How to Turn a Long Video Into Short Clips With CapCut AI

Feed a long recording into CapCut's Long video to shorts tool and let AI cut it into ready-to-post vertical clips.

8 minIntermediate

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The Long video to shorts tool scans a long recording, finds the most engaging moments, and outputs several short vertical clips with captions and reframing already applied. It is the fastest way to mine a podcast, webinar, or stream for social content. This feature lives in CapCut desktop.

What you need

CapCut desktop, signed in
A long horizontal video with clear speech (5 minutes or more works best)
Time for the AI pass, which scales with video length

Step 1: Open the tool

From the CapCut home screen, look in the toolbox for Long video to shorts. Open it and upload your long video, or paste a link if your source is hosted online.

CapCut - Long video to shorts

Long video to shorts

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[ Drag a video here or Paste a link ]

Clip length: ( ) <30s (x) 30-60s ( ) 60-90s

Language: [ English (US) v ]

[ Generate clips ]

Upload the source clip, then set the target duration.

Step 2: Set the clip length and language

Choose a target duration that matches the platform you post to. Set the language to match the speech so captions transcribe correctly. Then click Generate.

Step 3: Wait for the AI pass

CapCut transcribes the whole video, scores segments for hooks and complete thoughts, then assembles candidate clips. A 30-minute source can take several minutes. Each result shows a virality estimate and the topic it covers.

CapCut - Generated shorts list

Suggested clips (6)

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1. The mistake everyone makes 0:48 score 87

2. How we cut costs in half 0:52 score 81

3. Why the launch nearly failed 0:39 score 76

[ Edit ] [ Export ]

Step 4: Open a clip in the editor

The AI guesses the boundaries, but it is rarely perfect. Click Edit on a promising clip to send it to the full timeline, where you can trim the start so it opens on the hook, and tighten the ending so it does not trail off.

Step 5: Polish and export each clip

Check that the auto reframe keeps the speaker centered, fix any caption errors, then export at 1080p vertical. Repeat for each clip you want to keep.

Treat AI picks as drafts

The virality score is a hint, not a verdict. Watch the first three seconds of each suggested clip yourself; a strong opening line beats a high score every time.

Result: one 30-minute interview becomes five tightened vertical clips, each captioned and reframed, in roughly the time it takes to watch the source once.