How to make a YouTube Short, on your phone or from a long video
A YouTube Short is a square or vertical video of up to three minutes. On a phone, open the YouTube app, tap Create, then Short, record, tap Next, add a title and tap Upload Short. On a computer, open YouTube Studio, click Create, then Upload videos, and choose a vertical or square file of three minutes or less. YouTube's own steps, read on its help pages on 3 November 2026, are below. Have a long video already? Burncaps cuts it into several captioned Shorts at once, free in your browser, and the video is never uploaded to us.
The video never leaves your browser. On a computer, the sound is heard on your own device unless you choose our speech service; on a phone, it goes to our speech service unless you keep it on the phone. The service gets short pieces of sound, never the picture.
- 1080 x 1920 for Shorts
- No watermark
- Video never uploaded
Live preview, rendered on this page by the same engine that captions your Shorts.
What counts as a Short today
| What YouTube's help says | The detail |
|---|---|
| Length | Up to three minutes, for videos uploaded on or after 15 October 2024 |
| Shape | Square or vertical. A wider video, such as 16:9, stays a long-form video |
| Resolution | Shorts can be uploaded at up to 1080p |
| Title | Up to 100 characters |
| Music from YouTube's library | Most songs for up to 90 seconds in a three-minute Short; some for 60 or 30 |
YouTube's pages disagreed on one point that day: its three-minute Shorts page says a Short over one minute with an active Content ID claim is blocked worldwide, while its Create Shorts page says such Shorts are no longer automatically blocked. Your own talk, with no music you do not own, avoids the question.
Make a Short on your phone, in the YouTube app
Record it with the Shorts camera
- Open the YouTube app and sign in.
- Tap Create, then Short.
- Hold the Capture button, or tap it to start recording and again to stop. You can change the length in the top right corner, and record several segments that add up to three minutes.
- Add music, filters or effects. Undo removes the last segment you recorded.
- Tap Done to preview it and add sounds, text or other effects.
- Tap Next, add a title of up to 100 characters, choose who can watch, and answer whether it is made for kids.
- Tap Upload Short, or Save draft to finish it later.
YouTube's help says the Shorts camera is not available on tablets right now, and that drafts are saved on your phone, not on your channel.
Or upload a video from your phone as a Short
- In the YouTube app, tap Create, then Upload a video.
- Choose a square or vertical video. Up to three minutes, a trim bar appears: drag its sides to set the start and end. Longer than that, tap Edit into a Short to trim it to three minutes or less.
- Tap Next to add text, filters, music or other sound. YouTube's help says audio from its library is limited to 15-second clips here.
- Tap Next, add the title and privacy, choose the audience, then tap Upload.
Upload a Short from a computer
- Sign in to YouTube Studio.
- In the top right corner, click Create, then Upload videos.
- Choose a video file of up to three minutes, square or vertical.
- Add the details and publish. You can choose up to 15 short videos at a time; click Edit draft on each to complete its details first.
That is how a Short made anywhere else, an editor, a phone or Burncaps, goes up from a computer. YouTube's help adds that any copyright-protected material in it must be cleared for use on YouTube.
Turn a long video you already published into a Short
YouTube has its own tool for this, in the YouTube app on a phone or tablet. YouTube says the Short is linked back to your original video, and only you can edit your own video this way.
- Go to the watch page of your video in the YouTube app.
- Tap Remix, then Edit into a Short.
- Select up to 60 seconds of the video, then tap Next to add text or filters before you upload.
It works on your public long-form videos only: private and unlisted videos, and videos with third-party copyright claims, cannot be used. If the option is missing, YouTube's help says to tick Allow people to sample this content under Shorts remixing in the video's details in YouTube Studio. Music from YouTube's Audio Library cannot be added to Shorts made this way.
Where these steps come from
YouTube Help, read on 3 November 2026: Get started creating YouTube Shorts, Create YouTube Shorts, Upload YouTube Shorts (the computer and Android versions), Create YouTube Shorts from your videos and Understand three-minute YouTube Shorts. YouTube changes Shorts often, so a button may have moved since; we recheck these pages by 3 December 2026.
Several captioned Shorts at once, from a long recording
YouTube's tool takes one stretch of up to 60 seconds, from a video already public on your channel, and you find the moment yourself. Burncaps works from the recording file on your phone or computer, finds the moments worth posting and gives each back as its own captioned Short.
1. Drop the file
An MP4 or MOV of a talk, a podcast, a lesson or an interview, up to three hours and 10 GB. It listens and writes the whole script; you can correct any word, one click changing it everywhere.
2. Pick from the ranked clips
About one clip for every two minutes of talk, up to 30, best first, each 30 seconds to two minutes of speech, starting where a thought starts and ending where the speaker finished the point, with the reason it was chosen.
3. Export each Short
A 1080 x 1920 MP4, framed on whoever is talking, with ums and dead air cut, an opening card, word-by-word captions in any of 60 styles and the sound at -14 LUFS. When our AI picked the clips, a title and a caption with 3 to 5 hashtags come with each, to copy.
| What matters | YouTube's Edit into a Short | Burncaps |
|---|---|---|
| Starts from | A public long-form video already on your channel | A video file on your phone or computer, published or not |
| Length taken | Up to 60 seconds of the video | Clips found at 30 seconds to two minutes of speech; Trim makes one up to three minutes |
| Finding the moment | You scroll to it | Every clip of the recording found and ranked, and you choose |
| Shorts from one video | One at a time | As many as it finds, exported one by one or all together (up to 3 from each free video) |
| Captions | Text and filters you add yourself, YouTube's page says | Word-by-word captions timed to the voice, burned in |
| The original | The Short links back to it, YouTube says | Untouched; each Short is a new file you upload |
The length, and where the Short goes
The clips Burncaps finds are inside YouTube's three minutes. Trim, under the preview, makes a clip longer or shorter with yellow handles, one-second steps and 30, 45 or 60 second lengths in one tap, up to three minutes of the recording, and reads the finished length as you drag: keep it at 3:00 or under for a Short. Burncaps does not post to YouTube and takes no YouTube links: you upload each MP4 from YouTube Studio or the YouTube app, as in the steps above. Check that the captions clear the Shorts buttons with our free safe zone checker.
