How to clip a YouTube video

Which one you need depends on what the clip is for:

The first two never leave YouTube: they point at the video and play it there. The last two make new videos, which is what you need to post on TikTok, Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts.

YouTube can copy a video's link so it opens at the moment you choose:

1. On a computer, pause at the moment, click Share, tick Start at (it fills in where you paused, or type a time like 2:30) and copy the link.
2. On a phone, go to the moment, tap Share and turn on the time toggle before you copy the link.

Anyone who opens it lands on that moment, but the video keeps playing after it: a link can't stop at an end time. YouTube's Clips used to do that, looping 5 to 60 seconds of a video on its page. In April 2026, YouTube said sharing at a timestamp is replacing Clips, without a way to set an end, though clips already made still play.

To get the link, the embed and the timestamps in one go, use the free YouTube clip maker: paste a link, set the start and end on the video, and copy whichever you need.

An embed is YouTube's player on another page, and it's the one way to play only part of a video. Its address takes a start and an end, both in whole seconds from the beginning of the video:

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/VIDEO_ID?start=83&end=124

That plays from 1:23 to 2:04, then stops. YouTube starts at the nearest keyframe, so it can begin a second or two early: start a moment before the first word. The YouTube clip maker writes the embed code for you, ready to paste into a page.

To post a moment on TikTok, Reels or Shorts, you need it as its own video, shaped for a phone. By hand, that's:

1. Get the file. For your own videos, download them from YouTube Studio, or use the original recording, which is sharper. For anyone else's, you need their permission first.
2. Cut the moment. Start on the line that hooks, not the setup before it, and end on the payoff. Most clips that work run 20 to 60 seconds.
3. Make it 9:16. Crop the wide picture to 1080 × 1920, on whoever's talking. The free vertical video converter does it in your browser.
4. Caption every word. Many people watch with the sound off. See how to caption short videos.
5. Check it before you post: the size and length with the video size checker, and what the apps' buttons would cover with the safe zone checker.

If the video is yours, YouTube Studio also has a tool for cutting parts of your long videos into separate clips and Shorts. Done by hand or in Studio, it's one moment at a time, and the crop doesn't follow the speaker when they move.

When you want every good moment of a video, not one you've already found, let a clipping tool watch it for you. In Clyper:

1. Paste the link. Any public or unlisted YouTube video from 1 minute to 4 hours long, including finished live streams that were saved.
2. Get the clips. Clyper finds the best moments, up to 30 per video, cuts each to whole sentences, frames it on whoever's talking and captions every word. Each comes with a hook score, so you know which to post first.
3. Check them in the editor. Trim to the word, extend either end by up to 15 seconds, fix a caption or change its style.
4. Download and post. 1080 × 1920 MP4s, with no watermark, ready for TikTok, Reels and Shorts.

Sharing a link or embedding a video plays it on YouTube, under its owner's settings, so you can do that with any video that allows it. Posting a clip is different: you're publishing part of someone's video as your own post, and that needs their permission.

• Your own videos are yours to clip.
• Clipping campaigns give clippers permission to post clips of a creator's videos, and pay them for the views. See how to make money clipping.
• Anyone else's needs their OK first. Without it, clips can be taken down for copyright. More in is clipping legal?