Split videos online

Turning a Long YouTube Video into YouTube Shorts

A most common use case for splitting is to take a long-form video and create multiple clips from it for YouTube and other social platforms. Suppose you have a 15-minute tutorial or a 30-minute long recording and want to extract a series of 60-second clips from it to post as YouTube shorts. Videos under 60 seconds get 5 to 10 times more reach than regular videos on YouTube. So, splitting your long video into multiple clips is a smart strategy to increase your channel engagement and reach.

The smoothest workflow is to upload your long video, select one of the split modes (Free, Average, Time, or Size), and set the duration to 60 seconds, and press "Split Video." The tool will automatically generate as many 60-second clips as possible from your uploaded video. After splitting, you can download each clip individually or all at once in a zip file. Then use ClikDeo's Shorts Creator to convert each horizontal (16:9) clip into vertical (9:16) format before uploading these clips as YouTube Shorts.

One important detail: do not split every video blindly into 60-second clips. If your video has natural breaks at 1:15, 2:30, and 3:45, splitting your video at those natural breaks will produce more accurate and smooth clips. Use Free Split mode to split at those exact timestamps instead, so each clip gives you one complete topic or tell a complete story. A best way to create a series of small stories from a long video.

Splitting Videos for Email, WhatsApp, and Telegram

Every email service or messaging platform has its own file size limits. Gmail allows 25MB for every email attachment. WhatsApp allows up to 16MB for every video attachment but for WhatsApp Web, attachment limit is up to 64MB. Telegram allows up to 2GB for every video attachment but because of network speed and data usage, its difficult for some users to share files larger than 500MB. But when your video limit exceeds these limits, you need to split your videos into smaller parts to share them.

When you share your video in multiple parts after splitting, recipients don't need any special software to play these parts. They can simply click on each part and watch it because all split parts are in standard MP4 format.

Splitting Long Lectures and Course Recordings into Lessons

Teachers and professors record 45 to 90 minutes lectures for their online courses on daily basis. But students often find it difficult to watch a 90 minute lecture in one go and if a student wants to watch a specific topic in that lecture, they have to watch the whole lecture to find thats specific point. So, splitting long long lectures or recordings into smaller lessons is a best way to make it easier for students to watch and learn. Research shows that of video exceeding 10 minutes, completion rate drops 40%. The solution is to split long recordings into shorter, topic-based segments.

If your lecture or course recording has natural chapter breaks at equal intervals, use Average Split mode. Using Average split mode, you can split a 60-minute lecture into equal 6 parts of 10 minutes each segment. If your lecture has different topics with different durations, use Time split mode to set the duration like 10 minutes each part. This will split your lecture into multiple parts of 10 minutes each. If your video has exact timestamps, use Free Split to split at those precise points.

Before splitting, consider ClikDeo's Video Trimmer to remove dead air, mistakes, and "um-filled" pauses from the full recording first. Workflow like trimming first and then splitting will produce a more polished final results for your students.

Creating a Multi-Part Series for TikTok, Reels, and IGTV

TikTok allow users to upload videos up to 10 minutes long, but if you want to maximize reach and engagement, shorter clips are better. TikTok's algorithm favors content under 3 minutes. Instagram Reels have a maximum length of 90 seconds, and IGTV allows you to upload videos up to 60 minutes long. If you have a 12-minute long vlog or a 20-minute tutorial, posting these videos as one long clip on these platforms will give you less reach and engagement. Best strategy is to split these videos into a multi-part series like "Part 1", "Part 2", "Part 3" and so on and upload one part at a time.

To get best clips for TikTok, use Time Split with 150 seconds (2.5 minutes) per part. This will give you maximum allowed length for tiktok videos while keeping each part under the 3-minute range. For Instagram Reels, use 90 seconds per part. The key point to get successful on these platforms is, no matter what the length of your clip, each clips should tell a complete story or deliver a complete message. Each part should start with a brief recap of the previous part (3 seconds), deliver the main content, and end with a hook for the next part.

If your source video is horizontal, before posting on tikTok or Instagram, convert each split part to vertical (9:16) using ClikDeo's Shorts Creator. This ensures your content fills the entire mobile screen instead of showing black bars on the sides.

Splitting Gaming Sessions and Screen Recordings

Gamers, streamers, and screen recorders who use OBS or other recording software often end up with long recordings that are 1 to 3 hours long. These recordings or videos mostly have unusual breaks and pauses in between matches or topics. A single gaming session might include 5 to 10 separate matches or rounds, each worth sharing as an indivitual video. A screen recording tutorial might cover 8 different topics that should each be a standalone video. Uploading these as one massive video will give you less reach and engagement.

If you have a gaming video with multiple matches, play that video and note the timestamps of each match. After recording, use Free Split to split at those exact timestamps. This will give you individual clips for each match, which you can post one by one as series. If all of your matches in a single recording have same length then use Average Split — just set the number of parts to match your number of matches and let the tool handle the math.

You can use Time Split to split a long screen recording into equal parts of 5, 10, or 15 minutes each. But if your recording is larger in size than 2GB, use Size Split and split your recording into manageable parts of 100MB to 500MB each. This will make it easier to share and upload on social media platforms.

