How to make YouTube Shorts: a step-by-step guide

YouTube treats any video with a square or vertical shape and up to 3 minutes long as a Short. A longer or wider video, like a 16:9 one, is posted as a regular video. (Videos uploaded before October 15, 2024 stay regular videos whatever their shape.)

A 16:9 video posted as it is fills only 32% of a phone's screen, so make it vertical first. Every app's sizes are in video sizes for TikTok, Reels and Shorts.

The third is how most channels post every day: one long video holds many moments worth a Short, and the filming is already done.

1. Open the Shorts camera. In the YouTube app, tap Create, then Short.
2. Record. Hold the capture button, or tap it to start and again to stop. Each press records a segment, so you can film a Short in pieces; change how long it can run in the top-right corner. Undo removes the last segment.
3. Edit. Add music, filters and effects. On the next screen, preview it and add sounds, text or text-to-speech.
4. Add the details. Tap Next, write a title (up to 100 characters), choose who can see it and whether it's made for kids. Get feedback gives YouTube's take on the Short's hook and pacing before you post.
5. Post it, with Upload Short, or save it as a draft.

Close the camera before you're done and you can save a draft with your edits. Clips already on your phone can go in as well: the app uploads vertical videos as Shorts.

1. Start a vertical project at 1080 × 1920, at the frame rate you filmed. Footage that's horizontal can be cropped or fitted with the free vertical video converter.
2. Cut it tight. Start on the line that hooks, take out pauses and filler, and end on the payoff.
3. Caption every word, burned into the picture. The free auto caption generator writes them from the video's speech for you to check.
4. Check the edges. On a Short, YouTube's buttons and text cover about the top 240, bottom 380 and right 200 pixels. See where yours fall with the safe zone checker.
5. Export an MP4 of up to 3 minutes.
6. Upload it. On a computer, open YouTube Studio, click Create, then Upload videos. You can pick up to 15 at a time, then finish each one's details. On a phone, upload it from the YouTube app.

If you already make long videos, each one is a stack of Shorts waiting to be cut. YouTube says you won't be penalized for using your own content in a clip or a Short. There are three ways to cut them:

• In YouTube Studio. Open a video under Content, choose Clips and Shorts, then Create clip or Short, and pick the part from its transcript or timeline. It makes a draft to finish and post.
• In an editor, one clip at a time: crop to 9:16 on whoever is talking, caption it and export. The whole process is in how to turn a YouTube video into Shorts.
• With Clyper, from a link. It finds the moments that work on their own, cuts each to whole sentences, frames it on the speaker and captions every word. A video can run from 1 minute to 4 hours: an hour-long one makes up to 30 Shorts.

• A hook in the first second. Start on the most surprising line, not the greeting before it. People decide almost at once whether to swipe.
• Captions on every word. Plenty of people watch with the sound off. YouTube's automatic captions are ones viewers turn on, may not be ready right after you post, and can mishear words, so burn your own into the video and check them.
• One idea, cut tight. A Short that tries to say three things loses people at the second. End on the payoff.

YouTube's own account of what it recommends, and how views are counted, is in how to get more views on YouTube Shorts.

• A title that says what it is, up to 100 characters. It shows under the Short and in search.
• A thumbnail. Custom thumbnails for Shorts can be added in YouTube Studio on a computer, for verified accounts: 9:16, ideally 2160 × 3840 and at least 640 pixels tall, as a JPG or PNG. Make one from a frame of your video with the free Shorts thumbnail maker, and see how to change a Shorts thumbnail for the steps.
• A related video. In YouTube Studio you can link a Short to one of your public or unlisted videos, and viewers see it as a link below your channel name. It needs advanced features turned on. For a Short cut from a long video, link the long one: that's where new viewers become subscribers.

YouTube's advice is to post a test Short first to learn the steps, then keep to a schedule you can maintain: consistency matters more than the hour. Each Short also tells you something, about an opening line, a length or a topic, so posting often is how you learn what your viewers stay for. See the best time to post for what the studies found.

• Reuploading other people's videos. In October 2026 YouTube said channels that mostly aggregate or re-upload other creators' videos without significant changes will likely get less reach in the Shorts feed. Clips of someone else's video need their permission and your own edit; read YouTube's reused content policy.
• Claimed music on a long Short. A Short over one minute with an active copyright claim is blocked worldwide until the claim is resolved. If a Short uses music you don't own, keep it under a minute, or use sound you have the rights to.
• A horizontal video with bars, or text under the buttons. Both make a Short look like an afterthought.