How long can a YouTube Short be?

According to YouTube's help page, a Short can be up to 3 minutes (180 seconds) long and has to be square or vertical. This tool uses that figure as its limit and refuses an end time that would make your clip longer. Check YouTube's help page if the rule matters to you, since platforms change them.

How do I turn a wide video into a Short?

Drop the video in, choose the part to keep, and pick how to frame it: crop to 9:16 with a box you can drag, fit the whole picture inside 9:16 over a blurred background, or make it square. Press Make my Short and download the MP4 when it finishes.

Why does the tool refuse my end time?

Because the clip between your start and end would be longer than 180 seconds, the longest a Short can be according to YouTube. The message says how long your choice would make it. Move the end earlier, move the start later, or press Longest allowed to let the tool pick the latest end for you.

Can I keep the video as it is?

Only if it is already square or vertical. A video that is wider than it is tall does not meet the square or vertical rule, so the tool stops and asks you to choose the crop, the blurred background or the square instead. A kept picture is re-encoded to H.264 and AAC with its size left alone, apart from rounding odd sizes down to even numbers.

Does a Short longer than 60 seconds have a problem?

YouTube's copyright help page says a Short longer than 60 seconds that has an active copyright claim is blocked globally. It does not say longer Shorts are not allowed. The tool shows a reminder when your clip is over 60 seconds, so use only music and footage you have the rights to.

Will YouTube treat my upload as a Short?

This tool cannot promise that. It makes a file that is square or vertical and no longer than the limit YouTube states, but YouTube decides for itself how to classify a video and may change its rules. Upload it and check how it is listed.

What size is the finished video?

A 9:16 result, from the crop or the blurred background, is 1080 by 1920 pixels. A square result is 1080 by 1080. A kept picture has the size of your original, with an odd width or height rounded down to an even number. In the crop and square options, a box smaller than the export frame is enlarged to fill it and the page tells you so, because the picture can look softer. The blurred-background option scales the picture to fit the frame without that warning, so a small video is enlarged there too.

Is my video uploaded, and is it free?

Your file is not uploaded. The work runs in your browser using a WebAssembly build of FFmpeg, and only the engine itself is downloaded, once, when you choose a video. It is free, with no watermark and no account. This site is not affiliated with YouTube.

YouTube Shorts Trimmer: Up to 3 Minutes, 9:16

Trim a video to fit the YouTube Shorts length limit and frame it vertical 9:16 or square in one step. Free, runs in your browser, nothing is uploaded.

Last updated: 15 October 2026

Drop a file here or click to browseMP4, MOV, WebM, MKV, AVI — one file at a time🔒 Processed on your device — never uploaded

Start time

Seconds (90) or MM:SS / HH:MM:SS

End time

At most 180 seconds after the start. Leave blank for the longest clip allowed.

Picture

Shorts must be square or vertical. A 9:16 export is 1080 × 1920 pixels.

YouTube's help page says a Short can be square or vertical and up to 180 seconds (3 minutes). Its copyright page says a Short longer than 60 seconds that has an active copyright claim is blocked globally.

YouTube decides for itself how to classify a video, so this tool cannot promise that your upload will be treated as a Short. Not made by or connected to YouTube.

Was this tool useful?

Use the tool above and you can rate it here.

Cut a video down to a Short and fit it to a vertical frame

A YouTube Short has to be square or vertical and no longer than 180 seconds, but a video from a camera or a screen recording is often wide and may be much longer. This tool does both jobs in one pass: you choose the part of the video to keep, up to 180 seconds, and how the picture should be framed, and it saves an MP4. It runs in your browser, so the video is not uploaded to us, and it is not made by or connected to YouTube.

What YouTube's own pages say (read 15 October 2026)

YouTube's help page for Shorts says a Short can be up to 3 minutes long (180 seconds) and must have a square or vertical aspect ratio. The help page shows no date for the change, but news reports put the move to 3 minutes at 15 October 2024, so older advice you find online may quote a shorter limit. A separate YouTube help page on copyright says that a Short longer than 60 seconds that has an active copyright claim is blocked globally, and can become viewable again once the claim is resolved. That is why the tool shows a reminder when your clip runs past 60 seconds. Platforms change these rules and decide for themselves how to classify an upload, so the tool cannot promise that YouTube will treat your file as a Short.

