YouTube Studio’s video clips and Shorts tool: when it’s enough and when you need more (October 2026)

In YouTube Studio, go to Content → Videos, pick the source video, then choose Clips & Shorts in the left menu → Create clip or Short. Choose Short, then select the lines you want in the transcript and click Confirm selection, or type start and end times into the timeline editor. The chosen section is highlighted on the timeline.

Where AI suggestions are supported, suggested segments and an AI-written outline appear in the left panel, and you can fine-tune the start and end with the transcript or timeline. According to YouTube, AI suggestions are available in 11 countries including the United States, United Kingdom and South Korea, in 9 languages including English, Korean and Spanish. When you’re done, click Create draft and fill in the usual upload dialog to publish.

The biggest advantage is the link to the source. Shorts made with this tool automatically get the original added as a related video, so viewers can easily move on to the long version. For clips, YouTube suggests adding a link to the original in the description yourself. YouTube also states there’s no penalty for using your own content as clips or Shorts with this tool.

If your goal is to promote your own long videos (lessons, vlogs, podcasts, livestreams) with Shorts, and the original speech works on its own, this tool is enough. YouTube recommends keeping podcast playlists to full episodes and managing Shorts outside them.

Shorts can run up to three minutes, but a Short promoting a long video usually keeps more viewers to the end when it wraps up one story in 30 to 60 seconds. YouTube also says that since September 24, 2026, new Shorts between one and three minutes with an active Content ID claim are no longer automatically blocked, though Shorts blocked globally can’t be monetized.

The section you choose decides the result. A good section makes sense without the surrounding context and holds one question and its answer within 30 seconds. In a lesson, look for the point that answers “why” in one sentence; in a podcast, where a guest’s voice rises or laughter breaks out; in a vlog, the shot where the result shows.

When selecting from the transcript, check where sentences begin and end. Start on a half-finished sentence and viewers swipe in the first second. Moving the start a sentence or two so the Short opens on a question or a surprising line can change retention noticeably. End right after the answer, before the laughter or reaction fades.

If you make several Shorts from one long video, pick a different question for each. Splitting one story into a first and second half makes the second feel like a repeat to anyone who saw the first. Space out the uploads, and title each Short with its own question rather than the original video’s title.

The two kinds of tools do different jobs rather than compete. Make Shorts that promote your own long videos quickly in YouTube Studio and keep the source link, and use an AI editing tool for material that needs narration or translation or for sources in another language. Even within one long video, the parts that play well as-is differ from the parts that need explaining.

For example, a channel that posts English interviews needs translated captions and Korean narration to reach Korean viewers, which YouTube Studio alone can’t do. On the other hand, the key moment of a lesson can be cut to 30 seconds with the Studio tool and posted as-is.

Whichever route you take, put one sentence on the first line of the Short’s description that leads into the original, and leave a link to it in a pinned comment. Combined with the related-video link the Studio tool adds automatically, that gives Shorts viewers more ways to reach your long video.

This tool focuses on cutting the source and adding captions. To tell a story with narration, add translated captions to a source in another language, mix several sources, or make several different stories from the same source, you need another tool. It also can’t make commentary Shorts about other channels’ videos (and those must follow the reused content policy as well).

Shortsmith takes a video link or file, suggests several angles, and renders a script that alternates short narration lines with the original audio, plus a narration voice, translated captions of the original audio, a caption style and an on-screen title. In the options you can choose captions, translated captions and how much voice-over to use, and finished videos can be posted or scheduled straight to YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels.

• Turn a one-hour video into Shorts
• Get Shorts viewers to your long videos
• Can Shorts made from others’ videos be monetized?