Clips starting at 0:00 include YouTube's title overlay for the first couple of seconds.
Recording needs Chrome or Edge on a desktop. You can still preview the video and pick times here.
Updated July 2026
About this tool
Browsers cannot download YouTube streams (and YouTube's terms forbid it), so this tool takes a different, honest approach: it plays your chosen segment in the official embedded YouTube player and records it as it plays, like a built-in screen recorder pointed at just the player. Chrome's tab capture records the current tab, Element Capture crops the recording to the player area, and MediaRecorder assembles a WebM (VP9) file of exactly the segment you picked, at playback quality.
Paste any YouTube link (watch pages, youtu.be short links, Shorts, live and embed URLs all work, and a t= timestamp prefills the start time). Drag the two slider handles to frame your segment (the player follows, so you see the exact frames) or type precise timecodes, pick WebM or MP4 as the output, then hit Record clip and choose This Tab in the share dialog. Playback jumps to your start time and the recording stops itself at the end time; picking MP4 re-encodes the clip locally with the same in-browser engine as our other video tools.
Recording works in Chrome, Edge and other Chromium desktop browsers: tab self-capture with audio and player-region cropping exist only there for now. Everything else on the page (loading a video, previewing, picking times) works everywhere. Clip quality equals what the player streams at your window size, so set the player quality to 1080p, keep the window large, and leave the tab visible while it records. Recording happens in real time: a 30-second clip takes 30 seconds. If an ad plays, let it finish and record again; an immediate replay rarely serves the ad twice.
Made for personal use: saving a repro step from a recorded talk, keeping a snippet of a conference session for reference, or clipping a moment for study or commentary. Respect creators and YouTube’s Terms of Service, and do not re-publish other people’s content as your own.
Recording and conversion run entirely in your browser. The only network traffic is the YouTube player itself; the clip never leaves your device.
Frequently asked questions
Does this download the video from YouTube?
No. Browsers cannot fetch YouTube video files, and downloading them would violate YouTube’s terms. Instead, the tool records the official embedded player while your segment plays, using the browser’s own screen-capture permission, exactly like a screen recorder would. That is also why recording takes as long as the clip itself.
Why does recording need Chrome or Edge on desktop?
Three APIs make it work: tab self-capture (getDisplayMedia with the current tab), tab audio capture, and Element Capture, which crops the recording to just the player. All three currently exist only in Chromium desktop browsers. In Firefox, Safari or on phones you can still load a video and pick times, but the Record button stays disabled.
What quality does the clip have?
The clip records at the quality the player is showing, scaled by your display’s pixel density: a large window on a sharp screen captures up to 1080p. For best results, set the player’s quality menu to 1080p, keep the browser window large, and leave the tab visible while recording.
Why did an ad end up in my clip, and what about buffering?
The recorder captures whatever the player shows. Pre-roll ads are waited out automatically (recording only starts once your segment actually plays), and buffering pauses are cut out of the clip. A mid-roll ad cannot be removed, so the recording stops with a message; record again, since an immediate replay rarely serves the same ad twice.
Is clipping YouTube videos allowed?
That depends on what you clip and what you do with it, and it is your responsibility. Short excerpts for private reference, study, commentary or criticism commonly fall under fair use or fair dealing in many countries. Never re-upload other people’s content as your own, respect creators and YouTube’s Terms of Service, and when in doubt link to the original video instead.
Is anything uploaded while I clip?
No. The page talks to YouTube only to load the official player and to look up the video title. The recording is assembled by MediaRecorder in your browser, and the optional MP4 conversion runs in a local Web Worker using your browser’s codecs. The clip never leaves your device.