleanest way to clip part of a YouTube video for a page: the reader watches your YouTube clip right on the page.

Most people who want to clip a video on YouTube want to share a moment from someone else's video. For that, you do not need a file. Use the share link or the embed code from this tool, or YouTube's own Clip button where it shows. Both keep the YouTube clip on YouTube and point back to the original.

This tool does not download YouTube videos or save them as files. To save a clip as a file, use video you own, or video you have permission to use. You can download your own uploads from YouTube Studio. Downloading other people's videos breaks YouTube's terms and can break copyright law.

To clip videos on PC or Mac, open the "Trim a video file" tab. Choose or drop an MP4, MOV, M4V, WebM or MKV file. Preview it, set the start and the end, and press "Cut clip". You download an MP4 named by its range, such as <file>-12s-47s.mp4, with the sound kept.

A manual cut runs fully in the browser. It uploads nothing, it is free, and you do not need an account. When the codec can be copied into MP4, the cut is fast because nothing is re-encoded. If a key frame sits within about one second before your start, the clip starts there. Otherwise the tool re-encodes for a precise cut, which needs a modern browser such as Chrome, Edge or Safari.

This is also the way to clip a YouTube video of your own into a file: download your upload from YouTube Studio first, then trim it here. If a file does not open, try Chrome or Safari, or export the video as H.264 MP4 first.

Open "AI: find the best clips", type what to find, such as "when he says let's go", or leave it empty for the best moments, and add an .srt or .vtt file if you have one. Only small 360 px frames, about one a second, and the subtitle text go to the server, never the video file. AI returns up to 5 ranges of 3 to 60 seconds with a match percentage. Press "Use" to fill the start and end, then cut. A search costs 15 purchased credits, refunded if it fails. Audio is not transcribed, and it does not work when you clip a YouTube video by link.

On an iPhone, open this page in Safari. To clip a YouTube video on the phone, the "Clip a YouTube link" tab works the same as on a computer: paste the link, set the times, and copy the link or the embed code. To clip a video from your camera roll, use the "Trim a video file" tab and choose the file.

iPhone video is often HEVC in a .mov file, and HEVC .mov works best in Safari. A manual cut runs on the phone, so the file is never uploaded. When your clips are ready, see combine video clips on iPhone to put them together into one video in Safari.

Whether you make a YouTube clip or an MP4, a short clip should hold one idea: one joke, one tip, one reaction. Many good short clips run about 15 to 45 seconds. Start the clip right on the moment, not on the build-up, because viewers decide in the first seconds whether to keep watching. Check each app's current length limit before you post.

For a long talk or a stream, clip the video into several short parts instead of one long one. Set the start a little before the key line and the end just after it, then use "Preview clip" to check the cut. A clip that ends on a clear line feels finished. A clip that ends mid-sentence feels like a mistake.

To clip a video is often the first step, not the last. When you have trimmed the best parts of your own footage, you can turn them into one video. With combine video clips, you drop in your clips, paste a script, and AI cuts one video with voiceover and captions. It is a paid tool with one free trial cut.

To build a longer piece for your channel, see make a YouTube video with clips. For the full editor and its settings, open the AI B-roll editor. Use this free clip maker first to clip your videos to the parts you want.