# ClipEmber

> Turns a long video into vertical short clips with captions, then publishes them
> through each platform's official API (TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels).
> 5 free videos every month (watermarked), no credit card; new accounts get 7 days of Pro.

ClipEmber is operated by a small team and everything below is first-hand: the
teardowns quote scores and timings written by our own pipeline, not estimates.

## Product

- [ClipEmber](https://clipember.com/): what it does, example clips.
- [Pricing](https://clipember.com/pricing): every plan, monthly and yearly prices, what one credit covers, credit packs.
- [Features](https://clipember.com/features): what the product does, and a list of what it does not do.
- [About](https://clipember.com/about): who runs ClipEmber, how we measure published numbers, corrections.
- [Blog](https://clipember.com/blog): all guides, comparisons and newsletter issues, newest first (RSS: https://clipember.com/blog/rss.xml).
- [How it compares](https://clipember.com/compare): fact-based comparison; only our own column makes hard claims.
- [Help center](https://clipember.com/help): clipping, publishing, billing, credits.
- [API docs](https://clipember.com/docs): REST endpoints for programmatic clipping.
- [MCP server](https://clipember.com/mcp): the same actions as tools for AI agents.

## Use cases

- [YouTube to Shorts](https://clipember.com/tools/youtube-to-shorts): Convert long YouTube videos into vertical Shorts with AI: best moments found automatically, captions burned in, face-aware crop. 5 free videos every month. Includes a documented run (2026-08-16, request 2ced1dde-03f0-4ba4-ba90-d722de31b927): 5 clips from 0:00 – 2:01 of "The Secret Behind This Beef & Cheese Sandwich" by Smokin' & Grillin with AB (Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)), scores 82/80/76/68/68, 289 s end to end.
- [Podcast to Clips](https://clipember.com/tools/podcast-to-clips): Turn podcast episodes into short vertical clips automatically: AI moment detection, face-aware crop, karaoke captions. 5 free videos every month. Includes a documented run (2026-08-17, request 03a44092-63d6-4b60-a98d-ac94e3323df5): 5 clips from 28:46 – 31:45 of "Kevin Nealon | Blocks Podcast w/ Neal Brennan" by Neal Brennan (Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)), scores 89/84/78/75/72, 252 s end to end.
- [Auto Captions](https://clipember.com/tools/auto-captions): Burn word-by-word karaoke captions into vertical video automatically. 9 templates, size and position controls, multilingual. Free to try. Includes a documented run (2026-08-17, request 155fbffe-890e-4137-abe2-2d237704ba0c): 5 clips from 2:00 – 5:00 of "Tutorial SCREENCAST-O-MATIC 2020 — Cómo grabar la pantalla" by EducaTIC (Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)), scores 68/67/63/62/60, 2491 s end to end.
- [AI Clip Maker](https://clipember.com/tools/ai-clip-maker): AI clip maker for creators: moment detection, captions, hook titles, per-platform post copy and a publishing calendar. Start free. Includes a documented run (2026-08-17, request 53cecc91-2c8d-4bb6-8ad9-c602733377b4): 5 clips from 7:00 – 10:00 of "Keynote speech: Preparing students for a tech-driven world" by European Schoolnet (Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)), scores 78/77/76/72/68, 2316 s end to end.
- [Webinar to Clips](https://clipember.com/tools/webinar-to-clips): Repurpose webinar recordings into vertical clips automatically: AI moment detection, face-aware crop, karaoke captions. 5 free videos every month. Includes a documented run (2026-08-17, request 7bce807c-bce6-4d64-bea4-d9ea8fe3b187): 5 clips from 10:00 – 13:00 of "SVP: Nonprofit HR webinar (full recording)" by SVPWaterlooRegion (Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)), scores 88/83/82/77/69, 353 s end to end.
- [Interview to Reels](https://clipember.com/tools/interview-to-reels): Turn interviews into vertical Reels automatically: best quotes found by AI, face-aware crop, word-by-word captions. Free to try. Includes a documented run (2026-08-17, request 62172c40-dd54-42b2-a2dc-5bcd07eae7c4): 5 clips from 15:00 – 18:00 of "Mike Tyson Asks Sadhguru Some Hard-hitting Questions" by Sadhguru (Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)), scores 80/79/78/76/75, 3446 s end to end.
- [Sermon to Clips](https://clipember.com/tools/sermon-to-clips): Turn full sermons into vertical clips automatically: AI moment detection, face-aware crop, karaoke captions in 90+ languages. 5 free videos every month. Includes a documented run (2026-08-17, request 913c0b4a-3c83-4cd8-8de9-290e2f6dfaa0): 5 clips from 25:00 – 28:00 of ""The Light of the World" — Full Service, 1/4/2026" by Salem Gospel Fellowship (Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)), scores 79/78/77/76/75, 787 s end to end.
- [Zoom to Shorts](https://clipember.com/tools/zoom-to-shorts): Convert Zoom recordings into vertical Shorts automatically: AI highlights, face-aware crop, burned-in captions. Start free. Includes a documented run (2026-08-17, request 59586aee-f13d-4498-95f7-c62dbfb07118): 5 clips from 10:00 – 13:00 of "Zoom lecture, Probability & Statistics, 24 September 2020" by Jason Miller (Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)), scores 71/66/59/56/52, 490 s end to end.