How long should a Short be?
Anything up to three minutes is a Short. Since 31 March 2025, YouTube's help says, a Short's views count every time it starts or replays, with no minimum watch time, while Engaged views, the older count, stays in YouTube Analytics. So a Short that ends on its last word and loops back into its first line well is worth more than one that trails off. That is why a Burncaps clip ends, by default, with a clean cut on the last word; a soft close that holds and fades to black is the other choice under Ending. The one-tap lengths of 30, 45 and 60 seconds end on a whole word.
What it costs
Free: 2 videos every 30 days, each with captions and up to 3 clips, no watermark, no sign-up. Then try Captions + Clips free for 7 days, no card. Captions + Clips is $29 a month for unlimited clips and captions; Captions is $9.98 a month or $49 once.
Every clip of the whole recording is found and shown, free and with no sign-up; each free video exports up to 3 of them, and the 7-day trial and Captions + Clips export every clip, unlimited. Captions alone exports no clips: for Shorts from a long video, it is Captions + Clips.
Questions, answered plainly
How do I make a YouTube Short on my phone?
Open the YouTube app, tap Create, then Short. Hold the Capture button or tap it to start and stop, add music, filters or text, tap Next, add a title of up to 100 characters and tap Upload Short. These are YouTube's own steps, read on its help pages on 3 November 2026.
How do I upload a YouTube Short from a PC?
Sign in to YouTube Studio, click Create in the top right corner, then Upload videos, and choose a square or vertical video of up to three minutes. You can choose up to 15 short videos at a time and complete each one's details with Edit draft.
How long can a YouTube Short be?
Up to three minutes, for square or vertical videos uploaded on or after 15 October 2024, by YouTube's help. A wider video, such as 16:9, stays a long-form video whatever its length.
How do I make a Short from a YouTube video I already uploaded?
In the YouTube app, go to the video's watch page, tap Remix, then Edit into a Short, select up to 60 seconds and tap Next. It works on your own public long-form videos, not private or unlisted ones, and the Short links back to the original.
How do I make several Shorts from one long video?
Drop the recording file on Burncaps. It finds about one clip for every two minutes of talk, up to 30, ranked, and exports each as a captioned 1080 x 1920 MP4 framed on whoever is talking, which you upload as a Short. Free exports up to 3 clips from each of 2 videos every 30 days.
What size should a YouTube Short be?
Square or vertical, and YouTube's help says Shorts can be uploaded at up to 1080p. A vertical 9:16 video of 1080 x 1920 fills the phone screen; that is the size Burncaps exports a clip at.
Does Burncaps post my Shorts to YouTube?
No. Burncaps gives you the MP4 files, and the title, caption and hashtags to copy when our AI picked the clips; you upload each one from YouTube Studio or the YouTube app. It does not take YouTube links either: it works from a video file you have.
Is my video uploaded?
No. Burncaps opens the video in your browser and never receives it. On a computer, the sound is heard on your own device unless you choose our speech service; on a phone it goes to our speech service unless you keep it on the phone (short pieces of sound, never the picture, to Microsoft's speech recognition in the EU, which by Microsoft's terms for the service stores none of it). To find clips, the transcript text goes to our AI; ticking Keep everything on this device stops that.
Burncaps facts, checked 3 November 2026
What it is: a browser tool that burns animated word-by-word captions into a talking video, or finds the best moments of a talk, podcast or interview and gives them back as ranked, captioned 9:16 clips.
Price: free for 2 videos every 30 days, each one recording with its captioned video and up to 3 clips, no mark and no sign-up; then the free 7-day Captions + Clips trial, no card (your email only); then Captions + Clips, $29 a month, gives unlimited clips and captioned videos, or Captions, $9.98 a month or $49 once, gives unlimited captioned videos. Captions paid once is not a subscription.
Privacy: the video never leaves your browser. The sound goes only to our speech service, on a phone unless you switch it off, on a computer only if you choose it. Because the video never reaches us, we cannot keep it or train AI on it, and we train no AI on anything you make.
Files: MP4 or MOV in, MP4 out. Captions on the whole video: up to ten minutes. Clips: up to three hours, on a phone or a computer. SRT, VTT, ASS and text files are free without limit for recordings up to ten minutes; a longer recording, up to three hours, gives its script and those files (the first ten minutes free, all of it as one of your free videos, in the trial or with Captions + Clips or Captions) and its clips (every one found and shown before you sign up; up to 3 from each free video exported free, every one in the trial or with Captions + Clips).
Clips: about one clip for every two minutes of talk, up to 30, ranked, the ones we would post first circled, each showing the words it opens and ends on and the reason it was chosen; each cut to 9:16 with ums and dead air removed, an opening card and captions, framed on whoever is talking. Every clip of the whole recording is found and shown, free and with no sign-up; each free video exports up to 3 of them, and the 7-day trial and Captions + Clips export every clip, unlimited.
Languages and styles: captions in the language spoken, twelve Indian languages heard on your device, translation into 59 languages, 60 caption styles.
After it listens: correct any word (one click changes it everywhere), add or cut words, one to six words at a time, position, size, text and highlight colours, and names this browser remembers, all free and without listening again.
Made by: Jordan Labs Ltd, UK company no. 17358646.
Against other tools: clip tools compared, from the vendors' own pages.