As a content creator, I know how time-consuming it can be to manually edit long videos into shareable shorts. Over the past few years, AI-powered solutions have transformed this process, offering tools that automatically detect highlights, generate subtitles, and format videos for multiple platforms. In this article, I'll walk you through the best all-in-one long video to shorts solution options in 2026, comparing eight tools and showing why CapCut remains my top choice. Whether you're repurposing podcasts, webinars, or livestreams, these tools can save hours of editing while maintaining professional quality. Plus, I'll share my firsthand insights on using CapCut long video to shorts for effortless batch video creation.
Why Choosing the Right Tool Matters for Content Creators
Before diving into the tools, it's important to understand what makes a solution truly effective. Here are the criteria I consider when evaluating long video to shorts editors:
- Usability and Workflow Efficiency: A good tool should streamline the process from uploading long videos to publishing ready-to-share shorts, minimizing manual clipping and formatting effort. Tools that integrate AI highlight detection save significant time.
- AI and Automation Features: The best AI tools for long video repurposing include automatic highlight detection, subtitles, and formatting. These features reduce repetitive tasks and maintain a consistent content style across platforms.
- Platform Optimization: Since Shorts, Reels, and TikTok demand vertical videos, I prioritize tools with smart vertical formatting and subject focus to ensure my clips look polished without manual adjustment.
- Global Reach Capabilities: Multilingual subtitles and automatic captions make it easy to distribute content worldwide, increasing engagement and accessibility.
- Value for Money: Features, limits, and subscription costs are considered to ensure the tool delivers professional results efficiently and affordably.
At-a-Glance: Top Long Video to Shorts AI Tools
This table gives a quick view of the top-rated long video editor by professionals, helping creators choose based on features, AI support, and ease of use.
In-Depth Tool Reviews
CapCut – The All-in-One Long Video Solution
CapCut's long video to shorts tool is my go-to tool for transforming hours of content into multiple polished shorts. It can handle videos up to 3 hours long or 10GB in size, making it perfect for podcasts, interviews, livestream replays, and webinars. The AI automatically detects highlights and key moments, saving me countless hours of manual clipping and editing.
What I love most is its smart vertical formatting and customizable subtitle templates. With support for over 20 languages, auto-generated titles, and one-click publishing, CapCut is truly the number one long video cutter for creators looking to streamline workflows and reach global audiences efficiently.
Core Features:
- Upload long videos up to 3 hours or 10GB, ideal for webinars, podcasts, and livestreams.
- AI-powered highlight detection automatically identifies engaging moments, creating multiple short clips effortlessly.
- Customizable subtitle templates support over 20 languages, making videos accessible to global audiences.
- Flexible short video duration presets allow clips <60s, 60–90s, 90s–3m, or fully custom lengths.
- One-click posting directly publishes videos to TikTok and YouTube, streamlining multi-platform workflow.
- Smart vertical formatting with subject focus ensures main content stays centered for Shorts and Reels.
- Batch generation from a single long video
- Minimal manual editing required
- Multilingual subtitles enable global reach
- Consistent visual quality with templates
- Requires a stable network for large uploads
Ideal Users
CapCut is perfect for creators repurposing webinars, podcasts, interviews, or livestreams. I often use it for turning a single 90-minute webinar into 10–15 social clips ready for TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. The AI handles subtitle generation, vertical formatting, and even suggests titles, making publishing incredibly efficient. It's my preferred tool when I need speed without compromising quality. Using CapCut AI long video to short video tool saves hours of editing and allows me to focus on content strategy instead of technical details.
Descript – Transcript-Powered Editing
Descript simplifies long-to-short video conversion through its transcript-based editing workflow. The AI detects promising clips automatically, which is helpful when working with recorded webinars or interviews.
Core Features:
- Edit videos directly via transcript text.
- AI detects standout moments automatically.
- Generates accurate auto captions.
- Export clips to multiple platforms easily.
- Auto-detects highlights with "Find Good Clips"
- Transcript-linked editing for precise clipping
- Team collaboration support
- Built-in publishing for TikTok, YouTube, Instagram
- Advanced features require a paid plan
User Experience
I've found Descript incredibly useful for interview-based content. Highlighting text in the transcript to create clips feels intuitive and reduces time spent scrubbing through footage. The auto-captioning is accurate, though less flexible than CapCut's template options. For collaborative teams, it's a strong solution.
Kapwing – Prompt-Driven Clip Generation
Kapwing allows creators to extract clips by describing which segments to include. It automatically transcribes, adds subtitles, and smartly reframes videos for vertical formats.
Core Features:
- AI extracts clips based on text prompts.
- Automatic transcription synced with video.
- Smart vertical framing for subjects.
- Subtitle automation with customizable styles.
- AI transcription & auto framing
- Full editing control post-generation
- Supports multiple platforms
- Works from URLs or uploads
- Manual adjustments often needed for polish
User Experience
I appreciate Kapwing's prompt-driven approach when repurposing YouTube videos. It's flexible for creative edits, though the AI suggestions sometimes require fine-tuning. The editing suite is powerful for those who want more hands-on control than CapCut offers.
Pictory – Smart Highlight Detection
Pictory scans uploaded long videos to generate multiple short clips, complete with captions, branding, and background music.
Core Features:
- AI scene detection
- Multi-platform export
- Custom clip durations
- Optional narration & templates
- Rapid clip generation with minimal manual editing.
- Supports multiple aspect ratios for various platforms.
