YouTube to Shorts

Turn a YouTube video into Shorts without editing each one

Paste a YouTube link. SnapDub finds the moments worth clipping, crops them vertical, burns in captions, and applies the template you already set up - so the whole batch comes out looking like yours.

Paste a YouTube link and generate How it works

500 free credits on signup, no card.

No round trip

Paste the link, skip the download

You do not need to download the video and upload it again. Give SnapDub the YouTube URL and it fetches the source itself. Twitch and Zoom links work the same way, and you can always upload a file instead.

The part nobody warns you about

Getting one Short out of a long video is easy. Getting twenty that look like they came from the same channel is the actual job.

Every clip needs the same caption style, the same font, the same logo in the same corner, the same crop treatment. Done clip by clip in an editor, that is where the afternoon goes - and the twentieth one still ends up looking slightly different from the first.

How it works

Link in, Shorts out

  1. Paste the YouTube link

    SnapDub fetches the source. No download, no re-upload.

  2. Choose your template

    Or set the options for this batch if you have not saved one yet.

  3. Generate

    SnapDub finds the moments and renders them as vertical clips.

  4. Review

    Open the editor for anything that needs a change.

  5. Publish

    Download, or post straight to YouTube.

Set it once

Template first. Generate second.

Save one template and every future batch starts from it: crop mode, caption preset and width, your uploaded font, the title overlay and where it sits, your logo, and any assets you have pinned to the frame. Next week's video does not need any of that decided again.

Podcast 60s Template
Crop
Auto reframe
Captions
Bold white
Font
Your uploaded font
Logo
Brand kit on
Assets
2 pinned
Your title, your font every single clip
Your title, your font every single clip
Your title, your font every single clip

One setup, every clip

Pick the template on the configure step and the whole batch inherits it - not one clip, all of them.

Your fonts and assets, baked in

Upload a font and pin your overlays once. They land in the same spot on every render, automatically.

It keeps running without you

Point it at your YouTube or Twitch channel and new uploads get clipped to that same template on their own.

Moment detection

How SnapDub picks the moments

Two signals, not one. The transcript, and a vision pass over sampled frames - so a moment that reads flat as text but lands on camera still gets found.

You control the shape of the batch. Ask for a set number of best moments. Or cut the whole video into sequential numbered parts, which suits a walkthrough or a tutorial where order matters. Or use auto mode and get one clip per topic, each at whatever length that topic needs.

Format

Built for the way Shorts actually works

Clips render vertical at 9:16 with captions burned in, so they play with sound off. Clip length is capped at three minutes because YouTube reclassifies anything longer as a regular upload rather than a Short.

For the crop, Auto tracks the speaker so a talking head stays in frame instead of drifting out of a centre crop. Center crop, fit with blurred edges and fit with black bars are there when the footage suits them better, and a zoom dial adjusts any of them.

Reuse your assets on every clip

Upload your logo, a lower third, a border, a subscribe badge - anything you put on your Shorts. Place and scale it once, attach it to your template, and it lands in the same spot on every clip the template generates.

Same for fonts: upload your own font file and it is used for the burned-in captions and titles, so your Shorts match your channel rather than a default typeface.

Automation

Clip every new upload without touching it

If you publish long-form on a schedule, connect your own YouTube channel once. SnapDub checks it and clips new uploads against your template on its own - Shorts are skipped, so it only ever picks up real long-form videos.

You set a daily video limit and a daily credit budget per channel, so a week where you post three times cannot quietly spend more than you meant.

The escape hatch

Review and fix what needs it

The AI gets most clips right, not all of them. When a clip starts a beat early or the transcript mishears a name, open it: adjust the trim, retype the caption, change the crop, move an asset, switch the font, turn the title off. Everything else in the batch is untouched.

Publish to YouTube

Connect your YouTube account and post a finished clip from SnapDub, with its generated title, description and hashtags. TikTok and Instagram connect the same way, since most people are posting the same Short to all three.

FAQ

Questions, answered

Do I need to download the YouTube video first?

No. Paste the URL and SnapDub fetches the source itself. Uploading a file works too.

Can I use it on someone else's video?

Only where you have the right to. Use your own content, or content you are licensed to clip - a campaign brief that supplies the source, for example.

How long can a Short be?

Up to three minutes. Beyond that YouTube treats the upload as a regular video rather than a Short, so SnapDub caps it there.

Can I edit the captions?

Yes. Captions are generated word by word and the text is editable per clip, which matters for names and product terms a transcript tends to mangle.

Will the clips have a watermark?

Free accounts carry a small SnapDub mark. Paid plans remove it, and you can put your own logo on instead through the brand kit.

Can one template be used across different videos?

That is the point of it. A template is not tied to a source - pick it for any video, any time.

Get started

Turn your first video into Shorts

500 free credits on signup, no card. Paste a link and see what comes back.

Generate your first Shorts

Also worth reading: posting the same clips to TikTok and clipping for paid campaigns, or turn the same clips into Reels.