How do I turn a horizontal video into a YouTube Short? Free 9:16 crop preview

Crop a 9:16 window out of your 16:9 frame (608 x 1080 pixels from a 1080p video, 1215 x 2160 from 4K), move it to follow the subject and export at 1080 x 1920, up to 3 minutes long. Open your video here to watch it inside a Shorts-sized phone frame, place the crop, add keyframes and copy the exact x, y, w and h to use in Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve or CapCut. Nothing is uploaded and nothing is re-encoded.

Updated October 19, 2026 · Built by Kevin Tabares, long-form YouTube editor at Umbrella Creators. Shorts rules from YouTube Help, read October 19, 2026.

Choose a video or drop it here
MP4, MOV or WebM that your browser can play. Large files are fine: nothing is uploaded.

Your video stays on your device. It plays in this tab; the preview, the numbers and the PNG are made right here.

Choose a video to start.

How to use the Shorts crop preview

Choose your video. The finished long-form export or the raw recording both work. The tool reads 16:9, 4:3, square and other shapes, in any resolution your browser can play.
Pick a layout. Fill (crop) cuts a 9:16 window out of the frame and fills the phone screen. Fit with blurred background keeps the whole frame and puts a blurred, darker copy behind it.
Place the crop. Drag the yellow box on the full frame, drag the phone preview, use the slider or press Left, Center or Right. Leave the Shorts overlay on to see where the buttons and the title usually sit.
Follow the action with keyframes. Go to a moment, place the crop and press Add keyframe here. After the first one, every change you make at another moment adds a keyframe there. Glide moves the crop smoothly between keyframes; Jump holds each position until the next one, like a cut.
Copy the numbers into your editor. You get the crop rectangle in pixels of your file, the Premiere Pro Scale and Position for a 1080 x 1920 sequence, and every keyframe with its time and timecode. Save a 1080 x 1920 PNG of the frame to check it on your phone before you edit.

How I pick the crop for different videos

I cut Shorts out of long-form videos, and the crop changes with the format:

Gaming with a facecam: one 9:16 window rarely holds both the facecam and the action. If the moment is about the reaction, I crop on the facecam. If it is about the gameplay, I crop the action and follow the character with keyframes, set to Jump at every cut so the crop does not drift across the screen. A split layout (face on top, gameplay below) I build in the editor; this tool previews single crops.
Talking head: with one person I center the face, or keep it slightly left of center, away from the button column on the right. With two people, like a podcast or an interview, I add a Jump keyframe at each change of speaker so the crop cuts to whoever is talking.
Documentary and narrated videos: maps, charts, archive photos and wide establishing shots lose their meaning when cropped, so for those shots I use the blurred background layout. For B-roll with one subject I crop and use Glide with keyframes far apart: a slow move reads as a camera pan.

In every case I check the frame with the overlay on: faces and on-screen text stay out of the bottom fifth and away from the right edge, where the title and the buttons sit.

What YouTube counts as a Short

Shape and length: videos with a square or vertical aspect ratio, up to 3 minutes long, uploaded on or after October 15, 2024, are Shorts. A wider format such as 16:9 keeps a video long-form.
Resolution: YouTube Help notes a maximum resolution of 1080p for Shorts uploads, so 1080 x 1920 is the size to export. The PNG from this tool is that size.
Music and claims: a Short longer than one minute with an active Content ID claim is blocked, so music you do not own matters more in a long Short.
Safe zones: YouTube Help does not publish where its buttons and text sit in pixels. The overlay above is my approximation (top 7%, a right column 16% wide from a little below the middle, bottom 20%) and the real layout changes with the phone, the app version and your title.

Step-by-step guide

For the whole process around this tool, read How to turn a YouTube video into Shorts: how to pick the moments, crop to 9:16 and stay under the 3 minute limit.

FAQ

How do I turn a horizontal video into a YouTube Short?

Crop a 9:16 window out of the frame and scale it to 1080 x 1920: from a 1920 x 1080 video that window is 608 x 1080 pixels, from 4K it is 1215 x 2160. Move it with keyframes to follow the subject, or keep the whole frame over a blurred copy. Then export the vertical video and upload it: YouTube Help says square or vertical videos up to 3 minutes long are Shorts.

What size should a YouTube Short be?

1080 x 1920 pixels, a 9:16 vertical frame. YouTube Help says a Short needs a square or vertical aspect ratio, can be up to 3 minutes long and can be uploaded at a maximum resolution of 1080p. A 16:9 video stays a regular long-form video.

Where do the YouTube Shorts buttons cover the video?

The like, comment and share buttons sit in a column on the right, the title, channel name and subscribe button along the bottom, and the search and menu icons at the top. YouTube does not publish exact safe zones, and the layout changes with the phone, the app version and the length of the title, so the overlay in this tool is an approximation. Keep faces and text in the middle of the frame, away from the right edge and the bottom fifth.

Should I crop the video or use a blurred background?

Crop when one subject matters: a face, a facecam or one character. It fills the whole phone screen. Use the blurred background when the whole frame matters, like a wide gameplay shot, a map or a chart: a 16:9 frame then fills only about a third of the screen height, with the blurred copy above and below it.

Can YouTube turn my long video into a Short for me?

Yes, for your own public long-form videos: “Edit into a Short” in the YouTube app takes up to 60 seconds of the video and lets you choose a layout. For a Short longer than 60 seconds, or for crop moves that follow the action, edit the vertical version yourself and upload it, up to 3 minutes.

Is my video uploaded anywhere?

No. The video plays inside your browser, and the crop, the keyframes and the PNG are made on your device. Nothing is sent to a server, and the tool does not re-encode or save your video.

Sources

YouTube Help, Get started creating YouTube Shorts: Shorts up to 3 minutes, vertical uploads, a maximum upload resolution of 1080p. Read October 19, 2026.
YouTube Help, Understand three-minute YouTube Shorts: square or vertical videos up to 3 minutes uploaded on or after October 15, 2024 are Shorts; a wider format such as 16:9 keeps a video long-form; Shorts over one minute with an active Content ID claim are blocked. Read October 19, 2026.
YouTube Help, Upload YouTube Shorts: square or vertical aspect ratio, up to 3 minutes. Read October 19, 2026.
YouTube Help, Create YouTube Shorts from your videos: “Edit into a Short” takes up to 60 seconds of your own public long-form video. Read October 19, 2026.
Shorts overlay: my own approximation of the Shorts player layout. None of the YouTube Help pages above give safe zones in pixels.

Who made this

I'm Kevin Tabares. I've edited long-form YouTube videos since 2015 (1,277 videos and 152.2M+ views tracked on YT Jobs, 20 YT Jobs reviews from 19 client channels), mostly Roblox and Minecraft gaming, plus narrated documentaries, and I cut Shorts out of those long videos. Finding the right 9:16 crop is the step I repeat on every Short, so I built a tool for it. If you want an editor for your channel, get in touch.

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