PandaStudio

Long video to Shorts

An AI clip maker that edits the clips too

PandaStudio finds the moments worth clipping in your podcast, lesson or YouTube video, turns each one into a vertical Short with your face in frame, and edits it in a style that holds attention. It all runs on your computer, so there are no upload waits and no per-minute credits.

Pay once from $99, or $19 a month. Try it with 10 free exports, no card. Mac and Windows.

Read the step-by-step guide

Raw clip in, finished Short out

The same moment before and after PandaStudio. Left is the raw vertical clip; right is the edited Short.

Raw
Edited

Watch a long video become Shorts

Recorded in the app: a six-minute video goes in, captioned clips come back best first with a hook score, a two-person podcast is stacked one above the other, and a clip is published from its own page.

Watch it clip a three-person conversation

A real run: the agent transcribes the video, surfaces four clip-worthy moments, then cuts the best one into a 9:16 Short that follows whoever is speaking, shot by shot.

How it works

  1. 1

    Drop in the long video

    Open the Clips tab and drop a podcast, webinar, lesson or stream. No upload: the file stays on your computer.

  2. 2

    Pick a caption style by sight

    Every style is shown on a frame of your own video, framed vertically the way the clips will look. Choose one and a clip length (15-30, 30-60 or 60-90 seconds).

  3. 3

    Get scored vertical clips

    PandaStudio transcribes, finds the moments, frames each clip on the speaker and adds the captions. On our Mac, a six-minute video took under a minute.

  4. 4

    Edit any clip, export the lot

    Every clip is a normal project: trim it, apply a Shorts recipe or ask the agent. Then export all of them at 1080x1920 in one click.

Try it on your own video

Download PandaStudio, drop a podcast or lesson into the Clips tab and get scored vertical clips back in minutes.

Pay once from $99, or $19 a month. Try it with 10 free exports, no card. Mac and Windows.

Shorts styles you can apply in one step

Auto-generated clips usually look auto-generated. These are edit recipes built from how top Shorts creators actually cut, applied to your clip.

Storytime with a turnHook pinned at the top, jump cuts, and a push-in on the turn.
Hard-truth one-linerHuge two-word captions and a punch-in every other sentence.
Split-screen with B-rollYou on the bottom half, B-roll that follows what you say on top.
Warm educatorSerif hook, pill captions and quick cutaways while you stay centered.

Or let your AI agent do the clipping

Type one line to the built-in agent, or to Claude Code, Claude Desktop or Codex connected through PandaStudio's MCP server:

"Make three Shorts from my latest podcast episode in the storytime style, with captions, and publish the best one to YouTube."

The agent reads the transcript, picks the moments, makes a vertical project for each, applies the style, checks the frames and exports. Setup guides: Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex.

Who it's for

  • Podcasters. Clip every episode without uploading hours of audio and video to a cloud service. See how The Diary of a CEO edits its clips.
  • YouTubers. Turn each long video into a week of Shorts that point back to it.
  • Course creators and coaches. Cut your lessons into teaser clips for Reels and Shorts that bring students in.

Questions

How does PandaStudio pick the clips?

Open the Clips tab and drop in the long video. PandaStudio transcribes it, then a language model that runs on your computer reads the whole transcript in overlapping passages and picks the strongest self-contained moments: ones that open on a hook and end when the point is made. Each clip starts and ends on a full sentence and gets a title and a 0 to 100 score that also weighs the opening line, a clean ending and the pace. You get about one clip for every three minutes of video, best first.

Does my video get uploaded to find the clips?

No. Transcription and clip finding both run on your machine, so a long podcast or a client recording never leaves it. Nothing is uploaded unless you publish to YouTube or Instagram yourself.

Is there a limit on video length or minutes per month?

There are no processing minutes or credits. Because the work happens on your own computer, a two-hour podcast costs the same as a five-minute video. Long files just take longer on slower machines.

What happens to my 16:9 video when it becomes a Short?

Each clip becomes its own 9:16 project with captions on. The vertical frame follows the speaker's face through the clip, for interviews and talk shows it cuts to whoever is on camera shot by shot, and a podcast shot with both people in one wide is stacked, one person above the other, each tracked on their own face. A screen recording or slides with no face shows the whole picture over a blurred copy instead of cropping it away. Every clip stays fully editable.

Can Claude or Codex make the Shorts for me?

Yes. Tell the built-in agent 'make three Shorts from this video in the storytime style', or connect Claude Code, Claude Desktop or Codex through the PandaStudio MCP server or CLI. The agent reads the transcript, picks the moments, makes a vertical project for each, applies a Shorts recipe and exports.

Can I post to Instagram Reels and TikTok too?

The exported MP4 is a standard 1080x1920 vertical video, so it works on Shorts, Reels and TikTok. PandaStudio can publish directly to YouTube and Instagram (see the Instagram Reels editor page); for TikTok you upload the file yourself.

Turn your next long video into a week of Shorts

Everything runs on your computer: no uploads, no credits, no per-minute limits.

Pay once from $99, or $19 a month. Try it with 10 free exports, no card. Mac and Windows.

Compare before you choose

Coming from a cloud clipping tool? The honest side-by-side covers where each one wins.

PandaStudio vs OpusClipPandaStudio vs DescriptInstagram Reels editorHormozi-style Shorts editing