How to Clip a YouTube Video

Share 60-second clips from your favorite YouTubers

by
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Tim Fisher
VP and General Manager, Lifewire.com

Tim Fisher has 30+ years' professional technology experience. He focuses on support and Microsoft topics but is an expert in all areas of tech. He's also the VP and General Manager of Lifewire.

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Tim Fisher
Updated on February 17, 2021
reviewed by
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Michael Barton Heine Jr
Lifewire Tech Review Board Member
Michael Heine is a CompTIA-certified writer, editor, and Network Engineer with 25+ years' experience working in the television, defense, ISP, telecommunications, and education industries.
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Article reviewed on Mar 21, 2021
Michael Barton Heine Jr

What to Know

  • Select CLIP > choose a segment > provide a name > SHARE CLIP.
  • Next, choose an app or website to share the link through, or select Copy link (Android) or COPY (desktop) to grab the URL.
  • You can capture shareable video clips from 5 to 60 seconds in length.

This article describes how to use YouTube’s Clips feature to quickly cut out your favorites part of a YouTube video—live stream or not—to save for later or share on a loop.

How to Clip a YouTube Video

The clipping feature is currently available for Android and desktop users through the official YouTube app/website. It’s coming to iOS in the future.

  1. Select CLIP below the video.

    The Clip button highlighted under a YouTube video.

    Don't see it? You can clip most videos and live streams except for things like kids' content, streams over 8 hours, premieres while they’re live, and streams without DVR. The feature is also still being rolled out, so you can’t use it on everything just yet.

  2. Make your clip selection. Do this by dragging the left and right edges of the blue box to expand or minimize the clip as you see fit. If you’re using the desktop site, you can also adjust it manually by entering the time. Drag the whole box to change the clip location without adjusting the duration.

    The adjustment trim handles highlighted on a YouTube clip.

  3. Give the clip a title, and then select SHARE CLIP. The clip will use this page title when you share the clip, and it's how you’ll identify it when accessing your saved clips later.

    A clip title highlighted along with the Share Clip button on a YouTube video.

  4. Choose an app or website to share the link through, or use the Copy link (Android) or COPY (desktop) button to copy the URL to the clipboard for sharing manually.

    Screenshot of a YouTube clip URL

    All of your clips are saved automatically to the Clips area of your YouTube account. It's accessible through the left menu bar on the website and from the app's Library tab.

Clips: YouTube vs Twitch

Twitch is another platform that lets you clip out your favorite part of a video, and it's pretty similar. It lets you make clips anywhere from five seconds to 60 seconds long, and it works on mobile and desktop.

It's just as easy to use, too: hover your mouse over the video and press the clip icon, or tap the screen on mobile to find it. On iOS, go to Share > Create Clip.

YouTube Clips is relatively new, so it's no surprise that Twitch offers a few additional features:

  • See how many people have viewed your clip.
  • Trigger the clip creation tool with a keyboard shortcut.
  • View popular clips from the original video.
  • Make clips from the iOS app.
  • Delete your clips in bulk.
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