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Shorts

One long video.
Ten shorts.
No extra charge.

Studio finds the moments inside your recording that stand on their own, then cuts each one as a full vertical reel — 9:16, captions, a hook and your end card. You already paid for the footage, so the shorts cost nothing.

Start free — 30 minutes included See six finished examples
20 to 58 seconds each Every short is its own job Free from a video you already paid for

Available on every tier: 3 shorts per video on Free, 5 on Creator, 10 on Pro and Studio Business. Anywhere from 1 to 10 at a time.

The rule that decides everything A short has to work with no context at all. Someone meets it mid-scroll, with no idea what the long video was about. So a candidate clip is only kept if it opens on a question or a strong line, closes when the thought ends rather than mid-sentence, and makes sense without the minute before it.
The charge Shorts made from a video you already paid for cost nothing. Ten shorts from one podcast cost the same as zero shorts. Each short is charged nothing at all — not per export, not per render, not per platform. You are paying for the footage you uploaded, once, and the shorts are made from footage you already paid for.
The selection rules

Four rules, and every candidate clip is measured against all four.

These are the rules as written in the product's own documentation, not a description invented for this page. They are why some obvious moments are left out.

It stands on its own The clip has to make sense to somebody who never saw the rest of the video. A brilliant answer that only lands because of the question five minutes earlier is not a short. rule 1 — HOW-TO-USE.md:76
20 to 58 seconds long Under 20 seconds there is no room to make a point and support it. Over 58 seconds it stops behaving like a short on the platforms people post them to. A 19-second candidate is rejected even when the line is good. rule 2 — HOW-TO-USE.md:76
It opens on a question or a strong line The first two seconds decide whether it is watched, so the clip starts on the question or the claim — never on the run-up to it. No “so, um, the thing about that is”. rule 3 — HOW-TO-USE.md:76
It ends when the thought ends The cut lands after the sentence that completes the idea, so the last frame is a full stop rather than a truncation. Nothing is cut mid-thought to hit a length. rule 4 — HOW-TO-USE.md:76
What a short actually is

Not a trimmed clip. A finished vertical reel.

A short is not the long video with the edges cut off. It is re-edited for the frame it will be watched in: 9:16, with captions burned in, a hook at the top and your end card at the close.

  • 9:16 vertical, reframed for a phone rather than letterboxed.
  • Captions in your caption style, from the words that were actually spoken.
  • A hook drawn from the clip's own opening line.
  • Your end card, from the brand kit — logo, colour and link.
  • Its own job, so you can watch it, change it and download it without touching the others.
Every short is a separate job
Each one carries the part of the long video it came from — the from and to times and the reason it was picked — and links back to the video it was cut from. That is what makes a single short revisable on its own.
One short, as the app describes it
00:41
“Nobody told me this about soil”
9:16·00:41·cut from ep-14-farming-tips
A short cut from the long video (12:04–12:45): it opens on a question and ends on the answer, and it needs nothing that came before it.
Donecharged nothing

The title is the clip's own opening line. Studio does not write a headline for your short and it does not invent one for the caption either.

How to ask

Two ways, and neither of them is a settings screen.

A button under the finished video, or a sentence in the chat box. Both accept any number from 1 to 10, and both cost the same as typing nothing.

The button

Under a finished video: choose a number, press Make shorts.

It sits with the download and change controls. The work happens in the background, and each short appears in the list as it finishes rather than all at the end.

While it works, the button says exactly what is happening: “Picking the strongest moments and cutting them… about a minute”. Any count is clamped to 1–10, so a typo cannot start forty jobs.

The chat

Or just say how many, in the same box you use for changes.

The chat understands the phrase as a command rather than a change request, so asking for shorts does not make a new version of the long video.

You
make 5 shorts
Studio
Picking the strongest moments and cutting them — about a minute. They appear in Shorts as each one finishes, and the long video is untouched.

The same phrase works from a fresh upload: “Also make 5 shorts from it” is one of the options on the upload screen.