## Measured answers (first-hand, with sources)

Each guide below answers one question with numbers we measured ourselves. Every
figure names the run or stage it came from, so it can be checked rather than trusted.

- [How long does AI clipping actually take?](https://clipember.com/guides/how-long-does-ai-clipping-take): For a 5-minute window of a YouTube video, our pipeline takes about 7 minutes end to end and returns 5 clips. The part people call "the AI" — scoring every candidate moment — takes 2.5 seconds of that. Everything else is moving video around: downloading the source and rendering the output.
- [Why did YouTube downloads suddenly start failing with "ffmpeg exited with code 8"?](https://clipember.com/guides/youtube-download-fails-ffmpeg-code-8): Because yt-dlp was picking a YouTube client whose media URLs started returning HTTP 403, and ffmpeg reports that as exit code 8. Upgrading yt-dlp fixes the 403 — but then a second problem appears: YouTube no longer offers progressive (muxed) formats at all, so a format selector that asks for them matches nothing.
- [Do AI clip scores predict views?](https://clipember.com/guides/do-ai-clip-scores-predict-views): No, and on Instagram the relationship runs the wrong way. Across 954 clips posted through ClipEmber between July and October 2026, the rank correlation between our pre-publish score and views 72 hours later was −0.06 (95% CI −0.13 to 0.01). On Instagram Reels it was −0.14 (−0.24 to −0.04): clips in the top score quartile got a median of 19 views, the other three quartiles 56.
- [My TikTok post is sitting as a draft — how do I actually publish it?](https://clipember.com/guides/tiktok-post-stuck-as-draft): Open the TikTok app and finish the post from your Inbox notification. Tools that use the video.upload scope cannot publish for you: that scope only delivers the file to your account and TikTok then asks you to complete it. Publishing directly requires a separate permission plus a Content Posting audit.
- [Why does my YouTube upload come out private?](https://clipember.com/guides/youtube-upload-comes-out-private): Most likely the tool's API project has not passed Google's audit. Google's own policy is that videos uploaded through the API from unverified projects created after 28 July 2020 are restricted to private viewing mode — and those videos cannot be appealed, only re-uploaded through a verified path.
- [How do you actually evaluate an AI clipping tool?](https://clipember.com/guides/how-to-evaluate-an-ai-clipping-tool): Ask four questions the marketing pages do not answer: does the free plan watermark exports, how long does a 20-minute window really take, does the tool's own score predict views, and can it publish to TikTok without you tapping. We answer all four about ourselves below, with numbers.
- [Can I clip someone else's YouTube video? What Creative Commons actually allows](https://clipember.com/guides/clip-youtube-videos-creative-commons): Only if the video is licensed Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) or the owner gave you permission. With CC BY you must credit the title, the creator, the link and the license, and say you edited it. The license settles copyright, not money: YouTube's reused-content policy can still block monetization, even with permission.
- [Can Claude edit videos? Making short clips from a YouTube link in a Claude chat](https://clipember.com/guides/claude-video-editing-mcp): Not on its own: in a chat, Claude doesn't download, cut or render video. It can drive a tool that does. Add ClipEmber as a custom connector in Claude (Customize → Connectors, URL https://clipember.com/api/mcp), sign in, and ask for clips from a YouTube link. Across 156 runs since 11 October 2026, the median run took 4.6 minutes and returned 5 captioned vertical clips.
- [Is clipping legal? When you can post clips of someone else's video](https://clipember.com/guides/is-clipping-legal): Posting a clip of someone else's video is allowed when you have permission: the video's license (such as Creative Commons Attribution on YouTube), the owner's direct OK, or a clipping program the creator runs. Fair use is a defense a court weighs case by case, not a rule you can count on. Without permission, platforms remove clips, and on YouTube 3 copyright strikes in 90 days can end a channel.
- [Why can my app only post to TikTok privately? What the Direct Post audit checks](https://clipember.com/guides/tiktok-direct-post-api-audit): Until TikTok audits an app's Content Posting API integration, Direct Post only works on private accounts and every post is limited to private viewing; we saw the error unaudited_client_can_only_post_to_private_accounts 18 times. The audit checks the posting screen and the content the app sends. Ours was rejected twice without a stated reason and approved on 9 October 2026.

