How to Get Clips from YouTube Videos

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Once you get the hang of it, pulling clips from YouTube videos is surprisingly straightforward—and for content creators, it’s a total game-changer. The basic idea is simple: take your long-form videos and slice them into a bunch of smaller, punchy clips perfect for TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. It's all about multiplying your reach without actually multiplying your workload.

Why Clipping YouTube Videos Is a Content Goldmine

Before we get into the "how," let's talk about the "why." You have to understand just how powerful this strategy is. Think of your big videos—your podcasts, your tutorials, your interviews—as raw material. Buried inside each one are countless little gems of information, humor, or insight just waiting to be discovered. Clipping is simply the art of digging them up.

This has become a cornerstone strategy for smart content repurposing. For example, you can take a one-hour podcast and easily pull out ten viral-worthy clips, each one centered on a key question or a powerful statement. A marketing team could grab a long customer testimonial video and snip out the most compelling 30-second soundbite to use as undeniable social proof.

Multiply Your Reach Without the Extra Grind

This whole process is about meeting your audience where they already are. Let's be real, not everyone has the time or patience to sit through a 45-minute video. But that same person will almost certainly watch a 60-second highlight that pops up on their feed. By creating these bite-sized assets, you’re essentially opening up new doorways into your content world.

The sheer scale of YouTube makes this more important than ever. With over 3.9 billion videos already on the platform and 2.4 million more being uploaded every single day, you have to find ways to stand out. Clipping has become a go-to method for marketers and educators to share digestible info, and it’s especially popular with younger crowds. In fact, millennials are 33% more likely to clip and share videos than older generations. You can read more about YouTube's explosive growth at Analyzify.

The goal isn’t just to make content shorter; it's to make it more potent. A great clip delivers a concentrated dose of value that can hook a new viewer and make them want to check out the original, full-length video.

Ultimately, figuring out how to get clips from YouTube videos unlocks the hidden potential sitting right there in your content library. That’s what makes the tools and techniques we’re about to cover so incredibly valuable.

Picking the Right Tool for Clipping YouTube Videos

Before you can even think about editing, you have to choose how you're going to grab clips from a YouTube video. This decision is more important than you might think, as the tool you pick dictates your speed, the quality of your output, and how much creative freedom you'll have. You've got options ranging from smart AI platforms that practically find the clips for you to old-school manual tools that give you total control.

So, where do you start? Think about your main objective. Are you a social media manager who needs to pump out a dozen high-quality clips every day? Or maybe you're a creator who just needs to pull that one perfect, hilarious moment from a two-hour podcast. Your answer will point you toward the right tool for the job.

This decision tree can help you visualize the best path forward, depending on whether you value speed, simplicity, or advanced editing features the most.

As you can see, what you value most in your workflow—be it speed, control, or just plain ease—is the biggest factor in choosing your clipping method.

To give you a clearer picture, I've put together a quick comparison of the most common methods people use to clip YouTube videos.

Comparing YouTube Clipping Methods

Here’s a side-by-side look at popular methods for clipping YouTube videos, highlighting their best uses, ease of operation, and standout features. This should help you quickly identify which approach fits your specific needs.

Method	Best For	Ease of Use	Key Features
AI Clippers (e.g., Revid.ai)	Repurposing long-form content at scale for social media.	Very Easy	Automatic highlight detection, dynamic captions, social media formatting.
YouTube's Native Clip Tool	Quick sharing of short, unedited moments (up to 60 seconds).	Easiest	Instant sharing link, no software needed, built directly into YouTube.
Screen Recorders (e.g., OBS)	Full creative control and creating custom compilations.	Hard	Records any part of the screen, requires separate video editor.
Online YouTube Downloaders	Getting a full video file for offline editing in professional software.	Moderate	Downloads the entire video; quality can vary, requires a video editor.

Each of these methods has its place. The key is understanding their strengths and weaknesses so you can match the tool to the task at hand, saving yourself a ton of time and effort in the long run.

AI-Powered Clipping Platforms

If you're looking for maximum efficiency, AI-powered tools like Revid.ai are in a league of their own. These platforms go way beyond just trimming a video. They actually analyze the content, listening for engaging questions, emotional high points, and strong, quotable statements to automatically identify potentially viral moments.

