Best AI Tools to Make YouTube Shorts (2026)

The best AI tool for making YouTube Shorts depends on where your Short comes from. Opus Clip and Klap are the strongest picks for turning a long video into captioned vertical clips. AutoShorts leads for auto-generating and auto-posting faceless shorts on a schedule. TubeGen is the honest choice when you want to build an original faceless short from scratch, or cut a long-form video you already made in TubeGen into clips. If your whole channel is Shorts at volume, reach for a shorts-native tool first.

YouTube Shorts reward volume and consistency, so the right tool is the one that removes the slowest step in your workflow. For most creators that step is either finding the clip inside a long video or generating a short from nothing. This guide ranks the best AI tools to make YouTube Shorts in 2026 by that job, names the free options, and shows where each one fits.

What to look for in an AI tool for YouTube Shorts

A good AI Shorts tool does one of two jobs well. It either clips a long video into vertical Shorts, or it generates an original Short from a prompt. Match the tool to the job before you compare features, because a clipper and a generator solve different problems.

Then check five things. First, does it reframe to vertical 9:16 automatically. Second, does it add animated captions, since most Shorts are watched on mute at first. Third, does it detect the hook, the first two seconds that decide whether a viewer keeps watching. Fourth, does it auto-post or schedule, which matters if you publish daily. Fifth, the real cost per finished Short at your volume, not the sticker price of the plan.

The best AI tools to make YouTube Shorts

Opus Clip is the leading AI clipper for turning a long video into Shorts. Opus Clip scans a full-length video, finds the moments most likely to perform, reframes them to vertical 9:16, and adds animated captions. It scores each clip so you know which to post first. Opus Clip is the best pick if you already publish long-form and want several Shorts from every upload.

Klap does the same repurposing job as Opus Clip with its own approach. Klap takes a long video, cuts it into short vertical clips, and adds captions plus reframing that tracks the speaker. Klap is a strong alternative for creators repurposing podcasts, talking-head videos, or long tutorials into a steady stream of Shorts.

AutoShorts auto-generates faceless shorts and posts them to YouTube on a schedule. AutoShorts writes the script, adds a voiceover and stock visuals, and publishes on autopilot, so a faceless channel can run daily without manual uploads. AutoShorts is the pick when your goal is high-volume, hands-off faceless Shorts in a repeatable niche.

TubeGen makes original faceless Shorts from scratch, and it produces the long-form videos you can later cut into clips. TubeGen runs the whole faceless pipeline, from its Niche Finder through script, voiceover, visuals, and its editor, so you can build a short vertical video end to end without filming anything. Be candid here. TubeGen is optimized for long-form faceless video, and its editor exports up to 30 minutes, so Shorts are doable but not its main strength. Use TubeGen for a polished original short, or to make a long-form video you then run through Opus Clip or Klap. If your channel is Shorts-first at volume, a shorts-native tool is faster. Disclosure: TubeGen is our product, listed here in the category it belongs to.

InVideo AI and Fliki are text-to-video generators that also make Shorts. You give them a prompt or a script, and they produce a captioned vertical video with a voiceover and stock footage. They sit between a clipper and a full pipeline, and they are handy for a one-off Short when you have no long video to clip.

Some jobs around your Shorts belong to specialist tools, and it is worth conceding them plainly. For thumbnail and cover design, Canva and Pikzels give you more hands-on control. For channel analytics, ViewStats tracks what is working. For keyword and tag research, vidIQ and TubeBuddy lead. None of these make the video itself, but they round out a Shorts workflow.

YouTube Shorts AI tools at a glance

Tool	Best for	Does it make video?	Note
Opus Clip	Clipping long videos into Shorts	Yes, from your footage	Scores each clip
Klap	Repurposing talking-head and podcasts	Yes, from your footage	Speaker-tracking reframe
AutoShorts	Auto-generating and auto-posting	Yes, from scratch	Publishes on a schedule
TubeGen	Original faceless shorts and long-form	Yes, from scratch	Long-form optimized
InVideo AI / Fliki	One-off text-to-short	Yes, from a prompt	No long video needed

How to make a YouTube Short with AI, step by step

Making a Short with AI follows the same six steps whether you clip a long video or generate one from scratch. The tool does the heavy lifting, but the calls that earn the view are still yours.

