How many Shorts from a long video: the calculator

What this tool does

The calculator tells you how many Shorts Stratos·Clip targets in your long videos, what they cost in credits and how many days of posting they give your channel. You enter three values: the length of one video in minutes, the number of videos per month and the number of Shorts posted per day. The tool applies the product’s own rules: the detection budget and the credit grid.

YouTube advises turning clips of your long videos into Shorts to post often. The calculator puts numbers on that advice before you plug in a source. The form shows above this text; without JavaScript, the formula below is enough to redo the math by hand.

How to read the result

• Shorts targeted per video: the number of moments detection looks for in a video of that length.
• Credits per video: the analysis of the video, plus one credit per rendered Short.
• Shorts per month and credits per month: the two lines above, multiplied by the number of videos in the month.
• Days of posting covered: the month’s Shorts divided by your posts per day. Your channel shows the same figure on its page, as its runway. The channel’s queue is set up once at that pace, and every new Short joins it.
• Plan that covers this volume: the first plan whose monthly credits are enough. The free plan only qualifies if you post 2 Shorts a day or fewer. A month under the cap is not lost: unused credits roll over to the next cycle.

The formula

1. Shorts targeted per video: 5, plus 1 per block of 5 minutes beyond the first 5, 24 at most.
2. Analysis credits: 1 per started block of 10 minutes, 1 at least.
3. Render credits: 1 credit per rendered Short.
4. Credits per video: analysis plus render. Per month: that total times the number of videos.
5. Days covered: the month’s Shorts divided by Shorts posted per day.
6. Suggested plan: the first one, from free to Studio, whose monthly credits cover that total.

Benchmarks: 6 Shorts for 10 minutes, about 16 for one hour, which is 22 credits including the analysis. The cap of 24 Shorts is reached from 100 minutes.

Worked example

A podcast releases a 90-minute episode every week, so 4 videos a month, and its Shorts channel posts 3 Shorts a day.

• Shorts targeted per video: 5 plus 17 blocks, so 22, under the cap of 24.
• Credits per video: 9 for analyzing 90 minutes, plus 22 for rendering, so 31.
• Per month: 88 Shorts for 124 credits.
• Days covered: 88 Shorts at 3 a day, so 29 days.
• Plan: the free plan falls short both on credits, 30 a month, and on pace, 2 Shorts a day at most. Starter, 180 credits for $29.90 a month, covers the month, and what is left rolls over.

One or two days are missing to cover a full month: months with five episodes close the gap.

Paid plans open with online payment. Until then, the “Notify me at launch” button on the pricing grid records your email and the plan you want, and the free plan already posts to one channel, up to 2 Shorts a day.

What the tool cannot see

• What is in the video. The target is not a guarantee. Each moment is scored on seven criteria, and selection may keep fewer if the video holds few strong moments. Credits reserved for a Short that is not produced are released.
• Short videos. Under 10 minutes, the floor of 5 Shorts weighs more than the length itself: the math stops making sense.
• TV series. On a series channel, the number of Shorts per episode comes from the series bible, 1 to 12, not from the length. See TV series clips for Shorts.
• Several channels. The tool assumes one channel. Each plan includes a set number: 1 on free, 3 on Starter, 8 on Pro, 20 on Agence, 50 on Studio, then $4.00 a month per extra channel. A channel posts 10 Shorts a day at most, and the channels of one space share a daily cap. The Manage multiple YouTube Shorts channels page covers that case.
• The language of your videos. The interface is in French, and detection and titles have only been measured on videos in French. For another language, the target count does not change, but the quality of the moments kept has not been measured.
• The length of each Short. YouTube treats a vertical video of 3 minutes or less as a Short; the tool counts Shorts, not seconds.
• Other tools. OpusClip does not publish how many clips a minute of video yields, checked on October 18, 2026: the same math cannot be done with it in advance. The full comparison is on the OpusClip alternative page.