This means you can just drop in a YouTube link and get back a list of suggested clips, already spruced up with dynamic captions and formatted for social media. It's an absolute game-changer for busy creators and marketing teams who need to repurpose content at scale without spending hours manually scrubbing through timelines. The AI does the grunt work of discovery, freeing you up to focus on the final creative touches.

By automating the most time-consuming part of the process—finding the highlights—AI tools can reduce the time it takes to create a social media clip from over an hour to just a few minutes.

Built-In and Native Features

Sometimes the simplest solution is hiding in plain sight. YouTube has its own native "Clip" feature that's incredibly handy for grabbing short segments (up to 60 seconds) directly from a video or live stream. It's fast, completely free, and doesn't require installing a single thing.

This feature is perfect for:

Quick Sharing: Instantly send a link to a friend highlighting a funny line or a key point.

Live Stream Highlights: Capture an important moment from a live broadcast as it's happening.

Simple Needs: When you don't need fancy captions, edits, or different aspect ratios.

The trade-off for that simplicity, however, is a lack of features. You can't actually download the clip as a separate file, add your own branding, or do any real editing. Think of it as a sharing tool first and a content creation tool second.

Traditional Screen Recorders and Downloaders

For those who want complete and total control, the manual route is still a viable option, though it definitely requires more work. Using screen recording software like OBS Studio or even QuickTime on a Mac allows you to capture any portion of a video. Alternatively, various online YouTube downloaders let you save the entire video file to your computer.

This approach is best when you need to grab a very specific segment that an AI might overlook, or when you plan to combine several clips into a larger, more complex video project.

The biggest drawback here is the multi-step, time-consuming process. You have to record or download the footage, import it into a video editor (like Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve), hunt down your moments, trim them, manually add captions, and then finally export. It offers the ultimate flexibility, but it's easily the most labor-intensive way to get clips from YouTube videos.

Create Clips in Seconds with Revid AI

Let's be honest, manual editing has its place, but when you need to churn out content fast, it’s a bottleneck. This is where tools built specifically for this purpose, like Revid.ai, completely change the game. They’re designed to eliminate the tedious work of hunting for the best moments in your long videos.

Instead of scrubbing through a timeline for an hour, you let an AI do the heavy lifting. The whole process gets flipped on its head. You stop being a line editor and become a curator, sifting through smart suggestions instead of starting from a blank slate. For anyone juggling a podcast, running marketing campaigns, or just trying to stay active on social media, this is a lifesaver.

It all starts by just dropping in a YouTube link.

As you can see, there's no complicated setup. You just need the URL of the video you want to mine for gold.

Let the AI Pinpoint Your Viral Moments

Once you paste in the link, the real magic begins. The AI doesn’t just grab the video; it dives deep, analyzing the full transcript and audio. It's been trained to spot segments that have a high chance of going viral by looking for specific patterns.

Powerful Questions: It flags moments where a great question is posed, which makes for a perfect hook.

Key Insights: The system listens for those "aha" moments—the strong, confident statements that pack a ton of value into a few seconds.

Emotional Peaks: It can even detect shifts in tone and energy, highlighting parts of the conversation that are especially funny or passionate.

In just a few minutes, you get a list of curated clips, each with a suggested title and a pre-written caption. This gives you a massive head start. You can quickly scan the options and see which ones feel right for TikTok, Instagram Reels, or YouTube Shorts.

This intelligent discovery is what really separates an AI tool from a traditional editor. It’s like having a production assistant who’s already watched your entire video and pulled out the best stuff for you.

Fine-Tuning and Branding Your Clip

After you pick a clip that looks promising, you’re taken into a simple editor. This is where you have total control to polish the AI's suggestion into something that's truly yours. Think of the AI's selection as a great starting point, not the final product.

The first thing I usually do is tweak the start and end points. The AI is great at finding the core of a moment, but sometimes you want a little more context at the beginning or a beat of silence at the end. It's as easy as dragging the handles on the timeline.

Next up are the captions. While they’re generated automatically, you’ll want to give them a once-over for accuracy and style. From there, you can customize their appearance—changing the font, colors, and animations to perfectly match your brand. We all know how well those high-contrast, dynamic captions work for grabbing attention on mobile, and getting that "MrBeast style" look is just a few clicks away.

