YouTube Removed the Clip Button: How to Clip a Video Now

What Changed on 17 April 2026

On 17 April 2026 YouTube removed the ability for viewers to create new Clips. The scissors button under the player, the one that made a 5 to 60 second loop with its own youtube.com/clip link, is gone on the website and in the apps. In the same change YouTube brought share at timestamp to its mobile apps, so the share sheet can open a video at a chosen moment.

YouTube's statement, as reported by 9to5Google on the day, was short: "We are focused on launching more clipping tools for creators in 2026." It added that it recognises "community clipping is an important way for creators to reach new audiences", and pointed creators to Video Clips in YouTube Studio, which turns part of a channel's own video into a new video on that channel.

Sources: 9to5Google, 17 April 2026; YouTube Help on managing Clips and on Video Clips in Studio.

What Still Works

Clips made before the change were not deleted. A youtube.com/clip link somebody sent you last year still opens and plays its segment. YouTube's help page on Clips has always said a clip disappears if the original video is deleted, made private or removed for a policy reason, and that has not changed, so an old clip lasts exactly as long as the video under it.

YouTube has not said how long old clip links will keep working. If one of them matters to you, the safe move is to keep a copy of the moment, not the link.

Four Ways to Share or Keep a Moment Now

Share at timestamp

In the share sheet, tick the option to start at the current time, or add ?t= with the seconds to a link by hand. It is the quickest way to point someone at a moment. Its limit is the one that made Clips useful: it has no end, so the video keeps playing after the moment you meant, and on a three hour stream the person you sent it to has no idea where the interesting part stops.

Embed with a start and an end

If you have a web page, YouTube's embedded player takes a start and an end parameter, both in whole seconds from the beginning of the video. YouTube's developer documentation notes two quirks: the player starts at the nearest keyframe, which can be up to about two seconds early, and the end is counted from the start of the video, not from your start point.

Video Clips in YouTube Studio

For creators, this is the real replacement. In Studio you open one of your own videos, pick a section from the transcript or by timestamps, and publish it as a new video on your channel. It is only for your own uploads, and the result is a whole new video rather than a link into the old one. YouTube has said Video Clips for Shorts and automatic suggestions of clippable moments are coming.

A downloaded clip

The only option that gives you the moment itself. A file can be posted anywhere, edited, played offline and kept after the original goes private. On YTCut's YouTube clipper you paste the link, set the in and out points to the second, and download the part as MP4, MP3 or another format.

How to Make a Timestamp Link on Each Device

Whichever way you make it, the person who opens it lands at your moment and the video keeps playing. If the end matters, say it in the message: "watch from 12:40 to 13:25". Our guide to YouTube timestamp links covers every format the link accepts.

An embed that plays only a range

On a page you control, this plays from 12:40 to 13:25 of a video and stops:

<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID?start=760&end=805" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Both numbers are seconds from the beginning of the video. The player may start up to about two seconds early, because it begins at the nearest keyframe. Viewers can still scrub outside the range, so it suggests a moment rather than limiting someone to it.

Why YouTube Probably Did It

YouTube gave no detailed reason. Its statement focused on creator tools, and the shape of the change says the rest: the feature that let anyone republish a slice of anyone's video as a link was removed, and the feature that lets a channel republish slices of its own videos was kept and is being extended. Share at timestamp, which sends people to the full original, was promoted to the main way of sharing a moment.

That is consistent with how YouTube treated clipping elsewhere in 2026. On 1 October it adjusted Shorts recommendations to favour original content and reduce the reach of channels that mainly re-upload other creators' videos. The direction is the same: moments are fine to share, and best shared in a way that sends viewers back to the person who made them.

How Long Clips Really Are

The old button allowed 5 to 60 seconds. We looked at every clip cut on YTCut since 23 May 2026 to see how much of what people actually clip would have fitted.

First party totals from the YTCut clip log: every completed clip from 23 May to 25 October 2026, 26,341 clips from 21,777 different videos. Percentages are of completed clips.

Only 44.4% of clips fell inside the old window. Another 47.0% ran longer than a minute, a quarter of everything between one and three minutes, and 8.5% were shorter than five seconds: a sound effect, a one word reaction, a single frame of a goal. The median was 56 seconds. A minute was always a guess at how long a moment is, and for half of the moments people actually keep, it was too short.

What to Do Now

1. To point someone at a moment, use share at timestamp and tell them where it ends.
2. To show a range on your own site, embed the video with a start and an end.
3. To republish part of your own video, use Video Clips in YouTube Studio.
4. To keep the moment, post it elsewhere or edit it, download it as a clip. Clip what you made or have permission to use; our guide to clip copyright covers the rest.
5. If an old clip link matters, keep a copy of the moment rather than relying on the link.

Frequently Asked Questions