The best AI clip makers for turning long videos into shorts

One long video can feed a week of short posts, if something finds the good moments for you. The best AI clip makers do exactly that: you give them a podcast, a webinar, a stream or a talk, and they pick the moments worth sharing, crop them to vertical around the speaker, and add animated captions. In 2026 the leaders are online services such as OpusClip, Vizard and Klap, podcast studios such as Riverside and Descript that include a clip maker, and a few tools that work differently, like Barside, which makes clips on your own computer without uploading the video.

This guide compares eight AI clip makers on how they find moments, what their free plans include, whether exports carry a watermark, where your video goes, and what they cost as of September 2026.

The best AI clip makers at a glance

1. OpusClip: the best overall for turning long videos into clips automatically.
2. Vizard: a strong alternative with a full online editor, caption translation and 4K exports on paid plans.
3. Descript: the best for editing a video by its transcript before you clip it.
4. Riverside: the best if you record podcasts and interviews in a browser studio.
5. Klap: the best free option without a watermark, and for long videos up to 4 hours.
6. Barside: the best for private clips made on your own computer, with no upload and no credits.
7. Kapwing: the best for describing the clip you want in plain words.
8. quso.ai: the best for clipping and planning a month of posts in one place.

How we chose

We compared what each tool offers on its official website, help center and pricing page as of September 2026, on six points:

• Finding moments: does the tool pick clips by itself, and can you steer it?
• Editing: captions, reframing around the speaker, filler word removal and B-roll.
• The free plan: how much video you can process, the export quality, and whether there is a watermark.
• How usage is counted: minutes of uploaded video, credits or clips per month.
• Where your video goes: uploaded to a service, or kept on your computer.
• Price: the lowest paid plan, in US dollars, before sales tax.

We did not rank tools on promised views or virality. No clip maker can promise how a clip will perform, so we looked at what each tool does, not what it claims about results.

Barside is our product. We include it where it fits, and say where others are better. As a fully automatic clip maker, Barside is not the strongest pick: it relies on your own AI app to find moments. Where it stands out is privacy and cost, so we placed it sixth.

Comparison table

What an AI clip maker does

The tools on this list follow the same basic steps, though not all of them do every step for you. Knowing the steps helps you judge where each tool is strong.

1. Transcribe. The tool writes down every word with its timing. Everything else is built on this transcript.
2. Find the moments. An AI model reads the transcript (some tools also look at the picture) and picks short, self-contained moments that make sense without the rest of the video.
3. Reframe. A wide 16:9 picture becomes a vertical 9:16 one. The better tools follow the speaker's face or a moving subject instead of cropping the center.
4. Caption. Animated captions highlight each word as it is spoken, because many people watch short videos with the sound off.
5. Polish. Filler words such as "um" and long pauses are cut, and B-roll can cover the speaker for a moment.
6. Export or post. You download an MP4, or the tool posts it to your social accounts on a schedule.

Most online tools do all six steps on their servers after you upload the video. Barside does steps 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 on your computer, and leaves step 2 to your own AI app, which reads only the transcript.

The best AI clip makers, reviewed

1. OpusClip

OpusClip is a web app that turns long videos into short clips and can post them to your social accounts. Its ClipAnything model works on many kinds of video, from vlogs and gaming to interviews and explainers, and ReframeAnything keeps moving subjects centered when it resizes a video for each platform.

Best for: creators and marketing teams who want good clips with the least effort.

Strengths:

• Upload a file or paste a YouTube link on any plan. Paid plans add imports from Google Drive, Vimeo, Zoom and other services.
• Automatic captions, and reframing that tracks moving objects.
• Paid plans add a virality score for each clip and posting to YouTube Shorts, TikTok and Instagram. Pro adds AI B-roll, a social media scheduler, up to 4 brand templates (Free and Starter have 1) and a team workspace for up to 4 users.

Limits: the free plan gives 60 processing minutes a month, adds a watermark, finds moments from spoken words only, and keeps your files for 3 days. You pay for the length of the video you process, not the number of clips you keep.

Price: Free; Starter US$15 a month (150 processing minutes a month); Pro US$29 a month (300 processing minutes a month, and yearly billing is offered too); Business on request (as of September 2026). For a side-by-side look at a local option, read our OpusClip alternative guide.

2. Vizard

Vizard is an online clip maker and editor. Its AI finds highlights and reframes them for TikTok, Reels and Shorts, adds captions with emoji and AI B-roll, and writes social captions and hashtags.

Best for: people who want to clip and then fine-tune in the same editor.

Strengths:

• Trim a video by deleting words from its transcript, with a timeline for precise changes.
• Caption translation into more than 100 languages.
• Brand templates and link sharing for feedback, plus post scheduling on paid plans.

Limits: the free plan gives 60 credits a month, where 1 credit is 1 minute of uploaded video. Free exports are 720p, up to 10 minutes long, with a Vizard watermark, and each free project expires after 3 days.