- Easy to use even for beginners.
- Less advanced AI formatting compared to CapCut.
- Limited batch publishing options.
User Experience
Pictory is ideal for creators who want quick, intelligent clip generation without manual timeline work. It works especially well for educational content, webinars, and tutorials where highlights must be precise and shareable.
FlexClip – Drag-and-Drop Simplicity
FlexClip offers a web-based editor with drag-and-drop features, templates, and AI-assisted subtitles.
Core Features:
- Trim, split, and arrange clips manually
- 9:16 vertical export for social media
- Dynamic text animations & overlays
- AI-assisted transcription & translation
- Beginner-friendly with intuitive interface.
- Flexible templates for creative control.
- Supports multiple social media formats.
- Manual clipping is still required.
- AI features are limited compared to CapCut or Descript.
User Experience
Perfect for beginners or marketers who want visually appealing shorts quickly. FlexClip allows me to create stylized videos without learning complex editing software.
Lumen5 – AI Text-to-Video Conversion
Lumen5 is focused on transforming long-form content, scripts, or URLs into short, engaging social clips.
Core Features:
- AI-driven media selection & pacing
- Automated voiceovers & captions
- Social media optimized formats
- Large template library
- Excellent for repurposing text-based or long video content.
- Very accessible for marketing and educational creators.
- Minimal technical skills required.
- Less effective for raw long video clips without a script.
- Limited batch video processing.
User Experience
Best suited for marketing and educational content creators who want to repurpose textual or long video content into visually engaging shorts.
VEED.io – Professional-Grade Editing
VEED.io combines AI clip detection with professional editing options and team collaboration features.
Core Features:
- Transcript-based clip trimming
- Editable subtitles & branding
- Background music & visual effects
- Multi-user project support
- Strong team collaboration workflow.
- High-quality professional polish options.
- Flexible customization for branding and style.
- AI highlight detection less intuitive than CapCut.
- Some advanced features require paid subscription.
User Experience
Great for teams needing workflow collaboration, professional polishing, and custom branding while repurposing long videos.
Wisecut – Viral-Ready Short Clips
Wisecut automatically detects high-impact moments, trims silences, and generates viral-ready clips with minimal effort.
Core Features:
- AI-driven highlight detection
- Auto captions & translation
- Smart vertical & square formats
- Audio cleanup & background music
- Minimal manual editing required, ideal for quick repurposing.
- Auto-formatting for vertical and square videos.
- Integrated audio enhancement tools.
- Fewer platform publishing options compared to CapCut.
- Limited visual customization templates.
User Experience
Ideal for creators aiming for viral social content quickly. Its AI handles the heavy lifting, letting me focus on content strategy rather than technical edits.
Practical Use Cases for CapCut: Maximizing AI for Long Videos
- Webinars & Podcasts: With CapCut, I can take a single 2-hour webinar or podcast recording and instantly generate multiple short clips. The AI detects key moments, formats them vertically for Shorts and Reels, and produces ready-to-publish segments in just minutes, saving hours of manual work.
- Livestreams & Interviews: CapCut automatically identifies the most engaging segments from interviews or livestreams. I can add subtitles, auto-generated titles, and descriptions, then publish clips directly to TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube. This streamlines the workflow and ensures my content reaches audiences quickly and professionally.
- Multilingual Reach: One of my favorite features is CapCut's multilingual subtitle support. It can generate captions in over 20 languages, allowing me to share the same video content globally. This makes content localization effortless and expands my audience without additional manual translation work.
- Content Review & Optimization: CapCut allows me to experiment with different clip lengths, formats, and styles for platform-specific engagement. I can quickly test which short videos perform best, refine content pacing, and optimize titles and captions—all while maintaining consistent visual quality across multiple short-form platforms.
Conclusion
In 2026, AI tools have made long video to shorts conversion faster and more efficient than ever. CapCut stands out as the most advanced long video shortening technology, combining AI highlight detection, subtitles, vertical formatting, and direct publishing. For creators aiming to save time and maintain quality, CapCut is the best AI tool for long video repurposing, though Descript, Kapwing, and others offer unique strengths depending on workflow needs.
By selecting the right solution, you can focus more on content creation and less on tedious editing. From webinars to podcasts, these tools make it easy to reach audiences across multiple platforms efficiently.
Frequently Asked Questions
- 1
- What is the best tool to convert long videos to shorts?
From my experience, CapCut is the most reliable long video cutter for creators. It automatically detects highlights, generates subtitles, formats videos vertically, and supports batch creation. Its AI-driven workflow minimizes manual editing and speeds up publishing. Other tools like Descript or Kapwing can also convert long videos, but CapCut offers the most comprehensive all-in-one solution.
- 2
- What AI tool works best for repurposing long videos?
CapCut remains my go-to best all-in-one long video to shorts solution. Its AI handles segment detection, vertical formatting, subtitles, and automatic titles, making content repurposing fast and scalable. While Pictory and Wisecut can generate clips automatically, they lack CapCut's batch publishing features and advanced formatting options, which are essential for creators distributing content across multiple platforms.
- 3
- How to turn long videos into multiple shorts using AI?
Using CapCut, you can convert long videos into multiple shorts in a few steps. Open the CapCut long video to shorts tool, upload your video, select segments or duration, and click "Convert." The AI detects highlights, formats clips vertically, generates captions, and produces multiple platform-ready shorts efficiently. Other tools like Descript or Pictory can do similar tasks but with more manual steps.