ShortsAIAn AI shorts generator, two ways: clip it or generate it
ShortsAI makes shorts two ways. The Clip Generator cuts them out of a long video you already have. AI Shorts writes a script and generates a new video with an AI actor, voiceover and b-roll.
Both produce 9:16 video at 1080 by 1920 with subtitles, and both publish to YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels and TikTok from the same dashboard.
Clipping is completely free. AI Shorts uses third-party generation APIs that cost roughly $0.65 to $2.00 per video.
Which kind of AI shorts generator do you need?
The phrase covers two different products, and picking the wrong one wastes an afternoon. If you already record long content (a podcast, a webinar, a stream, a lecture) you want a clipper: software that finds the moments and reframes them. If you have no footage and need a marketing video for a product, a service or an app, you want a generator: software that writes the script and produces the video from nothing. ShortsAI has both, and they share the same subtitle engine and the same publishing step.
How does the clip-based shorts maker work?
faster-whisper transcribes the video with word-level timestamps, PySceneDetect finds the scene boundaries, and Google Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite scores the transcript to pick the 3 to 15 strongest moments of 15 to 60 seconds each. Each moment is then cut with FFmpeg and reframed to 9:16 with MediaPipe face tracking. Each clip gets a hook title over its first seconds, because that is where a short-form viewer decides whether to stay, and subtitles burned in from the word-level transcript.
How does the AI-generated shorts creator work?
Describe the business or paste a website URL. The AI writes a script sized for a 30 to 60 second vertical video, picks or accepts an AI actor (or a photo you upload), generates a lip-synced talking-head video with a voiceover, and adds b-roll, TikTok-style subtitles and a hook overlay. Low Cost mode is about $0.65 per video and Premium about $2.00, billed by the generation providers (fal.ai and ElevenLabs), not by ShortsAI. It works for restaurants, e-commerce, coaching and local services as well as software.
Does the output fit YouTube Shorts, Reels and TikTok?
Yes. All three platforms want vertical 9:16 video at 1080 by 1920, and that is the default export. Length is the only thing to watch: YouTube Shorts allow up to 3 minutes, TikTok accepts far longer uploads, and Instagram stops recommending Reels over 3 minutes to non-followers. Clips of 15 to 60 seconds, which is what the clipper produces, sit inside every limit. The platform figures were checked on 2026-08-26; see the spec pages linked below for detail.
Can it post the shorts for you?
Yes. Connect an Upload-Post account and publish to TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts from the clip card, with scheduling for any date and time. The YouTube Studio tab adds AI thumbnails, 10 title suggestions and a description with chapter timestamps for the long-form upload.
What does it cost?
Nothing. ShortsAI is completely free with no paid tier, no watermark and no usage cap, at shortsai.app. You bring your own Google Gemini API key, whose free tier covers 1,500 requests a day; the site is supported by ads.
Common questions
- Can I make YouTube Shorts from a long video automatically?
- Yes. Paste the link or upload the file and the Clip Generator returns 3 to 15 subtitled 9:16 clips without manual scrubbing.
- Can it generate a short without any footage?
- Yes. The AI Shorts tool writes a script from a product description or URL and produces a lip-synced AI actor video with voiceover, b-roll and subtitles.
- Is the AI shorts generator free?
- The clipper is completely free, with no paid tier. AI-generated shorts use external APIs billed per video, roughly $0.65 to $2.00 each.