Price: paid plans (Creator and Business) remove the watermark and export in 4K. Their price depends on how many credits you choose, and yearly billing is 50% off (as of September 2026).

3. Descript

Descript is a video and podcast editor where you edit the video by editing its transcript: delete a sentence from the text and it is gone from the video. Its AI co-editor, Underlord, and the Create Clips tool turn a long recording into shorter pieces.

Best for: podcasters and video editors who want to tighten the whole episode first, then cut clips from it.

Strengths:

• Text-based editing, filler word removal and Studio Sound for cleaner audio.
• Screen recording built in, plus a desktop app for Windows 11 and macOS 14 and later, and a web version for Chromium browsers.
• Create Clips is part of the same editor, next to the transcript you already cleaned up. You choose 1 to 20 clips, 10 seconds to 5 minutes long, and can describe a topic or goal to guide the choice.

Limits: the free plan gives 1 media hour a month and 100 AI credits once, with 720p exports and a watermark. It is a full editor, so it takes longer to learn than a one-click clipper.

Price: Hobbyist US$16 a month billed yearly (US$24 billed monthly), Creator US$24 a month billed yearly (US$35 monthly), Business US$50 a month billed yearly (US$65 monthly), as of September 2026. Hobbyist includes 10 media hours a month and watermark-free 1080p exports.

4. Riverside

Riverside is a browser studio for recording podcasts and video interviews. Its Magic Clips tool spots the moments that matter and turns them into clips with customizable captions and presets for YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. You can use it on a video you upload, not only on recordings made in Riverside.

Best for: podcasters and interviewers who already record in Riverside.

Strengths: Magic Clips is included in every plan, including Free. Paid plans add up to 4K video, AI B-roll, silence and filler word removal, and publishing to YouTube, Spotify, Apple, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Limits: the free plan exports at up to 720p with a Riverside watermark and includes 2 hours of multi-track recording to try. The most value comes when you record in Riverside too.

Price: Pro is US$24 a month billed yearly (US$288 a year) or US$29 billed monthly (as of September 2026).

5. Klap

Klap turns YouTube videos and uploaded files into short vertical clips. Its AI picks the best topics from the video, edits them into clips, reframes them around the most important subject and adds captions in 52 languages.

Best for: turning long videos into many clips without a watermark, even before you pay.

Strengths:

• Klap says it never adds watermarks, even on the free plan.
• Accepts links from YouTube, Vimeo, Twitch and Google Drive, or uploads (MP4, MOV, AVI, MKV, WMV and FLV) up to 4 hours long.
• A virality score on every clip, and a transcript editor for changes.
• Fonts, colors, logos and framing to match your brand, and direct posting and scheduling to TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Limits: the free plan lets you create one video, and paid plans are counted in clips per month. Klap says it works best on videos where people talk, such as podcasts, interviews and trainings, because its AI relies heavily on speech.

Price: Basic US$14 a month billed yearly (100 clips a month), Pro US$39 a month billed yearly (300 clips) and Pro+ US$94 a month billed yearly (1,000 clips), as of September 2026. Monthly billing costs more.

6. Barside

Barside is a free desktop app for Windows, Linux and Mac that keeps notes, recordings and meetings in one library on your computer. Its Clips editor turns a long video into short clips: it writes down every word, lets you edit by text, adds animated captions, reframes around the speaker, adds B-roll from your own photos and videos, and renders an MP4 into your note. All of it runs on your computer. Read the full guide to turning long videos into short clips.

Best for: client work, unreleased material and anything you would rather not upload, and anyone who wants to clip their own screen recordings without paying for credits.

Strengths:

• Words: drag across words, then choose Cut, Keep, New clip or B-roll. Remove filler words cuts "um", "uh" and similar, and Shorten pauses trims pauses over 0.7 seconds to 0.25 seconds.
• Captions in the Bold, Karaoke, Boxed or Clean style (or None), with position, size, highlight color, words per caption and capital letters.
• Format: Vertical 9:16, Square 1:1, Wide 16:9 or Original, and Follow the speaker framing, where faces are found on your computer.
• No watermark, no credits and no upload. Speech is transcribed on your computer by a local speech engine.
• Ask your AI gives you ready-made requests to copy into your AI app, such as finding the 3 best moments (30 to 60 seconds each) in a video and making each one a 9:16 clip with bold captions. Your AI reads the transcript through Barside's AI connections, picks the moments and makes the clips, and it never receives the video file.

Limits: Barside does not find moments on its own. Without an AI app connected, you choose the clips yourself by reading the words, which is quick but not automatic. It has no stock B-roll library, no social posting or scheduling, and no import from a link: the video has to be a file in one of your notes. The first time, Install video tools downloads FFmpeg once, and writing down the words needs Barside's local speech engine, a one-time download of about 150 MB from Assistant settings.

