YouTube to TikTok converter

Takes a wide YouTube video and makes clips that work on TikTok.

The short answer

Converting a YouTube video to TikTok is three separate jobs, not one: choosing which part is worth posting, reframing a wide picture into a vertical one without cutting the speaker out, and captioning it so it works with the sound off. A file converter does none of those. Vid2Shorts does all three from a pasted link.

First Short free. No account, no software, nothing to upload.

This is the working tool, not a description of one. The first Short is free and needs no account. Everything on this page describes what the product does today, checked August 2026.

Not a conversion

This is not really a format conversion at all

The phrase makes it sound like a file problem, and it is not. A YouTube video and a TikTok are different shapes, different lengths, and different kinds of thing. A long video can afford a slow start because somebody chose to click it. A vertical clip arrives uninvited in a feed and has about a second to justify itself. Changing the container does nothing about that.

So what actually has to happen is a decision about which forty seconds are worth anything, a reframe that keeps the important part of the picture, and captions, because the feed is muted by default. Any tool that only resizes has solved the least important third of the problem and left you the other two.

The reframe

Vertical from horizontal means throwing most of it away

A 16:9 frame turned into 9:16 keeps roughly a third of the width. Which third you keep is the whole question. Taking the middle works for a single speaker sitting centred and fails immediately on anything else, most obviously on a two person interview where the middle of the frame is the gap between two people.

Here the vertical window follows whoever is speaking, so it moves when the speaker changes rather than sitting still and hoping. That behaviour is the single most useful thing to test before committing to any tool for this job. Run one interview through and watch what happens the moment the second person starts talking.

You can also move the window by hand. Automatic framing is right most of the time and not all of the time, and a tool that will not let you overrule it wastes the clip it got wrong. Screen recordings and anything with text on screen are the usual cases where a human should decide, because the important part of the picture is not a face.

Length and pacing

What to cut, and how long to leave it

The strongest clips tend to be complete small things rather than excerpts. They start on the line that makes somebody stay, they do not require setup that is not inside them, and they end on something that lands rather than trailing into the next topic. That is why the ranking here scores whether a moment stands alone: a great answer to a question nobody heard is not a clip.

Length is worth being unsentimental about. A moment that needs ninety seconds usually needs ninety seconds because it has not been cut properly, not because it is deep. Try the version that starts eight seconds later and see whether anything was lost.

It is also worth resisting the temptation to post everything a run produces. The top two or three from a long video are usually worth publishing and the rest are the same recording in a different hat. Eight mediocre clips from one episode teach a feed to scroll past your name.

Practical

Watermarks, rights and the things that get videos taken down

Two practical points that decide more of this than the software does. First, rights. Clip what you made or what you have permission to use. A tool will happily process a public link and that is not the same as permission to republish, and our terms say so at more length.

Second, other people’s watermarks. Reposting a clip that still carries another platform’s mark is a reliable way to get it suppressed by the platform you are posting to. If you are repurposing your own long uploads, this does not arise. If you are working from something you downloaded elsewhere, it does.

Step by step

How to do it

Paste the YouTube link

On the homepage. No account and no card for your first Short.

Find the moment

Let the transcript be read and ranked, or pick the exact moment yourself in the Studio if you already know it.

Check the vertical window

It follows the speaker automatically. Nudge it by hand for screen recordings or anything where the important part is not a face.

Caption it

Word by word, because the feed is muted. Keep them clear of the bottom third where TikTok draws its own interface.

Export and upload

A 1080 by 1920 MP4, the native size, so nothing gets re-encoded harder than it needs to be on the way in.

The hard facts

Specifications

The numbers rather than the adjectives, including the limits. If one of these is a dealbreaker it is better learned here than after paying.

Output	1080 by 1920 MP4, the native vertical size
Reframing	Follows the subject, and can be moved by hand
Source	A public YouTube link
Captions	Timed word by word, placed clear of platform interface
Free tier	One Short a day up to 30 seconds, with a small watermark
Output	1080 by 1920 MP4, H.264, on every tier including free
Runs in	Any modern browser. Nothing to install, works on a phone
Free tier	One Short a day, up to 30 seconds, with a small corner watermark
Account needed	Not for your first Short. Captions and subtitle files need a free account

Questions

What people ask about this

How do I turn a YouTube video into a TikTok?

Paste the link, let the transcript be read and ranked so you can see which moments stand on their own, check the vertical framing follows the speaker, caption it, and export a 1080 by 1920 MP4. The resizing is the easy third of that; the choosing and the captioning are the parts that decide whether it works.

What size should a TikTok video be?

1080 by 1920, which is 9:16. Uploading at that size rather than something that needs rescaling means the platform re-encodes it less on the way in, and re-encoding is where the picture gets soft. Everything exported here is that size on every tier including free.

Will it crop out the person talking?

Not if the tool reframes rather than crops, which is the distinction worth understanding. A centre crop of a wide two shot gives you the gap between two people. Here the window follows whoever is speaking and moves when the speaker changes, and you can override it by hand.

Can I repost someone else’s YouTube video to TikTok?

That is a rights question rather than a software one, and the honest answer is to clip what you made or what you have permission to use. Separately, a clip still carrying another platform’s watermark tends to get suppressed by the platform you post it to, so even where you do have permission it is worth checking.

How long should the clip be?

Short enough that nothing in it is waiting. The useful test is to try the version that starts eight seconds later and ask what was lost, because most clips that feel like they need ninety seconds have not been cut rather than being deep. Our free tier caps at thirty seconds, which is a limit and also, often, a favour.

Does it work for Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts too?

Yes, it is the same 9:16 file. The differences worth knowing are where each platform draws its own interface over the picture, which changes where captions should sit, and the length limits, which change what you can post.

Do I need to install anything?

No. It runs in a browser, which also means it runs on a phone. There is nothing to download and nothing to keep updated.

Try it on one video

The first Short is free, needs no account, and takes about two minutes. That answers more than any page about a tool can, including this one.

Open the Studio