Choosing the part to keep

The start time begins at 0:00 and the end time is filled in for you: the first 3 minutes of the video, or the whole video if it is shorter. Drag the handles on the bar under the player, type times such as 90, 1:30 or 0:01:30, or pause the player and press Set start here or Set end here. Longest allowed moves the end to the latest point a Short can reach from your start, or to the end of the video if that comes first. If the end would make the clip longer than 180 seconds, the tool does not cut it for you quietly: it stops and tells you the length your choice would give, so you decide which part to keep. The cut is made while the video is re-encoded, which lets FFmpeg start at the time you chose instead of the nearest keyframe before it.

The four ways to frame the picture

Crop to 9:16 cuts a tall strip out of the picture. A box appears over the preview, centred to begin with; drag it to the part you want and drag a corner to resize it, and everything outside the box is removed. The strip is then scaled to 1080 by 1920 pixels. Fit inside 9:16 with a blurred background keeps the whole picture, placed in the middle of a 1080 by 1920 frame over a blurred, enlarged copy of itself, so nothing is cut off. Make it square works like the crop, with a square box, and exports 1080 by 1080. Keep the picture as it is is only allowed when the video is already square or vertical; for a wide video the tool refuses and explains why, because the picture would not meet the square or vertical rule.

What you get, and what it does not do

The result is an MP4 with H.264 video and AAC sound. The video is always re-encoded, so it is not a lossless copy, and a box smaller than the export frame is enlarged and can look softer, and in the crop and square options the page tells you when that will happen. The blurred-background option also scales the picture to fit the frame, so a small video is enlarged there too, without a warning. It does not add captions, music, speed changes or a title, it does not join clips, and it does not upload anything to YouTube, so you upload the file yourself. Use the video compressor if the file is bigger than you want, the video cropper for a crop of any shape, or the aspect ratio changer to reshape a whole video without trimming it.

Your video stays on your device

Everything runs in your browser using a WebAssembly build of FFmpeg. Your video is not uploaded: only the engine itself is downloaded, which starts as soon as you choose a video and is saved on your device for next time. There is no account and no watermark, and the page does not count or cap how many videos you process. Very large files, and phones with little memory, can fail because the whole file is processed inside the browser; if that happens, cut a shorter piece first with the video trimmer and use that.

Sources and checks

YouTube Help: Shorts: Read on 15 October 2026: gives the length of a Short as up to 3 minutes and the shape as square or vertical.
YouTube Help: copyright and Shorts: Read on 15 October 2026: says a Short over 60 seconds with an active copyright claim is blocked globally.

Frequently asked questions

How long can a YouTube Short be?: According to YouTube's help page, a Short can be up to 3 minutes (180 seconds) long and has to be square or vertical. This tool uses that figure as its limit and refuses an end time that would make your clip longer. Check YouTube's help page if the rule matters to you, since platforms change them.
How do I turn a wide video into a Short?: Drop the video in, choose the part to keep, and pick how to frame it: crop to 9:16 with a box you can drag, fit the whole picture inside 9:16 over a blurred background, or make it square. Press Make my Short and download the MP4 when it finishes.
Why does the tool refuse my end time?: Because the clip between your start and end would be longer than 180 seconds, the longest a Short can be according to YouTube. The message says how long your choice would make it. Move the end earlier, move the start later, or press Longest allowed to let the tool pick the latest end for you.
Can I keep the video as it is?: Only if it is already square or vertical. A video that is wider than it is tall does not meet the square or vertical rule, so the tool stops and asks you to choose the crop, the blurred background or the square instead. A kept picture is re-encoded to H.264 and AAC with its size left alone, apart from rounding odd sizes down to even numbers.
Does a Short longer than 60 seconds have a problem?: YouTube's copyright help page says a Short longer than 60 seconds that has an active copyright claim is blocked globally. It does not say longer Shorts are not allowed. The tool shows a reminder when your clip is over 60 seconds, so use only music and footage you have the rights to.
Will YouTube treat my upload as a Short?: This tool cannot promise that. It makes a file that is square or vertical and no longer than the limit YouTube states, but YouTube decides for itself how to classify a video and may change its rules. Upload it and check how it is listed.
What size is the finished video?: A 9:16 result, from the crop or the blurred background, is 1080 by 1920 pixels. A square result is 1080 by 1080. A kept picture has the size of your original, with an odd width or height rounded down to an even number. In the crop and square options, a box smaller than the export frame is enlarged to fill it and the page tells you so, because the picture can look softer. The blurred-background option scales the picture to fit the frame without that warning, so a small video is enlarged there too.
Is my video uploaded, and is it free?: Your file is not uploaded. The work runs in your browser using a WebAssembly build of FFmpeg, and only the engine itself is downloaded, once, when you choose a video. It is free, with no watermark and no account. This site is not affiliated with YouTube.