1. Start from your strongest source. If you already have a long video, feed it to Opus Clip or Klap. If you do not, generate one from a prompt with AutoShorts, InVideo AI, or TubeGen.
2. Nail the hook first. The first two seconds decide retention. A clipper like Opus Clip scores the moments for you, and a generator writes the opening line, but check that the first frame gives the viewer a reason to stay.
3. Reframe to vertical 9:16. Every tool here does this automatically. Confirm the subject stays centered and nothing important gets cropped out of the frame.
4. Add animated captions. Most Shorts start on mute, so on-screen text carries the message. AI captions sync to the voiceover or the spoken audio, and you can style them to match the channel.
5. Trim to length and check the loop. Keep the cut tight and remove dead air. A Short that ends by leading back into its own opening tends to loop and rack up extra watch time.
6. Schedule or post. AutoShorts publishes on a schedule for you. For the other tools, export the finished 9:16 file and upload it, or queue it through a social scheduler.

Which AI Shorts tool fits your strategy

Pick the tool by where your Short comes from, not by the longest feature list. Four workflows cover most creators, and each one points at a clear pick.

If you already publish long-form video, use Opus Clip or Klap to repurpose. One long upload becomes several Shorts, and the clipper does the finding, reframing, and captioning for you. This is the fastest way to a Shorts habit when you are already making long videos.

If you want faceless Shorts on autopilot, use AutoShorts. It generates and posts on a schedule, which suits a repeatable niche where the format stays the same every day. Volume is the whole point, and AutoShorts is built for it.

If you want an original faceless Short built end to end, use TubeGen. TubeGen writes the script, narrates it, and assembles the visuals into a short vertical cut in one place, so the Short is original rather than a clip of something else.

If you make your long-form in TubeGen, export the finished video and run it through Opus Clip or Klap to spin off Shorts. Long-form is where TubeGen is strongest, and clipping is where the shorts-native tools are strongest, so this pairing plays to both.

Making original faceless Shorts with TubeGen (and clipping your long-form)

TubeGen builds an original faceless Short from a single idea, and it produces the long-form videos you later cut into more Shorts. TubeGen is an all-in-one AI pipeline for faceless YouTube, and every step runs in one place. TubeGen’s Niche Finder searches a large YouTube channel database and surfaces profitable faceless niches with demand and revenue signals, so the Short starts from a topic that can travel. Its AI title generator and AI scriptwriter turn that topic into a tight script. Its voiceover narrates in 8 languages, with voice cloning on the Pro and Premium plans. Its visuals engine adds images, animation, stock footage, and overlays. Its editor assembles the timeline and exports the cut.

For a Short, you run the same pipeline and keep the cut short. That is the from-scratch case where TubeGen fits, an original faceless vertical video with a script, a voiceover, and visuals, built without filming anything. TubeGen also owns the research step, so you do not need a separate niche or idea tool. The Niche Finder tracks trending channels and keywords in real time and points you at faceless topics with real demand.

Be honest about the shape of the tool. TubeGen is long-form optimized. Its editor exports up to 30 minutes, and its whole pitch is long-form faceless video, with scripts up to 3,000 words on Starter, 10,000 words on Pro, and 20,000 words on Premium. So the second way creators use TubeGen for Shorts is to make a strong long-form video first, then cut it into clips with Opus Clip or Klap. TubeGen makes the source, and the clipper makes the Shorts. Plans run $149 Starter, $297 Pro, and $849 Premium, with Build Your Own add-ons from $27 a month if you only want one part of the pipeline. For the full workflow where TubeGen is strongest, see the guide to AI tools for long-form YouTube videos.

The short version

There is no single best AI tool for YouTube Shorts, but the shortlist is clear. Opus Clip and Klap turn a long video into captioned vertical clips. AutoShorts auto-generates and auto-posts faceless Shorts on a schedule. TubeGen builds an original faceless Short from scratch, or produces the long-form videos you cut into Shorts, though a Shorts-first channel should reach for a shorts-native tool first. Match the tool to where your Short comes from, and the rest is volume.

For the wider set of tools by job, see the best AI tools for faceless YouTube channels and the pillar on the best AI YouTube video generators. If long-form is your real game, read AI tools for long-form YouTube videos, and when you are ready to build, see TubeGen’s plans.