Splitting Podcasts and Audio-Heavy Recordings by Topic

Podcasts are a growing medium for content creators, and many podcasters record long episodes that are 30 to 60 minutes long. Some users consume the full episode, but many listeners prefer to listen shorter highlight clips from the full episode. These highlight clips are usually 2 to 5 minutes long and deliver main message or point of the complete episode. The smart strategy is to split your long podcast video into multiple 2 to 5 minute short clips and distribute them on social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts to drive traffic to your full episode.

Splitting a podcast episode is different from splitting your regular video. Because the audio of every episode is as important as the video. You have to listen through the episode and note the timestamps of the most compelling moments like a surprising fact, a controversial opinion, an engaging story, or a valuable tip. Then use Free Split to extract each of those moments as an individual clip. To get more engagement and reach, try to keep each clip between 90 seconds and 3 minutes long.

After splitting, you can also use ClikDeo's Audio Extractor to save the audio track from any split segment as an MP3 file for distribution on podcast platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

What is a Video Splitter?

A video splitter is a tool that helps you to split video into equal parts based on your requirements. Suppose you have a two-hour lecture recording, A 3-hour long movie, an event video, a forty-minute tutorial, or a long vlog that's too big to share easily. Whenever you want to divide media into smaller, shareable pieces, this is exactly the tool for the job. Our splitting tool allows you to break long videos into shorter segments. You can split by specific time intervals (e.g., every 10 minutes), by file size (e.g., every 100MB), by selecting number of files (e.g., No of Files: 5) or manually at any point in the video. Just select your preference mode, and hit "Split Video". The tool processes the video according to your settings and gives you downloadable parts. No upload to any server, no watermarks, no hidden fees.

Understanding the four split modes

Free Split — Wondering how to split mp4 file? Use our Free Split mode. When you select a video, selected video timeline will display below the video with a slider on it. Drag slider over timeline left or right to choose exactly where to split. The tool will divide into two parts instantly — one before the slider, one after. Best for splitting a video from exact center or at a natural point.

Average Split — Use Average Split mode to split video into equal parts. Just select the video and tell tool how many parts you want. Press "-" or "+" buttons to choose number of files you want. Tool divides the total video duration equally and create that many number of files you selected. This mode is perfect for splitting a long video or recording into equal length parts or series.

Time Split — Mode to create exact time clips. This mode is useful for platforms have time limit videos to upload (e.g., Instagram reels under 90 seconds) or you want to split long video into equal parts having equal time. You set a fixed duration (like 5 minutes, 10 minutes, or 30 seconds). Tool will create as many parts as needed, and each part will have exact time length decided by you.

Size Split — Use this mode to split video by file size. Drag a slider to choose file size for every part (e.g., 50MB, 100MB, 500MB). The tool will calculate automatically that how many parts will create in that file size, and then start splitting. This mode is perfect for creating videos for email attachments, upload limits, or if you need to split your long video under a specific file size.

Mechanism — How does video splitting actually work?

People think that splitting videos is like cutting a slice of an apple. Here's a complete step-by-step guide about what happens when you click "Split Video":

• 1. Video decoding in memory — When user uploads a video file to splitter tool, Browser accesses these files without uploading them to any external servers. File API reads the selected video file in browser's memory.
• 2. Calculating split points — After uploading video file to browser, user has to choose splitting mode (free, average, time, or size). After selecting mode, tool calculates exact timestamps from video where each new part should begin and end. For example, for free split, there will be only one timestamp. For average split, timestamps depends on chosen number of parts. For time split, tool creates parts duration based on your selected time. For size split, tool estimates duration based on file size ratio.
• 3. Creating a hidden video element — To create clips from a long video, tool creates a temporary video to load original video.
• 4. Canvas capture and audio mixing — To divide long videos into smaller parts, a canvas captures video frames at about 30 frames per second. In the same time, Web Audio API extract audio track from the uploaded video. In the final step both, audio track and canvas combined in a single MediaStream.
• 5. Recording the segment — Recording the segment happens real time, this is the main reason splitting a 10-minutes long video might take about 10 minutes. The MediaRecorder API records the combined stream into a video blob.
• 6. Creating download links — As MediaRecorder API records the segments and each recorded segment becomes a downloadable video file MP4 format. You can save created smaller parts individually or all at once.

Important: Splitting long videos or creating smaller parts from long video is a local process. Your CPU does all the processing work. So, this is the main reason that splitting videos is a time consuming task, as 15-minutes long video might take 15 minutes to divide.

History of Video Splitting — The Timeline

Where can you use the split videos?

Once you have split or created smaller parts from your long video. These smaller parts or clips are standard video segments. So you are free to use them anywhere like:

Real-world examples: A teacher can use this tool to split their 3-hour long lecture into 10-minute segments to easily share with students. A content creator creates a full length video and then create smaller parts to remove raw scenes or parts from final video. A gaming institute can break training course into smaller parts and can share each part to a different student.

Content creators often split long videos into YouTube shorts to target short-form audiences. Use our Time Split mode with 60-second duration for perfect YouTube Shorts.