## Comparisons (vendor facts from their own sites, dated)

- [ClipEmber vs Opus Clip](https://clipember.com/compare/opus-clip): checked 2026-10-10. Both turn long videos into short clips and post them. The main differences are the billing unit (Opus Clip counts minutes of source video, ClipEmber counts videos), what the free plan and trial allow, and how channel automation works: Opus Clip imports new videos from your own YouTube channel, while ClipEmber's Autopilot follows any channels you pick, including Creative Commons sources.
- [ClipEmber vs Vizard](https://clipember.com/compare/vizard): checked 2026-10-10. Both clip long videos and post them. Vizard bills per minute of uploaded video and its free plan can post to one TikTok account; ClipEmber bills per video, and posting starts on the Creator plan or the 7-day trial. Vizard lists 4K export, AI B-roll and team seats; ClipEmber adds channel automation and a hosted MCP server.
- [ClipEmber vs Klap](https://clipember.com/compare/klap): checked 2026-10-10. Klap charges per clip it generates; ClipEmber charges per video and includes every clip a run produces. Klap's free plan is one video without a watermark; ClipEmber gives 7 days of Pro, then 5 watermarked videos a month. Klap lists split-screen layouts, brand kits and team workspaces; ClipEmber adds channel automation and an MCP server that takes YouTube links.
- [ClipEmber vs Submagic](https://clipember.com/compare/submagic): checked 2026-10-10. Submagic's plans count captioned videos up to a set length (2 minutes on Starter), and clipping long videos is the Magic Clips add-on, per its pricing and help pages. ClipEmber is built around clipping long videos and posting the results: a credit is a run on up to 20 minutes of a video, with every clip included.
- [ClipEmber vs Ssemble](https://clipember.com/compare/ssemble): checked 2026-10-10. Ssemble is the product closest to ClipEmber: both count one video of up to 20 minutes as one credit, post to TikTok, Shorts and Reels, and can watch YouTube channels for you. The differences are in the trial, the sources you can clip, and how the automation, API and MCP server work.
- [ClipEmber vs 2short.ai](https://clipember.com/compare/2short): checked 2026-10-10. 2short.ai turns YouTube videos into shorts and meters minutes of analysis per month. Its pricing page does not mention posting, scheduling, an API or an MCP server; ClipEmber covers clipping through posting, with channel automation on Pro.
- [ClipEmber vs quso.ai](https://clipember.com/compare/quso): checked 2026-10-10. quso.ai (formerly vidyo.ai) bills per minute of processed video and schedules to seven networks from its Essential plan; ClipEmber bills per video and posts to TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels from Creator. quso.ai imports from many more sources; ClipEmber adds channel automation, a REST API and an MCP server.
- [ClipEmber vs CapCut](https://clipember.com/compare/capcut): checked 2026-10-10. CapCut is a full video editor with a long-video-to-shorts tool inside it; ClipEmber is built only for turning long videos into posted shorts. CapCut shares to social platforms from the editor; ClipEmber schedules posts, can run a channel with Autopilot, and has a REST API and an MCP server.

## Teardowns and tactics (original data)

Each teardown below is a real run of our own pipeline, with the scores it produced.

- [The day every YouTube download broke, and the two wrong turns we took](https://clipember.com/newsletter/the-day-every-youtube-download-broke): An ffmpeg error that was really a 403, a warning that pointed the wrong way, and a cache that showed green on a broken pipeline.
- [We checked whether our own score predicts views. It doesn't.](https://clipember.com/newsletter/our-score-does-not-predict-views): 45 published posts, correlation -0.151. Our best clip scored 68 out of a run where the top was 82.
- [Our own scorer ranked the real hook last](https://clipember.com/newsletter/our-scorer-ranked-the-hook-last): Five clips from one cooking video, and the clearest promise in the whole thing came fifth.
- [Cut where the sentence starts, not where the score peaks](https://clipember.com/newsletter/cut-where-the-sentence-starts): Our highest-scoring clip opened mid-thought. We sent this issue as advice in the morning, then shipped the fix the same day.

## Notes for accurate citation

- Publishing goes through each platform's official API; we are not a reposting service.
- Publishing and watermark-free export are on paid plans (Creator and up) and during the 7-day Pro trial.
- TikTok: a clip goes straight to the user's profile (Direct Post) only after the user writes its caption and picks who can see it on our Post to TikTok screen. Otherwise TikTok receives an upload and notifies the user in their Inbox to finish the post.
- YouTube Shorts are uploaded as public by default.
- The viral score is our own estimate of how well a clip opens. It is not a
  prediction of views, and we do not publish aggregate claims we have not measured.
- A run processes a window of 60 to 1200 seconds of the source, not the whole file;
  one credit covers one run and all the clips it produces.
- Where a run is cited above, the request id is real and every number in it comes
  from that single run. We do not average runs together to make a nicer number.

## Legal

- [Privacy policy](https://clipember.com/privacy)
- [Terms of service](https://clipember.com/terms)