YouTube Shorts maker

Make a YouTube Short from your videos and photos at 1080 × 1920, up to three minutes: text, music, captions and templates, written as MP4 on your device. Free, with no account or uploads.

Your reel

YouTube Shorts, 1080 × 1920 · empty. It stays on this page until you leave it.

Keep a draft on this device

Off, nothing is kept: closing the tab loses the reel. On, the reel and its files are kept in this browser, on this device only, until you start a new reel or turn this off. Nothing is sent anywhere.

A little help along the way

Follow the steps below. Every option is explained underneath.

Choose where it is goingInstagram Reel, TikTok, YouTube Shorts and others: the reel takes that platform's shape and size. Or type a size of your own.
Add your videos and picturesThe editor opens over the page. Drop them on the reel or add them from Media on the left. They go on the end of the reel in the order you add them; videos can be of any length.
Arrange and trimPress a clip in the timeline under the reel: the panel on the right shows its part, speed, fit and sound, and moves it earlier or later. Split a clip at the playhead. With no clip chosen, the right panel sets the reel's shape and how every clip fills it.
Add words, music and captionsFrom the left: text in a dozen looks, stickers and logos, motion graphics, an intro or outro card, music and voice-overs of your own, and captions heard from the speech on this device. Or start from a template.
ExportPress Export at the top right, choose MP4 or WebM, the size, frames a second and quality or a size in MB, then Export the reel. It is checked before you download it, with its cover as a picture beside it.

Every option explained

Fill: The picture fills the reel; whatever does not fit the shape is cut off at the sides.
Whole, blurred behind: The whole picture, with a blurred, darkened copy of it filling the space around it, as on Reels and TikTok.
Whole, colour behind: The whole picture on the reel's background colour.
Zoom: The minus and plus at the top make the reel smaller or larger on the screen; Fit puts it back. It does not change the video.
Speed: From a quarter to four times as fast. The sound keeps its pitch.
Position: Press the reel to choose the clip shown, then drag its picture to move it or pull a corner to make it larger or smaller; it lines up with the reel's edges and middle (hold Alt not to). With the picture chosen, the arrow keys move it and plus and minus size it. Centre it again from the clip's settings.
Trim handles: The chosen clip has a handle at each end in the timeline: drag one, or use the arrow keys on it (a frame, or a second with Shift), to start or end the clip later or sooner. One drag is one step to undo.
Text, stickers and graphics: Each goes on the reel at the playhead, for a few seconds. Drag it on the reel, pull a corner to size it and the round handle to turn it; in the timeline, drag its bar to move it in time and its ends to make it longer or shorter. The right panel sets its words, look, colours and how it moves in, while shown and out.
Picture in picture: Add a video over the reel from the left: it goes at the playhead, two fifths of the reel wide, and is moved, sized and turned like a sticker. On the right, choose where in its file it starts, its sound and volume, how round its corners are and its border. It plays for as long as it shows and holds its last frame if its file ends first; its sound lowers music as a voice-over does.
Take the background out: In a clip's settings, a video over the reel's or a sticker's: the people in it are found on this device and everything around them goes. Behind a clip's people, the clip itself blurred or the reel's colour; a video over the reel then has no box. It finds people only, and fine hair, things they hold and fast movement can come out rough.
Cut to the beat: Music's beats are found on this device when it is added, and the timeline marks them on its row. In the music's settings, choose every beat, 2 or 4, then Cut the clips to the beat: each clip ends where the next starts on a beat. A video too short to reach its beat ends where it ends. It can be off on music without a steady beat; Undo puts the clips back.
Transitions: Press the mark between two clips in the timeline to choose how one gives way to the next, and for how long. The two overlap for that time, so the reel gets that much shorter.
Music and sound: Music plays from the start and over and over; a voice-over or an effect at the playhead. Each has its volume and fades, and music goes down while a voice-over speaks.
Captions: Make captions hears the reel's speech on this device with Whisper and lays the words out a few at a time, the one being said standing out. It can mishear and sometimes writes words nobody said, so read them through; each caption can be typed anew.
Templates: A template is a reel's look and timing with places for your own files. Use one that comes with the Reel maker or open a template file, choose your files, and they go in its places in order; a place left without a file stays grey until you fill it in its clip's settings. Save this reel as a template keeps the look, the texts, motions and timings, never your files.
Keep a draft on this device: Off, nothing is kept. On, the reel and its files are kept in this browser, on this device, until you start a new reel or turn it off; the next time you open the Reel maker it offers to open the draft.
Size and quality: 480p up to 4K, and 24 to 60 frames a second. When your browser cannot write the size you chose, the reel is written at the largest it can, and the plan says so. A size in MB is met by writing the reel again, smaller, up to three times.
Cover: A moment of the reel, typed or taken from the playhead, given to you as a PNG beside the reel: exactly the frame the reel shows there.
Safe zones: The button at the top shades where the platform's own buttons and captions cover the reel, when its own help says where: Pinterest's for video Pins, and Instagram's and YouTube's guides for ads, which the note says. The shading is never in the reel.
Platform limits: When a platform's own help says how long a video may be or how large, the export window warns you if the reel would go over, and names the page.
Keys: watching: Space or K: Play or pause. ←: Back one frame. →: On one frame. Shift + ←: Back 1 s. Shift + →: On 1 s. Home: Go to the start. End: Go to the end. They work while the editor is open and no field has the focus.
Keys: clips: S: Split the clip at the playhead. [: Start the chosen clip at the playhead. ]: End the chosen clip at the playhead. ,: Move the chosen clip earlier. .: Move the chosen clip later. Delete or Backspace: Remove the chosen clip. Esc: Put the clip down (the editor closes when none is chosen). They work while the editor is open and no field has the focus.
Keys: editing and the view: Ctrl or ⌘ + Z: Undo. Ctrl or ⌘ + Shift + Z or Ctrl or ⌘ + Y: Redo. =: Zoom in. -: Zoom out. 0: Fit the reel to the window. ?: Show these keys. They work while the editor is open and no field has the focus.

Read the step-by-step guide