Six examples, and one rejection

What comes back from one 42-minute interview.

Durations are real, and so is the one that was refused — a 19-second candidate that was rejected for being below the 20-second floor even though the line was good.

00:419:16
“Nobody told me this about soil”Opens on a question · ends on the answer
00:289:16
“The 87% number, explained”Stands alone · the figure was said out loud
00:559:16
“What I got wrong for two years”Strong first line · clean ending
00:339:16
“Why I stopped buying new gear”A complete argument in half a minute
00:589:16
“Three questions to ask before you plant”Longest allowed · ends on the third answer
00:209:16
“The cheapest fix I have found”Shortest allowed · one idea, finished
00:19rejected
“That one line about compost”Refused: 19 seconds, under the 20-second floor — no room left to make the point after the opening line.

If a moment you wanted is missing, ask for it in the chat with the times — “cut 12:04 to 12:45 as a short” — and Studio will make it as its own job.

Why 20 to 58 seconds

Long enough to make a point. Short enough to finish before someone scrolls.

Both ends of that range are doing work. The floor protects the argument; the ceiling protects the attention.

Under 20 seconds, there is time for a claim or the evidence for it, but not both. What you get is a slogan, and slogans do not travel well without the context that was cut away.

Over 58 seconds, a clip stops behaving like a short on the platforms people post them to — the completion rate falls, and the last third is watched by almost nobody, which is a bad place to put your ending.

The range is a rule in the documentation, not a slider in a settings screen. If you want something outside it, ask for it by its times and it will be cut as its own job.

What happens after you ask
Each short becomes its own job Not one job with ten outputs — ten jobs, each with its own status, its own versions and its own chat. POST /studio/api/jobs/<jid>/shorts — studio/web.py:1807
It takes the quick lane A short is a small job, so it starts ahead of longer videos already waiting. shorter videos go first
It appears in two places In Shorts, where you can watch them back to back, and in the list of the video it was cut from, so the long video and its shorts stay together. shorts appear in the list and in Recent jobs — HOW-TO-USE.md:78
Questions

Five things people ask about shorts.

How many shorts can I make from one video?
Your plan sets what is offered when you upload: 3 per video on Free, 5 on Creator, 10 on Pro and Studio Business. When you ask for them by hand, any number from 1 to 10 is accepted and anything outside that is clamped, so a typo cannot start forty jobs. You can ask again later for more from the same footage.

What do they cost?
Nothing. Shorts made from a video you have already paid for are free, on every tier, however many you make. You were charged for the minutes of footage you uploaded, once; the shorts are cut from footage that charge already covered.

Can I change one short without touching the others?
Yes. Every short is its own job with its own chat, so “bigger captions” on one short changes that short alone. The long video and the other nine are untouched, and each short keeps its earlier versions the same way the long video does.

Why was a moment I liked left out?
Usually one of two reasons: it ran under 20 seconds or over 58, or it needed the minute before it to make sense. A 19-second candidate is refused even when the line is strong, because there is no room left to support it. Ask for a specific moment by its times and it will be cut as its own job.

Are the shorts vertical only?
Shorts are 9:16 with captions, a hook and your end card — that is the point of them. The long video stays in the shape you uploaded it in. If you would rather have a square or a 16:9 cut-down, say “make it 16:9” or “make it vertical” in the chat on the long video instead, and that becomes a new version of the long video rather than a short.

Upload one recording. See what it picks.

Your first 30 minutes are free, and that is enough for one real episode with three shorts from it. If the moments it chooses are not the moments you would have chosen, you will know within an afternoon.

Start free See how the edit is made

More on the money: how credits work · the four tiers · the calculator · book a demo.

The four rules, in one line each
Stands on its own no context needed from earlier in the video 20 to 58 seconds long enough for the point, short enough to finish Opens on a question or on a strong line — never on the run-up Ends when the thought ends a full stop, not a truncation · and every short is its own job, its own version history, and free. ·

Shorts never appear as a separate charge on your ledger — there is no line for them, because there is no charge to record.