One of the biggest mistakes people make is posting the same horizontal video everywhere. A clip formatted for YouTube just won't work on a vertical-first platform like TikTok. It looks lazy and performs poorly.

Inside the editor, you can switch the aspect ratio in a second. The main ones you'll use are:

9:16 (Portrait): The gold standard for Reels, TikTok, and Shorts.

1:1 (Square): Still great for in-feed posts on Instagram or Facebook.

4:5 (Vertical): A slightly wider vertical format that also does well on feeds.

Beyond the shape, you can add those professional finishing touches. Upload your logo to use as a watermark, throw in a progress bar to keep viewers hooked, or add a few emojis for personality. These small details make your content look polished and instantly recognizable. Once everything looks perfect, just hit export and you’ll get a high-definition video ready for upload.

The Manual Approach to Clipping and Screen Recording

While AI tools like Revid.ai offer incredible speed, sometimes you just need more control. Or maybe you're looking for a completely free option, or you need to grab a clip from a video that isn't yours. This is where manual methods really shine. Figuring out how to get clips from YouTube videos the old-fashioned way puts you in the driver's seat, giving you total command over everything from the framing to the final quality.

Let's start with the simplest tool of them all—the one built right into YouTube.

Using YouTube's Native Clip Feature

Look beneath most YouTube videos, and you’ll spot a "Clip" button. It’s YouTube’s built-in way to let you quickly share a specific moment, usually up to 60 seconds long. It's fantastic for snagging a highlight from a live stream or sending a specific snippet to a friend so they don't have to scrub through a long video.

But that simplicity comes with some pretty big limitations. You can't actually download the clip as a video file, slap on any captions, or change the aspect ratio for platforms like TikTok or Reels. It’s more of a fancy sharing link than a true content creation tool. Perfect for quick, informal sharing, but it’s not what you need for creating polished social media content.

Mastering Screen Recording Software

For genuine creative freedom, nothing beats screen recording. Tools like the ever-popular OBS Studio (which is incredibly powerful and completely free) or QuickTime (which comes standard on every Mac) let you capture absolutely any part of a video playing on your screen. With this method, you have total control over what you record.

The goal is to frame the YouTube video player perfectly, making sure no stray browser tabs or desktop icons sneak into your final clip. Screen recorders also let you capture high-quality system audio directly, so you’re not stuck with the muffled sound of a microphone picking up your speaker output.

Pro Tip: Before you hit record, always put your computer in "Do Not Disturb" mode. There's nothing worse than an unexpected email notification popping up and ruining an otherwise perfect take.

Avoiding Common Screen Recording Mistakes

Getting a clean recording isn't hard, but it does require a little prep. A few small missteps can force you to start all over again, so it’s worth taking a minute to get your setup right from the get-go.

Here are a few common mistakes I see all the time:

Forgetting the Cursor: A mouse cursor dancing around the screen is incredibly distracting for the viewer. Most screen recorders have a simple checkbox to hide the cursor during recording—make sure you enable it.

Recording at the Wrong Resolution: Always, always set the YouTube video to its highest available quality (1080p or 4K) before you start recording. Capturing a low-quality stream will only give you a blurry, pixelated clip.

Ignoring System Audio: This one's a classic. Double-check that your software is set to record "computer audio" or "system sound," not your microphone input. This ensures your clip has the crisp, clear sound from the original video.

Trimming and Exporting Your Final Clip

Once you have your raw screen recording, the final step is to trim it down to the good stuff. You don't need expensive, complicated software for this. Basic, free editors like DaVinci Resolve, CapCut, or even iMovie are more than capable.

Just import your recording, find the exact start and end points of the moment you want, and slice away all the excess footage at the beginning and end. This is your chance to create a clean, seamless loop or a punchy, impactful highlight.

After trimming, all that's left is to export the segment as a new MP4 file. Now it's ready to be uploaded anywhere you like. This complete manual workflow, from capture to final cut, guarantees you get the exact piece of content you envisioned.

Turning Your Clips into Viral Content

So, you've pulled a few clips from your YouTube video. Great start. But just having the raw footage isn't going to get you very far. The real magic happens when you transform those segments into tiny, compelling stories that actually stop people from scrolling.

A great clip is never just a random snippet. It's a carefully chosen piece of content engineered to hook a viewer within the first three seconds.

