For iPhone and Android
Make more.Edit less.
Upload a talk, a podcast or an interview. You get back finished vertical clips: captioned, framed 9:16 on the face in shot, cut around the moments worth keeping.
One free video every month. No credit card needed.
How it works
How does Video To Reel turn one long video into shorts?
Video To Reel is a mobile app, for iPhone and Android, that turns one long video into finished vertical shorts. You upload a talk, podcast or interview from your own device — MP4, MOV or MKV — and Video To Reel transcribes it, picks the moments worth keeping, cuts them, reframes each one to 9:16 on the face in shot, burns in word-timed captions and renders at 1080p. A 15-minute upload is typically back in a few minutes. Every account gets one free video a calendar month, returned as 3 watermarked clips from an upload of up to 15 minutes, with no card required; paid plans return up to 10 clips per video from uploads as long as 3 hours. Finished clips stay in the app for 30 days on a paid plan and 7 days on the free one, then Video To Reel deletes them for good. The video you uploaded is deleted the moment rendering finishes.
Everything after you press go runs on our machines. Close the app if you like: a notification brings you back when the clips are ready.
Pick the file
Straight from your camera roll or Files. MP4, MOV or MKV. Uploads resume by themselves if the connection drops. Already shot it? Editing talking-head video without losing the afternoon picks up where the app leaves off.
Say what you want
How many clips, roughly how long, captions on or off and where they sit. That is the whole setup. Choosing what to cut a long episode around: the podcast clip guide.
Collect the clips
Transcribed, cut, reframed, captioned and rendered at 1080p. Save them to your camera roll or share straight to TikTok, Reels or Shorts.
Transcribed first
Nothing gets cut before it is understood. Every upload is transcribed word by word, in the language it is actually spoken in, including Chinese, Japanese, Arabic and Hindi. The transcript is what the rest of the pipeline works from.
Cut on sentences
Moments are chosen from the transcript and every clip starts and ends on a sentence boundary, not mid-word. Each one arrives with the line it was cut around and its timestamp in the source, so you can check the pick in a second.
Framed and burned in
The 9:16 frame follows the face in shot — SpeakerLock finds it and glides after it, across cut close-ups too — and word-timed captions are burned into the pixels at render time, so they survive every app you post into.
Who it is for
What do people actually turn into shorts?
Anything where people talk: one long recording going in, a week of vertical posts coming out. The shape of the job changes by who is recording; the app does not pretend otherwise. Here is what each kind of upload looks like on Video To Reel.
Podcasters with an archive
You publish an hour every week and the feed is quietly rotting. Upload the episode file and ask for ten clips: the strongest arguments, the funniest exchanges, the moments a guest said something quotable. If the edit cuts between host and guest close-ups, the frame follows the cut; on a single locked two-shot it holds one person steady rather than slicing both heads in half. Clip the back catalogue on a Studio plan, three hours per upload, and the archive starts working for you.
Interviewers and journalists
An interview is a string of separate answers, and each answer is a candidate clip. Ask for clips sized to the answers rather than to a fixed number, and every short lands on its own point — the takeaway at the start, the story paid off at the end. There is a dedicated path for this on the interview page.
Creators who talk to a camera
You film talking-head videos and want them on three platforms without cutting them three times. One upload, 9:16 out, captions burned in because most of the feed watches muted, and the clip count and length are yours to set before anything renders — 15 to 30 seconds for hooks, 60 to 90 for the argument that needs room.
Educators and coaches
A lecture, a workshop recording or a client session (with permission) is dense with self-contained explanations. Each one is a standalone short if you cut on the sentence, which is exactly where Video To Reel cuts. Word-timed captions carry the expertise for the muted majority and make the clip legible on a small screen.
Webinar and event hosts
A two-hour recorded webinar sitting in a drive? MKV is accepted, which is the format most recording tools write. Upload it and come back with a follow-up sequence for attendees and a week of posts for the people who never showed. SpeakerLock handles the presenter moving around a stage; a fixed talking-head shot frames without any help at all.
Small marketing teams
One person runs social for a founder who records everything and edits nothing. The founder uploads; the clips come back captioned at 1080p, each labelled with the line it was cut around, so choosing the good ones takes a pass rather than an edit. Re-render a single clip with a new trim or caption position without paying for the rest again, and no minute is spent on a render that failed.
One job in particular? Podcast to reels, interview to shorts and talk to TikTok each have their own page.
Why this one
Three decisions that shape the app
Your video, your choice
Upload your original file or import a supported public YouTube video you have permission to use. We process it, and the source is deleted when your clips finish rendering. Clipping other people? Read permissions for clips of other people.
SpeakerLock follows the face
A centre crop cuts heads off. SpeakerLock, the reframe built into every render, finds the face in shot and moves the 9:16 frame with it — across cut close-ups too — smoothed so it glides rather than jitters. Why the crop is the hard part: reframing horizontal video to vertical.
Captions where you want them
Word-timed captions burned in, three styles, nine positions clear of the Reels and TikTok interface. Change your mind after the render and only that clip is remade. Why captions stopped being optional: what changed in short-form video.
Every clip arrives with the line it was cut around and where it came from in your video. No invented virality scores: read the quote and decide in a second.
Clip count
Between 1 and 10 clips per video — 3 on the free plan. You choose the number before anything renders; the app never spends a month's minutes on a count you did not ask for.
Clip length
Three ranges to pick from: 15 to 30 seconds, 30 to 60, or 60 to 90. Within the range, every clip starts and ends on a sentence boundary.
Captions
On or off, in one of three styles, in one of nine positions, with the highlight colour of your choice. Positions exist so your words stay clear of the like button and the caption bar.
