Long YouTube videos often have great moments that could perform really well as Shorts, but manually clipping and editing them takes hours. These days, several AI tools can automatically detect highlights, add captions, and turn long videos into short, vertical clips ready for YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, or TikTok.
So, which AI tools can automatically generate Shorts from long YouTube videos — especially ones that work well for Indian creators or offer free plans?
Many AI tools can now quickly turn long YouTube videos into short, vertical clips for Reels, Shorts, or TikTok. VEED and OpusClip are popular because they automatically find the best parts, crop the video, and add captions. Taja AI also helps pick interesting moments and formats them for social media. Newer tools like Veo 3, Sora, and Kling make short videos look very professional with almost no editing. For Indian creators, these tools handle mixed Hindi-English audio quite well, though it’s good to check captions for small errors. Overall, they save a lot of time and make it easy to turn long videos into catchy short clips.
If you want a tool that does everything automated - from highlight detection to clipping and dont want any manual intervention, then OPUS clips is the go to tool. No free plan. However the starter plan pricing is 7.5 USD per month. I think it totally worth.
I have also used VEED however that is only good for auto subtitles and have gotten good results from the tool. - however this doesn’t offer a free plan. You can get the premium plan at 500 per month.