Think of every short clip as its own mini-narrative. It needs a strong opening, a moment of genuine insight or tension, and a satisfying payoff. This doesn't have to be complicated. For example, a clip could kick off with a provocative question, build toward a surprising answer, and then cut off right as the viewer has that "aha!" moment. That’s the kind of punch you're looking for.

Mastering the Art of Engagement

To keep viewers glued to the screen, you have to think beyond the core video content. The visual elements you layer on top are just as critical. I'm talking about dynamic, "MrBeast style" captions—the large, colorful, and animated text that's become almost mandatory for holding attention on TikTok, Shorts, and Reels.

These visual aids are clutch because they make your content work even when viewed on mute, which is how a huge number of people consume social media video. But don't stop there. Consider adding a few other elements to really boost engagement:

Progress Bars: A simple visual cue at the top or bottom lets people know how much time is left. It’s a subtle psychological trick that encourages them to watch until the very end.

Relevant Emojis: When used thoughtfully, emojis can inject personality and punctuate the emotional beats of your clip.

On-Screen Text: A bold headline at the top of the video gives instant context and reinforces your main point before they even hear a word.

This isn't just theory; the data backs it up. Videos that can hold a viewer's attention for about 50 seconds—which is a real sweet spot for viral clips—tend to pull in an average of 4.1 million views. Plus, with the monetization rate for YouTube Shorts more than doubling in the last year, creating effective short-form content has real financial upside.

The goal is to create a multi-sensory experience. It’s the combination of a strong narrative hook and dynamic visual aids that makes a clip feel polished, professional, and ultimately, far more shareable.

Smart Repurposing for Maximum Impact

Your work isn't done after creating just one clip. A single powerful moment from your original long-form video can be spun into multiple different shorts. I always recommend creating a few variations with unique hooks, different captions, or even alternate background music. Test them out and see what your audience responds to on each platform.

You can dive deeper into this process in our guide on https://www.revid.ai/blog/how-to-turn-a-youtube-video-into-highly-engaging-short.

To broaden your reach even further, think about using speech-to-text applications to generate accurate captions or even repurpose the audio into a blog post. This multi-format approach lets you squeeze every ounce of value from that one video you worked so hard on. By scheduling these variations strategically, you’ll have a steady stream of high-value content with minimal extra effort.

Got Questions About Clipping YouTube Videos? We've Got Answers.

When you first start pulling clips from YouTube, you’re bound to have a few questions. From navigating the legal stuff to figuring out the technical details, getting clear answers upfront makes the whole process smoother. Let's dig into the questions I hear most often.

Is It Legal to Clip Someone Else’s YouTube Video?

This is the big one, and the honest answer is: it’s complicated. It really boils down to how you intend to use the clip. If you're just grabbing a snippet for your own personal viewing, you're fine. Using clips for criticism, commentary, or education can also be protected under the "Fair Use" doctrine in places like the US.

But where people get into trouble is re-uploading someone else's content as their own, especially for commercial gain, without adding anything new. That's a fast track to a copyright strike.

For the sake of your own sanity and workflow, stick with the universal standard: MP4 with an H.264 codec. Just about every social media platform plays nicely with this format. It gives you that perfect sweet spot between high-quality video and a file size that won't take forever to upload.

Beyond the file type itself, you absolutely have to pay attention to the dimensions.

9:16 Aspect Ratio: Think vertical video (1080x1920 pixels). This is non-negotiable for TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. It fills the whole phone screen, which is exactly what you want.

1:1 Aspect Ratio: The classic square (1080x1080 pixels) still works great for standard in-feed posts on Instagram and Facebook.

Can I Clip a YouTube Live Stream?

Yes, you definitely can! Grabbing clips from live streams is an awesome way to capture spontaneous, high-energy moments. YouTube's own "Clip" feature is built for this, allowing you to snag highlights while the stream is happening or from the recorded VOD (video-on-demand) version later.

And this is where AI tools really shine. Once the live stream is finished, you can just drop the VOD link into a tool that can process it. It'll scan through hours of footage for you, finding the most shareable moments so you don't have to scrub through the entire broadcast yourself.

Ready to stop wasting hours searching for clips? Let Revid.ai find the viral moments for you. Paste a link and get perfectly captioned, social-ready clips in minutes. Start creating faster with Revid.ai.