How to Turn a YouTube Video Into a Short

To turn a YouTube video into a Short, cut one moment out of it that makes sense on its own, make it vertical, add captions, and upload it as a square or vertical video of 3 minutes or less. From a long video, that usually means several Shorts, not one. Auk Video does the finding, the reframing and the captioning for you, and you decide which clips to post.

Before you start: it has to be your video

Use a video you made or have the rights to. Reposting someone else's video as a Short without permission can get it taken down and your channel a copyright strike.

How to turn a YouTube video into Shorts with Auk Video

1. Open Home, paste the link to your YouTube video and press Get clips. If you have the file, press Upload a file instead.
2. Wait for Analyzing… to change to Make clips. Optionally, set Clip length, the Language, and a caption style on the Captions tab.
3. To use only part of a long video, drag the handles under Section or type a start and end time. You are charged only for that part.
4. Check the credit cost next to the button, then press Make clips.
5. Clips appear one by one on the project page, each with a title and a score. You can close the tab: Auk Video emails you when they are ready.

Behind those steps, Auk Video transcribes the video, finds moments that make sense without the rest of it, scores each one from 0 to 100 and cuts the best into vertical clips with word by word captions. How Auk Video makes clips explains each step. The score rates the moment as a clip; it does not predict views.

The crop follows whoever is talking, and changes layout when the shot needs it: two people one above the other, the whole frame for slides, a webcam band over a screen recording. How reframe works has the details, and the horizontal to vertical converter page shows it on real footage.

Pick the moment before you post

Auk Video gives you the candidates; you choose what goes out. A moment works as a Short when:

• It makes sense with nothing around it. A viewer scrolling past never saw the first 20 minutes. Lines like "as I said earlier" or "going back to that" tell them they are missing something. Start after the setup, or pick another clip.
• The point comes early. The first sentence should be the claim, the question or the surprise, not "so, yeah, um". Trim the run-up.
• It ends on the payoff. End the Short on the last line that lands, not on the next topic starting.
• One idea, not two. If the moment drifts into a second point, cut before it. The second point can be its own Short.

What makes a great clip goes deeper into each of these. To change where a clip starts or ends, open it in the editor and use Trim.

Make it fit a vertical screen

A long YouTube video is usually 16:9, wide. A Short is square or vertical, and on a phone a wide video in the middle of a tall screen leaves most of the screen empty.

• Crop to the speaker. In a talking head or interview, a 9:16 crop on the person speaking fills the screen. When two people talk in turn, the crop should move to whoever is talking, or stack them one above the other.
• Keep the whole frame for screens and slides. A tight crop on a slide cuts off the text. Show the full frame there, with the space above and below filled.
• Add captions. Word by word captions let a viewer follow along with the sound off. In Auk Video you can change the caption style and fix a wrong word.
• Keep text away from the bottom right. Shorts, like TikTok and Reels, puts its buttons there, and captions or titles placed there get covered.

If an automatic crop picks the wrong person, you can change the layout or drag the crop in the editor: see Adjusting the crop.

Post it as a Short

A video counts as a Short when it is square or vertical and up to 3 minutes long. YouTube's size, length and file recommendations are on our YouTube Shorts specs page, with how an Auk Video export fits them.

From Auk Video you have two options:

• Publish the clip straight to YouTube Shorts after connecting your channel, now or on a schedule (Publishing your clips). Today a Short posted from Auk Video goes up private, until YouTube approves Auk Video; you can make it public in YouTube Studio.
• Download the clip and upload it in YouTube Studio or the YouTube app. The file is a vertical 1080 by 1920 MP4 (Exporting a clip).

After it is up, point the Short at the full video. In YouTube Studio you can add a related video to a Short: it shows as a clickable link under your channel name (YouTube Help, Add a related video to your YouTube Shorts, checked 10 November 2026). YouTube says this needs advanced feature access.

Can you do it inside YouTube?

For a single Short, yes. YouTube Studio has a Clips and Shorts tool that cuts a Short from a long video you published (YouTube Help, Video clips and Shorts in YouTube Studio, checked 10 November 2026), and the YouTube app's Remix, then Edit into a Short, takes up to 60 seconds of a public video you uploaded (YouTube Help, Create YouTube Shorts from your videos, checked 10 November 2026). Both make one Short at a time, from a moment you have already found yourself; on a 40 minute podcast or interview, finding it means watching the whole thing again.

Questions people ask

Can I turn any YouTube video into a Short?

Only one you have the rights to, normally a video you made.

How long can the Short be?

Up to 3 minutes for an uploaded Short. Auk Video clips run up to 105 seconds. See YouTube Shorts specs.

How many Shorts should I make from one video?

As many as there are moments that stand on their own. A long conversation often has several, a tight 8 minute tutorial maybe one or two. Post the strongest ones, not every cut you made.

Can I turn an unlisted or private video into a Short?

Yes, from the file: upload it in Auk Video with Upload a file, and post the clips you choose.