---
title: 'Crop video for YouTube Shorts (9:16) online free - OpenClip'
description: 'Crop any video to the YouTube Shorts vertical 9:16 frame with a live preview, so the Shorts shelf shows your subject, not black bars. Runs in your browser, your video never leaves your device.'
canonical: 'https://openclip.app/tools/crop-video-for-youtube-shorts'
markdown: 'https://openclip.app/tools/crop-video-for-youtube-shorts.md'
---

[Tools](https://openclip.app/tools) Crop video for YouTube Shorts (9:16) online free

# Crop video for YouTube Shorts (9:16) online free

Crop any video to the YouTube Shorts vertical 9:16 frame with a live preview, so the Shorts shelf shows your subject, not black bars. Runs in your browser, your video never leaves your device.

1

Upload

Pick a video

2

Configure

Set crop & format

3

Download

Save your file

## Questions & answers

### What size does a YouTube Short need to be?

Shorts are vertical 9:16 at 1080x1920. Pick the 9:16 preset and position the crop; a square or landscape upload still counts as a Short, but it plays with bars instead of filling the screen.

### My source is a 16:9 YouTube video, will the crop lose my speaker?

The live preview shows exactly what the 9:16 frame keeps as you drag it. For long videos where the speaker moves, the [Shorts converter](/tools/convert-video-to-youtube-shorts) tracks faces frame-by-frame instead.

### Does my video get uploaded while cropping?

No. Cropping runs in your browser, your video never leaves your device, and we keep nothing.

### Is there a watermark or a paywall?

No watermark and no paywall. With a free account the export is a clean vertical file ready for the Shorts upload flow.

### Same clip for TikTok and Reels too?

One 9:16 crop covers all three platforms. The [TikTok crop](/tools/crop-video-for-tiktok) and [Reels crop](/tools/crop-video-for-instagram-reels) pages cover their specifics, and the [video cropper](/tools/crop-video-online) handles any custom ratio.

## Stop editing one clip at a time.

OpenClip finds your best moments, reframes them face-aware for every platform, writes the captions, and posts them. One upload, a week of content.

[Start free](https://openclip.app/register)

### More free tools

Keep editing inside the same browser-only toolkit.

- [Video Cropper](https://openclip.app/tools/crop-video-online): Crop videos to any aspect ratio.
- [Crop for TikTok](https://openclip.app/tools/crop-video-for-tiktok): Crop any video to the TikTok 9:16 frame.
- [Format Converter](https://openclip.app/tools/video-format-converter): Convert between MP4, WebM, MOV, MKV.