Re-renders
Nearly right is not wrong. Re-render any single clip with new in and out points or a different caption setup; the rest of the batch is untouched and the re-render is not charged again.
| Video To Reel | Browser clip tools | |
|---|---|---|
| How your video gets in | A phone app. Start with your camera roll, a file or a supported public YouTube link. | A website. Paste a link or push your file through a browser tab, then download the results back to your phone. |
Weighing it against a tool you already pay for? How it compares with Opus Clip, CapCut and Clipped on clip quality, price, watermark and limits.
What it costs
Start free. Upgrade only if the clips are worth it.
Video To Reel costs nothing to try: every account gets one free video a calendar month — an upload of up to 15 minutes, returned as 3 watermarked clips, no card required. Paid plans remove the watermark and return up to 10 clips per video: Starter at €9 a month with 150 source minutes, Creator at €19 with 500 minutes and uploads up to 2 hours, Studio at €49 with 1,500 minutes and uploads up to 3 hours. Subscriptions are sold through Google Play and the App Store, annual plans come with at least two months free, and a failed render refunds its minutes by itself.
The one rule worth knowing before you start: minutes are spent on rendering, and a re-render of a clip you already have is never charged again. The full plan table is on the pricing page.
The long version of what this app does in one upload
Guides on cutting clips, editing talking-head video, podcasting and what is actually changing in the vertical feed. Everything here you can do by hand — or hand to the app.
How to turn a podcast episode into video clips
A practical guide to cutting podcast clips: recording a video track, picking the moments worth clipping, captioning for a muted feed, and publishing a week of reels from one episode.
Read the article · · 8 min
Short-form video trends, stripped of the hype
Shorter clips are no longer the only format that works, search has become the second distribution channel, and captions moved from polish to requirement. What changed in short-form video, and what it means for creators.
Read the article · · 7 min
Editing talking-head video without losing the afternoon
A repeatable editing workflow for talking-head video: assembly cut, punch-ins, pacing, audio, captions and export settings, sized for people who record more than they want to edit.
Read the article · · 9 min
Reframing horizontal video into vertical, done properly
What a 9:16 crop from a 16:9 frame actually throws away, when to centre-crop, when to keyframe by hand, and when a face-tracking reframe is the only thing that works.
Read the article · · 8 min
Interview clips: what you may post, and how to ask
Everything about posting clips of your guests: what the release should cover, how to ask without making it awkward, and a clip workflow that respects both the guest and the feed.
Read the article · · 7 min
Talking to the camera: shorts that hold attention
How to make a single talking head hold a vertical feed: the first-line rule, eye-line and energy, the one-cut-per-breath rhythm, and captions that carry the muted majority.
Read the article · · 7 min
Browse everything in the blog index, or go straight to what you record: podcast to reels, interview to shorts and talk to TikTok.
FAQ
What do people ask before they start?
Can I paste a YouTube or TikTok link instead of uploading?
You can paste a public YouTube link in Add a video, or choose a file from your library. Only import videos you own or have permission to download and edit, and follow the source platform's terms. Private, restricted and live videos are not supported. TikTok and Instagram links are not supported. If a YouTube import is unavailable, you can upload the original file instead.
Is there a free version?
Yes: one free video every calendar month, which comes back as three clips carrying a small Video To Reel watermark. No card is needed and nothing turns into a subscription by itself. It is one free video per person rather than per account. Paid plans render without the watermark.
What happens to the video I upload?
It is transcribed, cut, reframed, captioned and rendered, then deleted along with every intermediate file as soon as your clips are ready. Finished clips are served to your phone over private links that expire. The full detail is in the privacy policy.
How long does a render take?
It depends on the length of your video and on the queue, but a 15-minute upload is typically a few minutes. The app shows the real stage and a queue position rather than a spinner, and tells you outright that you can close it. A push notification arrives when the clips are done.
How long are my clips kept?
Finished clips stay in the app for 30 days on a paid plan and 7 days on the free plan, then they are deleted for good. Save the ones you want to your camera roll: that copy is yours and nothing on our side can touch it.
Is Video To Reel on iPhone or Android?
Both. It is one app and one account, on the App Store and Google Play. Everything described on this page works the same on either phone.
How do I cancel or delete my account?
Subscriptions are cancelled where you bought them, under Subscriptions in Google Play or the App Store. To delete the account itself, use Account, then Delete account in the app, or do it here on the web at videotoreel.com/delete-account. It removes your account, your uploads and your clips permanently.
What video files can I upload?
MP4, MOV or MKV — the formats your phone camera, screen recorder and recording software actually write, from your camera roll or the Files app — or paste a public YouTube link to a video you have the rights to. Upload length caps by plan: 15 minutes on the free video, 45 minutes on Starter, 2 hours on Creator and 3 hours on Studio. If the connection drops mid-upload it resumes by itself.
What if a render fails?
The job shows the error rather than hanging on a spinner, and the minutes it reserved come back on their own — on the free plan, the month's free video is not spent either. Nobody to email and nothing to request; the upload is deleted either way.
Which languages do the captions work in?
The video is transcribed in whatever language it is spoken in — including Chinese, Japanese, Arabic and Hindi — and the captions are built from that transcript, word-timed to the audio. Captions match the language of the video; Video To Reel does not translate them into another one.
Do the clips come with a watermark?
Only the free plan: its clips carry a small Video To Reel watermark. Every paid plan renders clean, and there is no separate fee for removing it — you do not pay twice to post without our name on your video.
Video To ReelGet the app
Free on iPhone and Android. One free video every month, no credit card needed.
Questions? support@videotoreel.com · Further reading: what is changing in the vertical feed and the talking-head edit workflow.