Price: free. If you use an AI app to find the moments, that app's own plan applies.

7. Kapwing

Kapwing is an online video editor with an AI Clip Maker that works from a description: tell it what you need, and it scans your footage and pulls out the best moments from one long video, or matching segments across several files. It resizes clips for each platform and can add captions.

Best for: teams who want to ask for a specific clip in words, then finish it in a full editor.

Strengths: prompt-based clipping across several files, platform resizing, captions, and an editor your whole team can use in the browser.

Limits: on the free plan, exports are up to 4 minutes long at 720p with a Kapwing watermark, and the AI Clip Maker has limits on features and video length.

Price: Pro is US$16 a month billed yearly (US$192 a year) or US$24 billed monthly, with exports up to 120 minutes and 4K; Business is US$50 a month billed yearly or US$64 monthly (as of September 2026).

8. quso.ai

quso.ai, formerly vidyo.ai, finds the moments in a long video, scores each one for virality, then reframes and captions it with word-level animated captions in more than 50 languages. A content calendar plans a month of posts and publishes them for you.

Best for: social media managers who want clipping and scheduling in one tool.

Strengths: imports from YouTube, Vimeo, X, Facebook, Twitch, Rumble, Loom, LinkedIn, Zoom, Google Drive and Dropbox, plus filler word and silence removal and scheduling to 7 platforms on the Essential plan.

Limits: the free plan gives 75 credits a month (about one credit per minute of video), exports at 720p with a quso.ai watermark, and keeps your data for 7 days.

Price: Lite is US$29 a month billed monthly, or US$19 a month billed yearly (as of September 2026).

Free plans, watermarks and credits compared

Free plans are the best way to test a clip maker on your own videos. Here is what each one gives you.

A tip for testing: use the same 20- to 30-minute video in each tool you try, and compare the clips side by side. The differences show up in which moments get picked and how well the crop follows the speaker.

How to choose an AI clip maker

Pick by the job:

• You want the most done for you: OpusClip. Klap is close behind and adds no watermark.
• You want to edit the words first: Descript, then Create Clips on the edited episode.
• You record podcasts in a browser studio: Riverside, where Magic Clips is part of every plan.
• You want to ask for a specific moment in words: Kapwing.
• You post every day on a schedule: quso.ai, or OpusClip Pro with its scheduler.
• The video must not be uploaded: Barside. It transcribes, captions, reframes and renders on your computer, and never uploads the video.
• You pay nothing and want no watermark: Barside, with no credits to run out of, or Klap for one free video.

Three questions narrow it down further:

1. How much video do you process each month? Most online tools charge for the length of the video you upload. Ten one-hour podcasts a month is 600 minutes, while OpusClip's free plan covers 60 minutes a month and Vizard's covers 60 credits.
2. Who owns the footage? Client videos, internal meetings and unreleased material may not be yours to upload. A local tool avoids the question.
3. Do you need posting built in? If a clip goes straight to TikTok, Instagram or YouTube, a tool with scheduling saves a step. If it goes into a course, a newsletter or a community, an MP4 file is all you need.

Make clips without uploading your video

If privacy or cost matters most, here is the whole workflow in Barside, from a long video to a finished vertical clip:

1. Add a video to a note (drag it in, paste it, or record your screen), or open the Clips tab and choose Record or Add video.
2. Choose Make clips under the video. The first time, Install video tools downloads FFmpeg once. If you have never used Barside's speech features, install the local speech engine in Assistant settings too (about 150 MB, once).
3. Barside writes down every word on your computer and makes a first clip: the whole video if it is 3 minutes or shorter, otherwise its first minute.
4. In Words, drag across the words you want, then New clip. Use Remove filler words and Shorten pauses to tighten it.
5. Set Captions and Format: Vertical 9:16 with Follow the speaker framing is the usual choice for Shorts, Reels and TikTok.
6. Choose Make clip. The MP4 appears in your note right after the source video, and Save as MP4 copies it anywhere.

To let your AI find the moments, open Settings → Use Barside in your AI app → More apps and options, choose your AI app's connection, and in Permissions turn on Allow adding and updating notes, bookmarks, tasks and reminders, then Allow making video clips. Choose Ask your AI in the editor and copy a request into your AI app. The AI app works through Barside's video tools, and the clips appear in your note.

Creator Mode keeps Barside focused on this kind of work: it shows recordings, clips, drawings, your notes and Spaces, and opens on the Recordings tab. See app modes that show only the tools you need.

More comparisons

• Record the source video first: the best screen recorders for Windows and Linux.
• Need a full transcript of a podcast or a call? See the best transcription apps.
• Moving away from an online clipper? Read the OpusClip alternative guide.
• Want to share clips with a paying community? See team chat and paid communities in Spaces. Since Barside 1.39, owners and moderators can pin a chat message, such as the link to your newest clip, so members find it in the Pinned bar above the chat.