🇺🇸 United States · Opus Clip — AI Long-Video to Short Clips
Status: 🟩 COMPLETE 🟦 LIVING Section: 10 — AI and LLMs
| Vendor | Opus Clip (Opus Research, Inc.) |
| Country/origin | 🇺🇸 United States (San Francisco) |
| Recommended for AUS? | ✅ Yes — US company; standard privacy |
| Privacy summary | Standard SaaS; AWS hosting; video content processed for clip extraction; inputs not used to train models |
| Free tier | Yes — free trial credits (~60 minutes of video processing) |
| Paid tiers | Starter ( |
| First released | 2022 |
| Last reviewed | June 2026 |
| Official site | https://opus.pro |
What it is
Opus Clip is an AI tool that does one specific thing extremely well: take a long video and automatically extract the most engaging short clips from it, ready to post on TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and LinkedIn.
You upload a 1-hour interview, webinar, or podcast recording. In 5–10 minutes, Opus Clip analyses the whole thing and produces 5–15 short clips (30–90 seconds each) — identified as the most engaging moments. Each clip is:
- Automatically cropped to vertical (9:16) format for mobile social media
- Given an AI-generated caption (subtitle) overlay
- Scored with an “engagement score” (how likely it is to perform well)
- Titled with a suggested hook
This replaces hours of manual “clipping” work — watching a long video, identifying key moments, cutting them out, reformatting, adding captions.
Who it’s for
- Content creators who produce long-form video (interviews, tutorials, vlogs, podcasts) and want to repurpose it into social media content
- Podcasters distributing audio+video podcast episodes across platforms
- Marketers repurposing webinars, product demos, and events
- Businesses getting social media content from thought leadership interviews
- YouTubers creating Shorts from long-form uploads
How to sign up + first 5 minutes from Australia
- Go to https://opus.pro → Try for free
- Sign up with Google or email
- Paste a YouTube URL or upload a video file
- Select video type (podcast, webinar, interview, etc.) → click Get clips
- Wait 5–15 minutes while AI processes the video
- Review the generated clips; drag the edges to extend/trim; click Download or Schedule to post
What it costs
| Plan | Price | Minutes/month |
|---|---|---|
| Free trial | $0 | ~60 minutes (one-time) |
| Starter | ~$15 USD/month | 180 minutes |
| Pro | ~$29 USD/month | 600 minutes |
| Business | ~$79 USD/month | Unlimited |
Minutes = length of source video processed. A 60-minute podcast = 60 minutes consumed.
How it compares to alternatives
| Tool | Best for |
|---|---|
| Opus Clip | Best AI clip selection; engagement scoring; widely adopted |
| Descript Clips | Clip selection + full editing in one tool |
| Captions.ai | Strong captions; clip detection; good for mobile editing |
| Vidyo.ai | Similar; AI clips + captions |
| Munch | Similar; B2B focus |
| Manual editing (DaVinci, Premiere) | Full creative control; no automation |
Opus Clip is the market leader for pure AI clip extraction from long videos. Descript is better if you want to also edit the content.
Gotchas
- AI clips aren’t always perfect. The engagement score and selection algorithm is good but not infallible. Sometimes the most interesting moments are in context that the AI can’t fully assess. Always review before posting.
- Captions require checking. AI captions are excellent but make errors on names, technical terms, and heavy accents. Always read through before publishing.
- Processing time varies. 5–15 minutes for a 60-minute video is typical, but can be longer during peak times.
- Social media posting requires account connection. Direct posting to TikTok, Instagram, etc. requires linking those accounts to Opus Clip.
- Not a full editing tool. Opus Clip clips and captions; it doesn’t let you rearrange content within a clip, add graphics, or do complex post-production. Use alongside a proper editor for finished product.
See also
- descript — full video/audio editing with clip detection
- video-generation — AI that generates video (vs editing existing)
- speech-to-text — the transcription powering captions
Sources
- Opus Clip product documentation: opus.pro
- TechCrunch and Creator economy press (2022–2024)
- Social media creator comparisons and reviews (2023–2024)