---
title: "How to turn long videos into shorts | ToolSugar"
description: "Cut a long video into vertical 9:16 clips for Shorts, Reels and TikTok. See how moments are chosen, how framing works and which videos suit it."
canonical: https://toolsugar.com/blog/how-to-turn-long-videos-into-shorts
image: https://toolsugar.com/og.png
---

# Turn a long video into vertical shorts

Updated 2026-11-09

To turn a long video into shorts, find the moments that make sense alone and cut each one to a vertical 9:16 frame. AI Shorts Maker does this from the words spoken in your video. Everything runs in your browser and nothing is uploaded. Scoring code, not an AI model, picks the moments. You download the clips you like.

[Open AI Shorts Maker](https://toolsugar.com/tools/ai-shorts-maker)

## Make shorts in three steps

Start with a long video that has clear speech, such as a podcast, a webinar or an interview.

1. Drop the video.
2. Choose how many shorts you want (1, 3, 5 or 10) and how long each one should be.
3. Press Make shorts, read why each moment was picked, then download the clips you like.

## How the moments are chosen

Whisper transcribes the speech on your device, then scoring code looks through the transcript for stretches that fit your length and read as complete. No AI model chooses them, and the code cannot see the picture or hear the music, so it will not find a visual joke or a laugh from the crowd. The word rules are English, so other languages rely on questions and numbers. A video with little speech gives it little to work with.

Clips that would repeat the same part of the video are dropped. That is why you can get fewer shorts than you asked for, especially from a short source.

## Framing for a 9:16 screen

Each clip is an H.264 and AAC MP4 at 720 by 1280, the vertical shape used by Shorts, Reels and TikTok. The crop is a fixed cut from the center of the frame. There is no face tracking.

That works for a speaker sitting in the middle. Check wide shots and split screens before you post, because the sides of the original picture are lost.

## File size and captions

The video can be up to 500 MB on a computer and half of that on a phone. Only the moments you need are encoded, so a long file is cut faster than a full re-encode.

The clips have no captions. To add them, run a clip through Captions for Reels and Shorts.

## Questions

### What happens to my video?

Your browser reads, transcribes and cuts it. Nothing is uploaded. The speech model downloads on first use, and each run counts toward the 5 free AI runs shared across tools in any rolling 24 hours.

### Can I set the length of each clip?

Yes. If a picked moment falls outside your length, the clip is stretched or shortened to fit and then checked again for repeats.

### Which videos give the best clips?

Talks, interviews and podcasts with clear speech. Footage that is mostly music or action has few spoken moments to choose from.

[Open AI Shorts Maker](https://toolsugar.com/tools/ai-shorts-maker)

## Related guides

- [How to edit a video with AI](https://toolsugar.com/blog/how-to-edit-a-video-with-ai)
- [How to trim a video without re-encoding](https://toolsugar.com/blog/how-to-trim-a-video)
- [How to add subtitles to a video](https://toolsugar.com/blog/how-to-add-subtitles-to-a-video)
- [How to compress a video without losing quality](https://toolsugar.com/blog/how-to-compress-a-video)

## Comparisons

- [OpusClip alternative](https://toolsugar.com/alternatives/opusclip-alternative)